Downtown Alamosa is a cool place to hang out, but this motel is falling apart. Breakfast at their litle restaurant is included, and it was a pretty good breakfast.
Really nice hot pools in a wide, beautiful valley. Camping area is the parking lot. Paths and pools are full of uneven rocks so it's difficult to walk on the former and you're always banging your shins in the latter, but the water is really nice. Has a smoking pool - a pool where you may smoke ciggies while you soak! Disgusting, but kinda cool!
Elevation: 8,200' A nice place to stop early on Saturday afternoon. Most of the sites are in the pines and have good shade. The ones on the edges are in the aspens, so not as shady.
About a mile off the highway. Pretty crowded on Memorial Day weekend, considering there's nothing here. I am here because it's only 11 miles from Pagosa Springs.
The Curecanti National Recreation Area is a huge place comprising most of the boundary of three reservoirs and then a few miles of the downstream river. There are many campgrounds, most are large, RV-friendly affairs out in the open next to the reservoir. This one is small and on the other side of the road up a little canyon ... er ... gulch. In the cottonwoods, very quiet and pleasant.
Kind of a shabby little place. But very handy on the Pagosa Springs-Durango run. I'm hatin' because I think $18 is too much, but that's Colorado.
The most Difficult thing about this place is getting a site! ha,ha. 4.5 winding miles from Aspen make this the budget way for the rest of us to be able to exist for a few days in Aspen.
Amazing location, on a bluff overlooking Grand Junction and the wide Colorado River Valley. Loop C is the tent sites, no doubt the oldest part of the campground. Parking for the sites is cramped and tricky to navigate.
Elevation 9,500. Weather is very gloomy, so I'm not seeing it at it's best. Site 22 is very nice, level, large, with an excellent vista looking over the wide, green valley with the busy highway on the other side. The camp host says she saw moose tracks at the next campsite!
First campground coming off Independence Pass heading south. Real pretty. Still, $19 doesn't get you a lot in Colorado. Checkout time is noon. Elevation 9,620' - yikes!
This a soaking wonderland! There are at least 15 different pools ranging from lukewarm to very hot, arranged on many levels on the hillside along the San Juan River. There are pools at river's edge, so you can hop from very hot to very cold water. I was first here in 1995, and the place has gotten way more developed and expensive since then.
National park campgrounds with check in are the worst. The campground is by definition huge, or else they wouldn't pay a staff to check you in. It takes forever because they have to explain the world to each and every guest and it creates a high stress level that is the opposite of what you're there for. However ... once that's over, it's a nice campground! There three different hikes to take from the valley where the campground is back up to the mesa. There are free showers, wifi and food at the check-in place, which is pretty far from the campsites.
After a surprisingly exhausting drive up Colo 139, this place is really nice ... until dark, when the security lights made site 25 uninhabitable. Nice shower!
Elevation 9500'. In a pretty meadow with a little fishing lake nearby. "The area borders on the Continental Divide and sits on top of the Park Range, offering spectacular views of several Colorado mountain ranges"
The place to camp if you're visiting Marble. Crystal River is a little gem. Beware the vermin.
Nice little find tucked away in an area with few other campgrounds. There's parking and hookups (for $3 more), and a sign on the bathroom door telling you rates and to slip the money under the door. It's all pretty DIY here.