Boyd Lake State Park

This is an average site and worked for us as a semi last minute place to stay. There are a ton of lots and it’s pretty crowded (Wednesday night after Memorial Day). There is a picnic table, fire pit, and electric hookup at each lot. The initial reservation fee is $36, but there’s an additional $10 fee when you arrive for state park entrance. As a Colorado state park it’s vastly disappointing. An ok-sized lake and that’s about it. We’d stay here as a backup again, but would try to find somewhere else first. All of the rental equipment (boats, kayaks, etc) are not available for the season.

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.