Pioneer Park Campground

It is $15/nt now, which is just fine for a one night stop, just passing through. There is an electronic kiosk so you can use a credit card and a camp host. Simple, no service, park on the Colorado River- which is cool!

Mostly quiet, except for the long trains that pass very close by and since there is a crossing beside the park, the train whistles are loud. However, we only had trains in the early evening ad early morning.

I will start this review by saying that I boondock the majority of the time and don’t really care to stay in developed campgrounds. I was traveling from Denver headed towards Steamboat Springs/Walden area to spend some time. I needed a place to spend a couple nights along the way.

I arrived at Pioneer Park around 6pm on Monday. There was one site available. The sites are very close together. My trailer would have been maybe 15 ft from the rig in the next site. Also, two sites down was a MH running a loud generator. Another camper told me they ran it all through the night. Even though it was late, I did not want to stay here. I went on down the road a couple miles and found a peaceful location in Gilbert Campground, which is more like dispersed camping.

I personally would not camp here. But I suppose it depends on the other campers as to what ones experience would be.

I don't agree with some of these other posts stating that there wasn't much to do here. I guess that depends on what you're after. This entire little park is along the beautiful and pristine Colorado River. I waded it and looked at the pretty rocks, read books, and sketched. The scenery around was very dramatic and beautiful. Hubby fished the river and caught trout for supper. The Hot Springs were just on the other side of the rail road tracks. They weren't of interest to us, but we did pay for admission for one day, mostly so we could say we did. And so we could enjoy the hot showers there afterwards. It's rare to find a free campsite that has latrines and dumpsters. I greatly appreciated having both. The town of Granby is only maybe a 20 minute drive away. It's a small town but does have a grocery store, ace hardware, and thrift store. There are so many places to go in the national forests in the area, and the Rocky Mountain National Park... all within less than 30 or 40 minute drive. There is a little diner restaurant within an easy walking distance of the campground.

Some things to consider: The railroad track is right next to the campground, and Amtrak does run regularly through there. The sites are a little small. The campground is only open Spring/Summer/Fall. (The town doesn't maintain the road in the campground in winter.)

Our weekday experience was wonderful. See this link for more pictures: https://wordpress.com/post/middle-aged-gypsy-living.com/518

The weekend experience wasn't. The place seems to fill up with city people that brought their entire neighborhood block party with them and played very loud music for the entire campground all weekend. They also stuffed six cars and tents into sites that could only handle 1. Several other block parties filled the other sites. The campground couldn't handle that many people, so the trash dumpsters and portapotties quickly got disgusting and out of control. I think they knew the "city" wouldn't be around patrolling on the weekend.

Sure, there is free camping here but we moved on to other places that are much better. Pioneer Park had all that you need, but it just felt a little "bleh". We thought the town itself may have something to offer to keep us around for a night or two, but after a walk we found nothing of importance. Unless you are looking to visit the commercial hot springs, I felt there was little to no reason to stay in town and the campground offered the same "nothing much" feel.

Good for an overnight, but that's about it IMO

Smaller than I expected, but several sites still available. There is a train next to the park, and someone had mentioned somewhere that it ran by every hour and a half all night long every night. I have not found this to be true. Either that, or I sleep like the dead, & I had my windows open!
I have not had a chance to explore the little town yet, but it's within walking distance and it looks very interesting.
I have verizon and I have all bars at 4G, yay! There are a couple of porta potties, a dumpster, and the stream runs right around the end of the park and apparently is supposed to be very good for fishing!
The park is a bit overgrown, could use some lawn maintenance, but other than that it's really not a bad little spot for a couple of days.