Karval Reservoir State Wildlife Area

This small but pretty wildlife area is not the easiest to find and not very close to . . . well, anything. But we like that.

Arrival at night in the rain was hairy. The entrance off CR-31 is marked with a non-reflective metal and timber sign that's easy to miss (and we did). There was firm sandy roadbed at the entrance and also on a left-hand turnoff that parallels the reservoir spillway and leads uphill to 2 campsites. But that turnoff was easy to miss in the dark (and we did). We literally slid our 24' TT down a muddy grade into the boat ramp turnaround and called it a night. (Photos show our rig there.)

When the roads dried out in the morning, we relocated to the designated camping area: nice gravel pull-throughs with vault toilet and fire ring. The sites and toilet were well-kept and clean. We had the reservoir to ourselves all weekend except for one car in the distance. A very pleasant Parks & Wildlife Ranger checked in at mid-day. He indicated that the reservoir is currently without fish (spring 2018) after two unsuccessful attempts to stock it this year.

The children liked messing around by the water and hiking the nearby trails. We counted 12 different bird species, plus several more we couldn't identify. We saw tracks from antelope and raccoon. This SWA is mentioned a couple times on the Internet as a great "dark site" for stargazing. No Sprint coverage.

Some Internet sources say that a Colorado Habitat Stamp is needed to stay in a State Wildlife Area. That is automatically included with a Colorado hunting or fishing license - see http://cpw.state.co.us/buyapply/Pages/HabitatStamp.aspx