Cayton Campground

Starlink is a game changer for this campground. Otherwise, the nearest cell connectivity is in Rico. Our site backs to the river and is an electric site. Both Starlink and Dish were doable. Cayton's quiet. This was our 5th time there. The camp hosts are unobtrusive but run a tight ship. We didn't fish the river this trip, but it has produced well in the past with wild trout the game. CO 145 is noisy during the day but quiets down at night.

A nice and quiet campground not far from Telluride, on beautiful route 145.
We had site 18 which is completely open, not private at all, very close to 19 and 20. If you are camping with friends or family, you can book these three sites and you will have the place to yourselves.
Site 16 is nice - more private, and right on the river.
There are no showers there and the potable water had a strange colour. We did not drink it.

For me, this is the best campground in the area, but there are also cheaper boon docking options nearby. I loved here, even though it gets a bit pricey unless you have the senior discount price. There are electric sites down by the river and dry camping up in the upper loop where I stayed. I camped here somewhat early in the season, first part of June and the upper loop was never full. The lower loop had more of the crowd probably due to electric sites. There are vault toilets, no showers and no Verizon service of any kind. You can travel to Matterhorn CG which is fairly close and on the way to Telluride to pay a reasonable cost for a shower. Lots of great hiking trails nearby including Navajo Lake Trail and Lizard Head. Most of the sites in the upper loop would work with solar, one site in particular, #26 got morning sun but was shady in the afternoon. As others have stated, dump station is $15.00. The road is in gravel and there is a one-lane short bridge to cross but not a big deal for any camper or motorhome.

About a 30 minute drive south of Telluride. Campground has both electric and non-electric sites as well as reservable and first come first serve sites. Some sites are open and some in the trees. We had a dry site on the upper loop that was not in the trees so we were able to use our satellite dish. Restrooms were clean. A few mosquitoes, but not a major problem. No Verizon cell coverage. About a half mile of gravel road to get to the campsites. Onsite dump station with a fee of $15. Camping rate reflects a senior discount.

Campsite was good. Camp host was great. Bathrooms were very clean. The campsite had a lot of standing water. This led to a lot of mosquitos and a little smell from the bathrooms (only reason I rated the quality a 4 star). It wasn't a smell that was around all the time, but you could smell it once in a while. We did not have any cell coverage here.