Steamboat State Park or Canon City, Co?

The two choices, Canon City and Steamboat Lake SP are in significantly different areas of the state. Both are popular for different reasons.

Canon City is considered the Gateway to the Royal Gorge area, and there is indeed much to see and do there...or was. There has been destruction from a fire in 2013 that did damage to some of the sights around the Royal Gorge Bridge, but fortunately, not the Bridge itself. Many of the support attractions were destroyed, but they are rebuilding the area. It may be a couple of seasons until it's back to the way it was before the fire.

Royal Gorge Story

That said, there's still a lot to see and do in the area, and could be a base for exploring other areas in southern Colorado. It's not far from the Wet Mountain Valley area, and of course there's the Arkansas River Valley area to explore.

Steamboat Lake SP is in NW Colorado, west of Steamboat Springs. It's about a 30 minute drive from town to the SP. It's a beautiful area, it's somewhat isolated, and it's also very popular...as are most Colorado State Parks. What few remaining sites that are currently available, may be less desirable sites, and even those can go fast. It's an outdoorsy area, reportedly good fishing there and at Pearl Lake, and hiking in the area. But...you're not close to town at all, there's no retail areas or restaurants around in that area.

Neither are remotely close to Denver...several hours from either location to Denver. As was previously suggested, Colorado Springs could be a good alternative as there is much to see and do there, it's about an hour south of Denver (depending on traffic), and there are a lot of private campgrounds in the area. Not very likely to get a spot in either Cheyenne Mountain or Mueller State Parks on short notice.

As for driving, Canon City is on the east side of the mountains and therefore easily accessible to your tow vehicle and trailer. No problems getting there at all. Set up camp there, and use your truck for exploring the area. Same thing goes for Colorado Springs area. Although some of the Springs campgrounds are located up US 24 toward Woodland Park area, it's not a difficult drive when towing. You'll be fine in any of the areas along the east face of the Rockies, along the Front Range. Same thing for Denver.

Getting to Steamboat Lake SP...there WILL be mountains! One can take I-70 over to Summit County area (Frisco/Dillon/Silverthorne) and go north through Kremmling and on to Steamboat Springs. But there will be a lot of mountain driving, including some tunnels and passes.

OR you can go north all the way to Fort Collins and take CO 14 all the way up Poudre Canyon to Walden and on over to US 40. You'll have beautiful canyon driving as well as a couple of passes to cross before getting to Steamboat.

These are the two major routes coming from the east to get to Steamboat Lake SP. I'm sure there are other, less travelled ways to get there, say, from coming in from the north from Wyoming.

I would suggest a closer look at Colorado Springs because of the great variety of sights and activities for the varied ages of your children.
If you could get a campsite in the Cheyenne Mountain State Park, that would be ideal, but that is not likely on such short notice.

Another area to consider would be Salida/Buena Vista/Leadville, especially if you children would enjoy river rafting in the Arkansas. Many good hikes or drives in the area and ghost towns. You could drive over Cottonwood Pass to the Taylor River and Crested Butte for the day. Another drive would be over to Aspen (definitely NOT towing) for the day.

I could go on with other possibilities, but you may want to consider these.

dawolfes8 wrote:
Hello,

I am planning a last minute trip to Colorado. Or I should say, I'm trying to, but I need help

Some background: My older son, who is getting old enough that he won't be camping with us much longer, wants to go to Colorado. He has been talking about going to Denver all summer. Why Denver? I don't know. I have been more focused on finding a campground that has things to do for my five kids ages 11 through 20. or at least with in driving distance of various sites and activities. We tend to all like "foresty" camp sites. We would definitely like to go rafting, and zip lining would be an added bonus.

For both of those activities, and an available campground, I narrowed the search to the Canon City area. There is a campground and those two activities are available. I thought I was done.

But then I noticed that Steamboat Springs State Park popped up on several past posts for campground recommendations, and they have a few available sites. But I'm not sure about the activities in that area, besides rafting. We have five days; if we stay there, are there any other suggestions for things to do?

And then my final obstacle. My husband is concerned about the drive in Colorado. All of our past "big" camping trips have been with a pop-up being pulled by our Excursion. We have a new truck (Ram 3500) to pull our new trailer with (27 ft). Having never pulled this trailer that far, he is wondering about the route to either of these destinations. Anything we should take into consideration?

I apologize for the length... I couldn't figure out how to make this shorter and still make sense. Any help would be appreciated!

Take a look at this site Family Travel it might give you some Ideas.

You do know that neither of these locations are in Denver.

You will not have a problem IMHO, anywhere in Colorado with your rig.

20 year old and wants to see Colorado, My suggestion, not all camping,
Boulder Farmers Market -- Golden's Clear Creek right in town with tube's for all, bring your own floating device -- Golden Gate Park -- CU and DU two great schools -- Bring Bikes -- Hike in one of any of the many trail heads that are everywhere between Denver and Boulder -- last if you still have time Maybe Leadville and Buena Vista for some great 4x4 trails and hikes and more tubing.

Out of your two Choices Steamboat would be my choice but I would vote for a few two or three day stays in different CG's.

BOL,

Colorado is beautiful and I'm truly sad pot is the way they are thought of now. I agree with your choice of truck you will be able to climb any mountain. Show care in filling up with gas with the 27 foot trailer and it will be fine.

"My older son, who is getting old enough that he won't be camping with us much longer, wants to go to Colorado. He has been talking about going to Denver all summer. Why Denver?"

.............is this the 20 yr. old?

LINK

As for which area..........we really enjoyed being around Canon City Area.

That RAM won't have nay problems regardless of route taken.

Enjoy the trip!