After we realized that we may not be cut out to be dispersed campers (read that post here…), we were very lucky to have a backup site at the Estes Park Campground at East Portal, near Rocky Mountain National Park and Estes Park, Colorado. Overall, we really enjoyed our time at this campground and we would recommend it, if only for its location alone. It is only 11 minutes by car to the east portal of Rocky Mountain National Park, and you can hike into the park from the campground! The largest negative points would be the small size and close proximity of the sites to one another. Thankfully, we love meeting other campers, so enjoyed having neighbors!
This beautiful campground boasts 59 sites for both tent campers and RV campers. This is a “managed campground,” with five sites for full-time camp hosts. Most of the sites are for tents only, but there are a fair amount of sites for trailers and RVs – and even a few with water and electricity! When you arrive, you must check in at the office before you head to your site. The staff at the office was friendly and knowledgeable (we were worried about the weather during our trip). They answered all of our questions and calmed our fears!
The campground has two main loops, one to the east (sites A33-A67) and one to the west (sites A4-A31). The west loop also has an access road to sites A1 and A2, which were very private.
We found the sites in the east loop to be slightly larger and more private than those in the west loop. The west loop, however, has an impressive playground that the kids will enjoy. If you don’t want to be near kids, we’d recommend choosing a site in the east loop.
Our **favorite** site was A64. Although it was on the main road, it was large and had gorgeous views. It was also further away from its neighbors than some of the other sites.
There are a few walk-in sites (A20, A29, A42, A53, A54) that also looked beautiful, but they would not be available to campers in RVs or trailers. Sites A1, A4, A5, A63, and A55 are also sites we’d gravitate to.
Each site has a full size picnic table, a firepit, and a tent pad. Each of the loops have bathrooms with flush toilets and warm showers. The bathrooms were clean and well maintained.
We stayed in A28, which is in the west loop. It is directly across the road from the bathroom, but we didn’t notice much extra noise or foot traffic. We found that most campers were polite and walked around our site, rather than through it. A28 is an internal site, which meant that we faced several other campers. If you want some privacy, this would not be the spot for you.
As we mentioned above, we really enjoyed our time at this campground. On Saturday, we hiked (through the rain) into Rocky Mountain National Park. It was only 2 miles from the campground to Sprague Lake!
When we returned from our hike – soaked and cold – we both took long, warm showers in the nearby bathroom. It was a godsend! We finished the day with a few beers by the campfire. It was a perfect – albeit a little rainy – day! The campground is very quiet at night, nearly every site was in bed by 9 p.m., even though “quiet hours” do not begin until 11 p.m. It provides for a nice, relaxing space to unwind.
