Boyd Lake State Park

We've been staying at Boyd Lake State Park each spring and fall on our way to and from Montana for the last 5 years and each year the price goes up. $45/night ($36 camp + $9 day use fee) is way too much for a campground without water/sewer hookups. They also need to trim trees as we had difficulty getting into our site without scraping limbs. We'll be looking for another alternative on our next trip. We camped at Boyd Lake State Park in a Motorhome.

Looked like a nice, quiet, lakeside campground on paper, but on reality, it wasn’t. I have a season Colorado state park pass, but if you don’t, it’ll cost you $32 for camping, plus the $9 entry fee. No seeer or water, only electricity. No privacy. Boring. Might be good for a one-nighter, if you’re desperate, but it’s quite a ways off the freeway and you have to drive through suburbanville to get there.

We stayed here Friday to a Sunday at the end of June. You don't get much separation from other camp spots so I could see it being noisy but we had great neighbors when we stayed. The bathrooms were clean, had running water and showers (paid).

The proximity to the beach where the kids could swim was great - we were pretty far from it in E loop but the kids rode bikes on a paved trail and we walked. The swimming area is small but for kids it was perfect plus they had a play area and concession stand. Folks drove through with extra wood for less than we'd paid at the local grocery store - a nice perk b/c we ran out.

They had a ranger event on Saturday evening where the kids could listen to the ranger talk about his dog and how he's trained. It was great and the kids loved it.

At check in they will tell you it's dry here and you cant have alcohol over 3.2. We just nodded and drove on in.

We will stay again b/c it's close to home and was fun to let the kids swim. The fire pits were fine and good for a nice evening fire, but like I said it's close to the other people around you. Get the wrong crew nearby and it could be awful.

We stayed here during the 4th of July holiday. We wanted to stay longer to minimize driving but since the 4th was on a Wednesday, it was booked through the weekend and there were 0 sites available to us. We first stayed in D95. This spot is next to an accessible spot and we had no neighbors behind us during our stay in that spot. There is just electricity at each camp site, no water..but there is a shared water spigot every 5-6 spots so if you have a water tote...or a really long hose, you can fill up your tanks.

On the 4th, we moved to F139 for one night. This spot is next to the camp host. Camp hosts have full hookups and we got whiffs of sewage every once in a while. We also got some pretty bad weather and had some hail which we feared would damage our Airstream. Not a super fun 4th of July.

As for cell coverage, Verizon is damn near useless in Colorado in our experience. AT&T seems to be the better bet. With Verizon and 2 bars, we could barely make phone calls..and the data was spotty. T-Mobile also worked well for us when we streamed Netflix.

On the map it looks like a nice lake close to the mountains and the description claims it's “family-oriented.” In reality, it's in a suburb and all you see are cookie cutter houses and power lines with some mountains behind them. The lake is the same, houses all around except for the little edge of it in the park. The facilities that would make it fun are all closed (This was in May, so not the off season). If you want to visit the city of Loveland, it is right in the middle of it. About 30 minutes from the edge of Fort Collins and near the interstate to go to Denver or Cheyenne, WY.

We stayed at the campground which only has electric hookups. It cost $24 per night plus the $8 a day entrance fee for each vehicle plus a $10 reservation fee. Site had a narrow, curved pull through of pavement surrounded by gravel, mud, grass. A crew came right up to the camper with riding lawnmowers, so don't leave anything outside. They cut through our camper's 30 amp cord and did nothing about it. Because it's a state park, they don't have insurance to cover damages and you'll have to eat the costs of what they destroy. There's a Colorado Governmental Immunity Law that says even if they admit fault, they owe you nothing. We spoke to the landscape crew, their supervisor, and a park ranger about it, but the mowers were out doing the same thing a few days later. The camp host site was empty and the bathrooms were cleaned here and there, but were nasty more than a few times. The dumpsters were usually overflowing. City noises like sirens and traffic were noticeable at night.

There's a neighborhood walking path between the lake and campground that is very crowded and the shoreline is all mud just past it. There were a lot of bikes going by at high speed and off-leash dogs, so walking wasn't very relaxing. Swimming is not allowed except in a few areas and then only off a boat. There's a swim beach listed, but it was closed. Since we were just camping and didn't have a boat, no swimming at all for us. The buildings and playground by the beach were also closed. I'm not sure what you are supposed to do there for recreation with no playground, no swimming, no good walking or hiking areas. Wish I'd stayed in a park I was allowed to use.

We stayed here 10 - 12 June 2018 and the campsite rate was $24 per night, plus $8 per day daily access fee (unless you have a state parks pass) and a $10 advance reservation fee. All said, the total price for us came out to $37 per night which is kind of steep for an electric only spot.

We arrived around 3:00 PM on a Sunday afternoon and there was a double file line at least 10 cars deep waiting to get into the park. Kudos to the park staff because the line moved fairly rapidly, but the simple fact that there was such a long line on a Sunday afternoon should give you some idea of how heavily used this state park is during summer months.

