Vasquez Ridge

Figured out this place is closed in the winter, only open June 15-Nov 15. Thats why people can’t find it

Not sure if we just couldn’t find the actual location, but we followed everyone else’s instructions and tried to pass all the ‘no camping zone’ sites but it just led us to a dead end. There were two ways to go from there but they were both gated and locked. We just pulled off on one of the many little parking areas off the road and car camped. It looked like if we had showed up in the day time we could’ve hiked down into the area and found a spot to set up. There were many signs that said ‘no camping within 1/4 mile of the road’ so your options are to either park and sleep in your car or hike in and try your luck. Maybe the gates are open at other times and we were just unlucky. Who knows, but not a super reliable camping area. Seems like a gamble.

Go past all the no camping signs until you see the green camping OK sign. Then there are lots of sites. We backed our 25 ft. RV into a spot right on the river. It had a nice fire pit, as did the two spots near us. Pretty empty in August

Was a great find. Drove around to the more known campsites they were all full. Got back here a little ways and plenty of spots open beautiful view quiet.

Tip: Like everyone says, go past all the 'No Camping Beyond this Point' signs and continue till you see more signs indicating the trails. You can camp down Vasquez past these signs.

In all honesty, this was the most perfect campsite for someone who is relatively new to camping, as it is a 10 - 15 minute drive to Winter Park from your campsite, max. I camped here for two days straight. The campsites are all laid out a good distances from one another. I camped in my car for both days and can say that most of the campsites can handle a car being backed into them.

Drive past all no camping signs until the road starts to fork. Everything past the forks is fair game. If you get a spot shortly after the forks you'll have limited cell service (TMobile) lots of spots but only a few that would work for RVs. Not very busy early Oct, but very cold.

So to say this is a confusing location would be an understatement. Initially when I turned onto Vasquez I saw this flashing sign saying "No Camping on USFS Roads 148, 156". I continued on the path and after a couple miles or so I approached all of the campsites which had the orange signs that read "No Camping". I continued down the path and noticed there were people camping in some of the areas which had the sign posted. The coordinates provided will take you to the campsites which have the orange "No Camping" stickers.

YOU HAVE TO DRIVE AROUND ~5 MILES DOWN THE ROAD TOWARDS THE INTERIOR, PAST THIS SIGN THAT READS "VASQUEZ WILDERNESS TH 1.8MI"

Camping is allowed beyond this point! When you face the opposite direction you will see this sign reading "No Camping Beyond This Point", and that has all of the orange signs posted up back towards the city. YOU MUST camp towards the back, so keep driving until you see the signs I mentioned. It is pitch black at night and there is no service (AT&T). There is a creek or water source nearby to filter water, no bathrooms available that I saw.

REMEMBER TO KEEP GOING PAST THE COORDINATES AND LOOK FOR THE SIGNS!

No camping in July

No camping signs have been posted on this road.

I ended up checking this site out but the road was closed which I saw complaints about, but I assumed it was a seasonal closure. Even without the access issues however, I feel it's a bit too close to town for my taste.

Jun 22: Areas to camp in are limited (thankfully) and spread out. Due to high traffic of campers BLM has posted "No Camping" signs along part of the road up until the fork. And because of dry weather area is in a Stage 1 (no open fires). PLEASE, pack it in pack it out. LEAVE NO TRACE. Winter Park relies on the Vasquez Creek for drinking water.

Road was closed June 5th so unable to camp. I'm sure its great given proximity to Winter Park but weren't able to camp due to seasonal road closure.

I went may 15th and both entrances were closed

The road is closed so there's just a few spots off the road in the beginning. Okay for car camping not so much for tent camping. Very muddy so having a fire is very optional. Alright if you're on the go

Aug 2019 - Found a perfect little spot that was a close 5 minute maybe 1/2 mile in drive from Winter Park. Managed to make it in with a 2WD sedan. The road wasn't too bad and I'm sure I could have made it further on down the road had I tried. I found an already established spot that was fairly open just off the road with a rock fire ring. Due to the spot I chose and it's relative closeness to Winter Park there were often others driving by that could easily be heard/seen. There was a relatively steep drop of maybe 30 yards or so to Vasquez Creek. There is a decent little established trail that runs along the creek which offers nice views. If you are willing to park along the road and hike down to the creek there were a few open areas where others had set up fire pits right close to the creek.

Tried to go on Vasquez Ridge, but was closed on Winter Park side. We actually were able to go around on the Fraser side with Road 72 and it ran right into the other side of Vasquez. Lots of dispersed camping in the forest and next to a creek. Super peaceful. Close to hiking/biking trails. Please pack out what you pack in-lots of trash in the area.

Road was closed. Angry man confronted us at base of road when we got out to stretch our legs. Rated 3 cause pictures look cool, watch out for crusty locals.

We arrived around 2pm on Friday and the road was closed to get into the actual campground. We found a spot right off of Vasquez Road down near the brook that was perfect. It was a little crowded and kind of noisy though with other large groups camping and blasting music. Otherwise very pretty place to camp. Lots of hiking trails nearby too!

