Withers Canyon/Dinosaur Footprints Trailhead — Attraction in Colorado

Campground is really clean and well-kept, gives access to a part of Colorado most folks don't venture. I'm really grateful to the USFS for providing it. We camped there a couple nights in July, 2021, only one other party one day, nobody else the other day. It was HOT. No charge to stay there (wonderful!) no water, no trash service, no picnic tables but clean pit toilet, fine by us, we love these free USFS campgrounds, like it used to be before the USFS spent all their budget fighting fires instead of managing our National Forests. In July this site is beautiful from about 5:30 PM until about 10 am, the rest of the time (late morning until evening) it is really, really hot and not much shade. Beautiful views from the campground but can be windy in the evening. Hiking there in summer is great when it's cool (early morning), can be deadly during the heat of the day, signs at the trailhead say several have died less than a mile in from heat. Don't hike there above 90 F unless you're experienced hiking deserts in the summer. If you are hiking to the track site our phone said it was 11.5 miles, it took us 8 hours and we are very fit. The trail is 95% flat and very easy, well-maintained, even mowed alongside to keep the thorns off you, no water crossings. There are only a couple places to access the river without having to thrash through many yards of tamarisk so don't plan on jumping in the river if you get hot. The ecology of the bluffs is still largely intact and beautiful but the river bottom has been destroyed by past agriculture and grazing, it's almost all exotic plants like cheat grass, Russian thistle, tamarisk etc. The birding is pretty nice down there though and a lot of interesting history to stumble into and wonder about. We brought 6 qts of water for 2 of us and used...

Updated October 2025: Our second trip to Picketwire Canyon was very eventful. This time, we brought our young son with us and rode the trail to the dinosaur tracks on our bicycles. If you are gonna attempt this ride, please, for goodness sake, don’t do it with inner tubes. You have to have your bike set up tubeless if you want to have even the slightest chance of making it. And top off your sealant. Each of our tires had over 80 goat heads in them, but we were fine because our bikes were properly set up.

We saw 28 tarantulas on our drive into camp from the highway, and we had one as a campmate, as well! Watched it eat a cricket and chill for about 2 hours before it went into its burrow right by a small trail near our tent. So cool!

The dinosaur tracks were awesome to see, finally. I wish they were better preserved and not full of dirt and plants, but they were really cool anyway.

The weather was extremely windy most of the time. Then we got hit with a thunderstorm. It blew over quickly, though, and then we finally got to enjoy a very still rest of the night.

Such a fun camping trip and chance to give your little guy some fun new experiences!

My wife and I camped here during the tarantula migration. We did see a tarantula about a quarter mile from camp, which was awesome!

The facilities here are super limited, but it’s a good campground. The vault toilet wasn’t bad, and the campsites were not spoiled with litter...

I've been to this trailhead a couple of times previously and I had a great time biking to the dinosaur tracks site. But my wife and I biked the trail this past Saturday and we didn't even make it to the cemetery! The Forest Service hasn't maintained the trail as they had in the past and there was vegetation overgrowth in some areas. Both of my tires were punctured and my wife's rear tire was also flat by the time we returned to the TH. We were also concerned when passing the overgrown sections because rattlesnakes could blend in. This year is a bust, but I'll try again next year and hopefully by then the Forest Service will spend more funds to maintain a clear path for hikers/cyclists as they had in previous years. There is also a lot of rippling in the road on CR 25 and 500A, which extends the driving time because you can only go so fast over the...