Washington Gulch Designated Dispersed Campsite #11

The road into Washington Gulch is paved to the end of the small subdivision by Long Lake. After that it becomes a two lane maintained dirt road that is oiled for dust until the Snodgrass Trailhead. Past this trailhead the road narrows to 1.5 car widths and is very winding. Care should be taken due to blind curves and fast Jeep drivers. It is doable for any large rig if one goes slow. The road at this point is less well cared for but still passable for all rigs. The further back one travels, the worse the road becomes and eventually degrades into 4X4. Note: in early season the road may be blocked by snow or landslides.

All sites in this portion of the valley receive strong winds on most days.

This back-in campsite is fairly level and full sun. A great site for solar or Starlink users. The access road is narrow which will limit the size rig that can back into the site. It does have a fairly wide dirt skirt at the entrance which may help. The road is very dusty at this part so this site receives a lot of flying dirt.

This is a very scenic area but Washington Gulch Road is quite busy. Unfortunately when we arrived the prime sites were taken so we had to park closer to the road than we wanted. Vehicles fly up the road and produce huge amounts of dust. We would have loved it had we been able to move farther off the road but none of the sites we wanted opened up while we were there.

The 2-3 miles after the road turns to dirt are pretty full of potholes, and we hit a big dip pulling into our site that clipped the black tank valve but luckily didn't do any damage, so take it slowly. We saw one Class A motorhome but most of the campers we saw were smaller trailers or truck campers, which allows you to get into some of the more secluded spots that our 30' motorhome could not go.

At 9,600' in late August we had night time lows in the low 30s, so be prepared for cool weather.

Now for the positives. Our view was spectacular, there are nearby trails for hiking or mountain biking, and it's an easy drive into town.