Uncompahgre National Forest Thistledown Campground

Mostly empty in October. Good price $10. Close to town. Vault toilet.

A lot of people say this campground contains 9 sites.  That is incorrect.  There are 12 sites!  There are 4 additional sites up the road from Sites 1-8.  Sites 10-12 are walk in camping.  You must haul all of your stuff up the hill but the pluses are: no trailers/rvs and headlights shining into your tent as people depart in the early mornings, very isolated and only fellow tent campers allowed. I enjoyed hearing the sound of the creek every night as I fell asleep.  We camped in site #12 and it was the farthest up the hill.  We hauled all of our stuff up and down every day because there is a lot of bear activity in the area.  My husband got a peek at him our second night and the campers at site 9 (down the hill) also were visited by him.  Sites 10 and 11 share a bear box.  Site 12 has their own box up the hill from the campsite.  The biggest negative is that the walk to the vault toilet is 20 minutes round trip from Site 12.  Cheap camping and a very unique experience.  Highly recommend!

This was our third choice after Amphitheater and Angel Creek. We were so happy that no sites were available at the first two campgrounds. Thistledown was beautiful. Our site #3 was right along the creek with views of the cliffs. There were three additional small tent pads in addition to the provided gravel pad. All sites are provided a bear box and vault toilets and trash dumpster are available. Creek was silty due to rain so was not a reliable water source. $10/night.

Nothing wrong with the campsites but it was pretty crowded. I think we got the last open spot and the stinkiest vault toilets ever. Burned my eyes to go in there. 🤢

We stayed here for the Mount sneffels hike. We drove as close to the trailhead as we could with a 4x4 vehicle but didn’t have high enough clearance to make it all the way up.

Sadly there was too much snow/ice for us to summit and had to turn around at 13,900 ft.

There are about 8 sites, most of them relatively close to each other (within sight). When we arrived ---for two days--- bathrooms were in a bad shape. But the campground host seemed to just have arrived, and the next day things looked better (still, it's close to Ouray and relatively highly frequented; incl. people stopping by on their way up Camp Bird rd to the various trailheads). Fire rings at this site do not have grills.