We can’t all be lucky enough to live rent-free in a cabin in Rocky Mountain National Park.
But if you want to experience the outdoors in Colorado, you could start by choosing from camping app Hipcamp’s picks of the 12 best places in the state to go camping. The choices are scattered through the state, offering different styles of camping, various price points and different experiences. Colorado choices include a lavender farm, glamping sites and secluded properties.
Hipcamp’s annual lists are based on bookings, reviews and ratings from Hipcamp users. All of the app’s award lists — both state and national — are unranked.
Learn more about Colorado’s best campsites on Hipcamp’s website.
Basalt Mountain Homestead
This three-site property sits on a south-facing mountainside with views of three fourteeners. While it is remote, it’s also just 2 miles from Basalt and 20 miles from Aspen and Carbondale if you need to get out of nature for any reason.
Bear Family Ranch, RV and Camping
This working ranch sits 2 miles from the Colorado River, Horse Thief Canyon and Fruita Desert. It has hiking and biking trails and views of Colorado National Monument and the Grand Mesa.
Camp Overland
Just a mile south of the Wyoming border, this property is dotted with granite boulders, a variety of trees, and a wealth of wildlife and birds. Reviews call it a great place for families.
Camp Penguin at Wandering Penguin Ranch
This pine tree-laden property northwest of Cañon City features several kinds of campsites across 35 acres. Its access to a variety of activities is a strength, including hiking and fishing at Badger Creek, hiking at Waugh Mountain State Trust Land, Paradise Cove Swimming Hole, Florissant Fossil Beds and much more within a 90-minute drive.
Cliffs Edge campsite
With cities below and stars above, this site offers spacious bell tents that are “almost glamping,” according to the listing. It features views of Pikes Peak and access to more than 160 acres of “unspoiled Colorado front range wilderness” near Rockvale. Royal Gorge, Pueblo reservoir and other attractions are within a mile.
Lavender Farm Bed and Breakfast
This is not a commercial campground but makes the list as an outdoors take on a B&B set on a working lavender farm. Your accommodations are a wagon equipped with a queen bed and accouterments, sitting in aromatic fields of lavender with a view of Mesa Verde on the horizon. You can tour the farm, relax in the sauna and enjoy a scratch breakfast.
Mountain Bird Alpine Desert
On a plain below the Sangre de Cristo range, this location has private sites with mountain views and starry nighttime skies. Three hot springs, trails and Great Sand Dunes National Park all are within an hour.
Private 120-Acre Horse Sanctuary
This adults-only glamping spot near Elizabeth helps support the sanctuary. Visitors have a tent with a refrigerator, coffee maker and tea kettle, private hammocks, propane pits and grills. There is plenty of wildlife and stargazing to enjoy in this nontraditional camping spot.
Rocky Mountain Glamping
If you want to take it easy, you can relax next to a stream in a camp overlooking nature and rock outcroppings, with an easy trail for leisurely strolls. If you want to have more of an adventure, try a more challenging trail or drive over to Rocky Mountain National Park or Indian Peaks Wilderness. Either way, you can end the day back in comfort.
Serenity in the Foothills
A 3,600-acre working horse ranch near Conifer, Serenity in the Foothills offers a number of hiking and biking trails and plenty of privacy and great views. Reviews say it is great for groups.
Shanahan Goat Ranch
The site near Buena Vista is meant for nomadic camping by self-contained campers (no toilets, showers or potable water on the site). But it offers easy access to BLM land, as well as the Midland bike trail system. And if you ask, you can get a tour of the diary goat ranch.
Tater’s Black Canyon Campground
The only Colorado campground to land on one of Hipcamp’s national lists, Tater’s was named one of the 15 best van and overland spots nationally. It is near Black Canyon National Park, Crawford and the North Fork Valley, wineries, eateries and more.
Nate Trela covers trending news in Colorado and Utah, with an emphasis on consumer finance, Legal issues and state laws.
This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Here are Colorado’s 12 best places to camp, according to Hipcamp
Reporting by Nate Trela, Fort Collins Coloradoan / Fort Collins Coloradoan
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