Peru Creek Designated Dispersed Camping

We arrived Saturday @ ~12pm, finding a site was slim pickins but, dayum we got lucky!

We stayed at site 14 (39°35'59.6"N 105°50'38.9"W) with fantastic access to Peru Creek; our doggos loved it, and the Lewanee trail was right down the road.

Rating this 3 stars, because the majority of sites catered to tent camping; your parking spot is close to the road, you walk your stuff in a bit.

Site 14 has fantastic access/setup for a van.

We have a 4wd Sprinter with slightly larger tires, and pulling an off road trailer. We made it with ease. There were potholes to contend with and some mid-sized rocks that did have us rockin' and rollin' from side to side. Slow roll it and you'll be fine.

We managed all the way up to the old mine, and used it to turn around and head back down as we scouted sites.

Again, we got lucky w/ site 14 as it's tough to see from the road. Secret Squirrel?!

Came up on a Saturday morning during the summer and it was fairly busy. We managed to find a beautiful spot by the creek after going up the road a while. The creek water looks white from mining runoff so there isn't anything living in there from what I can tell. It looks really cool but its probably not safe. Great hiking trails nearby for good views. I would come back but I would be worried about getting a good spot. Still not that bad for a Saturday in June.

Setting is tremendous - mountains all around, open meadows for camping, a creek so clear you can see everything. Lots of OHVs on the road that goes through the dispersed camping. It's not possible to get far enough off the road to stop the dust or noise.

Super gorgeous views, pretty easy road up, there is a creek crossing if you want/can make it through as it's deep in the spring and early summer. Can be pretty busy around the weekends but tons of spots usually!

This is beautiful camping close to keystone and likewise gets crowded in the summer months. If you want a spot on a weekend, get there early. There are a few pull offs along the road suitable for most cars, but if you have a high clearance 4WD you can go on a few offshoot roads and find more spacious spots. No cell phone signal or water, and frequent fire bans in the summer.

Arrived in a Thursday afternoon and found a large wide open spot just before the Chihuahua Gulch trailhead. We have an off-road teardrop trailer with rooftop tent and travelled with another family with rooftop tent and we were able to spread out with plenty of level ground for our vehicles/sleeping quarters. There was a decent amount of traffic as the weekend came and went, but arriving Thursday we had the pick of large spots. Peru Creek was just across the road and we took our chairs over to sit by it one sunny afternoon which was wonderful. LOTS of moose droppings in the area but we never saw any. We loved our spot that had gorgeous 360 views and would love to come back again!

Also, we drive a lifted Ram 1500 and pull the off-road trailer - the road up was a bit sketchy and narrow in places. I worries if we had to pass anyone coming the opposite direction but the one narrow spot that happened, we all survived unscathed, lol. It was good to find plenty of places to turn the trailer around once we got up further in case we couldn’t find anything. That’s always the concern on these roads!

Great spot, drove up Friday night and a lot of spots were open. We did have to change site the second night we were there as the park rangers let us know we were too close to the river, but we found another site easily. I have a small 2WD car and it did just fine—4WD cars are needed the further up you go, but the first couple miles are doable for smaller cars. Highly recommend (even if fires are banned).

There are a ton of spots, but be careful and make sure they're approved. We stopped at one that had a fire ring made from rocks but it wasn't 100' from water. we parked at night so we didn't see the  sign that said it wasn't a legal camping spot, then the next day we got a ticket from a park ranger. It was our fault but just thought I should mention it so others don't make the same mistake. There were several other spots, we just liked the location of this one.  Anyway, tons of tree cover, streams, trails, wild flowers etc. There was also a decent amount of traffic from other campers and off road vehicles/ATV's but if you go farther up the road and then find a spot a little farther from the road, it wont be a big deal.

Absolutely loved this spot!

we had a great time staying here. Easy to drive to the camping area & it made a great home base for several 4wd roads in the area. Will totally be back!

We were able to get up most of the road in a weighed down Pontiac Vibe.

Great basecamp for adventures. We accessed further down the road with our mountain bikes.

Once camping area had a picnic table, most others were typical dispersed camping. There is a super cool mine in the area that you can explore!

Most SUVs will be fine on this AWD access road. There's not many difficult sections and since there are pull offs to camp or let others pass, navigating the road isn't much problem.

This is a great area to disperse camp if you want to access some great hikes in some backcountry part of Colorado. During the drive of the access road, there will be trail signs for places like Warden Gulch, Chihuahua Gulch, and Cinnamon Gulch. The very end of the road is also where this cool abandoned mine of some kind is located. I've been there before and seen people park in this turnaround area and take motorbikes or horses onto the other side of Peru Creek to explore the mine. You can access it on foot as well. It's totally worth checking out, just explore safely.
All along this #260 road there are opportunities to pull off and camp. There are established sites all over the place. They can fill up on popular weekends of the year I'm sure. There are no toilets, showers, facilities, or waste bins. Pack accordingly to minimize impact.