A camping forum for VW bus and camper owners.

Sleeping Elephant Campground

We originally intended to camp in the Mountain Park Campground, but it was completely full by 2 o'clock on Friday afternoon. We headed further up State Highway 14 intent on nabbing the best spot we could find on short notice.

Found one!

It turns out the Sleeping Elephant Campground had quite a selection of campsites for a Friday afternoon.

Sleeping Elephant is right across the highway from the Poudre River, it's headwaters are in the Front Range in Larimer County, in the northern part of Rocky Mountain National Park. The river descends eastward in the mountains through the Roosevelt National Forest in Poudre Canyon. It emerges from the foothills north of the city of Fort Collins.

It flows eastward across the plains, passing north of the city of Greeley, and flows into the South Platte River approximately five miles east of Greeley.

The name of the river means "Hide the powder" in French. It refers to an incident in the 1820s when French trappers, caught by a snowstorm, were forced to bury part of their gunpowder along the banks of the river.

The river is a popular summer destination for trout fishing, whitewater rafting, tubing, and kayaking in the Poudre Canyon. Taken fro m Wikipedia

All camp sites are available on a first come, first serve basis. Our particular site was #3, which we felt was the best of the bunch. We had our pick of almost any site we wanted. #3 is a huge spot, you could easily fit another couple of cars in the parking spot available, and there are two or three areas around the site where tents could be pitched. This spot could have easily handled a couple of extra families.

The parking spot.

If you have a good ground guide you could get a few more vehicles in here sideways or forwards or whichever configuration you want.

How many busses could you fit in one site? We think that you might be able to get one more in there if you wanted, but you would not be able to really set up your full-on camp set up right outside your door. If you were determined enough, and don't care about breaking rules, I think you could just drive a bus right into the main camping area without doing any damage.

There are some spots that are right beside the highway, where there is ample space for several busses. These spots are the ones with the loudest music and the hardest parties. If I were to hold a bus get together, I would nab one of these wide open spots.

The views are spectactular, there is ample wildlife around to observe, and the spot we were in offered great privacy. Spot #3 is surrounded by trees, and cool little openings scattered with wildflowers. Great places to get some quiet time.

The restrooms were clean and serviceable...

There is drinking water available from a hand pump from May 27 through September 30.

We pulled in sideways to get the full effect, my only complaint is that the parking block is right in the way of my side door, so we had to make due...a small inconvenience. The photos below show some little mini trail heads, where you can climb around and explore, get some privacy, and enjoy some great views.

On a more personal note, we did get the cabinet installed. It came in handy! We took some video footage of the river and the campground... we just decided to drive the loop before we left. Pardon the "amatureness".. you'll see some flooded out sites... another Con I forgot to mention. All in all, we had a great visit. The birds never stopped singing, we had our own little hummingbird come and visit us periodically, and the chipmunks were abundant. There were very little insects, plenty of shade, and we loved every minute of it.

PEACE!

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jeremy Nix on June 27, 2011 at 8:34am

The Poudre has a multitude of great campgrounds situated alongside it. Our first trip in the Pig was along the Poudre. This is a picture of The Narrows Campground, we actually were squatters for a night here. Since it was our first time up here, we had no idea of the popularity. We found this site in the dark, and woke up to this.

This is actually the entrance to Mountain Park Campground we never have actually camped here, but we have driven through it a few times. How often do you get to drive your bus across a wooden bridge? This campsite looks great for ameneties. They have electrical hookups, basketball courts, and a lot of campers.