I was about to rate this 5 stats but...

I stopped by to scope this one out. it looks like there's 2 entrances, one on the north and one on the south, but the south side doesn't connect to the main road so taje the north one. there isn't really a good turn around so you'll have to use the one turn off or an empty site to turn around if needed. I thought the 5 or so sites looked alright, but if you pull back past the site on the turn off there's an abandoned camper and a bunch of trash around a bend(I wouldn't have gone that far back if I'd been pulling a trailer since there are tight turns and no real good turnaround. it seems fairly decent if you don't go to the back site and out of 5 or more campsites on a Sunday afternoon only one was taken.

Great Free camping right by Mesa Verde

We got here just after midnight on a Sunday night, the first 6 sites were taken but the seventh was available (I didn't check to see how many were beyond ours) the site had a nice flat spot for our tent and a nice fire ring. There is a rest area about a mile away which made it nice when we needed to go number 2. I would definitely camp here again.

Great Free camp spot

We pulled off I 80 at around 7:30 on a Friday night, we found the last open site out of 13 official sites. They are first come first serve. A few other people pulled up later and just slept in their cars down the road.

We had a few dogs with no issues. The tent spot was a little sloped but not too bad.

The sites have picnic tables and a firepit and grill area.

Next time we will get there earlier to have more options for available sites.

Great Free campsites

I've camped here several times since I was a child. It's nice that there is a river that runs nearby. There are about 50 campsites on a first come first served basis. The road gets narrower as you drive up the canyon and the campsites are spread out along the way over about 5+ miles. I wouldn't recommend going too far in with a big trailer. Fires are allowed only part of the year. The forest service puts flags in the fire pits when it gets too dry. There are hiking trails (such as leathams hollow) and a few rock climbing routes as well. Lots of people go four wheeling and motorcycling as well.