Moraine Park Campground

Got lucky with a last-minute spot in Moraine Park while we were visiting RMNP. My AT&T hotspot got, no joke, up to 60Mbps download speeds here. The D-loop is closed to campers but was great for scenic dog walking around the campground. We saw one elk in the early morning; he is allegedly famous and named Bruno according to a campground neighbor. Loved that there were shower stalls for bringing your own solar bag setup, though we did not use them.

The best things about this campground are…views and location. Staying inside the park, specifically at this campground, negates the need to obtain a daily entry pass for the Bear Lake corridor of Rocky Mountain National Park. Bear Lake is highly desirable due to the popular trails and stunning scenery of the area. Parking fills up quickly during the summer months and staying at Moraine Park Campground puts you a short, scenic drive from this coveted location. It’s also very near Estes Park, the hub for dining, shopping and necessities such as gas. Note that there can be long wait times to enter the park through this entrance during peak season and a secondary wait to enter the Bear Lake Corridor, as this is another checkpoint.

In my opinion, this campground needs multiple upgrades to accommodate the volume of visitors. To begin, many sites are uneven and need improvement. My site was severely slanted and had an unavoidable washout through the middle, making parking and leveling the trailer a bit tricky. Some loops have only a few pit toilets, while others have running water/flush toilets and wash water disposal sinks. Potable water spigots are not always located near the bathrooms, which is inconvenient. There are two “solar shower” locations with two stalls each for the entire campground. Only one of these has accessible parking; the other requires that you park and walk a distance with your water, change of clothing and shower items. None of these are deal breakers, but other national park campgrounds are better organized.

On a positive note, the sunrise view from my loop was beautiful and the nights were quiet. Drive up the nearby Old Fall River Road to the Alpine Visitor’s Center. Look for moose and sheep in the viewing area along route 34 (Trail Ridge Road) to Estes Park. Simply enjoy the scenery - Rocky Mountain is a fabulous national park!

We spent five nights here in July 2021. Many of the sites were closed, so it felt very uncrowded. One bathroom could get a little dirty from use, but it was cleaned every day. Deer wandered through our campsite and elk wandered past the campground. We did not need timed entry for Bear Lake Corridor and could use the shuttle service to get to our desired hikes or visit the rest of the park.

Large sites with provided fire rings, and on select sites there were bear boxes (most sites but not all, no idea how to check which have them/don’t have them). Very large campground (250+ sites) but the sites are split up pretty well to maintain a little bit of privacy. Bathrooms are a bit small for how large the campground is. I would say the bathrooms were decently maintained. A dish washing sink outside the bathrooms. One dump station and multiple fresh water spouts around the campground. Solar showers (no bags provided). The wildlife seemed to wonder through the campground quite a bit as well.

Walk-in tent site, about 150’ from parking but enough to give decent distance from other sites. Views blocked by some beautiful trees, but easy walk down towards the meadow for the full view, we brought our chairs down and watched the sunset each evening. The boys fished each morning and evening further down the meadow, in the Big Thompson. A few elk in the meadow, and a doe and her fawns visited each evening. Bear scat on the trail to the site. A shuttle goes from the campground to the park and ride for bear lake area, easy to use. Only complaint was the vault toilets.....some of the worst I’ve been to, needed to be cleaned! All in all, a wonderful 3 days.

I love staying in National Park Campgrounds and this one is no exception. Sure, there are no hookups or showers (solar shower stall only) here, but it is totally worth it to be in the park! We had an incredible view from our site and enjoyed sitting outside listening to the nearby elk. You can also walk to the shuttle from the campground which will be crucial once the crowds really start to arrive. Our site had incredible views and we couldn’t be happier with it! There are many many trails to explore in the park. We did our best (loved the hike to Emerald Lake even though it was busy!), but couldn’t do as much as planned due to all of the snow - even though it was the first day of summer!! Luckily Trail Ridge Road was open so we could drive that. I highly recommend it!

Had a very nice stay at this campsite. Had turkey, deer and elk walk through the campground each morning. Elk were down in the valley and each morning really enjoyed hearing the "elk sounds" . Next time I would like to stay where I could actually see the valley from our campsite. We had a generator and had no issues with rangers asking us to stay quiet. Bathrooms were clean. Only complaint that our site didn't have any trees to hang a hammock and rangers left a not so nice note warning us about our mosquito candles being left out. Lot's of exclamation points and capital letters. Our fault won't do it again. Scenery was beautiful and Colorado continues to be our favorite state to visit. I hate that you have to plan your visit so far in advance. Glad we got a campsite.

Unfortunately so many national park camping facilities suffer from lack of maintenance, with crumbling roads and barely usable sites. Moraine Park was a welcome exception to this rule! The loop roads are in pristine condition, and we found our site to be perfectly level and well groomed. The sites around us (A loop 42, 44, 46, etc.) were all similarly situated and suitable for big rigs. The rangers who checked us in didn't give great instructions about the correct direction to drive to get proper access to the angled backin site, but we figured it out by looping around. The bathrooms could use work, and some sites are quiet short (check recreation.gov carefully when booking), and picnic tables and fire rings seem to be weirdly distant from sites (and close to neighbors) but our specific site was nearly perfect for what we needed. We had plenty of open sky for solar generation, we had daily visits from turkeys and deer, and being right on the shuttle system was a major plus during the busy summer season. There is a ranger station right in the campground which was ideal for getting detailed hiking information.

The campground is about 6 miles from Estes Park, so it was easy to head into town to stock up at Safeway. There are several gas stations within a few miles of the park, which is helpful when driving long distances to get to trailheads. But use the shuttle system when possible! It's so much easier than fighting traffic at popular locales like Bear Lake.

AT&T cell service at our specific site was generally zero on our phones and 1-2 bars on our MyFi, but it was so clogged as to be virtually unusable during the day. The good news is that we had great AT&T service (3 bars LTE) at the first pullouts on Bear Lake Road, just after turning off the main park road toward the campground. We drove the 2-3 miles from the campground when we needed consistent service.