Best Equestrian Camping near Medicine Bow-Routt NFs & Thunder Basin NG

Big Creek Lakes Campground, Colorado (close to Wyoming border): camping here is only open for 3 months out of the year: June, July & August. It's camping at over 9,000ft elevation and requires for you to be extra prepared for snow even in the summer months, bears, mountain lions, mosquitos, aggressive horse flies, leeches, strong winds, thunder storms and altitude sickness. They do provide water which tastes fresh like newly melted snow. You can boat, fish, even hunt at some spots with a permit, hike, and swim at your own risk (can be cold, leeches, snakes). It is truly beautiful up here and the drive up the Poudre river makes it worth it. You can also spend the day rafting down the river or fishing.

Overall, I had a good time here. Staff was friendly except for at the horse back riding. They don't let you ride if you look like you weigh more than 200lbs. RV parking is a little tight for bigger rigs but great tent spots. There is a horse coral for you at nearly every RV site. No hookups but was able to fill water tank. Queit, peaceful area.. Good firepits. The restaurant food wasn't that great. There are condos if you don't own an RV or tent. We went to Crystal Lake up the road and had a good day.

We camped here in a trailer for almost a week. We were shocked at the availability of spaces given that Colorado is notoriously booked up by February.

Our space was The Overlook and it had an amazing view. The stable horses came up next to the site every morning. It is a massive site that accommodated our trailer, a 2-person tent, 2 vehicles and still had room to spare. The only downsides were no picnic table, little shade, and lots of wind up there.

We drove around to view the other sites. Many options including walk-in sites, riverside camping, and campsites with corrals for horse camping. If you have a larger trailer, avoid the lower sites. Keep to 1-5 or the Overlook for access.

There are stocked trout ponds. You have to pay an additional fee to fish in them. We bought fish food and never saw a fish. The ponds really needed to be maintained as there was a lot of weed growth.

The office is on the first floor of the condo building. Usually open until 4 pm. There is a restaurant (closed while we were there).

Showers are available for $5.

A gift shop/store is available with various small items and treats.

WiFi is available at the office and restaurant. Campsites are too far away. Couldn’t reach it with our WiFi extender either. (Normally wouldn’t want to but working sucks.)

Water for trailers is available bit a tad challenging to access simply because of sharp turns. I can’t speak to water availability for lower campsites.

Trash containers at both the lodge area and at the lower campground.

There is no dump on-site. However, there is a fee-based dump about 1.5 miles away in the Crystal Lakes Community. $10 per use with free water.

The stables are managed separately but are directly across the road. Super friendly and reasonable rates for trail rides. Our 5 & 7 year old granddaughters were able to ride their own horses and had trail riders lead them. Super nice folks!

This is open year-round (condos/cabins in winter) with tubing, skating, and X-country skiing in winter.

Great spot for car camping in Colorado except its distance from Denver. It’s a trek! Takes at least 4 hours (that’s if you’re lucky). Lots to do. Great fishing, beautiful hiking trails to a water fall, and trails for the RZR near by.

The area is beautiful, we had the greatest time hiking and fishing. There were many other campers, everyone was mostly respectful. Spot 23 is where we stayed and the pull through drive way is on a wicked hill. Made it tricky getting the camper level. I was surprised to see so much litter down at the lake. Lots of cigarette butts at the day use areas. Really sad to see in such a perfect example of nature.

My family used to visit this lake a few times in the mid to late 60’s and looking at what it is now, I’m glad we enjoyed it with much less people and more rustic campsites. Loved swimming in the cold clear water and have loads of photos, my favorite is my dad standing at the lectern in the chapel pretending to preach a hellfire and damnation sermon!! Good memories…Great times.

This spot is extremely private and very rugged to access do not attempt after a rain as its impossible to pass then...

Definitely a great place to visit. Everything has been provided.

There is a sign at the beginning of the dirt road for high clearance and 4 wheel drive. This is not a suggestion. This spot was beautiful, peaceful and primitive. Pack in and pack out and make sure you have water. We saw two bull elk and a calf play in the valley and drink from the pond as the sun went down. There’s cacti, sage and pretty wildflowers.

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

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!

We stayed here for a weekend since we were married there the year before. It's a beautiful camping spot close to amenities. Felt like camping in a forest.