Estes Park / Rocky Mountain National Park KOA Holiday — Attraction in Estes Park

Packed in like stacked cordwood. No mention of parking over 100 yards from the site with the top-premium site 41? First in my 35+ years of camping. The parking guy seriously yelled at me to move our still-unloading truck to park another guest during a hellacious lightning storm.⚡️⚡️Very unsafe and extremely rude. I called the front office to relay the issue clearly, angry and shaken from the disrespect, and it was passed on to the owner. Two long to describe the full issues as we are waiting on corporate KOA to decide on action. The owner, Greg Query, doesn't call, only emails and places a business card referencing his emails on the camper door. He uses his employees' side of the story with 2 complete falsehoods, including o supposed (creepy) video of our checking in and expels us from the park at 8 p.m. on a holiday week. Four days are scheduled for July 1-5, and thus terrible-person owner expels us, first for us ever! We called him as we left the facility at 8:30 p.m. to verify the refund and to inform him that we are out of his park. Nothing to help us find accommodation for the night and all days until July 5.

We completely overcame his decision and have some funny stories to add, plus he did refund us, we saved over $150. All fees were refunded including deposit to his only credit. Karma is definitely at work, and I can't wait until the resolution is met by corporate KOA.

⚠️Yep, avoid the place with every single cell in your body. Trust me, the owner seems to be looking to find a fight, only wants your money, will take only his staff's side, will lie, and I wish I could share more. Run from this KOA. 🏃🏃‍♀️🏃‍♂️⚠️

Addendum: We moved to an ultra-primitive site at Hermit Park Open Space Bobcat Campground with very difficult parking at 9:15 pm July 1st as darkness had set in. It was not easy to park, but in the morning, wow, beautiful site B19! Total luck and fun to boondock and test our new lithium battery setup. All perfect in morning! First 5 photos.

So for July 2, we booked a lovely site 3 at Grand Lake / Rocky Mountain National Park KOA Journey. No issues as normal for our camping experiences, but guess who owns Grand Lake? Yep, Greg Query, and whether he was just fishing or just unaware, he even gave us small talk while walking his dog!! Photo included!! Wife about died when she figured it out talking to him! 😱 He talked about just buying Grand Lake, etc., hence their name change. He even questioned me later as I was cleaning my hitch ball joking about my dedication to detail and even later questioned me briefly asking if we were leaving (again at 8 p.m. ish) as I had gone to the grocery store and was just backing into the site to quickly escape in the morning. All three times he was out walking his dog. Either dumb luck or unaware, still stressful to have Greg repeatedly walking/chatting us up. (Next 6 photos with Estes Park packed closely and his real notice!?! Last two Grand Lake)

We had to obviously not push the Greg crap karma, so we moved to Denver East KOA, which was way nicer with management (Scott Jacobson, check out their review). The bonus in moving was that the traffic and congestion at RMNP was intense on July 3 as we had passes at 4 for Bear Lake. We were physically exhausted from hiking, so our July 4th allowed a beautiful day at Denver Botanical Garden, Lookout Mountain/ Buffalo Bill Museum and burial site, and the Mother Cabrini Shrine. None would have been seen without Greg's one-sided decision!🤷🏼‍♂️

Funny reading his response. False about attitude as expected as I had only questioned why we weren’t called back from not getting site verification which is not normal in our KOA experience. Denice, check in person, was nice and I’d love to see this video recording system as I find this very odd and can’t imagine working daily with surveillance. Have checked all emails with this KOA as requested/sent to corporate and to 7/8/25 no action or frankly mention of root cause of our situation has occurred by either camp or corporation. I guess lightning must not be unsafe in Estes...

I want to start with the fact that this park was very clean and nicely kept. The staff were nice and friendly and the proximity to things in Estes Park was outstanding. The three star rating is not a reflection of the quality of the park or the management of it. I disliked it because the things important to me when camping were not even available. This park was built in the 50's and so it is very different from what I expect when I go camping.

