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Reading Time: 9 minutesLast Updated on July 7, 2025 by Paul Clayton
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5 Rocky Mountain Campsites Plus Camping Tips
Few outdoor places rival the breathtaking majesty of the Rocky Mountains, a chain stretching across 3,000 miles of the continent. The climate varies from dry steppes and high desert near the base to the cold and frozen tundra on the peaks.
Key Takeaways:
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- Diverse Camping Opportunities: The Rocky Mountains offer a range of camping experiences, from fully equipped, paid campgrounds (KOA, Timber Creek, Moraine Park) to primitive, dispersed, or boondocking sites (Stillwater Pass, Allenspark).
- Amenities Vary Widely: Paid campgrounds typically provide amenities such as flush toilets, potable water, fire rings, and sometimes Wi-Fi, laundromats, and shuttle services. Dispersed sites are “pack in, pack out” with no facilities.
- Drop-Camping for Hunters/Enhanced Experience: Professional outfitters offer “drop-camping” expeditions (costing $2,000-$3,000), providing a dedicated, partially outfitted campsite, guides, communication devices, and transport, particularly beneficial for hunters.
- Vehicle Preparedness is Critical: Due to extreme weather (especially winter) and remote areas, ensure your vehicle is thoroughly tuned up, has appropriate tires (e.g., snow tires, chains if required), and carries a comprehensive emergency repair kit.
- Navigation and Survival Skills are Essential: Always carry a backup traditional compass and know how to use it, even with GPS. Inform someone of your itinerary. Learn basic foraging and hunting skills and carry emergency food supplies, especially in winter.
- First Aid Proficiency: Always carry a well-stocked first aid kit with personal medications. Consider getting basic first aid and CPR certification; wilderness responder training is recommended for avid off-grid adventurers.
- Wildlife Safety Protocols: Wildlife encounters are possible. Store all food and garbage in airtight containers away from your tent (ideally hung 10+ feet high). Maintain a clean campsite and consider perimeters (e.g., tin cans). Know how to react to specific dangerous animals (generally, make noise).
- Layered Clothing for Temperature Fluctuations: The Rockies experience significant temperature swings, especially at night. Dress in layers: a wicking base (such as merino wool or synthetic), an insulating middle layer (like fleece or a vest), and a protective outer shell (windproof, rainproof, or snowproof). Protect extremities.
The American section of Rocky Mountain National Park alone features over 60 mammalian species and more than 300 bird species. You can enjoy the splendor from one of the range’s many campsites, as long as you watch out for all that wildlife. This destination fits the bill if you’re seeking the ultimate nature getaway.
What should you know before your excursion? What supplies do you need, and how should you prepare? Here are the best campgrounds in the Rocky Mountains, along with tips on how to protect yourself from wildlife while camping.
The 5 Best Campgrounds in the Rocky Mountains
You’ll find a blend of paid campgrounds and boondocking or dispersed camping locations throughout the Rocky Mountains. Here are five impressive sites to add to your list, whichever type of camping you prefer.
1. Timber Creek Campground
Timber Creek Campground is the only paid site on the western side of Rocky Mountain National Park. You’ll find it on the banks of the Colorado River, just a few miles north of the Grand Lakes entrance.
This site is available by reservation only. It features flush toilets, potable water, and fire rings, along with an amphitheater, trash receptacles, and on-site staff. The max RV and trailer length is 30 feet, and fees cost $30 per night.
2. Estes Park KOA
KOAs have a reputation for providing some of the best camping sites anywhere. They’re typically replete with amenities to make your stay more like a vacation than roughing it.
This location has Wi-Fi available for those who work on the road while adventuring. The site has a pavilion, a dog park, and cable television. There’s also a bathhouse, game room, laundromat, and a free shuttle to town to help you replenish your camping supplies.
3. Moraine Park Campground
Moraine Park Campground lies on the eastern side of Rocky Mountain National Park. It offers year-round trash and recycling services, although only the B Loop remains open in winter on a first-come, first-served basis. There is staff onsite with firewood and ice for sale.
