Shavano Wildlife Management Area

Very bumpy road up. Take it slow. Watch for oncoming traffic. On a random Tuesday in Sept, there were 50 plus rigs up here.
Dusty
Dry
High desert landscape
Lots of full time living going on up here. There was a pop up camper with siding set up for full time living.
Luckily it's still decently clean.
I wouldn't camp again but not bad for a night or 2. Easy 10 minutes to town for supplies.

Access is west from Salida along US50. Once past the junction of 285 and 50 look for 250 on the right. It is paved all the way to where the BLM land starts. Then the road gets rough. There are several spots that are not much more than raw rocks and quite steep slopes. Having said that I made it ok in my truck / enclosed cargo trailer. Also there were quite a few A's and C's.
This is true dispersed camping with tons of room. The views are astounding with plenty of room so you aren't on top of each other unless you want to. There are large open flat areas and smaller places amongst the bushes and trees that are a bit more daring.
As of writing no fires are allowed although there is plenty of evidence that under normal conditions they are.
Salida just like Leadville is trying to actually enforce the mask insanity so be prepared for that. I found a sharp NO worked well. The Walmart is minimal but ok, also with the maskateers present.
Packages can be received at Ship N Things on Rainbow for $6.
Showers are available between 4 - 7 pm for $5 at Simple Lodge & Hostel, 224 E 1st St, Salida, CO 81201. Tel (719) 650-7381 call first.
Both potable and non potable water is available at the Ponch Springs Visitors Center on the west side of the 50/285 junction. The potable water is a tap on the side of the building limited to 250 gallons.
Water and trash are also available at the 66 gas station on the north side of Rainbow (50) slightly east of the Aquatic center. Free - although I always filled my car and generator cans there to say thank you.

Plenty of large sites as well as smaller ones. Road up is rocky but we easily made it with our 40 foot motorhome towing a Grand Cherokee. We stayed here twice with a week off at a regular campground. Views are terrific and being up gave us good signals on both AT&T and Verizon. We'll be back. Looks like there is no enforcement of the 14 day rule which is posted. But several rigs were here at least 3 weeks.

Big enough area to handle crowded camping seasons. Room for both small and large rigs alike. Most sites not very level. Warmer than Poncha springs / Salida temps. Amazing sunrises, sunsets, and starry skies!!! Can get windy and sun is intense - watch out for dust-devils and of course never leave the awning unattended. There are field mice, so be attentive and take protective measures - no trash outside or food in storage bays (incl. dog food bags 🤦🏼‍♀️). There are little cactuses all around, but the pups figured that out no problem. Water is free and pay to dump available a few minutes away at crossroads welcome center, but no trash. Some people have buried bags of trash around campsites (seriously, people?!?!). This is one place where water is easier than trash - LOL! There’s a mix of max stay and over-nighters coming through, but traffic is minimal. Remember that contractor generators make a lot of noise and that sound really carries in this open hilltop area. Rangers do patrol periodically. Some people had trouble with Verizon, but we could work and do Teams meetings no problem (with and without booster), even though speed tests indicated that shouldn’t be possible. Streaming video was a bit grainy, but not so bad we couldn’t watch. Others recommended AT&T over Verizon. The road gets a bit rough and tight to get in, but it’s worth it.

We stayed a week in our 40 ft motor home and towed out Jeep without trouble. The road is rutted and a bit rocky so go slow and be careful. We found some of the roads further in had trees too close to get our big rig through but we had already found a nice spot so it wasn't a problem for us. Some windy afternoons but no rain for the week and we had a great time. Great stargazing at night, mostly clear. We had great data service on AT&T (20 Mb download) but not as good on Verizon (about 2 Mb down).

We stayed one night. Beautiful views. We arrived around noon. Plenty of spaces. Rained off and on. The road was rutted but our 22ft motorhome made it easily.

Just 10 minutes away is a 24/7 days a week dump Station ($12) and Free water at Poncha Springs visitor center.

Verizon cell service was good enough for me to Zoom at 5:00 with no booster.