Pikes Peak Region Trail Finder

Camping: Our top picks of convenient places for your tent

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Created on Wednesday, 11 August 2010 19:59

Written by Jerry Herman

By R. Scott Rappold

The Gazette

There are more than 23 million acres of public land in Colorado, from dizzying mountaintops to lush valley bottoms, dusty canyons to glassy lakes, where in a few hours’ drive you can escape the noise and traffic of city life for a weekend wilderness adventure.

But here at Out There, we hear the question all the time: Where can I go camping for the weekend?

And it’s not always newcomers asking that question. With so much green space on the state map, people often don’t know where to go to find their favorite activity in a place where camping is plentiful.

Fortunately, we do.

Summer may be waning, but it’s not too late to get out of town for a weekend. Here is your guide to spots you can get to within a couple hours and stake your claim. We’re noting one activity at each for which that spot may be ideal; needless to say, there are plenty of activity options at each.

TAKE A SHORT HIKE

Location: The Crags, Pike National Forest

Getting there: From Divide, take Colorado Highway 67 south and turn left on Forest Service Road 383. Turn right at the Rocky Mountain Mennonite Camp.

Reason to go: This is one of the best short hikes in the area, three miles round trip, without too much elevation gain, and with plenty of interesting rock formations and great views. You can also climb Pikes Peak from the trailhead.

Camping: The Crags Campground at the trailhead, $12 a night, is first-come, first-served and fills up on weekends. There is pull-off camping along the road, just make sure you aren’t on private property.

GET ABOVE TREELINE

Location: Guanella Pass

Getting there: From Woodland Park, take Colorado Highway 67 northwest to Deckers. Turn left on County Road 126 to U.S. 285. Take that west to Grant, and take a right on the road to Guanella Pass, a good dirt and gravel road passable by any car, and start scoping out your campsite.

Reason to go: The road tops out at 11,669 feet, so a lot of your hiking work has been done. From the east side of the road you can hike to the top of fourteener Mount Bierstadt, and from the west side you can hike to Square Top Lakes.

Camping: Roadside camping is available on the south side of the pass, and you can make reservations for the Geneva Park Campground.

RAFT THE ARKANSAS RIVER

Location: East of Salida

Getting there: Take Colorado Highway 115 to Cañon City, then U.S. Highway 50 west.

Reason to go: The Arkansas River is Colorado’s most-rafted river, and trips like Browns Canyon, Bighorn Sheep Canyon and the Royal Gorge can thrill even in late summer when the spring runoff has long since washed to points east.

Camping: Who wants to drive all the way back home after a day on the river? The stretch of highway between Leadville and Parkdale is full of roadside campgrounds. There are five Colorado State Parks campgrounds, where you’ll find reservable campsites (and fees) and bathrooms, and there are many more free camping areas along the river on U.S. Bureau of Land Management land. What they lack in quiet they make up for in proximity to the river and civilization. Fire pans are required to keep campfire debris out of the river.

CLIMB FOUR FOURTEENERS

Location: North of Buena Vista, San Isabel National Forest

Getting there: Take U.S. Highway 24 west to Buena Vista, then 14.5 miles north to Chaffee County Road 390, a good dirt road. Turn left and follow it past Clear Creek Reservoir — there is a fee camping area on the left, but this is where the RVs stop. Go a few more miles to the national forest boundary.

Reason to go: Four fourteeners, mountains higher than 14,000 feet, can be accessed from this road: Mounts Belford and Oxford (usually climbed together in a day), Missouri Mountain and Huron Peak, as well as a back-door approach to La Plata Peak. It’s in the majestic heart of the Sawatch Mountains in the center of Colorado, with summit views of mountains in every direction.

Camping: Free roadside camping is plentiful for miles along Chaffee County Road 390, and it gets better the farther in you go. Not far past the ghost town of Winfield the road becomes four-wheel-drive, where the best campsites hide. If it’s Saturday night and not much is available, there’s a large field at Winfield that serves as an overflow camping area.

JUST RELAX IN THE WOODS

Location: Rampart Range

Getting there: From Colorado Springs, turn right on Baldwin Street as you come into Woodland Park and follow that to Rampart Range Road.

Reason to go: If all you need to be happy is a shady spot in the woods, the Rampart Range northwest of Colorado Springs is your closest bet. These arid foothills are full of roadside sites with fire rings, and you’re close enough to Colorado Springs to make it home for lunch.

Camping: Free sites are all around Rampart Range Road and the side roads, many of which can be navigated in passenger vehicles. Camping around Rampart Reservoir is limited to two reservable campgrounds, Thunder Ridge and Meadow Ridge.

BRING THE KIDS

Location: Mount Princeton Road near Buena Vista

Getting there: Take U.S. Highway 24 west and turn south on U.S. Highway 285 at Johnson Village. Go right on Chaffee County Road 162 (Chalk Creek Drive) at Nathrop, and follow it into San Isabel National Forest.