The site features toilets and potable water. Additionally, there’s a dump station for the RV set. The maximum RV or trailer length is 40 feet.
4. Stillwater Pass Grand Lake
The first three parks on this list are paid sites. These last two are dispersed. What does that mean? You pack in, pack out, with no onsite staff or amenities.
Dispersed camping in national forests is permitted for 14 days at a time, with a maximum of 30 days in a calendar year. This area is open from May to October, and sites are available on a first-come, first-served basis along various dirt roads. You can take your RV, but be mindful of your ground clearance.
5. Allenspark
There are several dozen dispersed camping areas around Allenspark, Colorado. You’re sure to find somewhere to park your rig or pitch your tent, even on crowded weekends like Memorial and Labor Day.
Dispersed camping requires a slightly higher level of awareness. While it sounds dreamy to be the only person for miles, it’s also nice when other people have your back. Pay attention to the wildlife safety rules above, and don’t enjoy so many campfire brewskis that you lose your senses.
Bonus: Drop-Camping Courtesy of Professional Outfitters
As you’ve probably gathered, there’s much more to the Rockies than the expansive national park. This land is a hunter’s paradise, teeming with game. However, you might not know the best hotspots if you’re traveling from another location.
Your best bet is to opt for a drop-camping expedition. There are scores of professional outfitting companies that offer this service. Such an excursion has considerable benefits:
A dedicated campsite: While you’ll rough it in a tent, an experienced guide escorts you to your base camp while providing valuable area and safety information.
A fully outfitted campsite: Your guides will often outfit your site with lanterns, fire rings, a cook stove, and basic cooking gear. Hunting is hungry work.
Communication: Many such organizations provide you with a satellite device to contact them in an emergency, thereby increasing your safety.
Transport: Some businesses transport you to your site by horseback and offer help packing your field-dressed game back once you bag an elk.
Such expeditions often cost between $2,000 and $3,000. Here are a few you might try:
Avalanche Outfitters, located in Redstone, Colorado, offers excursions that provide all the necessary gear. You only need to bring your personal and hunting gear, food, and tags. They take care of the rest, escorting you to camp via horseback.
Crazy Horse Outfitters: Another full-service establishment offering full gear other than your hunting and personal items. Your wrangler will help you pack out your animal.
Rocky Mountain Ranches: Don’t picture your typical suburban rancher. Western ranches span miles, and you can head here to hunt elk, mule deer, and pronghorn antelope.
Tips for Camping in the Rockies
Once you’re settled at your campground, what situations might you encounter in the wild? Here’s a quick overview of how to handle common emergencies.
1. Get Your Vehicle Up to Speed
First things first — when traveling in the Rockies, you must properly outfit your vehicle. Given the frequency of extreme winter weather, many regions have chain requirements.
Quality snow tires are a must, but ensure they meet the standard before investing. Radial and lateral runouts from nonconforming tires that aren’t perfectly round cause wobbles, vibrations, and shimmies that threaten the control of your vehicle.
A minor inconvenience on side streets quickly becomes a matter of life and death when you have to pass a car headed in the opposite direction on a steep mountain pass with no guard rail.
Furthermore, even individuals with top-tier insurance coverage will struggle to call for help in areas with no cell reception. Give your vehicle a thorough tune-up before your trip and carry an emergency repair kit containing the following items:
- Spare tires, jack, and tire irons
- Flares and reflective triangles
- Jumper cables and a portable battery charger
- Motor oil
- Antifreeze
- A wrench and socket kit
- Various Phillips and standard screwdrivers
- A multitool
- WD-40
- Flashlight With Mount or headlamp
- Various zip ties and bungee cords
- Work gloves
It’s helpful to know how to use these items. Look for a crash course in simple auto mechanics, or have a handy buddy show you the ropes before you depart.
