Washington Gulch Designated Dispersed Campsite #17

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 full sun and is in a row of sites. It is close to the neighbor on both sides. A great site for solar or Starlink users. The access road has a sharp turn so larger rigs may need to back into the area to access the site. This site is far enough back that it does not receive much blown dust off the main road. It also has nice views of the valley and Gothic.

It's gorgeous. But you have a lot to put up with. The weekends are particularly hairy. It was nice and open when I arrived. That changed really quickly. It gets super crowded.

Loud people, barking dogs, dogs coming and peeing on your stuff because the owners just LET THEM run around. Always male dogs, of course. I had to chase away no less than 5 different dogs from peeing on my solar panels. Rrrrrrrr.

I also had such a bad experience with two dogs charging me right as I exited my rig to let my own two dogs out that I had NO CHOICE than to go confront the owners about it. My personal safety and my dogs' safety was on the line. I will go to great lengths to avoid confrontation, but this was THAT bad.

OH, and let's not forget when those same owner's dog PEED on another campers LEG. Then they proceeded to not even TRY to act horrified that their dog just peed on someone. LOL! (I figured out who the people were on Instagram and messaged them about it. They were in total disbelief that it happened and the owner shrugged it off!)

So, watch it if you go here. I wouldn't normally just complain about the people in an area, but this part of the experience was just that bad.

Anyway, don't pass the meadow and expect to be able to turn around for a while. The road gets pretty hairy after the meadow. I wouldn't pull my 24' travel trailer up there with my old 2wd truck. Maybe with my new 4wd. Would have to look at it again. Still, not many more sites and possibly no internet past the meadow.

That doesn't leave much space to park.

It's a really pretty spot though. Internet was fine if I recall correctly. I have ATT and Verizon. I stayed last summer. Just now getting around to reviewing.

7 nights, Sept 2017

We arrived on a rainy Sunday, covered in mud from crossing Kebler Pass, itching to get setup. This was our first time truly boondocking outside of an official campground, accessed on a long rough-ish dirt road, and we didn’t know what to expect. Fortunately when we arrived, the meadow was completely open, and we had our pick of spots. We scraped out bumper slightly coming up the big hump off the main road just before the “rough narrow road” sign, but didn’t cause any damage as we went slowly. A large group of cows greeted us as we entered the meadow. The views simply can’ty be beat from this spot, especially in the fall.

Pros:
- Incredible views.
- Easy access to world-class trails - both hiking and biking.
- Not too bad a road to access this spot.
- Strong Verizon signal, especially with an external antenna - I recorded -56dBm with my Cradlepoint + Panorama.
- Great solar coverage.

Cons:
- It’s National Forest land, so anything really goes. Running generators all night, holding a wedding ceremony with 100+ people right next to our trailer, whatever really.
- I can imagine it gets tight in the summer.
- Cow pies.