Rocky Mountain National Park / Estes Park

Question

Planning a visit to RMNP/Estes Park area sometime during the last week of July - First week of August. Kind of want to stay on the East side of the park as we also want to do a day trip over to Fort Collins so DD can check out the Vet School at CSU, but we could move if we had to. Don't really care about hookups but water availability is nice.

No good reservations are available in the park so we could do first come first served in the park but I hate driving 900 miles to have trouble finding a site. How easy is it getting a FCFS site in the park?

Don't really want to do a KOA unless it is very nice (is it?)

There are several National Forest campgrounds south of Estes Park such as Camp Dick, Olive Ridge, etc. as well as a couple of county park cgs somewhat near as well. Anybody have any experience with any of those?

We also could camp on the West end near Grand Lake and then plan on staying East of the park for a night or two to visit the college. Anybody have any experience with camping over there?

Any other suggestions?

Thanks for all the help!

bigfeets · Answer

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busskipper · Answer

AZJIM1 wrote:Planning a visit to RMNP/Estes Park area sometime during the last week of July - First week of August. Kind of want to stay on the East side of the park as we also want to do a day trip over to Fort Collins so DD can check out the Vet School at CSU, but we could move if we had to. Don't really care about hookups but water availability is nice.No good reservations are available in the park so we could do first come first served in the park but I hate driving 900 miles to have trouble finding a site. How easy is it getting a FCFS site in the park?Don't really want to do a KOA unless it is very nice (is it?)There are several National Forest campgrounds south of Estes Park such as Camp Dick, Olive Ridge, etc. as well as a couple of county park cgs somewhat near as well. Anybody have any experience with any of those?We also could camp on the West end near Grand Lake and then plan on staying East of the park for a night or two to visit the college. Anybody have any experience with camping over there?Any other suggestions?Thanks for all the help!Couple of spots come to mind -- The town of Lyons has a small (7 site)  CG right in town -- it's in the foothills and would allow you to go in both directions -- Barbour Ponds SP is another option close to I-25, real close to I-25.If it were me I'd do Grand Lake first, then come over to Lyons to do the College Visit.BOL,

lauren · Answer

We lived in Estes '95 - '02 and been back to the area 3 times since. IMHO, all the RV parks in Estes have deteriorated terribly. No hookups in the Park even if you could get in at this late date.

Last year we stayed at Riverview in Loveland - and it was great. Yup, you have to drive up to Estes but we would not stay there again. Last time we stayed in Estes was three years ago.

But LOVE Rocky.

azjim1 · Answer

Thanks for the suggestions. I will take a look at some of those areas. I have thought of splitting up our stay, doing part on the west side and part on the east, although I have heard that the west side has gotten hit hard by the bark Beatle.

bov · Answer

Last year we stayed at Mary's Lake campground, south side of town and about 3/4 of a mile west of hi-way 7. It is a county run park and it worked great for us.Brian

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Rocky Mountain National Park / Estes Park

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