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Summer to-do list: take the kids on a Colorado camping vacation
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Pinyon Flats Campground at the Great Sand Dunes National Park
Camping with the kids will always rank near the top of classic summer activities. As for classic places to go camping? Colorado is jam-packed with them.
With gorgeous Rocky Mountain scenery, splashy streams, sparkling lakes, meadows of wildflowers, and forests to explore, the state offers families almost too many options when they are deciding on a destination.
Follow these steps to plan the best place for your Colorado camping trip.
1. Consider Colorado’s different regions. Generally, the state can be divided, from east to west into three landscapes: the high prairies, the central Rocky Mountain corridor, and the western desert canyon country. Each offers a different personality and experience.
2. Learn about the different types of campgrounds. While many of the most popular vacation towns have privately owned campgrounds, the National Park Service, National Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and Colorado State Parks all offer camping in various forms on the land they manage. The Bureau of Land Management tends to have more bare-bones, primitive campgrounds and services-free dispersed camping, while at the other end of the spectrum, many Colorado State Parks campgrounds often have hot showers and laundry facilities.
3. Take into account the ages and number of kids. We’ve camped with babies and ended up putting icy-cold baby wipes on our own bare stomachs to warm them before changing diapers. And we have camped with teenagers and saw very little of them as they faded off into the woods to hang out by themselves.
Different age kids have different needs. Pick your campground to meet those needs, and the camp trip will go more smoothly. For little ones, it is often a good idea to pick a spot closer to home. Older kids can last longer in the car, and may want something more exotic.
4. Accept your family’s comfort level with the outdoors. If someone in your family really isn’t comfortable with roughing it, plan to camp someplace like those nice state parks with the hot showers. That way they can make friends with nature gradually.
5. Consider the length of your trip. If you only have a short time, you may want to spend it actually camping, not driving. If you are planning a longer vacation, you may want to camp near a town where you can stop in to restock supplies or get the kids an ice cream.
6. Be honest about your goals for going camping. Do you want to get more in touch with nature, see great sites, visit a famous mining town, get a bunch of exercise, or just escape from the real world for a while?
7. Take into account individual interests of the family members. Some may want to fish in a lake all day, while others want to climb a peak, while other family members just want to sit in the dirt and play with their plastic dump truck. Look for a campground that makes it easy for as many people as possible to do what they hope to on their camping trip.
For more information:
Camping in Colorado article
Best Colorado Campgrounds article
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