COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — We’d wish you good luck in securing a campsite at Rocky Mountain National Park this summer. But we might be too late on that.
Sites can be booked six months in advance. With some diligence and, yes, some luck, you still might be able to snag a night or two. But why limit yourself to only this American treasure?
Here’s what to know about camping at Colorado’s national parks and monuments:
Rocky Mountain National Park
Spots will be even tighter this summer, as the premier Moraine Park Campground closes for what the park calls “a major rehabilitation project.”
On the east side of the park through Estes Park, that leaves the smaller Aspenglen and Glacier Basin campgrounds as the options. On the other side through Grand Lake, there’s Timber Creek Campground.
For all, your best bet is to stay plugged into recreation.gov, where reservations are managed, and where some sites for some weeks open for booking two weeks in advance, starting at 8 a.m.
Rocky Mountain’s only first-come, first-served campground is Longs Peak; climbers vie for 26 tent-only sites. Don’t bank on a spot.
Consider other possibilities in the vicinity, like Peaceful Valley and Camp Dick campgrounds, a mix of walk-up and reserved sites closer to Allenspark. For summer inside the national park, do as the pros do: Book six months in advance, starting at the end of November.
Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve
Pinon Flats Campground is situated in walking distance of the dunes — an ideal location to marvel at the stars that shine bright over the waving field. It’s in high demand among campers in tents and 35-foot RVs. A glance at recreation.gov showed a good amount of availability, at least on weekdays, toward the end of August through September and October, when it’s cooler in the San Luis Valley.
If you’ve got a good, high-clearance, four-wheel drive vehicle — no ATVs allowed — you could also consider Medano Pass. The primitive road stretches above the park into the woods, crossing water and sand several times. Campsites are found along the 11-mile way to the top of the pass.
The most unique option: backpacking into the dune field and pitching a tent where they’re allowed, about 11/2 miles beyond the parking lot. The tricky part might be pitching that tent. Rangers recommend something heavy, like sand bags, to secure it on the sandy surface. Permits at recreation.gov.
The park’s website offers several suggestions in the area, including Oasis and Zapata Falls campgrounds.
Black Canyon National Park
Most popular is the South Rim Campground, about a mile from the visitor center perched high here on the deep, steep canyon of western Colorado. Reservations are required until mid-September, when the campground becomes first-come, first-served. Loop B includes electric hookups. The park’s remoteness improves your chances at reservations, especially later in the season. More remote but much smaller with only 13 sites on the canyon’s opposite side, North Rim Campground is entirely first-come, first-served. The park warns spots fill fast in the summer. RVs and trailers are limited to 22 feet.
Another campground is found at the bottom of the canyon: East Portal, which is in Curecanti National Recreation Area boundaries. It’s a small, intimate, walk-up campground nestled among box elder trees along the Gunnison River.
The most fit and adventurous opt for a permit and backpack down to the Inner Canyon Wilderness.
Mesa Verde National Park
Morefield Campground props itself as a swath of comfort in the hot, desert country of the Four Corners region.
The park proudly reports “there’s always plenty of space, and the campground rarely fills.” Roads loop around 267 sites at a high, grassy canyon about 4 miles up from the park’s entrance. That includes 17 group sites and 15 hookup sites for RVs, which can extend up to 46 feet. Each site is accompanied with a picnic table, bench and grill.
Aramark manages reservations, along with the amenities spotting what the concessioner calls Morefield Village. Overnighters wake up to a pancake breakfast at the cafe. The village also includes a grocery store, gas station, RV dump station and showers.
A few of the park’s most scenic trails are accessed from the campground: Knife Edge, Point Lookout and Prater Ridge trails.
Of course, the main attractions are the cliff dwellings, built by the ancestral Pueblo people. Tickets for tours are available two weeks in advance.
Colorado National Monument
At last glance, it looked like plenty of nights were open at Saddlehorn Campground throughout the summer months. These are the offseason months around Grand Junction, where the heat lays thick. But the openings might also speak to how Colorado National Monument tends to be overlooked, passed by drivers continuing on Interstate 70 to Moab’s red rocks.
These hanging canyons and formations are impressive as well. They’re worth taking a full day or two to admire along Rim Rock Drive, which connects Fruita and Grand Junction. Trailheads spot the road, several of them gateways for backpacking excursions. One is Monument Trail, dropping to the canyon floor and exploring signature outcrops such as Independence Monument.
If not camping with a permit off the trail, Saddlehorn Campground is the place. Pinyon and juniper offer some shade along the two loops combining for 80 sites, which each have picnic tables and charcoal grills and are fit for RVs up to 40 feet.
If looking for hookups, check out nearby James Robb State Park along the Colorado River.
Browns Canyon National Monument
The craggy backdrop between Buena Vista and Salida attained national monument status in 2015. Popularity has only picked up since then among hikers, anglers and private and commercial boaters dropping into the Arkansas River that cuts Browns Canyon.
Drop-offs aren’t far from the two campgrounds: Hecla Junction and Ruby Mountain.
Hecla Junction is particularly busy for rafters and kayakers, and Colorado Parks and Wildlife notes the fishing “has been known to be pretty good on this stretch.” That agency manages reservations for Hecla Junction’s 23 basic sites, along with the 22 at Ruby Mountain. The latter is noted for its access to several trails entering the canyon backcountry.
The two campgrounds are situated along unpaved roads that web the national monument. A favorite route for offroaders is Aspen Ridge Road, a rugged tour of meadows, granite eye-catchers and views of the Collegiate Peaks.
Hecla Junction and Ruby Mountain campgrounds fall within the Arkansas Headwaters Recreation Area, where dispersed camping is permitted.
Dinosaur National Monument
The river-carved wonderland of rock straddling Colorado’s northwest edge is most famous for a wall encasing a smorgasbord of dinosaur bones. Closest to that visitor center on the Utah side of the park is Green River Campground, the biggest of all campgrounds with 80 sites.
Along with those sites, recreation.gov reserves the 22 back on the Colorado side at Echo Park, overlooked by the imposing Steamboat Rock. Most of those sites are for tent only. It’s reached via a rough road requiring a high-clearance, four-wheel drive vehicle. Be aware: The road is impassable during rainstorms.
More than 100 miles north of the Canyon Visitor Center along the river, Gates of Lodore Campground is a more far-flung option frequented by river rafters. The 19 sites are first-come, first-served for campers in tents and RVs. They find themselves fortunate for a spot near the iconic mouth of Lodore Canyon.
