Libby Creek Willow Campground

With many of the official campgrounds on the Snowy Range Scenic Byway closed, leaving most well stocked with other campers, or those at elevation and nearer Mirror Pond still frigid (glaciers or perhaps just snow pack still hangs on here at 10,000’ in August), and our grocery supply bag low (pack her in, pack it all out is the rule here), we end up at this campground more or less because it’s the last one before leaving the National Forest.

Verizon service flirts with one bar of LTE, but most of the time simply sticks on the useless 1x reading, though the occasional text message dings its way into spot 13 in the far loop, still near the cool creek and bathed in aspens and lodge poles enough to provide shade for humans but sun for our solar panel companions. The beginning of the campground is half full on arrival, and completely so by evening, with about half of the spots within a game of kick the rock to the creek, the rest tucked against the mountain or under the full shadow of the forest canopy. It seems that this loop costs $10 / night, where the second, more distant and open loop where campsites are much closer and with less privacy, is only $5. We end up in this further loop, but with only one neighbor across the cul de sac, don’t find issue with the layout. It’s Sunday night, so perhaps on a more official night of the weekend such spaciousness would not have been afforded us.

The bathrooms claim to be power washed with bleach and restocked on Monday’s and Thursdays. On Sunday night we’ll be using our own toilet paper should the occasion arise. Unlocked garbage cans, a rarity in Medicine Bow, are well worth the Abe Lincoln and the wide open space of an empty parking lot prove the perfect place for wild young children to play frisbee.

A significant improvement over the large, open dirt patch just down the road which may be the only easily accessible free camping on this side of the National Forest, which makes the Sierra Madre side all the more desirable in my opinion, it also being less crowded if not quite as spectacularly stunning as the Snowy Range.