Williams Creek Campground

Beautiful location, very clean facilities and sites with water and sewer hook ups. 30 minutes on a dirt road from Pagosa Springs, CO. Road has multiple sections of washboards, but when I was leaving a road crew was grading the road, so maybe the washboard sections will be much improved. Highly recommended.

The campground was extremely well maintained. Cudos to the staff at the campground! The campground is located in a very dramatic setting, well worth the effort to travel there. Plenty of scenery and wildlife to enjoy on the various hiking trails of the San Juan Mountains.

Beautiful campground, with great camp hosts. Vault toilets were spotless! Great hiking trail behind site 58 that leads you to the reservoir. Our site #28 was great for tent camping!

The hosts were great. The bathrooms were the best camp bathrooms we’ve ever had. They did such a great job keeping the camp ground facilities clean.

Williams creek was beautiful. Campground and host were very nice. Spots were clean and little tight depending on how big your size of camper. We stayed at spot 58 and it was a short hike to the lake.

Kathy & Brian (?), the campground hosts, kept the entire campground in excellent shape. The vault toilets were spotlessly clean! Their efforts are evident are really appreciated!

Kayaking on Williams reservoir was great and we enjoyed hiking the nearby Williams Creek Trail.

Beatiful campground with mostly well-spaced sites, lots of bathrooms and dumpsters. Hosts did an amazing job - very friendly and helpful, and those were the cleanest outhouses I've ever seen, even on the weekend when the campground was almost full. I did not realize this site (#30) was pull-thru until just before we arrived. The "pull through" was right off the road but there were a few trees between the road and the site so it wasn't too bad. There was a little too much slope at the back of the site where we wanted to park the trailer (more shade and closer to the table/firepit) so we had to park closer to the middle of the spot. Not much room to set up anything along side the camper (chairs/prep table). But there was still a nice view of the meadow below and we enjoyed our stay very much. Loved fishing at the reservior up the road, but not sure we will be back, as the long road in really shook up our trailer, with multiple (fortunately minor) repairs required after both in and out even going slowly. The drive wasn't too bad with just our truck, though.

We camped in site 10 at Williams Creek Campground and it was hot without any shade until late afternoon. However, everything was in pristine order and Kathy and Brad were excellent campground hosts. The outhouses were cleaned several times a day and never had any odor. There were no disturbances like barking dogs or loud noise from anyone around us. It was so peaceful. The boat ramp at the lake was easily accessible and the lake was alive with bugs and fish. There was a lot of water moss, which hinders fishing, but this has been a very warm season. We hiked the Williams Creek Trail, a few miles north of the lake, and never saw another person for hours. The whole area was a positive experience. Thank you!

Pros: Beautiful area with stunning mountain views, lush forrest, cool summer weather at high elevation, uncrowded, nice roads for cycling, some nice hiking trails, good fishing potential (but see more info under cons), dark skies for stargazing, plenty of wildlife around, especially for birding. Some sites have water and sewer hookups. Most sites are well spaced with plenty of elbow room. Some sites are right next to the creek. Overall relaxing atmosphere that exemplifies what a camping experience should be.

Cons: Extremely long washboard and DUSTY dirt road road to get there. Impatient drivers can make a bad road even worse. Very limited amenities. There is one tiny convenience store at a nearby private campground. They only sell the most basic of items at a premium price and all drinks are sold individually rather than 6 or 12 packs. My biggest gripe was about the fishing, not the camping. While there is a nice lake and a couple of streams, there are some drawbacks. Much of the nearby Piedra river is on private ranch land and not open to the public. The portions that are open are heavily fished and not very productive. I'm not sure if they ever stock it, but there were only tiny fish in my experience. There is a lot of livestock roaming, which doesn't help with fish habitat. The lake fishing can be good or bad depending on the time of the season and whether or not you have a boat. In mid-July I didn't meet any shore fishermen who caught anything, although I did catch some very nice trout myself while fly fishing one overcast morning. When it was sunny I didn't catch anything from shore even early or late in the day. I heard some in boats caught fish, although nothing big. The lake has a mostly shallow edge all around. At the dam, the water is a little deeper but had a lot of weeds/algae bloom. I was told that it is better for shore fishing early or late in the season, before and after the algae invasion. The main problem is lack of variety of waters to fish.

Always clean and well maintained. Quiet. There are a number of sites appropriate for tent only campers.