Best Equestrian Camping near Saguache, CO

This campground is in a secluded lovely valley on the south fork of the white river. Good fishing opportunities and trails for hiking and horseback riding. Spring cave is open seasonally April 15-aug15 with permit required to protect the bats from White nose syndrome. The cave is beautiful, and also wet and cold. Helmet and lights and good warm clothes are essential!

Campsites are close together, some smaller and some better or groups. Site#5 can fit 4-5 tents. Pit toilets which are kept very clean by camp host. Equestrian trailer parking available.

The campground won't accommodate fifth wheels only horse and rv up to 30 or so. Many of the sites in the 30,s up are useless other than a van. Tent sites are not good. Very uneven pads. The 40,s are much better and all mostly tents. The sites below 30 to 1 are pretty nice. Must say the hosts for the new concession explorUS were doing a bang up job.

Dispersed camping up at the lake. I say anything next to water is a bonus!

For Night 1 we hiked in stayed somewhere off the trail, at what seemed like a horse camp stop. Night 2 we stayed up at the lake campground. Got there early afternoon and was able to claim a prime spot. There is not much access to the water, so those spots get taken up rather quickly.

Great views, awesome sunrise.

Nestled next to the Rio Grande River hand its gorgeous. This is the Rio Grande in Colorado so there's plenty of running water for tubing, rafting and fishing.

Kinda busy with good access to Browns creek and the Colorado trail, but otherwise quiet if you can squeeze in. Easy for trailers too.

Close to hiking at browns which is really pretty hike and lots of options. We found a place on Memorial Day without a reservation which never happens in Colorado. It is near the co trail too! Quiet enough for our 1 year old

Great place for dispersed camping in San Isabel. We chose a tent site up 274 at the end of the road late Friday evening. Still plenty of spots available! Recommend the hike to browns lake nearby. Vault toilets at the trailhead if needed.

Our spot was right off the Colorado trail, lots of thru hikers going by. Originally we had wanted to stay at iron city campground (first come first serve) but all spots were taken. It was a happy mistake because we liked dispersed camping here better 🙂

It is gorgeous and so easy to access. From the 285 going north turn left on County road 270 until it becomes the 272 we went straight to the 274. At the cross of 2 National Forests, San Isabel and pike . We arrived around 5 pm on a Wednesday and most of the spots were taken but we were able to find one to fit our 40 feet toy hauler. We went for a hike, there were multiple hiking trails including access to the Colorado Trail. We also rode our mountain bikes on 272, 274A and the 273. It was very quiet and the sky was amazing at night. I highly recommend it if you are traveling on the 285.

There are extensive sites in the area for all sizes of rigs.  There is plenty of room and easy access for large rigs or tent camping.  FR 272 is the main road in but there are several spur roads, 273 and 274 that have plenty of options also.  One problem is that this area is well known and is becoming very popular.  On weekends, there may be more than 50 campers in the area.

Because of the overuse some sites are getting, the forest service is starting to fence some sites in so they don't grow in size.  The are working towards camping in designated sites only because so many campers are just trashing the area.

The hiking is good with several trailheads and easy access to the Colorado Trail.

I absolutely love this area of Colorado. It's breathtaking no matter which direction you look. Decent campground that was a bit too big for my taste. I agree with another reviewer: choose your site wisely! Dirty vault toilets. Water spigots that were almost all dripping (some almost running). I believe it should be posted at time of reservation if there are STEPS involved to set up camp. This site had maybe 10 steps, some in desperate need of repair. As a senior solo camper, this was challenging.  This site was not my choice but the only one available for my time-frame (right next door to the camp host and on the main/incoming road). When we were there, no availability of firewood from camp host, but a load did arrive while we were there. Really noisy campground (plenty of barking dogs), PLUS,a helicopter was doing a training mission two of the days we were there and flew directly over the campground, low-level, 3-5 times each day. 

No bear boxes. (there was a hiker/bear interaction on the Venable trail on June 17th.)

Positives were wildlife, scenery, wildflowers, awesome hiking both directions out of the campground, nice fellow campers (those we met).

In hindsight, I would have been really upset if I'd paid full price.

There are at least ten dispersed spots off the road, CC64. They are large spots with fire rings. Three of them are on the creek. Once the wind settled, there were more stars than I've ever seen in my life. Endless views and endless stars - can't beat it!

Also - it's only 5 miles from Valley View if you can't get a reservation there but can get a day pass.

The sky is GORGEOUS. The road is very rocky & very rough, so you'll want to have decent clearance and be prepared to take it slow. I've never seen so many stars!

Overnight with One of my dogs had a great time very nice no bugs dark night

Your vehicle will prob need new brakes after this trip. Super beautiful but the road never eases up.

Primitive at its best

Lota of sites available, some nicely secluded, some not so secluded. Very clean bathrooms.

We stayed at Alvarado for one night on 5/15/2021. We had sites 34 and 35 right across the road from each other. Steve the host was really friendly and stopped by to say hello a couple of times. There are several hiking trails nearby. The vault toilets were right by us and we didn’t have any issues with smell, and they were the cleanest vault toilets I’ve ever seen. The water was closed when we were there because they were waiting on test results before they could open, they did end up opening the water on Sunday so I’m assuming it’s good to go for the season now. Town is really close by (maybe 15 min) so we just went into town and filled up water jugs. Site 34 was a bit close to the campsite next to us. We ended up going to sleep when our neighbors did just because we thought even low voices would be a disturbance to them in their tents. Other than the close proximity, the sites were great and nicely maintained. The sites higher than 35 seem to be spaced a bit further apart so would probably go to the upper sites next time. Great campsite, would return again!

Nice picnic tables and permanent fire pits/grates (which means you can typically use even during stage one fire bans) at every site. A lot of dumpsters and water spots, as well as toilets.

Nice and mostly empty.

Great campground at 9000’ with trees all around and wonderful view of the valley below. Hosts were great. We easily got our 40’ coach into a very level site. Definitely will be back!

I love/hate this campground after staying here several times. First, the good: it’s beautiful here. Generally a quiet campground, and in my experience rarely full. Trails right out of the campground travel through gorgeous terrain.

Now the bad / weird: We’ve seen folks try to squat on reserved sites (only to be kicked out by the arriving reservation), sites with atv trailers parked on them with nobody there. Some sites (looking at you, 34) don’t have a good place to put a tent. On our last visit, meadow voles spent the night climbing up and down our tent poles while some played a radio loudly and late into the night— not fun!

Lower sites are larger, more open, and more recently updated. Sites further uphill are in a mixed state of dilapidation.

We arrived around 830am on a July Saturday morning and found a handful of spots available to select from. We were a party of five with one large tent, one medium size tent and 2 vehicles. Luckily spot 43 at the top of the loop was available and able to accommodate our group. It was located close to water and a pit toilet as well. The host was attentive and cleaned and stocked the toilet. The campground was beautiful and had access to several wonderful trails. The night sky was amazing after the rain passed through and the clouds cleared. There was a group at a lower loop that was playing really loud music until well after quiet time. I do wish the host had put an end to that. Firewood was available for purchase at the host, but we were allowed to gather our own as well. All in all, a wonderful location and we were glad to find a spot and would love to return.