Washington Gulch Designated Dispersed Campsite #21

We loved our stay at Washington Gulch (Sept 2023). Temps can get in the low 30s at night this time of year and highs were in the low 60s. Site 21 is a very large site with no obstructions for solar and/or Starlink. As others have mentioned but advised you will be visited by cows on a daily basis. One other thing to keep in mind there are a lot of mice and chipmunks in this area so take precautions to try to keep them away from your vehicles and RVs.

Since this site is the first one as you turn off of 711 (Washington Gulch) you do get a bit more traffic from cars, mountain bikers and OHV.

Starlink works great, Verizon is 3 bars LTE, Zero TMobile

We did a campsite review video of this area as well as Slate River and you can find that on the videos tab here on Campendium or this direct link https://youtu.be/LdGeSZxBGQQ

Nights Stayed 14 (8/28/2022 - 9/11/2022)

We absolutely loved our time here in Washington Gulch and stayed the full 14 nights. Site #21 is one of the better spots in our opinion, and has plenty of room in it. You can park sideways or back in depending on how much privacy you want. We started off sideways for a better view of Mt Crested Butte out of our front door, and it opens your camp up to the other sites as well. However, the sun really warmed up our trailer, which is not well insulated, and we ended up backing in after we went into town to dump our tanks. The back-in option helps with the sun, and you still have a nice view of another mountain out your window, but it does close you off to your neighbors.

The road in was not too bad. You do have to go slow at times, but there are only a few spots where you are in a tight spot if someone is coming the over way, and we thankfully did not have that happen to us. It is bumpy in spots, but we saw plenty of big rigs, just take it slow where needed.

There are lots of cows as others mentioned, but we enjoyed them. Please be aware, this IS THEIR LAND. Ranchers obtain permits and the cows help to maintain the ecosystem and campsites so that it is not overgrown. PLEASE PLEASE do not harass or run them off like we witnessed on a daily basis. If you do not like the cows, please camp elsewhere. It is their land, and harassing and running the cows can cause serious injury to the cows.

The road beyond this spot does get pretty tough, but we saw lots of vehicles going beyond this point. We would not take our 30 ft travel trailer further up the road though.

Check out Gothic Road out the backside of Mt Crested Butte, and a drive to Emerald Lake is well-worth it if you have a 4x4 vehicle (we did see one small car up there as well). Stop by RMBL (Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory) as well - they have an informative hour long tour twice a day.

We will definitely be back and loved this spot!

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 has a sharp turn so larger rigs may need to back into the area to access the site. The road is very dusty at this part so this site receives a lot of flying dirt.

While this is Boondocking they do have official spots marked off and numbered for people to stay in and you are only supposed to camp is designated spots.

The views of gothic mountain, mount crested butte and Washington gulch provide endless sights in all directions.

The road getting in is definitely a little bumpy and some potholes got worse after it rained but it was very doable.

Cell service was acceptable but not great. It did improve with our mimo antenna but not with our booster. Sometimes it would randomly cut out for a few minutes. This was true of both AT&T and Verizon. If you need to do video calls or anything requiring upload speed you would most likely need to go to town.

The town of crested butte is less than 20 minutes away and there is tons of outdoor recreation opportunities in the area