Last weekend we headed up by Minturn to camp near Homestake Reservoir. It was a gorgeous area and the reservoir was fun to visit! For being so close to a popular area, it was surprisingly quiet and not busy, we had a nice relaxing weekend.
Camping
There were a couple places we had planned to look for campsites at along the way, but we ended up at Gold Park Campground. The campground is on Forest Road 703 just off Highway 24 that goes between Minturn and Leadville.
In the campground there were about 10 sites, all first come first served. Most were smaller, ideal for tent or pop-up camping, but there were 4-5 sites that were suitable for 35 feet rvs or trailers with a car. All sites are right along the creek, and there are some fun rocky cliffs for the kids to climb on. Campsites were $21 per night.
We arrived on a Friday about noon, and there were plenty of sites available, and while more people arrived throughout the afternoon, there were still sites available through Sunday when we headed out.
Dispersed camping was also available all along Forest Road 703, which is about 7-8 miles long. There were lots of sites, but most of them were taken by Friday afternoon. However there were several sites available as we headed back to the reservoir from the campground on Saturday morning. Many of the dispersed sites were along the creek with gorgeous views!
Homestake Reservoir
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There is a road that leads directly up to the reservoir, but there’s also an old road you can hike up to the reservoir on. There’s a split in the road as you get closer (there’s a sign about non-motorized boats there), going left takes you to the parking lot and boat launch and going to the right takes you to the road where you can hike up.
The hike was a little steep, but it was very short, maybe ½ a mile. The view at the top of the reservoir is definitely worth it though! Once you get to the top you can walk all along the wall of the dam, which is about half a mile long. The kids had fun walking along the dam and we took lots of fun pictures along the way. When you get closer to the parking lot there are spots to take your shoes off and play in the water, which the kids loved. There was also a huge pile of dry wood, and the kids had fun building a tee pee while I sat and read my book. After we played for a while, we headed back across the dam and down the trail. It was a really fun afternoon and the kids had a blast!
Click here for more info about the reservoir.
