Great Sand Dunes Oasis

We chose this RV Park simply because of its proximity to the National Park. If we're going to be gone from the RV most of the day, the quality of the RV Park matters less to us than the location. That said, we didn't have much to complain about here, and we're glad we chose Sand Dunes Oasis. The RV Park is just one long row of narrow RV sites with an occasional tree or shrub to separate them. They're pull-through sites, but because our site was so narrow and had a tree at the back corner, we would have had much more success backing into it than we did pulling in with our 41-foot rig. In addition to the relatively small RV Park, there's a much larger camping area in the woods for tents and small trailers (no hookups), which was great for walking our dog. Unfortunately during our stay in June 2019 the mosquitos were out in force, and we were being bitten non-stop within minutes of arriving. Any time we went outside we had to coat ourselves in DEET first. This is common in the area, and the mosquitos were very bad at the National Park as well. AT&T worked pretty well and the utilities worked fine. Our view of the dunes from the RV Park was scenic, even though the RV Park itself was little more than a gravel parking lot. If you don't mind a longer drive to get to the National Park, there are other options 20 minutes further away, but for maximum convenience this RV Park is literally right outside the entrance to the National Park.

This place is a nice, quiet, convenient spot right outside the Great Sand Dune’s National Park. The bathrooms appeared to have recently been renovated. They were spotless and very nice. The people at check-in were really helpful and friendly. You can rent sand boards in Sand slides right on site at their store. The store opens at 8 AM and the breakfast there was great. We were supposed to stay inside the national Park our second night, but were warned that the NP sites are very hard for larger rigs to get into. The Oasis staff were able to get us a different site at their park so we could stay a second night rather than inside the park. Great experience.

The only issue we had was that we have a 36 foot trailer, and while the sites were listed as pull through, they are very narrow and you have to take a very short turn to get into them. You will have to back up several times to get in without hitting the grill or the table on either side.

We didn't stay here, but have some useful info to drop for those who don't care to stay here either, but find themselves confronted with opposition of varying assortments while staying at the San Luis or the Great Sand Dunes themselves.

You can shower here for $5 / person. The showers are hot, and four of us took long ones (after days playing in the sand and nearby forests without the option). They never ran out of hot water. Lovely.

Same with laundry, but there's no additional fee to us the laundry.

The store here sells beer, including craft beer. This is good to know because Alamosa is about 40 minutes away and the closest place to get good brews. Check out the brewery in that town if you make the trek.

They also sell firewood and this is where you rent the sandboards and sleds if you want to do that at the park.

You can also get decent AT&T service here, good enough to get things done (as opposed to inside of the park, where even when it reads 2 - 3 bars, the traffic was heavy enough to render it useless).

There's a decent playground here with a spectacular view, though how the RV spots are setup, only the guy on the end gets the full on view of the dunes and mountains in the park, and they're really close together.

We found out the hard way that the National Park's campground doesn't open until April and we arrived 3/27. Luckily, The Great Sand Dune Oasis is just down the road from the Park entrance. There might have been other options further away, but after driving a full day, we were tired. The woman at the Oasis general store was extremely helpful and so genuinely sweet. She allowed us to use a tent site for $25, instead of the $38 RV site, even though we have a camper van. After checking out the tent sites, which were all fairly rocky and unlevel, we decided to shell out the extra $ and take the RV site instead. The tent sites are in the trees, but the RV sites are located all in a row on gravel. Not exactly what I would have liked, but we were desperate. The spots normally have water, but not this time of year, and sewer, as well as included showers and laundry facilities. We didn't use the showers, but I checked them out and they looked very clean and well maintained. The little store has some basic supplies, including eggs, which we needed. Because it was still off season (and a Monday), there were only 2 other RV's, so noise was not an issue at all. Decent cell signal for Verizon.