Reason to go: There are five national forest campgrounds along this good road, with easy access to town, rafting, hiking trails, fishing and the Mount Princeton Hot Springs.

Camping: No dispersed camping is allowed along the road, but three of the campgrounds, Mount Princeton, Chalk Lake and Cascade, are reservable at www.recreation.gov, a good idea if you are heading out to this popular area on a weekend. If you get there and can’t find a campsite, try going back to Buena Vista and taking Chaffee County Road 306 (West Main Street) toward Cottonwood Pass. Turn left toward Cottonwood Lake and look for free campsites past the lake.

RIDE AN ATV

Location: Rainbow Falls off-highway-vehicle park, Pike National Forest

Getting there: From Woodland Park, head north on Colorado Highway 67 about 10 miles. Pull into the Rainbow Falls area on the right.

Reason to go: An extensive network of singletrack trails, ATV paths and rough four-wheel-drive roads make this one of the most popular OHV areas in the state, within an hour’s drive of home. Stay on existing trails.

Camping: Roadside campsites are everywhere, so if the sites at the bottom of the road are taken, keep driving. But don’t expect solitude or quiet — this is a heavily used area.

TAKE A SWIM

Location: Pueblo Reservoir

Getting there: Take Interstate 25 south to Pueblo and exit onto U.S. Highway 50 west. Drive four miles to Pueblo Boulevard, turn south and go four miles to Thatcher Boulevard. Turn west and go four miles to the south park entrance. For the north entrance, stay on U.S. 50 for seven miles to McCulloch Boulevard. Turn south and go four miles to Nichols Road. Turn south and go one mile to the north park entrance.

Reason to go: There aren’t many places to swim comfortably in Colorado — most lakes are frigid mountain pools — but Pueblo Reservoir is an exception. With summertime water temperatures in the mid-70s and a swimming beach, it’s a great place to take a dip and appreciate Colorado’s brief summer. The swimming beach is closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

Camping: There are three campgrounds with 400 campsites in Lake Pueblo State Park, but on summer weekends they are certain to be full, so make reservations at www.parks.state .co.us.reservations.

CLIMB SOME ROCKS

Location: Shelf Road

Getting there: Take Colorado Highway 115 south to U.S. Highway 50 and head west to Cañon City. Turn right onto Field Avenue, which turns into Shelf Road. The road turns rough, so four-wheel-drive may be needed.

Reason to go: The limestone cliffs of Shelf Road are among the most popular in Colorado, known for solid rock and a wide variety of technical climbing routes (1,000 and counting).

Camping: It’s a stunningly beautiful area for camping, with two campgrounds run by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, The Bank and Sand Gulch, 29 campsites between them.

TAKE A SHORT BACKPACKING TRIP

Location: Buffalo Peaks Wilderness

Getting there: Take U.S. Highway 24 west, head north on U.S. Highway 285. For the Weston Pass Campground, where most people begin the wilderness loop trail, turn left on Weston Pass Road.

Reason to go: This wilderness area is dominated by the Buffalo Peaks, humped 13,000-foot mountains. But the real gem here Buffalo Meadows, a serene network of open meadows at the high point of an 11-mile loop trail.

Camping: Choose a campsite in the trees around Buffalo Meadows — plenty are available with established fire rings — and enjoy the solitude.

TAKE A LONG BACKPACKING TRIP

Location: Lost Creek Wilderness

Getting there: Take U.S. Highway 24 west to Lake George. Go north on Park County Road 77 to the trailhead you have chosen for your trip.

Reason to go: The closest wilderness area to Colorado Springs abounds with backpacking opportunities, from one night in-and-back trips to epic multiday loops. It’s temperate, compared with many of the higher mountain ranges, with hidden valleys that protect bizarre rock formations, and pinnacles and barren mountaintops that can be reached without snow gear well into fall.

Camping: Too many great backpacking campsites to mention. Some of the best are along the McCurdy Park Trail. If day hiking, the most accessible campgrounds from Colorado Springs are Twin Eagles and Goose Creek — first-come, first-served — and Spruce Grove, where reservations are accepted. There is also ample free car camping along the many dirt roads off Park County roads 77 and 31.

GO FLY-FISHING

Location: Elevenmile Canyon (not Elevenmile State Park)

Getting there: Take U.S. Highway 24 west to Lake George, turn left onto Park County Road 96 to the entrance of the canyon. There is a fee to enter.

Reason to go: The narrow canyon lined with high cliffs is a hidden gem of the area, just over an hour’s drive from Colorado Springs, and that stretch of the South Platte River is said to rank among the best fly fishing in the state.

Camping: There are five designated campgrounds in the canyon, all reservable at www .recreation.gov. They fill up on weekends, so reservations are recommended.