Rifle River Recreation Area — Attraction in Cumming Township

We've been coming here every single year since before I could even form memories. Now I am a mother of three and we continue this tradition and bring my kids with the family every single year. We love this Campground it's one of the few where you can actually get a rustic site and feel like you're camping and not in a parking lot full of RVs. It keeps the Lakes nice and while the fishing isn't great because of all the years of everyone fishing there and depleting the supply everything else about this Campground is phenomenal! We usually take advantage of campsites but for a few years we rented cabins as well and those were really good for family reunions and big family trips because it gave a place for everybody to hang out during the day have private access to the lake for kayaking and privacy to enjoy the campfire late Into the Night. We've never really ran into other campers that were rude or unbearable and I can never remember a time where this trip wasn't the very best part of our summer. We've tried other campgrounds and it's never the same. We even came here to the modern sites every single year for my cross country camp. A little gas station across the way is great for anything that you need so there's more conveniences than there used to be which makes getting food and other supplies closer to Camp much nicer especially for your perishables you don't have to pack for the whole weekend or the whole week if you're going to be out there a long time. I could keep going and right for months on how wonderful this place is. I will continue to come to this place every summer until I'm no longer here or no longer...

The Good: Camped at one of the Grousehaven sites for 2 nights. One of the littles got pulled over by the patrolling DNR for riding their bike and wearing their helmet and was given a ticket of safety for a free ice cream at McDonalds. The road through the park is paved with some tight spots depending on how people park. The site was nice with a big firepit and handicapped picnic table and what looked like a new power post at the site I was at.

The park was very packed when we were there and it was still enjoyable. I went with family and they had their own camper on the site next to me and the park let me turn my small popup around so our doors faced each other kind of making it a group site (It does not seem they care how you park your rig but I called and asked first). There was a couple communal water spigots around the park that seemed to be kept clean.

The beach is average size with a handicapped plastic mat that goes from the grass all the way into the water for wheelchairs and anything else with wheels. The swimming area does not go out too far since there is a drop-off that is marked with buoys. The water was clean with no trash in the water and on the beach. There is a huge area to run around and chill with a swing set play area. There was a mystery PVC pipe with what I hope is clean water draining out right onto the beach area.

The trash area was big with 3 big dumpsters and lots of parking with a trailhead near by. There is signing in the park to direct you to where you need to go to find your site. There were trails all over the place but I did...

We took our kayaks out to the rifle River Recreation Area it had rained torrentially just the night before. The road was paved up to Grousehaven Campground. From there the roads are hard packed rather smooth dirt even after a heavy rain. Even so the truck got all muddy underneath. It was about 2 miles back to Devoe Campground. We pressed on all the way back to the swinging bridge at the far south end of the area. The road on the far south and turns into a one lane still fairly decent but had huge puddles from the recent rain. We backtracked to Devoe and put our kayaks in there. The water was clear we could see the bottom it was like looking into an aquarium. We saw huge turtles and many of them too. Lots of fish were swimming around but they didn't seem to be biting. We saw huge carp over 3 ft long swimming around our kayaks. There is lots of wildlife everywhere. The shore surrounding Devoe lake it's like a shelf that goes out maybe 40 or 50 ft shallow and then drops off dramatically from there. There are deep holes throughout the lake. DNR online descriptions say that Lakes are all "no wake". Signs are posted everywhere though that motors are prohibited. We enjoyed our day filled with beautiful views of nature. We certainly will be returning to explore further...