Best Glamping near Medicine Bow-Routt NFs & Thunder Basin NG

If you drive about 9 miles or so down the road you’ll come to a sign that points you towards the University (Poudre Park Road).

More of a dirt road than anything but wide for large vehicles. Semis and trucks with large trailers and campers up and down the mountain all day and night.

It’s a road that dead ends at the University, so a lot of student traffic all day.

We seen maybe one ranger patrol the whole 3 weeks we were there. You can camp here all year long. No stay limit.

No bathrooms, water or trash disposal. Nearest town besides Fort Collins is about 13 miles away.

Not quiet at all. Most camp spots are entirely too close together, so close it’s like a huge party spot. The day we left was because there was a fire ban and somewhere around 10 people showed up with chainsaws and were going to have a fire. They weren’t the nicest people and had a lot of dogs as well. No privacy.

The road was so steep that our transmission overflowed and left us stranded for a few days past what we wanted to be there for (when we took a trip into town and back).

Nowhere near water. We walked 3 miles to get to the closest creek (they call them rivers there).

Wildlife was there but not abundant because of the traffic.

Very beautiful and i would definitely give it another go if we had a more updated camper.

Absolutely zero cell service!

The Poudre River is absolutely beautiful. We really enjoyed camping here, even though the sound of the river can be quite loud. Each site has a table, fire ring and tent pad. The drive up to this area is breathtaking as well.

This is a great little campground with only 7 campsites that are first come first served (no reservations). However, it's almost never full and if it is full there are plenty of free camping areas along the road (forest service road). There is no electricity or sewer capabilities for RV's and campers and the sites are relatively small, but a pop up or smaller 5th wheels and RVs will fit. There are pit toilets in the campground, but no running water - so pack your own or bring a filter to pump out of the creek.

The beautiful Kilpecker Creek runs through the camp and most of the campsites are situated right along the creek. All of the campsites have a good tent pad, fire pit and picnic table. The great thing about this campground is it's location and the fact that the sites are fairly spaced out giving you more privacy at each site. There is also a great communal area in the center of the campground of you have a small group up there.

Maka sure to use a bear bag or put all food in the car at night (bear country)

Great campground and amazing people! It gets very cold at night if you’re near the river!

Small campground by creek. Lots of room between sites. Very pretty location. -The Free Birds RV- IG: thefreebirdsrv

Absolutely love this area of the Medicine Bow NF. Road in was manageable. Spacious dispersed sites. Most have fire pits. Lovely weather in June. Not as windy as the pilot hill rd or vedauwoo dispersed sites. Plenty of shade and hiking opportunities. Quiet throughout the week. Lots of vacant RVs. It appears that the locals leave their rigs and the forest service doesn’t enforce the 16 day limit. The same people will also ride their ATVs in your site. T-mobile signal is decent enough to code and to study. Lots of cows roaming around.

Was very easy to find a spot on a busy Saturday. Just pull out onto one of the dirt roads and there are fire pits. Real dispersed camping.

This area was beautiful! Perfect for fishing and hiking, with three lakes and the poudre river closeby. The campgrounds were spaced nicely, but try to make it there earlier rather than later to get a site with a good view and pack light because it’s a quarter mile hike from the parking lot. You’ll also need a vehicle that can climb some rocks to get there, a car will have a tough time making it. Great area, I can’t wait to go back!

We decided to camp on the other side of the lake which was about 1/2 mile in. It was well worth the work. This is one of the quietest places on earth and it was magnificent! Waking up and watching ospreys soaring over the misty lake was surreal! Great climbing on the rocky mountains surrounding the lakes is a bonus!

We love taking our kids and dog camping out here. It is dispersed camping and it’s first come first serve. There is a camp ground near by with a porta-potty and there is a small market about 10-20 miles away. There is no cell service but there are call boxes in the area and we often see rangers driving by. There is fire permitted depending on the fire ban in area at the time and you can only camp where there are fire rings. You can’t cut down trees for wood but we usually chop up trees that are already down and dead. You can buy wood at the shop. There is a lot of wildlife in the area so be careful. We have had full grown moose run through our camp site and there has been reports of black bears near by as well as elk and deer. It does get cold at night even in summer as it’s about 9,000 ft above sea level.

Plenty of camping sites even though some were destroyed in the fires. Options for camping in campgrounds, close to others, or more alone. Options to camp near the lake, river, or on dry land.options for large or small camping areas. Peaceful and beautiful. We will go back again for sure.

Very pretty camping & a lot of it along the road. There’s a lake & a cute lil creek that runs off from it, that makes wonderful sound atmosphere but does mean bugs. The road is very easy going, made it out in my Prius with no problems. The area is extremely fire damaged in places & there is a fire ban in effect when we were there over 4th of July.

From Chambers Lake north down FS 103 youll find a lot of dispersed camping and a lot of great spots with beautiful views. The closer you are to the lake the busier it will be as the Chambers Lake spots get hammered with people every weekend and youll be eating dust as well. Further down the road you get it opens up with some nice areas to camp. Ive seen most vehicles make their way down this road with no issue and that includes RVs w/ toy haulers. Its dispersed so no bathrooms, cell service, and the closest amenities are towards Walden and the town of Rustic. One of my favorite spots but I choose wisely when to camp in order to avoid the mass gathering of campers on the weekends. Enjoy!

Tons of dispersed camping along the road, but it can be busy. Wildlife is abundant with tons of deer and moose in the area. Topography is Aspen wetlands and is beautiful. The road is a county dirt road but it is very well maintained and fairly wide.

Loads of options going down 103. Found a solid spot by the river that even had a few primitive structures built. Great fishing and pondering spot until neighbors rolled in on both sides. Guessing you can generally count on neighbors in summer months even in seemingly nestled spots quite a ways down 103 and it was a a random Monday. I still had plenty of space and privacy. But I could hear a group of RVers playing music through the trees (and they were in view, too) at night which led me to seek a new spot after night one.

Spent a night here with my dog. Very cool rock formations along the road , very big spots, very peaceful and secluded from neighbors, open and beautiful. Will be staying again on my way through.

Despersed camping with easy access and great trails nearby. Rock climbing also.

We stayed in two different spots. The first one was nice but the second one was so spacious and had so many trees and was far from the road so traffic didn’t sound too bad. Had many fires in the available fire rings. The place is busy during the weekend but dead during the week, especially when it started to cool down. The pictures will speak for the amazing views!