Alvarado Campground

There are no showers, no water hookups and you’re informed you cannot wash your dishes or yourself at their campsites . No shade near parking and are not allowed to set up a shade tarp, camp host will put a note to put it all in your campsite after she’s rifled through your belongings and leaves things open for you. The note says it’s not a camp spot , well we were not camping under a tarp in bear country with fifty degree evenings. No one was camped at any of the tent spots near us. We parked in a single spot and were made to feel completely unwelcome. This may be my last trip to Colorado for camping. For the money people pay to travel and then to pay ridiculous fees for no amenities and they have one trash on the far side of the park so everything you do you have to trek for it. I would find someplace else. The beauty of this place is not worth their ridiculous standards. If I could negative stars , they would have all of them. P.S. don’t leave any valuables , we have no idea if they took something yet as we packed for a week from Oklahoma . P.S. there are zero listings to reach your camp hosts to ask questions before you come . . You can call the forestry people and you can call the people linked to making reservations and they will literally pass you back and forth to each other .you can have two cars but you can’t have a car and your tiny trailer. Glad we didn’t bring it . Losing a day paid in camping to find a motel because we would rather get away from these types of people. You have zero right to touch other peoples property and you have zero rights to this land just because you want to volunteer for a free camp spot till your ugly soul moves on .

The lady camp host kicked us out of our spot after one day because she claimed our unit was too big for the campsite. This was about three hours after setting up camp at a site that she had recommended we stay at. She said, “my husband doesn’t agree with me, but you guys gotta go.” Hopefully the not smart lady camp host doesn’t come back next year because she is really bad at her job. Other than that it’s a nice place.

This tiered campground is essentially built into the hill. It is well laid out and makes use of the space properly. You can enjoy a neighbor or find separation. It's situated at the base of a great trail head so you can come and go into the wilderness as you please. We picnic there and friends have stayed occasionally in the camp. We all enjoyed it. Never had any trouble with others.

The camp host told me I couldn’t have a shade cover at my parking spot and said I can’t camp there, when we were clearly not camping, we were just getting shade. They micro managed us and didn’t make us feel welcome. We camped at 47 which is a walk to spot, a tough walk to spot with a rocky path, so we didn’t pack everything up there and figured they would be understanding if we wanted to sit by our car and have a shade cover. Literally no one else was camping next to us and we were in no one’s way but we needed to move our stuff out of our own spot, not to mention we technically had 2 parking spots reserved and were only using one of the spots. We did not take up more than our parking spot and camp site, and then to make matters worse they wrote a letter and posted it on my gear in all caps like they were yelling and seemed to have went through my stuff as it was moved around a little. No showers and no amenities also, and you better make a reservation for the medium quality food if you want staff to make you feel welcome at that lodge restaurant nearby right before you enter the campground. Not use to being treated that way. Last but not least they say to not take showers at your camping spot. Ridiculous, we won’t be back. That was supposed to be our relax full vaca.

Alvarado campground was our first stay in Colorado and the views are wonderful and the camp host was great. We camped in site 39 and it was not level although not a problem for our set up, but would not accommodate a trailer. Campground has vault toilet no power or water.