Otis camps in Colorado.

[Emmy]

Sand Dunes National Monument:  okay, okay, it's $20 and you might want to make reservations.  But the sand dunes are amazingly beautiful and all of the camp sites have a view of the San Luis Valley and the dunes.  And, an added bonus...Park Rangers giving lectures on arrowheads and other interesting valley history.  If 20 bucks is a bit steep, there's a new campground just down the road at Zapata Falls.  40 new sites and as of right now it's free to get folks there.  Haven't been but it's on my list.

Wupperman Lake Campground:  Located in Lake City at the base of Slumgullion Pass.  Slumgullion Pass is the steepest road in Colorado...so if your brakes aren't so good, I would recommend coming in from the Gunnison side off of Highway 50.  The campground sits on a cliff overlooking the lake and peaks.  Lot's of Texans in this town.   Cimmeron and Engineer Pass are accessed from Lake City, so there's lots of four wheelers, but not in this campground.  Close to town, coffee shops and the Alfred Packer Salon.  If you want to drink a few beers, I would suggest Elkhorn RV Park at the edge of town.  Nice folks, free coffee in the morning, and a community fire pit.

Crestone Music Festival:  First weekend in August, on site camping...sketchy on the port a potties, but the most incredible venue in Colorado.  Camping is $25 bucks for the weekend and the festival is quite inexpensive.  Excellent food...world class music.

Rythyms on the Rio:  a music festival in South Park, right on the Rio Grande (i think).  $40 bucks for the weekend to camp, dogs are welcome in the camping area...grassy, port a potties and a humungous fire pit where they throw in cottonwood logs the size of your engine...or bigger.

Blue Mesa:  camping here is hot!!...and noisey.  Boats, loud music..but no fireworks on the fourth of july, my dogs appreciate that.

Lyons Folk Festival:  YUCK!!  Tarp wars says it all.  If you do go, the meadowbrook campground is 1/2 mile from the festival.  They pack you in like sardines, but the sound of the St. Vrain river makes up for it, and it's much quieter than the campground right at the festival.

Crested Butte:  Kebler Pass has renegade camping or a few developed campgrounds.  The first developed campground you come to is Irwin Lake.  I guess it would be okay if you weren't sitting in your campsite and looking across the lake at huge houses with metal roofs.  I choose to continue on and camped at Lost Lake.  There are 11 sites, all new and your just a few seconds from the lake.  There's a nice hike to a waterfall and the wildflowers were amazing.  To get there, you drive through and amazing aspen grove...it's gonna be beautiful in just a few short weeks.

Taylor Park:  this is located between Gunnison and Buena Vista at west side of Cottonwood Pass.  And yes, Cottonwood Pass is not paved, but a super easy drive even for the oldest bus.  The campground at Taylor Resivoir is loaded with huge RVs, and once again...lots of four wheelers.  I choose to head out.

Twin Lakes:  at the base of Independence Pass.  There's a campground that's lakeside, but I would recommend reservations to get the best spots.  There is also a Lakeview Campground.  It was nice cuz' you could pull the Westy up, open the door, throw down the mat and have a view of the lake, and the divide.  The town of twin lakes does have gas and a very very small convenience store..and maybe even one restaurant.  And of course, aspen is just over the hill if you feel like a drive into the big city.

My next trip is to Canyon de Chelly with clothing from my consignment store, and some food, be delivered by u-haul.  I'm going to follow these folks down and stay at the spiderrock campground.  Oh wait...that's not Colorado.

I've done all of these trips by myself, or with my two dogs...so if anyone is heading towards Salida......keep me posted!

[Jeremy Nix]

OOOOHHHHH, thats what I said when I say that rainbow picture!  Great post, thanks for sharing all this great information.

[Aaron Quinn]

Need to make the Sand Dunes one of the "must" camp places...!  Thanks for the info!

[Herman]

Wupperman Lake Campground:  Located in Lake City at the base of Slumgullion Pass.  Slumgullion Pass is the steepest road in Colorado...so if your brakes aren't so good, I would recommend coming in from the Gunnison side off of Highway 50.  The campground sits on a cliff overlooking the lake and peaks.  Lot's of Texans in this town. 

 

Surely Emmy lot's of Texans in Lake City is a good thing.....

[Jeremy Nix]

Oh! We are going to the Crestone Music Fest this August. :)  I need to remember to stop and read the entire article more often. This is a great post.

[Emmy]

Look for my white 84 Westy.  I think there's some VW folk that are gonna coral up and I'll have this very big red flag with a dragon on it, look for me.   I look forward to meeting you guys.