State Forest State Park — Attraction in Four Corners States

Stayed at the Ranger Lakes Campground for 5 nights in mid-July. At first impression, we weren't sure we'd like the place. The site we had had a lot of tree stumps which looked sloppy. And you had to go about 4 miles down highway 14 to get to the dump. But we ultimately enjoyed our stay. The forest and the lakes are very beautiful and look like completely unspoiled wilderness. Disappointingly, despite exclamations everywhere about their prevalence, we never saw a moose. Temps were very refreshing for us (we're from Arizona) with lows in the 30s and highs in the upper 60s/low 70s. We were a bit surprised how buggy it was there compared to everywhere else we'd been in CO, so we were liberal with mosquito spray and all was good. Our dog was in heaven swimming in the lake and nearby creek. Walden isn't much of a town, but this whole area was pretty remote, near the WY border. So it was as much of a town as you'd find for quite a ways. Got fuel and groceries there. Side Note: If you're coming up highway 125 from Granby as we did, be warned that the road is pretty brutal, especially through the plains of North Park leading to Walden. Almost like the road was bombed from airstrikes. It was a tense drive for me to keep swerving as best as I could to avoid giant potholes and eroding pavement. Still, our truck and 5th wheel took a pretty good beating on this "road". FOLLOW UP: When we got home ~3 weeks later, we discovered we had broken a leaf spring on the trailer. Our final travel day home took us on some fairly rough roads on where I think the failure occurred. But I have no doubt that our stretch from Granby to Walden on CO125 did some major weakening of our leaf springs that led to the failure. You have...

Campgrounds: Bockman is great. No electricity but Ranger Lakes has electrical hookups and is chock full of 12-14" hungry trout. North Michigan Campground we have less experience with but two sites in particular need rating: 209 and 208, 1-star for privacy. They are practically on top of each other and would only be good as a double-booking with folks you know. See my photo. There is no way to determine this ahead of booking, unless 208 is the one you're booking, in which case you might notice in the photo that 209 is right next to you. The online booking map is not detailed enough, the park's own pdf map is inaccurate (shows 209 angling away from 208 some, but in reality they're practically parallel), the photo while booking online crops out 208 although 208's photo shows 209 in plain sight, and there is no mention of this oddity in the "Notes" section of online booking. I have written CPW to report that I believe these should be booked as double-site only. At least notes should be made about this. Take my word for it; you will not be happy with either site unless you know the folks in the other site or it's luckily unoccupied. This park is very beautiful and the fall is wonderful. It can get a bit nippy though, even in summer, so be ready for that. No...

Beautiful place. I didn't do much exploring around the park, but I did camp at North Michigan Reservoir. I was in spot 247 and had a great view and easy access to the lake. Some spots are kind of close, and some are not. Site 248 is the best, followed by 247. It you want a lakeview spot book a site on either end of the campground, the ones in the middle have a big hill in front of them, so no lake view. (The campground side of the resivour without the cabins)No showers, water or electricity. Two outhouse restrooms are located at each end of the campground. There are water fill and dumpstations a few min drive from the campground. Stayed 2 nights and only saw a fox. It was getting into coolers and trash, keep that stuff locked inside vehicles. Was hoping to see moose, but no luck. Bring a paddle board or kayak for the lake. Make sure to stop by moose visitor center to get a day pass, it is not included in Camping pass. I entered at north park campground and there was no attendant on duty, so i ended up having to drive all the way back to moose visitor center for my pass. 0 to 1 bars of service with at&t. There is service when you enter at north park campground. I was able to stay connected...