Timber Creek Campground — Hotel in Four Corners States

closed during winter||Green, Trees, Water and spacious camping spots. Seems like the Campsites is a part of a forest is recovery. Lots of young trees entwined throughout the campground. |||Drive in, take an envelope at the entrance and find your spot. 26$ a night that can be paid by exact change or CREDIT CARD - which is a refreshing form of payment in a campground.||Leave the stub on your chosen site and drive back to drop your payment.||Firewood shed, is right next to the payment station. 6$ per stack, to be paid in cash. There are envelopes for this as well.||Quiet hours as always 2200-0600.||Check out till 12pm.||Campground fills up even on weekdays during the summer time. You can find out if the campground is full when u enter park - just ask.||First come, first serve.||However a lot of people stay just for one night, so if you plan on a late arrival on your first day, find a motel nearby or camp outside the park.||I've arrived on Thursday, at 1130am and it was quite empty. When I came back that night, the campground was full.|||There is an option for dispersed camping as well, but for the life of me, it seemed impossible to be the driver and navigator to the right spot. Most spots are suitable only for 4x4 cars, which I didn't have anyways.|||RMNP doesn't give out elaborated info at the entrance to the park in the brochures they hand out, which means you need to do your homework on the hikes you want to take, or go to the visitors center for it, preferably the ones outside the park. The alpine one is hectic. Even when you get to Trailhead, the info on the hike is scarce - like elevation gained, which is critical for long hikes. Mostly you'll find the same noticeboard about RMNP.|||Back to the campground||There's a daily program with a ranger at 2030 on various topics.|||Every campsite has a spot for a tent, picnic table and a fire ring. Two campsites share a bear proof food storage locker.||It says they have been spotted in the campground before.||It's still raining in the summer, so I advise you to pick higher spot if you have a tent.||I was camping in campsite 18. There's drinking water faucet very close and a clean  vault toilet, a short walk away.|||Toilets - vault and flush with running water and electricity outlets. They are located throughout the camp. The flush toilets are lit at night.|||Mosquitoes - not many, but they are there.||The Colorado River runs close by.|||Haven't seen moose, not an early riser, but elks walked just past my tent at 7am and woke me up with their cries 😁|||Weather was perfect, rained one night, but was sunny all day long. Expect a variety of seasons during your stay.||There were noisy thunders too, but with no rain.|||T-mobile doesn't work in the campground, but if you exit the park, towards grand lake, there's reception. ||Download the area on Google maps for offline use.|||If your in need for groceries/gas, they are available about 11 miles drive from the campground.||Mountain Market.|||If you have any more questions, feel free to ask ||Have lots of fun 🚶‍♀️⛰️🚶‍♀️🏞️||*Some pics are from the campground and some...

Warning: DO NOT CAMP HERE EXPECTING A WILDERNESS OR PEACEFUL EXPERIENCE. The four star review is for what it is: an organized campground designed for many types of users: 30 foot RVs and tent campers in the middle of a national park. If you go there expecting what you are getting: a clean, safe place to lay your head within a national park for $26 a night with no prior planning, running potable water, flushing toilets, reasonably priced firewood for sale at the entrance and electricity in the center of the campground, you won't be disappointed. The view beyond the masses of tents and RVs is pretty. If you go there expecting some pristine wilderness experience spend the energy to prepare yourself for camping in bear country and hike into the backcountry and be self reliant.

The pros: 1.It's in RMNP so you are close to the action of the park. 2. Elk literally wander through the campground: both bulls and cows and seem to be pretty easygoing/unlikely to spook. 3. It's on the West side, so traffic is not nearly so bad as the Estes Park/East side of RMNP. 4. It's first come first serve, so if you haven't planned 6 months in advance you have a chance of getting something if you get there early enough (checkout time is noon, but we saw many people leaving (and then having their campsites claimed by newcomers) much earlier than that). 5. If you are on the perimeter of the campground away from the road you are right next to a meadow and busy creek. 6. Bear boxes for tent campers everywhere, recycling of pretty much all common goods and garbage service. 6. The NPS rangers and campground hosts did a good job: they were friendly, educational and supported campers (medical/"enforcement" type issues) in a professional manner and the bathrooms were quite clean!

The cons: 1. It's in RMNP and an organized campground which means it is a crowded area with LOTS of people: many of whom are camping for the first time in their lives and don't really know the etiquette of camping in a National Park, so you've got some rowdy people in the evenings (not too bad: the campground hosts were pretty "present" when people got loud). 2. All the trees have been cut down for safety due to the pine beetle epidemic so there is no shade and really, no privacy at all. The sites are very close together: I'm sure it was much better when the trees provided screening, now there is no screen and you are anywhere from 50 feet to maybe 100 feet from your neighbor. Probably fine for those used to camping in a KOA or other densely populated area but it will be a definite adjustment for those used to...

When we entered Rocky Mountain National Park we noticed lots of other cars driving around, which is normal for our more popular national parks, but a Ranger told us that park attendance was now low because the peak season was over with. That may be generally true, but some of the campgrounds were completely full, while another was half-full, so we felt lucky to get a spot in Timber Creek Campground, which two other groups of campers then tried to steal, but we had excellent camp hosts who knew that our spot was the best and that others try to take it, so they watched out for us while we went sight-seeing. They even had to put a chair in our parking spot to prevent others from just pulling into our space and trying to take it over, even though we had our reservation slip posted on the space properly. We've never been the victim of camping spot theft before, but somehow we knew to take a photo of our posted reservation slip, just in case we'd need to prove that the spot was ours. The camp hosts were super knowledgeable and gave us very good advice and answered all of our questions. The creek near the campgrounds is beautiful, and the hill next to the road had a beautiful male elk browsing early one morning, posing nicely for my photos. The stars at night were gorgeous, our neighbors were friendly, and it's a great place to camp. I'd give it a 5 star rating, but I read some other reviews that said in the old days before the Pine Beetle infestation this campground used to have many trees and now it's bare. That is true, it is pretty bare, but still pleasant. It's nice to see the stars at night. Reviewed...