New to Colorado

Welcome to Arvada, Like others have said, there are lots of places to get away from people, but you need to be willing to go a little further away from the front range or go mid week.

We are at least on the west side. I googled to find the time too drive from Arvada to BV. Maybe that is longer than it actually takes. We will be retired but want to bring the grandkids who will be in school so that means weekends. On the other hand it is good to live in a state where people love the outdoors! Maybe we can drive over to Arizona sometimes in the winter to enjoy camping alone near the trails again. :-)

EMD360 wrote:
LOTS of private residences in what is labeled national forest? Disappointing.

Try getting the national forest maps for those places you want to visit. Most (but not all) of the private inholdings are shown in white on those maps.

I take it you must live north of Denver. Otherwise, I can't see the trip to BV taking four hours. When we lived in Lakewood, we figured 2 1/2 hours. If indeed you are up north, get the NFS maps and check out the areas around the Poudre Canyon, not in the canyon itself but on either side of it.

If you haven't yet selected a place to live, do like us natives and get as close to the mountains as possible (or live in them). When we'd hit the road from Lakewood to go camping, skiing, etc. we joined the parade of cars heading up the hills, but some had already driven an hour or more from places like Centennial and Aurora just to get to where we started!

If you're retired, head up on Sunday -- everyone is heading home and it's easy to find the right spot. If you have to go on weekends, be prepared, most of the best spots are filled by Thursday afternoon. Many of the people who live in this state live here because they enjoy the outdoors. Living along the Front Range, you're competing for campsites with part of the 3+ million people who live there. Thirty years ago, when one travelled to Salida to escape the crowds, one could arrive on a Friday evening and still find a boondcoking spot. There must be twice as many people up there now, so early arrival is a necessity. Even though it's another 1 1/2 hour drive, Taylor Park has gotten so popular that we avoid that gorgeous area most of the time. So unless you can travel on weekdays, either plan on a longer drive or a lot more company.

You've not lived here long enough, you will soon find Colorado has many quiet out of the way places. We have never stayed in a CG, we don't always get the spot we want but just travel down the road a bit set up in the next spot. There are many places west of Co Springs, north of Woodland Park / Divide, Buena Vista, Winter Park, Grand Lake, Grand Junction, Ft Collins. Colorado is very open to dispersed camping. The only places you can't go is the Wilderness (Land of No Use) areas.

We are moving to Denver to be closer to our grandkids! Thanks for the Colorado travel blog camping summary. I had only started with stuff close to home but it appears that the Grandby and Winter Park areas are not too much further away and are worth checking out. Thanks!
West Maricopa has a good trail nearby so I can see why it is popular. In Arizona overnight camping is allowed at trailheads, but not in Colorado. I guess it is a numbers thing. Lots of outdoors folks here where as in Arizona there are fewer camping nuts. :-)

We were lucky with West Magnolia because we shared site #2, which is very large, with some friends who arrived before us.

While researching boondocking spots I found a couple of useful sites-

http://www.coloradotravelblog.com/best-camping-in-colorado/

http://www.coloradotravelblog.com/where-to-camp-in-colorado/

There are some good tips for locating dispersed camping spots on both webpages.

You need to move out of the Denver area - too many people. :)

We love boondocking in the western half. Many wonderful spots and the forest service campground are great, too! Hope you find someplace good. Yep, Arizona can't be beat for ease in boondocking spots but Colorado has some gorgeous areas. They're out there!!

Crowded and bad roads, but beautiful. I see TonyandKaren did use the West Maricopa spot which was the one I found, maybe next time the RV accessible spots won't be occupied. :-) Buena Vista is 4 hours away, we are used to one or two hour drives. Will have to keep up the research and hopefully find good spots for hiking.

Coloradans love the outdoors so even if you get away from the front range the dispersed camping spots may be filled on the weekends. It's much better on the western side of the Rockies though - less traffic and fewer people.

We've been in Colorado for two months, in the Denver area for half of it, and have been staying in Walmarts a lot because we wanted to see things around the city. Getting a campsite at most of the public parks near the city is very hard.

I've made a Google map with places where we've stayed for free, not all dispersed camping though. Some of the places west of the Rockies are very nice. https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=210711839070103512786.0004e039a19ec37a6a084&msa=0&ll=38.642618,-106.490479&spn=4.856286,8.031006

You are on the Front Range, mighty crowded. Try the Meadows. It is just west of Cottonwood Campground/Lake which is west of Buena Vista in the San Isabel National Forest. Isolation...