Great place to get away from Denver. Many sites are right on the river. Not sure how many sites there are, but there are quite a lot, and many hidden in the woods that you can’t really see from the road. We love coming up here as it is a good balance of being in the wilderness, but still close to town if you need something. Just a heads up that it looks like they will be closing this road down for maintenance as of June 1 so be sure to check the status before coming

Sites are close together, and it’s close to town. I wasn’t able to find a spot and happy I didn’t. I would say there’s 10/12 sites less than 100 yards away from each other. It’s also very close to residential neighborhoods. Not my definition of dispersed camping. If you’re looking for something remote, this is definitely not the place to go.

Residential road that turns into gravel National Forest road. For sure the hot place to be on the weekends. Our family arrived on a Saturday evening, we are in a 28’ RV and found a spot to pull in for the night. Close proximity to other campers. We were just staying the night and heading on in the morning so we didn’t care. We parked at the end of the road where the 4x4 road starts. Bumpy ride but plenty of clearance for our vintage ride. Seemed to be construction of some sort happening at the end of the road, but again, we were there on a weekend so no work was happening.

We drove on a Saturday afternoon from Denver without expecting to find any availability. To our surprise, we found probably the last spot available. The area was quiet if you are not close by to the road and most of the spots were clean. In general, we had a great weekend. Highly recommended.

There are quite a few dispersed spots here that have great views - some sit right next to the creek and most have fire pits already in them. There are both drive in and hike in spots. It’s a beautiful area only 5 min from the town. The negatives are: heavily trafficked road and camp sites are nearby road so not overly peaceful. It’s busy on the weekends and fills up fast. Lots of shooting.

Trying to find a campsite at 8pm on a summer Friday night? When you've exhausted all of your options around Winter Park and Grandby, come here. Here there be campsites.

Dispersed camping at its finest, drive down a dirt road for ~1 mile and look for open pull-off spots. Some sites are easily visible from the road, while some are hidden down a slope about 700 feet. Each "site" is designated by a rocked fire pit and many have room for groups of 4 or more tents. Bring bug spray to combat the mosquitoes, and your own (dry) wood, as it rains at 2pm here almost every summer day. Plenty of trees for hammocking and shade. Animals are active in the area, so keep food in your car and sleep with protection (I chose bear spray).

Be courteous to others using this road for recreation - Vasquez Ridge intersects with a few mountain bike trails and serves as a popular walk for the active seniors in the area. Closest grocery store is the Safeway in Winter Park (which closes at 11pm).

So many dispersed sites up here, runs right along the creek which is lovely to fall asleep to. Every site I saw had a fire pit built.

We drove up late Friday night and arrived at 11:15pm. A lot of the sites we could see were taken, so we will definitely go up during daylight hours next time so we can see more of the spots that are a bit further from the road.

The site we found was tucked back away from the road giving us nice privacy. We could barely see our neighbors from our campsite, but we could hear them. We saw a lot of sites that had lots of room for multiple tents and great trees for hammocking, but our site was a bit smaller, great for our large tent, but trees were not conducive for hammocking.

Our campsite was clean with no garbage, and just very small amounts of glass around the fire pit. Our site also had a nice log for sitting around the fire and we saw this at other sites too.

Lots of dispersed camp sites available. Plenty of room between sites, couldn’t see or hear neighbors. There are different types of sites, including some pull-offs for campers, some sites you could drive into off the road, and some with parking on the road and a small hike down to the site.

My group’s site was right next to the creek, which is great for dogs to play in, but meant a lot of mosquitos. Definitely bring bug spray.

The sites are generally pretty large and can fit multiple tents. There are fire rings, but nothing else. There are no bathrooms for the area, but near the entrance, there is a small building with a port-a-pottie that is accessible to campers.

The first few sites get phone reception, but less than a half mile in, most reception gets cut off. Good hiking nearby. Before the road loops around, there is a pretty easy trail that leads to a water diversion tunnel. Popular with dogs and trail bikers.

This place has a good backcountry feel to it, with the convenience of being close enough to your car and to Winter Park if you forget to pack something. Overall, a great campground for hiking, biking, or relaxing.

There are lots of sites on the left side of the road as you go up the hill. Many of the first ones were taken but they just kept going and were well spaced out. Some were closer to the road than others but there weren’t many cars passing by. We ended up with a fantastic site, lots of shade, a couple of stone fire pits and a short trail down to the creek that had another fire pit next to it. This would be a great spot for group camping as the sites we saw seemed decently large with spots for more than one tent.

Lots of spaces here with fire rings made by previous campers. No amenities or showers around, as expected with dispersed camping. It was fairly full the weekend that we went, and I think we got fairly lucky getting one of the last of the "set" spots to drive up to. Most spaces seem suitable for anywhere from 1-8 people, with a few larger areas for bigger groups as well. We saw a couple groups that seemed to have 20 or so people in it.

Even though it seemed pretty full on the way in, we never really heard anyone and the trees and distance between sites provided plenty of privacy. I would definitely go back again.

These sites fill up fast on the weekends, and some of the sites seem to have RV's squatting on them for weeks at a time. Some sites are right on Vasquez Creek, while others are closer to the road. Bring inspect repellent, as the skeeters can get bad due to standing water. Park in the lot at the end of the road and hike beyond the gate to get away from the crowds - planet of tent camping up that way.

Great place to car/tent camp or for small trailer. Accessible with places on the river. Mosquitoes can be bad though. Nice biking, hiking and views. Close to Winter Park and access to Grand County.