Colorado camping reservations: Campers should reserve now for June, July campsites

If you haven’t been thinking about your camping reservations for this summer, better start making plans now.

In fact, it may already be too late to reserve your favorite campground for Memorial Day weekend. Campground reservations for national parks, national forests and Colorado state parks can be made up to six months in advance. That means early birds have been able to make Memorial Day reservations since late November, and Fourth of July reservations have been available since last week.

Reservations for campgrounds in national parks and national forests are made through Recreation.gov, but reservations for state parks are made through the Colorado Parks and Wildlife camping home page.

The system for campground reservations at Rocky Mountain National Park this year is the same as last year, but the number of available campsites is returning to normal. Campgrounds there were limited to 50% of capacity last year because of COVID-19.

“We will be at full capacity at Moraine Park campground (244 sites) and Glacier Basin campground (150) this summer,” said Kyle Patterson, the park’s public affairs officer. “We had 50 percent open in those two campgrounds last year. Aspenglen campground, which has been closed the last two summers, is reopening (with) 52 sites.

The Timber Creek campground on the west side of the park (98 sites), which was closed last year due to the East Troublesome fire and staff housing issues caused by COVID, will reopen this year. Dates have yet to be determined, however. In previous years it was first-come, first-served, but this year, sites can be reserved.

As for wilderness backpacking camping, Rocky Mountain National Park officials haven’t yet finalized details for this year’s permit sales. Those permits typically go on sale in March. Last year they used an online lottery that had to be spread over several days to prevent server overloads. Details regarding this year’s system are expected to be announced by late January.

The best source for an overview of campgrounds in Colorado’s 11 national forests is the Interactive Visitor Map maintained by the U.S. Forest Service. Zoom in from the national map to Colorado and then hone in on specific areas around the state. From there you can click on various locations to find out which national forest they are in. From there you can click to specific campground information.

“All forests in Colorado that have reservable sites are required to use Recreation.gov for that purpose,” said Donna Nemeth, regional press officer for the forest service. “This does not mean that all sites can be reserved. Many campsites are still first-come, first-served sites, which are not under Recreation.gov.”

Camping in developed campgrounds isn’t your only option in national forests. There are two others:

“Dispersed camping” refers to pitching your tent in areas that aren’t developed, meaning they don’t have picnic tables, drinking water, fire grates or toilets. The forest service has an interactive Colorado map that allows you to click on specific national forests for a list of dispersed camping areas and rules for using them.

Overnight backpacking also is allowed. The forest service has an interactive map for backpacking locations in national forests, but that one takes you to lists of trails in each forest where you can hike and find places to rough it overnight in the wild.

Backpacking permits, which are required for camping in designated sites of the Indian Peaks Wilderness Area, will go on sale soon.

“If you are planning to visit the Indian Peaks Wilderness Area between June 1 and Sept. 15, permits are required for all overnight camping,” said Reid Armstrong, public affairs specialist for the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests, which are the two closest to Front Range cities. “Permits will be available on Recreation.gov starting Feb. 1. Visitors will be able to view permit availability and plan their itineraries online.”

While this does not pertain to camping, Armstrong added that reservations will be required again this year to visit the Brainard Lake Recreation Area and the Mount Evans Highway. Those reservations will be made available at a date yet to be determined.

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter, The Adventurist, to get outdoors news sent straight to your inbox.

Source: Read Full Article