The grounds are beautifully kept and the facilities are super clean. I am somewhat of a clean freak and these bathrooms are immaculate and smelled nice. The private showers were awesome with enough room for anyone to move around. I think even a wheelchair would have been possible ( they might be technically handicapped accessible but I am not sure of that). It was a big room with a toilet, sink, mirror and shower with a curtain. There were paper towels and also a hand-dryer which warmed up my socks nicely before I put them on. Plenty of hooks for towels and clothes, and like I said, lots of floorspace for toddlers/kids or a wheelchair...They even had a step stool in the one I used. My husband went barefooted when he used the facility but I am a little freaky about that stuff so I still wore flip-flops but didn't freak about things touching the floor and would have been comfortable watching my son run around without them.

There is a very nice playground and they have a cute little 'train' pulled behind a golf cart for the kids to ride in and it seemed like it was a hit. My son is too big/old for that now but he would have loved it when he was little. The location is very close to downtown Estes Park and it is a straight shot so finding things to do and places to eat is no problem at all!

My favorite part of camping, though, is the fire in the evening...the outdoors...trees...everyone pulls up a chair and relaxes. This isn't an option at this particular park. There is a community fire ring where any guest can take their things and some wood and start a fire but of course it is community so anyone can join you and it is not close (especially if you are hauling wood and smores supplies and chairs) to all the sites. If this is something you decide to do and having a fire is important to you it might be a good idea to choose a site close to the community fire ring. The reason each site doesn't have a fire ring and cannot have its own fire is because it was built when RV sites were smaller so it truly feels like a parking lot when you are in place. Having kids in a tent next to the camper would be impossible unless you have an empty spot next to you. They do have tent sites, though, in a different part of the park. We had an empty spot next to us the first night we camped so we set up a tent on the concrete pad at our site and it was perfect for the tent but the second night we had neighbors so we didn't let the kids sleep in the tent because of the danger of carbon monoxide gas, etc. from the neighboring RV...the proximity to neighbors at this park is similar to tailgating at a football game. ( when the employee was helping the neighbors pull in to the site they told us tents weren't allowed next to campers because of this reason). The sites are full hook-ups, though, so there is sewer (gray and black) and water and electricity so it is nice to be able to hook up and not worry about tanks! If you plan to be out and about in town or in the mountains and want full hook-ups and a beautiful facility then this is a great place to stay. If you are camping and plan to hang around the site a lot and want to experience the outdoors where you are parked I wouldn't recommend this...

We've been koa members for several years and all the koas have been very accommodating of our large family. Except this koa. They told us our family size was a violation of there safety rules and the only way we could stay there is if we rented a second site. The manager said we didn't even have to stay at the second site we just had to pay for 2!? The only reason I'm giving 2 stars is because she did give us a full refund for the week when we decided to leave. We went to Jellystone and they were way nicer, the campsites were way more spread out and the it was actually cheaper! If you are a large family do not go to the koa in Estes park they will discriminate against you.

*Edited to add in response to the KOA reply: While we can only register 3 kids via the online reservations we are very honest with every campground. I did forget to call Estes Park KOA in advance to tell them our family is larger than three kids, as I typically do, which ended up being a huge mistake on my part. When asked by the manager how many children I had, I was very honest and upfront immediately providing the correct number and all the ages. We are currently two more KOA stays into our trip, both fully aware of our family number, and fully accommodating. When getting reservations at the Estes Park Jellystone I immediately told her our family size and asked if that was a problem. As is the case with every other Jellystone and KOA we have stayed at, it was again not a problem, and we felt very welcome there.

I'm very sorry you did not get the chance to know our children and the blessings of a larger family. The accusations of poorly behaved kids are laughable. While they are certainly not perfect, we are often complemented by both strangers and friends regarding their excellent behavior. I am very sad to see you stoop to attacking childrens' character.

Upon further camping review research it seems we are not the only ones to run into very strict capacity enforcement at this KOA. You are certainly welcome to enforce your rules strictly I just hope others are now aware that will be the case. Next time I hope you will handle the situation with more grace. The Manager's attitude and words regarding our family size were quiet...