Base Camp at Golden Gate Canyon — Hotel in Idaho Springs

We stayed here for 3 nights and 4 days.

Blackhawk & Central City are very close as is many hiking trails and points of interest. We went to Idaho Springs and took a mine tour and panned for gold. We had plenty of things to do in close proximity.

The campsite has 1 public bathroom for the whole campground, segregated to men/woman...no family bathrooms. They also lock them for 2 hours 11am to 1pm for cleaning daily. They will lock you in which is illegal & scary. This is a problem if nature calls as there is no where else to go. They were modern.

Non electric cabins cost $50 Electric cabins cost $70 Showers cost money per minutes. Personally I think that is crazy considering the cabin cost. The sinks have push button that runs much longer than needed. If they are trying to save money on water, put in the sensor type. For covid there is no way to open the bathroom door without touching the handle everyone else touches, the door is quite heavy and they only have an air hand dryer. Also when there are water splatters on the counter, there's no way to clean it up as there's no paper towels so covid wise pretty unsafe.

The sites all have fire pits and a place to grill, they also have water buckets to help put fires out. This is a nice feature. Problem is you are smack dab within 10 feet of the next site or cabin, very on top of each other in this camp ground. They could have spaced it out a lot better.

The store has a well stocked liquor store and some groceries, as well as laundry facilities. We appreciated they sold firewood for $6/bundle, a little high but not bad.

The campsite is right on a busy highway and there is a lot of road noise.

Our neighbors were loud one night past quiet hours, we could hear them clearly through the cabin wall and we called the office for their help but no one answered so we ended up talking to them ourselves. I think that's the campgrounds responsibility not the campers.

They have fuel on site for camp stoves and cars, but at an elevated margin of cost of course.

The campsite was clean and there wasn't trash laying around. The camp staff were friendly.

For the cost it wasn't worth being so close to your noisy neighbors or noisy road and having 1 bathroom and paying for a shower. Next time we will try Reverend Ridge as we drove through it and it seemed much improved on many of the drawbacks...

Base camp at Golden State Canyon has been always improving over the last couple of years but unfortunately this past week not so much the case. Generally, we see the grounds being worked and cleaned up on a regular basis but not this time and the trash throughout the camp areas and green areas was very noticeable. Restrooms and showers were filthy and from what it looked like not even cleaned on Wednesday and Thursday (overflowing trash, dirty showers and sinks filthy). Showers you had to go pay at the front desk because of apparent vandalism of the in-shower coin boxes (maybe time to put keypads on the main doors to avoid). Inconsistent charge for the shower as the sign on the shower door says 10 minutes for $1.25 so I go to pay that, and they ask for an additional .75 as it is $2.00. Not that I mind paying whatever it does cost but to have information otherwise noted that is inaccurate is what bothers me. Coinbox in the shower says the following for cost of shower- 3 min. - .50, 4 1/2 min.- .75, 6 min.- $1, 7 1/2 min.- $1.25 so it would make sense to me that a 10 1/2 min. shower would be $1.75. Brought to the attention of two associates in the store about the sign and apparently, they really didn't care because the sign was still there Friday afternoon. My wife went in and paid her two dollars and the shower turned off after 2 minutes and didn't come back on causing her to have to switch shower while being covered in soap. The dog walk area has the little bags to clean up after your dog, but they were empty late Wednesday, Thursday and Friday morning. Overall, it really just seemed like the management and caring of the campsite associates was so different from when we stayed last year. With this said I hope you still give it a try because maybe this is just a one off. My goals is this helps the campsite become better as it is a beautiful place to camp and always so quiet I would hate for it to continue to...

Stayed here on June 5, 2024 and I can’t express how much I enjoyed my stay. This was a total last minute trip for me (I tend to just pick up go last minute). It was a 7 hour trip from where I live and I was able to book my cabin on the way to Colorado from Texas. Obviously it could’ve been because it was in the middle of the week. Probably wouldn’t be the same case had it been on a weekend. Upon arrival I checked in with ease at the front office/ convenience store. They truly had just about everything you need here. For example it was such a last minute trip tha I forgot to pack a belt for my hiking pants the next morning. Wasn’t a problem at all they had some paracord I was able to use as a bet lol… I’m also such a tourist while there I grabbed a few stuffed animals for my daughter, niece and nephew. The cabin itself was nice and clean! Cabin B was one that had electricity, meaning it had a porch light, interior light, heater, and plugs. This allowed me to charge my phone, watch, and go pro. I’m an extremely hot sleeper and sleeping with the two windows open letting that cool air in was perfect. A really neat thing about base camp was just down the road there’s a baseball field. There was just something so nice about hearing the game going on and crowd cheering for their kids while I cooked my dinner. I really liked the location as everything was a short drive for me. Blackhawk/ Central City for those who like to gamble (I did partake the day after my visit). Golden Gate Canyon for the outdoor activities. Not to mention the scenic drive to Denver if you also want to visit the city. Golden, Colorado was a must visit for me as I wanted to visit the Coors brewery I believe it was about a 30 minute drive. Ultimately I think that played a big part in staying here, along with wanting to enjoy the outdoors Colorado has to offer. All in all I will definitely be...