Stagecoach State Park Campground

My site happened to be in an uneven area and pretty tight for my F150 and 22 footer, so not the best for campers and vans but it still worked out ok. At the entrance they state that a park pass is ALSO required at $9 a night which is on top of the reservation. No cell service, dump and water station away from camp sites, overall good spot.

The lake is beautiful, and the distance to Steamboat is great. But the sites are very dusty and close together. The bathrooms are very dirty and do not provide basic hygiene such as soap or hot water. They have “drinking water” out of pumps but the water is smelly and discolored. The garbage disposals are far and few between. We are Colorado residents and have been to many Colorado State Parks, and would be sad if visitors would judge our State by this Park. There are many lovely ones.......Skip this one.

My son and I are spending the summer in our trailer as it seems like the best way to manage the COVID summer -- pretty far from people, but as outside as we can get. We have a reservation for 8 nights at Stagecoach State Park. It's $28 for a basic site, which includes a sit down toilet and access to water. No soap in the bathrooms. There is a free dump station on-site. There is a fire pit and a picnic table. Don't tie anything to a tree or they will yell at you.
For the first 4 nights, it was idylic and enchanting. Not a lot of party-animal campers. Breeze cools it off during the heat of the day. We rented paddleboards and cruised around the reservoir.
At best, we have a bar or two with a cell booster. We cannot get a lot of work done. The WiFi only works at the check-in office.
However, as soon as I started parking my truck so that people passing could see our license plate, with NM plates, it seems like a target was on us and the park rangers started harrassing us. They would drive by, park, call someone, and sometimes come up to ask us where we were disposing of our dish washing water. Once they told us we couldn't rinse off in our outdoor shower as "clean water" kills grass. They also told us "someone complained of a smell". There is nothing that smells from our trailer! In fact we have solar panels unlike all the large rigs around us with noisy, open frame gas-generators.
The tent campers, by definition, are throwing their dishwater out on the grass. But we have to take a grey water tank to the dump station. And be harrassed for it as we do it. Pretty unpleasant. And changing our idyllic experience to one of extreme disappointment.

Great spot for water activities and fishing! We were in the non electric sites and very close to the water, which was very nice. Sites are close together but the views make up for it. Amazing fishing in the Yampa River (nearby access). Lots of fly fishermen. It was a lot of fun! Short drive to Steamboat. We drove to the Fish a creek trail. Nice hike! We would go back.

We had a nice spacious site over looking the lake. The sites don't have privacy yet they are big & easy to get into. we had Electric & filled with water there. The water from the spigot was a rust color glad we didn't put much in we filled at our last stop.

The fishing is great on this lake we ate well. We kayaked almost every day it's a big lake. There is a NO wake part of the lake which is nice.

There's a little hike up a small Hill in our loop there were 2 baby deer & Mom living on it. Great view at the top, watch sunset there too. Stay on the path or you will be pulling cactus prickers from your feet & legs.

There is a beach & a boat ramp there people do come in & swim & boat it quiets down at night.

Not much around so grocery before you get there or you will drive 30 min. or so. There's a little town close with an expensive small grocery store & expensive gas station.

This is our second time camping here (Junction City campground). A few of the sites are right on the water, which is great. Cell service is spotty but emails and texts can be sent/received on a sporadic basis. 15 minute drive into Oak Creek where there is a small grocery store, liquor store, RedBox, etc. Sites were relatively spacious with a picnic tables and firepits at each site. There is also bathrooms with flush toilets and running water. The "potable" water was a little brown so we went into town and purchased bottles of water, just in case. Marina store was already closed for the season, despite a sign in the window saying they were open until 10/1/18. 30AMP electricity at a couple of the camping loops. The shower facilities could stand a good cleaning/updating but they were adequate. $24.00 a night plus $7.00 a day State Park access fee.

First off, the marina will no longer let you use their WiFi. I tried and was a customer.

Junction City loop is where I stayed. It is the loop furthest from the Marina. The sites are reasonably spaced out. The loop closest to the marina has sites that are very tightly packed together.

A drinking water spigot was located within the loop. 30 amp service worked well. Some sites can be challenging to get into for larger trailers. There were two pull through sites in the loop as I recall. The dump station was in working order.

There are a lot of mice and mini prairie dogs at the camp sites. Keep your trailer closed up.

Fishing from the loop was OK. The shore can be a couple feet above the level of the water.
Fishing was better at the west end of the lake. I didn't try closer to the dam.

Sarvis Creek Trail is a couple miles from the campground. It's in good shape with river fishing at the trailhead parking lot.

4/5 stars for noise due to proximity to the highway. Other loops wouldn't have this problem.

There aren't many camping options close to Steamboat Springs so we decided to give this state park a try. There is a $7 daily entrance fee on top of the campsite fee so we try to avoid the state parks in CO.
The sites are large and fairly level and although our site was not right on the lake we had a nice view of it. We stayed in the Junction City loop with 30 amp electric. Water fill is at the dump station. We enjoyed hiking the trails from the campground and biking on the dirt roads around the lake. It was 16 miles to Steamboat and around 20 miles to the Flattops Wilderness for hiking, a very nice, quiet out of the way park.
We had no Verizon, Sprint or At&T but the store at the marina is just a short walk from the campground where there is free wifi.