East Portal Reservoir, Estes Park CO

Lat/Long:  40.32778, -105.57722

Location:  East Portal Reservoir, Estes Park

Electric Hook Up:  Yes

Water Hook Up: Yes, but not at all sites

Bathroom: 100 yard walk

WiFi:  Nope, not even a cell signal

Shower:  FREE!!!  Beware, the website says there are NO showers…

Reserve on web at: https://www.larimercamping.com/

Site:  A01

What a fantastic last minute trip!  After getting a good itch to go camping during the fourth of July holiday, I was “site surfing” via the web and came upon this campground.  Any site is hit or miss and it’s always a little nerve wracking when they don’t display any pictures of the site…but – what a find this was!  This is by far our absolute favorite in campsites (minus epic spots like, Grand Teton’s).  But – this will definitely be our “go to” spot from here on out.  It’s about 50 minutes from the house, outside of the hustle of the town, isolated and QUIET.  The website said that there were no shower facilities at this campground, so we had planned to go to town at least once to shower…to our surprise, there are actually two buildings with showers in them.  Bonus…they are FREE!  Needless to say, we didn’t move our car after we un-hitched and we bathed daily. 

There are plenty to trails that surround the campground.  You can actually walk straight into RMNP from here.  Only bummer is no dogs on the national park trails—but Kayle and Chase had a lot of other options, so no worries. 

The view is breathtaking.  We are just west of the YMCA facility, but nestled up in a grand valley that faces the west side of the park.  Most of the campsites are pretty private with a fair amount of space.  A01 is definitely the top choice, but A64, 63, 62, 37, 36 and 35 are great spots too.  Not to say the other spots aren’t just as nice, but they are a little “on top of each other” or they just lack shade.  Beware if you’re a new RV owner…the spots are tight.  Real tight.  I had to inch my way back and forth into our spot, but the website wasn’t kidding when it said, “May have less then 22’ to maneuver.”  Also as a heads up, zero cell service and no wifi—and it’s actually pretty nice without it. 

Weather was so mild.  We were in sweatshirts all weekend, minus when we hiked.  It’s been perfect though – little bit of rain here and there, but all in all – perfect!

Yet again…the only T@b around.  Saw a few other interesting ones though – the “Waz-at” is one I’ve never seen before – kinda a retro tear drop too.  Lots of Coleman pop ups and other small trailers.  LOTS of tent sites, and lots of people in those tent sites.  It’s actually good to see so many active and happy families enjoying stuff like this.  We had quite the family next to us Friday and Saturday.  Party of 6 adults…in a tiny pop up camper.  Both cars from Kansas…and they seemed to NOT enjoy the great outdoors as we do.  Saturday afternoon they packed it in – left in the afternoon after some shouting, cursing, crying and loud banging.  Leader of the pack wore a “Three wolf moon shirt”…if you don’t know what I’m talking about you can take a gander at this: http://www.amazon.com/Mountain-Three-Wolf-Short-Sleeve/product-reviews/B002HJ377A.  To be polite I’ll just say, we did not miss them.  If we would have walked over there I’m sure I would have heard the ring leader shout, “THREE WOLF MOON, PACK UP!”  I hope they had a glorious breakfast on Sunday, because after watching their breakfast on Saturday I kinda felt for them….2 boxes of pop tarts and raw hot dogs on buns.  According to their sticker they had checked in on July 4^th…so it must have been a long 6 days for them. 

Happy trails!  We’ll be out again in a few weeks!  We’ve also scheduled a trip to the North Rim at the Grand Canyon in mid-September…..WOOHOO!