Dakota Terraces Campground

The park is fantastic. Great basecamp for exploring Ouray county. We traveled to Telluride, Mesa Verde, Silverton and Ouray from here. The town of Ridgway has everything you need for re-supplies; market, fuel, etc. Our location in Dakota Terraces had minimal cell signal, even with a weboost cell signal booster. The booster provided moderate cell & data for basic things like social media but you would not be able to work remotely off the connection. This could be a result of our individual location. A neighboring camper told us they drove up to the higher campsite location and got solid signal so maybe it's just A Loop. All in all, a great place to stay. We were also able to fill our fresh water tank half way through from the potable spigot adjacent to our spot.

CELL SIGNAL: Sporadic at best, depending on where you were standing anywhere from no signal, to 3G, to 1 bar of 4g/LTE (but useless). In the morning and late evening hours 3G seemed pretty solid for phone data use.

14 miles from Ouray, Co we took a drive along the million dollar highway. Beautiful scenery and fascinating mining history. The campsite was asphault with an oversized picnic table, bar b que and fire pit. Sites were drive thru but the layout was backwords for our trailer. The campground was grassland but was closest to the boat ramp. Check the setup on google maps before booking. We went to Elk Ridge campground to check it out. Since it was on top of the hill, it had more trees for shade. We love the lake atmosphere and will use this stop again in the future.

We loved the Dakota Terraces section of Ridgway State Park. It was much roomier than the space we had at Elk Ridge previously and were able to drive through this time so we could see which site might work best for us. But - with the "all by reservation" system, we then had to call the 800# and make the reservations for the site we liked which luckily was available for the next 4 nights! Staff was friendly, facilities were clean and in good repair, access was easy to and from and the scenery was beautiful! Verizon cell coverage was also very good!

We loved this campground! Large sites for the most part and we felt private. Great views with clean bathrooms including showers and laundry. The location is great to explore the area including Ouray and Telluride. Dakota Terrace doesn’t have much shade- some of the sites have shade structures but some don’t so check before you book. You also need to buy a daily state parks pass for each day you are there.

We stayed at both Elk Ridge and Dakota Terraces because we couldn't get a single spot for our 13 night stay. The state park is very nice with lots to do including fishing, hiking, boating, etc. The park is close to Ridgway, Ouray and Telluride as well.

Dakota Terraces is a nice enough campground with 30 amp power, lots of community water spigots and a free dump station. Access to the lake is via a short trail. Sites offer tables, fire rings and some even have shade structures. There are restrooms with flush toilets, laundry facilities and a free dump station for campers.

While Elk Ridge up the hill doesn't have lake access, it's nicer. Dakota Terraces lacks shade and trees. While there's a cell tower up in Elk Ridge (1/2 mile away at most), Dakota Terraces has spotty Verizon and we had to boost AT&T. The sites here are mostly unlevel. We got lucky but other's are performing feats of engineering to get level. There's more highway noise here too. The $8 entry fee on top of the $32 camping fee makes for a pricey stay.

Still a good place to stay though if we had the choice, we'd go with Elk Ridge and drive the mile down to the lake.

We have generally avoided staying at CO SPs because of their higher cost, and some of my rating is based on value (or lack there of in this case). We paid $32 for a 30 amp only site plus $8 a day totaling $40, but for $80 CO offers a yearly entry pass that waves the $8 fee.
The sites in Dakota Terrace/Elk Ridge are electric only, and there are shared water spigots throughout both campgrounds. We could reach ours (hose and half) while parked in our site, but they are only to be used for filling (not staying connected directly). Ridgway also offers FHU sites at the other (not connected, but nearby) Pa-Co-Chu-Puk campground. The dump station is well designed and can be accessed from either direction, includes a dumpster, rinse water, and separate potable water.
The sites are all over the map in terms of access and levelness- we saw more than one rig with half their tires off the ground. Site 41 was fine in a 5th wheel but could be harder in a class A - we were able to level with a few blocks, but the difference between the front and rear jacks was significant. Our site was also a little tricky to back into, working around a boulder and tree located at the front of the site across from us. The park offers a reasonable amount of space and privacy between sites, allows easy access to nearby towns/sites, and the reservoir and beach adds to the mountain scenery.
The campground also has laundry ($1.50 for a washer or dryer), and the camp hosts were nice the couple times we interacted with them. The one weekend we spent here felt very chaotic- the park was full and many sites held more than one family, but the week days were a very different (peaceful) story.

Verizon worked mostly fine and there was 0 T-Mobile.

Great place to stay for Winter RVing.... The park has about 6-8 sites they keep plowed and cleaned off. Bathrooms, heated, were open (no showers). We had electric hookup (site 6 - pull thru) They have water faucets centered so that few sites can share - you fill up then unplug your hose until you need to fill up again. We saw a lot of Deer in the park! We stayed in a 36 foot motorhome, diesel, and no problems staying nice and toastie! We stayed Jan 25-Feb 2 (2019) it had a couple nights it got down to 1 degree! - We stayed here mainly to ski at Telluride (5o mins drive). Montorse is about 20 minutes away has plenty of small town grocery store (oh yes and a Walmart and Home Depot!). Ridgway is about 10 mins away - nice quaint town, restaurants, and shops. The town of Ouray is about 18 mins - must go to the OURAY HOT SPRINGS!. Place is maintained by a Ranger that lives on the property.

We chose this SP because it just made sense logistically as a meet up for us and couple of friends who could make it there without too much problem. Looked like a decent place online on the SP website, but we weren't exactly expecting it to be great. But we were really happy to find a spacious, well kept and well managed park with great sites, great amenities, great views, great (insert many more things here). There is plenty to do if you are even a little outdoorsy in this area.