Family Camping in Colorado: Picks That Won't Drive You Nuts

Picture the question every ranger desk gets: some young mom asking where to take three kids under ten for family camping in Colorado without losing her mind. I'll tell you what, it comes up constantly. So here's the long version, the one I'd give my own daughter if she were hauling the grandkids out from Denver.

Colorado's a funny state for family camping. You've got the marquee places everybody's heard of, and then you've got the second-tier spots where the bathrooms still work and you can actually get a site without setting a calendar alarm six months out. The trick isn't finding a pretty campground, because they're all pretty. The trick is finding one where the kids have something to do besides whine about the altitude, and where you aren't backing a trailer into a slot the size of a postage stamp at 9pm.

What actually matters when you've got kids along

Forget the Instagram photos. When you've got a four-year-old and a nine-year-old, a kid-friendly campsite means three things: water they can mess around in safely, a loop they can ride bikes on without traffic, and a flush toilet within reasonable walking distance of the tent. Everything else is gravy. Views are nice but the kids don't care about views.

Second thing, and this trips up a lot of folks: pay attention to elevation. Hauling a family from sea level straight up to 10,000 feet is a recipe for a miserable first night. Headaches, puking, the whole show. If you're coming from out of state, spend a night at a lower campground before going up high. In my view altitude ruins more vacations than bears ever will.

Third thing: book early but not panicked. Most state parks and the popular Forest Service campgrounds open their reservation windows six months out on Recreation.gov. Summer weekends at the famous spots go in minutes. Weekdays in late August? You can still get lucky.

How altitude affects kids at a Colorado campsite

Thinner air at elevation affects everyone, and small children can't always tell you what's wrong. Watch for crankiness, poor appetite, headaches, trouble sleeping and nausea. Those are the usual signs of altitude sickness, and they often get blamed on a tired kid.

The general remedies are boring but they work: ascend gradually, drink plenty of water, keep meals light and regular, and go easy on the first day's activity. If a child gets worse rather than better, the fix is to go lower. For a deeper background, the CDC publishes travel health guidance on altitude, and it's worth reading before a trip with little ones.

State park picks that don't get the buses

Colorado Parks and Wildlife runs a tight ship and their family campgrounds are, honestly, where I'd send most folks first. They've got rangers, they've got rules that get enforced, and they've got the kind of infrastructure that makes camping with little ones actually doable.

Ridgway State Park, up near Ridgway off Highway 550, is the one I'd send my own family to. Three separate campground loops, a swim beach on the reservoir, paved bike paths, and the San Juans staring at you across the water. Showers usually have hot water. The Dakota Terraces loop has the best mix of shade and sun. Kids can fish off the dock without any fancy gear.

Mueller State Park, west of Divide on Highway 67, sits up around 9,500 feet so mind the altitude, but the campground is laid out smart. Lots of trees, good separation between sites, and over 50 miles of trails of all difficulties. Elk wander through in the evenings, which beats any nature program. It's more popular than it used to be, but it still doesn't feel like a parking lot.

Sylvan Lake State Park, south of Eagle, is the sleeper pick. Less than 50 campsites total, a small lake stocked with trout, cabins and yurts if tents aren't your thing. The drive in on Brush Creek Road weeds out the casual crowd. Good country.

You can find the full list on the CPW parks page, but those three are where I'd start.

National forest spots worth the gravel

Forest Service campgrounds are a different animal: fewer amenities, often no reservations on the smaller ones, but you get more space and quieter neighbors. For a family these can be hit or miss because the bathroom situation is usually a vault toilet, and small kids and vault toilets are a comedy bit nobody wants to live through.

That said, a few are worth a look:

• Difficult Campground: outside Aspen on Highway 82. Name is misleading, it's easy access. Roaring Fork River runs right through, sites have actual elbow room.
• Silver Jack Campground: Cimarron Ridge area, north of Ridgway. Cool in summer, reservoir nearby, almost nobody there midweek.
• Chambers Lake Campground: Cameron Pass on Highway 14, west of Fort Collins. Lake right there, fishing, and the bugs aren't as bad as some places I could name.
• Cottonwood Lake Campground: outside Buena Vista. Small, quiet, a real lake for the kids, surrounded by the Collegiate Peaks.
• Lost Lake Campground: near Kebler Pass outside Crested Butte. Worth the washboard road. Wildflowers in July are something to see.

The Forest Service recreation site will tell you what's reservable and what's first-come. Some of these campgrounds are moving onto Recreation.gov, so the days of just rolling up and grabbing a site are getting thin, especially on weekends.

The national parks question

Everybody asks about Rocky Mountain, Mesa Verde, Great Sand Dunes, Black Canyon. I'll be honest. Rocky Mountain in July is a circus. If you've never been, sure, do Moraine Park or Glacier Basin, but go in September after the kids are back in school if you possibly can. Timed entry permits can change the whole game up there, so check current requirements before you go.

Great Sand Dunes is the one most kids lose their minds over. Pinyon Flats Campground is the park campground, and the dunes themselves are basically the world's biggest sandbox. Medano Creek runs in spring and early summer, and that's when you want to be there, when the kids can splash in inches of water at the base of 700-foot dunes. After July it's mostly dry and the sand gets oven-hot.

For Mesa Verde, the Morefield Campground is huge and a little institutional but it works fine for a one or two night stop. Black Canyon's South Rim campground is small and the canyon itself is gorgeous, but for little kids the railings are the only thing between them and a 2,000-foot drop, so it's hard to relax there. More info on the national parks at NPS.gov and you can browse other options through our /parks page.

Gear that actually matters for family camping in Colorado

I'm not gonna lecture you on gear, because folks know what they like. But a few things tend to go wrong.

Get a tent bigger than you think you need. The label says "6 person", which means six mummies stacked like cordwood. For a family of four with gear, buy the eight. Two rooms if you can swing it, because nothing is worse than a toddler waking everybody at 5am.

Kids run cold. Don't put a child in an adult sleeping bag, since they can't warm up the dead space. Get a kid-sized bag or pile blankets. And bring a stocking cap for each kid even in July. At 9,000 feet it gets down to 40 degrees some nights.

A two-burner camp stove is worth its weight in gold when you've got a hungry crew. Trying to cook for a family on a single-burner backpacking stove is a special kind of misery. Full gear shakedown over on our gear pages if you want to go deeper.

Keeping the kids occupied

The campground is base camp, not the destination. The families that have a good time always have a plan for what to do during the day, and the families that fall apart are the ones sitting in camp by 11am wondering what's next.

Easy hikes are your friend. Anything under three miles, mostly flat, with a payoff at the end: a lake, a waterfall, a big rock to climb on. Cub Lake in Rocky Mountain, Calypso Cascades in Wild Basin, the loop around Sylvan Lake, the boardwalk at Maroon Lake. Browse our hiking section or pull specific routes from our trails list before you go. AllTrails is fine for cross-referencing but read the recent reviews not just the stars, because conditions change.

Fishing licenses for adults are required, kids under 16 fish free in Colorado. A cheap rod and a tub of Powerbait from the gas station has saved plenty of family vacations. If you're weighing other states for a future trip, our guides to family camping in Arizona and family camping in Idaho follow the same approach.

Honest take

If I had one weekend and a family in tow, I'd point them at Ridgway State Park in June or Mueller in late August. Book six months out, drive in the day before so the kids can acclimate, keep the daily plans simple, and bring more snacks than you think any human could eat. The kids won't remember whether the campground had a gift shop (and frankly, be suspicious of the ones that do). They'll remember the creek they waded in and the marshmallow that caught fire. That's the whole job.