Durango, Silverton & Telluride Area

jffnkrn wrote:
Well, thanks in advance for any input.
We are heading to the area of Durango late July for a few weeks and looking at places and things, a lot. A lot of places to camp. Last time I asked here was a few years ago and someone told be about Four Mile State Park near Niagara Falls, perfect place. So this time, near Durango. will stay for about a week near there and take in the sites, maybe move on to Silverton or Telluride area. Any great ideas of camp spots, roads to avoid will be helpful and greatly appreciated. Thanks, Jeff & Karen

That area of Colorado has a lot to offer in the way of campgrounds. However, without reservations you may be hard pressed to find a place to camp. There's state parks in the area but all Colorado State Parks are reservation only; H E R E - CPW is a link to the reservations page. There's Navajo and Ridgway State Parks in that general area, it's possible you might be able to find a cancellation that could work for you. USFS campgrounds are available at recreation.gov. Again you might be able to find a cancellation that could work for you, but they are all very popular and get reserved usually 6 months ago when the window opened for reservations. And campgroundreviews.com can point you toward some of the commercial campgrounds in the areas you're interested in, may be able to find something in one of the private campgrounds in the area.

just an update,
three weeks, a few days in Dolores river front camping, horseback ride, then on up and around to Ouray, hot springs, gondola ride, sight seeing, Telluride and Gunnison, Then on to Silverton, mine tour and sight see, then on to Durango for some more river side camping, train ride and whatever. So a little persistence, daily calls to get into spots from cancelations and wha la we have a place to be every night for three weeks, kick back and enjoy. So just thought i would share that with a little persistence and time we got r done!!!

Thanks for the update, I'm heading that way in September.

So jffnkrn, did you get a ton of rain? Just got back from a week in Ouray. Mudslides up Yankee Boy Basin, street flooding in Telluride, streams to jump in Silverton, East Portal Road closed in Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP from rock slides. We've desperately needed rain but every day???

4runnerguy wrote:
So jffnkrn, did you get a ton of rain? Just got back from a week in Ouray. Mudslides up Yankee Boy Basin, street flooding in Telluride, streams to jump in Silverton, East Portal Road closed in Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP from rock slides. We've desperately needed rain but every day???

We have been in the area for a week as of tomorrow.
Rain, well let me say we have had some perfect weather up to this point.
Arrived north of Dolores 8/1, set up and kicked back at Circle K Ranch, had a horseback ride Tuesday, just after our three hour ride getting back to camp, a little rain, did Rico Wednesday, Rain for an hour or so every afternoon, just enough to keep dust and temps down to 75 /48. Then on to Ouray KOA, (not the best of places), rained every afternoon so far, again just an hour or so without flooding etc. toured around the areas, hikes etc. rain just after noon when we were done, except lunch yesterday a light rain, just perfect.
today will be another day like those, then head south to Silverton a couple days, then Durango area for the last week of our stay.
for us from Arizona, we are loving the cool wet weather. just been a great trip. just about two weeks to go.