After getting through the gate, we first attempted to stop by the dump station to fill our fresh water tank and there was, of course, a line. As we got closer to the dump station and could read the signage, we learned there was no potable water at the dump station but, according to the sign, there was potable water at the “comfort stations” which we took to mean the bathroom / shower facilities within the campground. So we got out of line and went to the “comfort station” in the B Loop only to find there were no spigots there for filling RVs. There actually weren’t any spigots visible at all at the “comfort station”, so we drove around the B Loop a bit and found one spigot between campsites 51 and 53. After walking around a bit, it seems each Loop has one potable water spigot for filling tanks but you will have to snuggle up into someone else’s campsite and likely block the road for a while to get to it.

All sites appear to be pull through and paved, but the pavement is pocked with holes and not even close to level. Also, the sites are super close together and offer just about zero privacy from your neighbors. The first night we were there, the neighbors on the service side of our RV set up a small campfire in the fire ring, but in order for them to circle their family around it, their lawn chairs were literally only about 5 inches from the side of our coach.

Despite the tight confines of the campground, we saw plenty of bIg rigs in the campground although several of them were parked with at least one wheel off the pad and in the grass because each of the pads is shaped in a rather tight arc.

Also, the campground is in a very developed area. You can see housing developments across the lake and the first night we were there we heard an awful lot of police sirens outside of the park boundaries.

Hopefully I have painted a picture that this park is not the place to go if you are looking for seclusion and the majesty of nature. However, if you are into boating, waterskiing, jet skiing or sitting on a swim beach, this place might be for you. The swim beach on a Sunday afternoon was packed and almost every day use picnic table and shelter were occupied. The boat ramp had a pretty huge line of people waiting to put their boats in, or pull them out.

There is a concession operation near the swim beach that sold snacks, and another small shop in the marina just north of the swim beach where you can grab sodas, beer and fishing bait.

We did a little fishing from the shoreline and caught a couple small bass, but nothing large enough to legally keep.

The bathrooms between the A and B loops were clean and offered coin operated showers. $.75 to start and $.25 to add additional minutes. There were change machines in the bathroom in case you don’t have a bunch of quarters on hand. We did not use the showers so do not know how much time you get for you money.

We pulled in OTA television channels for both Denver and the Fort Collins markets and all major non-cable television networks were represented.

We bounced between 2 & 3 bars of Verizon LTE Service, but that is misleading because upload & download speeks were pretty slow, my Speedtest.net results are posted in the photos. Despite the slowness, I was able to get some work done during the day, checked emails, made phone calls and also participated in several zoom videoconference meetings.

All-in-all, is give Boyd Lake a very mediocre rating due to the crowds, tight campsites and lack of privacy. Again, if you are going to spend your days on or in the water, and only be at you campsite while sleeping, then this may be a good place for you.

We may try it again in the fall when there would hopefully be much fewer guests.

We had to meet up with family in the north Denver area in mid-April so this was a convenient spot for a quick overnight. The view across Boyd Lake is of housing subdivisions so there's no real sense of being out in nature. Site 32 at the end of A Loop has a bit more privacy and an unobstructed view. The sites on the other side are a bit closer but look out at the mountains, which are always spectacular. We arrived on a Sunday. You can't camp in Colorado without carrying a lot of quarters, but the pay shower I first tried (75 cents for 3 minutes, 25 cents a minute after that) was broken and delivered only cold water. Frustrating, but otherwise the park was okay.

We wanted to have one more fall camping weekend before cleaning the camper out and winterizing it. We chose Boyd Lake, because of is proximity to home (1.5 hours),the fact that there was one spot still reservable, the fact that there was a Lake, and a quaint city/town we hadn’t spent much time in.
My other experience in a Colorado State Park was Chatfield, and Boyd was WAY nicer. We did have a great spot- it was on an end loop, and it was the last spot closest to the Lake, so we had more privacy than most other spots. There were three playgrounds throughout that we walked to far the boys to play at, took a walk on the path. The site was fairly level, there were trees and a fairly spacious site, for what kind of layout it is. The area right outside of the pad was pebbles, and we had torrential rain all day and overnight while we were there. The entire space around the camper door was a lake. The drainage was incredible, though, because in the morning, the area was pretty much “dry”. This is not necessarily a destination for out of state vacationers, but for folks looking for close to home camping during the questionable seasons, it made for a lovely weekend.

Luckily, I was here just one night and on a weekday. Otherwise, this place is crazy busy on the summer weekends. The sites vary in regards to privacy and spacing. Site #18 had little privacy, but I did not have any close neighbors that stay, so not a big deal.

If staying again, would definitely try to find something in the outer edges of loop A. Didn't really do a lot of exploring of the other loops.

One thing Q-dog liked, access to the water. We found a little quiet spot where she could swim. Not the best shoreline or cleanest water, but on a hot day, she loved it.