St. Vrain State Park — Attraction in Firestone

I have been to State parks all over the country in the last 17 years as camping is one of my favorite things to do. I have to say, this is by far the worst park experience I’ve ever had. The female park ranger was incredibly rude. She made it her mission to make the experience memorable and NOT in a good way. All I was doing was picking up my daughter from friends of ours that were camping and she pulled in directly behind me, right away, to tell me I couldn’t park by their site. When I mentioned I was just picking up my daughter, she said okay. Then she made my friend’s daughter move her car back 2 inches from the road again, I’m told. When I was there (apparently) longer than 5 minutes she came back and told me she was going to site me for not just picking up my daughter and leaving because I was talking too long. She was walking fast, had very confrontational body language and her tone was indicating she wanted the situation to escalate. Surprised by the whole thing I told her, “wow, okay, I didn’t know it would be such a big deal to have a conversation with the people that have had my daughter all day. We’ll leave.” I waived bye and as I walked back to my car she proceeded to follow me and continue to antagonize me about taking too long talking and being in violation. Mind you I couldn’t have been there longer than 10-12 minutes. I said, “sorry I didn’t realize the rules of the park were like this, I’ve never been here before. We were just having a conversation. We’re leaving.” She got more agitated as she followed behind me to my car and said in a smart tone, “you’ve never been to a state park before?” I turned back around and faced her and said in a calm tone, “no, I’ve never been to THIS park before.” My daughter stepped in and told her we were leaving once again, but she didn’t even look or respond to her. I told the Ranger to calm down and put my palm up. We got in the car and left. The interaction was completely uncalled for and out of line. I will NEVER come back to this park ever again. Park Rangers are usually helpful and courteous. This park has clearly missed the mark and just wants to harass people. She had many other encounters with my friends on there trip to make their stay memorable as well, but that is not my place to speak to. As someone that lives close to this park it is now my mission to tell everyone to stay away, unless they want to be confronted with Park Rangers that have a chip on their shoulder and are in no way there to serve and...

Although all the "shaded" areas were in fact taken by RV campers, the other areas for "tent" users was not as shaded as the others, that was lame!! Fishes were not biting at all in the "pelican" lake, but we're sorta on the lake near the showers... my review is not only reflecting on the fishes or shaded areas but also on the dumpsters, bathrooms, city water pumps and the sheriff patrol.... HERE IS MY STORY....Myself, my family and friends just reserved sites 14, 16 and 18 for the 4th of july weekend (fri-sun) besides the great part of being close by the restrooms and water pumps, the packup today was horrible... apparently before my kids and I went up to the water pump, it was already flooded, I had my children get under it to cool off, while we only had it on for about 2min, a worker walks over to us and says "you cant leave that on like that, its city water ya know" my response "um, I'm sorry but if I'm not mistaken, as campers, that paid for their site I am assuming we are allowed to use it?!?!?!" She huffed under her breath with an attitude and walked away....BUT thats not it, while we were finishing up packing up our grounds, we leave the park and are IMMEDIATELY pulled over by a park ranger... not just myself but also my friends in the car behind us... We were asked for our information and were told that we were speeding, which I know was not true cause I was barely going 10mph waiting for my friends to catch up... to make a long story short, they will find any and every way possible to make sure you are watched and if you dare say anything about their water and how we pay for the use of it, you will be pulled over and probably end up with a ticket!!!! When my friend asked if we were being messed with because of the water, this "ranger" smirks and said he has nothing to do with that situation!! Let me also point out.... the restrooms are littered with urine on the floors, everyday there, it was not cleaned nor were their dumpsters!!! They actually have a tractor go to the dumpsters and push the trash down, but there was still trash all over the grounds near it!!!! We were actually talking about possibly reserving a couple of them shaded areas in September, but after my experience today, I will NEVER camp there again, nor will I ever recommend that campsite!!!! I will also be placing a complaint to their personnel and whoever else in the company I must speak with... THIS WAS THEE WORST CAMPING...

Not great. I paid $47 for one night's stay in my rv. If you go and book nights online through reserve America there is zero mention of the necessity of purchasing a Colorado State parks pass for the cheaper rates-- the ones listed on reserve America. So you book the $24 rate for 12 nights max, pull up and you're coughing out WAY more money to not lose your hundreds of dollars already invested in the site: they want $70 for an annual pass and $30 for each additional vehicle. This is how they get you. It's bad if you're tight on funds. They also have ZERO option of reserving long term paying with cash. I don't know why. I spent the last bit of money I had for my family on this. Also they charge for showers. And the family shower is out of order, but is not stated on the bathroom door. I prepped my one year old, five year old, and newborn 13 day old for a shower got in, filled it with almost all of my quarters and the water was FREEZING. I told staff and was never recompensated. I had to run out half dressed with my freezing cold babies and go shower them BY MYSELF in one of the tiny women's restroom stalls. It was scary. And we ran out of water to clean with because the broken family stall ate all of my money. So my poor newborn was still dirty and I couldn't even get to washing her milk sores in her armpits. The whole event was stressful and the stay wasn't great. I also had an interesting interaction with one of the ticket booth women who was incredibly rude and be instructed that I "HAVE to have my annual parks pass sticker stuck on my window"- the pass that I had to purchase 12 hours earlier- the pass that I didn't stick on my window because my front windshield is cracked and broken and I was needing to immediately replace. I recall telling this woman "don't screw with me" in the middle of this interaction. I'm a previous National Park Service park ranger and I'm...