Collegiate Peaks

This campground has been a favorite for many, many years. The location is good. The campground hasn't been updated in a number of years and needs some TLC.

Collegiate Peaks is one of our favorite campgrounds in Colorado! The facilities are well maintained and there's an abundance of things to do: hiking, fishing/paddleboarding at Cottonwood Lake,multiple hot springs, visit Buena Vista, Almont Resort and Crested Butte and don't forget to check out the majestic views from the top of Cottonwood Pass. Worthwhile stay amongst the river, pines and aspens.

Good spacing between camp sites and very clean bathroom. The location is very close to many trails. Be aware of bear activity around.

The site we choose was unusable by a travel trailer, narrow and unlevel. Fortunately there were other open sites and the camp hosts were very accommodating in letting us move to anther site. The FS should do a better job describing individual sies in their campgrounds to avoid compatibility issues like ours. The campground and facilities were clean and the hosts very helpful.

Beautiful campground. Sites 38 and 39 are far from the creek but have lots of shade. Previous reviews said the sites were too close together if not sharing with friends and family, but we didn't necessarily think so. It would be too close if the neighbors were jerks, but hopefully people out camping in beautiful Colorado would have enough gratitude to be kind and friendly. :)

Great location for nearby hiking. Clean, litter free, and saw lots of deer. The letter sites along the river seemed amazing but all sites look great and shaded. Bear boxes available. Site K and J share a bear box, some sites have their own. Would definitely come back!

It was our fist time camping and this place was a perfect location to try! Only 20mins away from the town and 10mins away from a small hotspring for soak & quick shower.

Cooking & sleeping next to the water was an amazing experience! 👏

Overall the campsite is beautiful. Mountains surrounding you, close to Cottonwood Creek, and plenty of trees around for most of the sites. Our specific campsite, #36, was as it was pretty sloped so difficult to pitch a tent and it was basically in full sunlight for 2/3 of the day. This made it super-hot although that can't really be helped when the outside temp is 85 degrees. I just want people to be aware that site #36 is fairly open compared to other sites, so you'll have a lot of sunlight hitting your site for the first 2/3 of the day. Another thing that surprised us is that the running water at Collegiate Peaks campground comes out of the ground as a milky brown color. It might be okay to drink and use but this threw us off so we had to go in to Buena Vista and buy water to use for drinking, dishes, the dog, etc.

Campsite great and the toilets were well kept. The only downside is the campsite well water which is undrinkable due to the heavy concentration of iron oxide particles. The water is so bad it comes out orange and you can see the flakes of rust floating around.

The hosts were great! On the last day our car battery died and the host very kindly offered their battery jumper to us. Double check the fire restrictions before you go, I believe they're in a Stage 2 ban right now. This is a beautiful spot by the creek with a couple options for places to put up tents. I wouldn't recommend it for campers or RV's though as the parking space is pretty short. There's a nice amount of shade, but no bear bin. Restrooms both directions are a couple campsites away. The campsite was very quiet during our stay.