2. Keep Your Bearings
Rocky Mountain National Park alone contains 265,807 acres within its 415 miles, and the entire mountain chain stretches nearly seven times that length. That’s a lot of land in which to get lost.
An electronic GPS solves many problems, but these devices are only lifesavers when they function. Get a traditional compass as a backup and learn how to use it. Always inform someone at your home base of your destination and expected return time so they can quickly notify authorities if necessary.
Starvation may seem unlikely, but it’s a bigger threat than you expect. In the middle of winter, make sure you’ve packed more than enough to eat — plus emergency supplies. You can typically find plenty of food in the summer months.
Learn how to forage and test unfamiliar plants, and the forest becomes a veritable supermarket. Increasing your stash with hunting skills is also wise, as meat is a much richer source of life-giving calories than plants.
3. Learn Basic First Aid Techniques
People get hurt in the wild. You might step in a ditch and break an ankle or get severely ill hundreds of miles from the nearest hospital or pharmacy.
Carrying a first aid kit is a must. Include extras of any medications you take daily, and consider discussing with your doctor the possibility of obtaining a travel supply to keep on hand if you frequently go camping. It’s also wise to seek certification to know what to do in a medical emergency. You might get basic first aid and CPR training through your workplace or at a community center, or seek wilderness responder certification if you’re a diehard off-grid adventurer.
4. Plan for Wildlife Encounters
You hear activity outside your tent and open the zipper, a crack to spy a bear digging through last night’s cookout leavings. What do you do?
Fortunately, wildlife emergencies are relatively rare. However, over 47,000 people each year seek medical treatment after being attacked by wildlife. It’s essential you know what to do when encountering the most dangerous Rocky Mountain critters to increase your chances of survival.
Generally, making noise is the best option. Most animals would much rather avoid humans than approach — they’ve been hunted before.
However, there are some rules for your campsite you should follow:
Keep smelly items away: Store all food and garbage in airtight containers, keeping them far away from your sleeping space. If you don’t have a locking container, hang your stuff from a tree at least 10 feet off the ground and five feet from the base of the tree to deter bears.
Set up a perimeter: Forewarned is forearmed. Stringing some tin cans around your site alerts you to many nighttime approaches.
Please keep it clean: Don’t sneak a snack into your tent. Animals have far more powerful noses than humans, and they’ll detect that scent of beef jerky on your sleeping bag. Please pick up all garbage and put it in a sealed container.
5. Keep Yourself Warm
The Rockies get cold — it’s not unusual for nighttime temperatures to plummet to several bone-chilling degrees below freezing. Unfortunately, climate change has brought unwieldy weather to the western states, and you can’t always trust the forecast.
Outfit yourself and bring the right gear. Do you know how to dress in layers? Review the basics:
Base layer: Toss those cotton long johns — they get soaked with sweat and make you colder. Instead, opt for merino wool or a wicking synthetic blend.
Middle layer: This insulating layer protects you from the cold. Opt for cozy, fleece-lined duds, or at least consider a vest to keep your vital organs insulated. Many people double up, adding an extra vest.
Top layer: This layer’s job is to protect you from the wind, rain, and snow.
Furthermore, please protect your extremities, including your ears and nose, especially if you plan to return past sunset. Temperatures drop precipitously, and the thinner atmosphere means you feel the lightest breeze like a frozen knife after dark.
Stay Safe at the Best Rocky Mountain Campgrounds
The Rocky Mountains are among the best places to camp. Camping in the majestic Rocky Mountains offers unparalleled natural beauty and diverse experiences, from amenity-rich campgrounds to secluded dispersed sites. However, such an adventure demands thorough preparation.
Key aspects include selecting a campsite that suits your needs, ensuring your vehicle is fully prepared for varied conditions, possessing essential navigation and first aid skills, and strictly adhering to wildlife safety protocols. Moreover, understanding how to dress in layers for extreme temperature shifts is vital for comfort and safety.
By prioritizing these tips, campers can not only fully immerse themselves in the Rockies’ splendor but also navigate its challenges effectively and responsibly.
