Mancos State Park — Attraction in Four Corners States

The Jackson Gulch Dam and Reservoir looks like it is suffering the same thing as the lakes in NM. Low water and nothing in sight to replenish it. Hopefully the snow melt this year will be helpful. The good part; this is an outstanding park. The sites are level, they are reasonably easy to back into/pull through, they are spaced far enough apart that you feel isolated to an extent. There are no electric, water, sewer hookups (at the sites we saw, 1-20), there is however a dump station with fresh water bibs located at key points throughout the area. This is also one of the parks that has Yurt rentals. We didn't look into that as we had the camper but did take a look at them. It looks like they will sleep 6, has electricity, and heat. Pretty cool actually. As anyone who has looked at our reviews knows' the dogs are always there. They had a blast playing in the water, running through the meadow and just being dorky dogs. There is a mandate on keeping your dogs leashed as they have had problems with dogs not being properly attended and the rangers do make sure you're minding the rules. Not a problem if you're a responsible pet owner. Went fishing in the afternoon and managed to get a few bites with standard crankbait. I was too slow on the uptake and missed some decent sized trout. Overall this was a most excellent stay and we plan on coming back to this one. I almost forgot to mention, this is one of the state parks that also stays open year round with some of the sites maintained and open even in winter. Big...

The park grounds and trails are nicely kept, rangers are friendly and there are 5$ bundles of fire wood available at the check in kiosk. The campground consists of 2 main sites, the larger being on the south side of the lake. Each site has plentiful vault toilets and potable water spigots. We rented one of the two yurts available, both located at the south site. The yurt was clean and the futons were fairly comfortable. One thing that we were not prepared for was the noise. The site abuts a Dude Ranch (which we referred to as Satan's petting zoo) and a little south from that....a sled dog kennel. That's right. SLED DOGS. Throughout the day and at various random times at night there erupted a chorus of howls, barking, whinnying, braying, etc that could wake the dead. The dude ranch is also home to goats and at least one rooster, so be prepared for that... On the bright side, the native fauna don't seem to mind the cacophony and so the birdwatching is great: we had a friendly bunch of nuthatches and grosbeaks at our camp every morning, and 2 ebert's (?) squirrels to keep us company. Also spotted black bear tracks on one of our hikes as well as having multiple dear sightings. In all, it was relaxing, and we were so tired after each day of activity that sleeping was easier than you might think considering...

Nice getaway close to highways and towns. Because of this you do hear very slight and distant road traffic but not enough to be bothersome. You also see houses on the ridges above the lake, so you're in the woods but there are still reminders of the outside world around you.

Nice spaced apart campgrounds, seems like the West side pairs camper spots next to tent spots, decent set up. Oh! Not all campgrounds are even or level, bring those tire levelers, I drove up on a few rocks which helped but was still sliding a bit throughout the night. Depending on your set up, this could be a real downer.

Lots of bathrooms throughout the park, close to hiking trails, saw numerous mountain bikers.

You do need to pay for a daily park entry pass, even when camping, only exception seems to be disabled veteran and purple heart veterans plates, or a special pass you get through the website. read up on fees before going and ALL campgrounds are reservation only. From what I can tell there's not a regular staff person on duty and it takes a while to connect to customer service through their provided number, so for less stress, research ahead of time!

Park is kept up very well, you can see where the fees are going. Overall, highly recommend either for day use or...