JKJenn

There are many dispersed sites available in the Fourmile Recreation Area, near the Arkansas River and Buffalo Peaks Wilderness area. To get to these sites, from Buena Vista (BV), take FR 371 (Colorado Ave). Just before reaching the RR tunnels, there is a right hand turn for FR 375. This is also the way to access Lehardy Cutoff and Turtle Rock. The sights are along along 375 and throughout the Fourmile Recreation Area.

This area offers many sites, with different types of views. I chose a site where my trailer was parked a little closer to the road than I preferred but the site went way back, providing phenomenal views of the Collegiate Peaks. My site was enormous, ad technically, I guess tenters could have opted to take some of the spots within the sight, but no one did. If you tent camp, this would be an awesome location as there are a number of established fire rings with great views.

Things I liked: easy access to BV for services and amenities, proximity to the Arkansas River (371 goes from BV to Granite, along the Arkansas), large sites, beautiful scenery, OK cellular service.

I did not have any TV reception, but did get 4G. As with all of my sites in the Collegiate Peaks region, data from cell phone service seemed to die during the late afternoons, even with a booster. All but once I was able to continue working. On that one occasion I drove down and parked at the Elephant Rock campground to complete my work. I averaged about 2 bars of 4G on Verizon, without the booster.

The sites can be quite windy. If I would have known this, I might have positioned my trailer differently within the site so that my awning did not take such a beating. I had plenty of sun for solar.

There is a tremendous amount of OHV activity in the area. It is really an OHV area first and foremost, so I did not mind. It was much busier on weekends. I grabbed the site on a Monday, during the late afternoon.

I am rating the noise at 5, because after dark it was silent and if you know this is an OHV area, OHV noise should be expected. I did have the pleasure of listening to a coyote pack howl a few times, but other than that, it was a quiet area in the evenings.

Potable water is available at the Love's, Visitor Center, and Public Works office in BV and I dumped for $7 at the Poncha Springs Visitors Center. There is a Walmart in Salida, about 30 minutes, away. The City Market in town is OK, but not great. There are also Family Dollar and Hometown Shopko stores in town.

We had a great experience at this KOA. You really cannot beat the view, full hookups, very clean, and sufficient amenities.

We paid extra for the premium view and we did not regret it. We reserved the site and it is worth getting reservations as this CG fills up during the tourist season.

Cell phone with Verizon and At&t were was excellent. The free wifi was too painfully slow to use but the VG was completely full, so not a surprise.

This was a de facto ent size site for a KOA. But not like a state park.

This KOA was along my route and a spot to dewinterize and kick off the 2022 camping season.

I reserved a premulium site with a patio because it is the Ohio mud season a d dint want my dog tracking in mud. My site featured a picnic table, gas grill, and fire ring with benches.

The connections at the site were in excellent condition and the communication from the campground was excellent. The Verizon data was blazing fast so I never even tried the wifi.

This KOA is not far from I-77. Traffic can be heard faintly in the distance but it was drown out by geese and peepers for the most part.

Verizon data speeds: 104 mps download, 20.1 mps upload, 94 ms latency

I did not try the wifi.

This dump station is easy access for those staying in the Twin Lakes area and is located at the Whitestar Campground. There is no potable water and backflushing is not permitted. The second time I drove to Leadville, where it is only $5 and offers potable water.

This campground feels like the perfect cross between a state park and private RV Park. With beautiful wooded sites, lots of ammentities, and sitting on the front porch of the National Park, this campground makes a great basecamp for the Gatlinburg area. This is a family-oriented campground and will have a lot of kids (and therefore noise) during the usual school breaks.

The camp store is well supplied and reasonably priced.

I worked while staying here and the wifi was hit or miss, but noticeably worse after a windstorm came through. Cell phone service is poor, even with a booster. Photo added with campground WiFi and VZ speeds. (See update below)

Update 4/11/2022
Picked a site closer to the office and got excellent t WiFi speeds with 91.9 Mbps download and 19.9 Mbps upload. Video calls on Teams were flawless.

My first visit during fall of 2021 was quiet. It was a bit noisy with kids during spring break.

I came for the laundry facilities, I'll return for the storm shelter.

This is a luxury RV Park with impeccable facilities. After roughing it for a while, I was ready for some comfort. This campground gave me a great site, very nice laundry facilities, and and an on-site restaurant. I thought that is all I could ask for.

I was nearly asleep when I heard what sounded like thunder, so I plopped in local TV to check the weather. Unlike the weather guys in my home area, these folks were legit. As the storms developed, I made my way to the storm shelter. I have never been inside of one before and had no idea what to expect. In this case, it was part of the bathrooms and also a storage area with lots of seating. Within a few minutes, I was joined by others. The storms stayed just to our south, but it was good to have protection had they come up our way.

I'll be back.

This campground exceeded my expectations. Very pretty, private sites, and really quiet.

I arrived after dark and was so thrilled when I woke up to see just how beautiful it was.

If you like pri.ative campgrounds, you will love this. If you need hookups and ammentities, this isn't for you.

This is very easy access off of I-40.

I'll be back.

This campground exceeded my expectations. Very pretty, private sites, and really quiet.

I arrived after dark and was so thrilled when I woke up to see just how beautiful it was.

If you like pri.ative campgrounds, you will love this. If you need hookups and ammentities, this isn't for you.

This is very easy access off of I-40.

There are not a lot of options in Shelocta, PA, despite its proximity to Indiana, PA, home of Jimmy Stewart, Christmas Tree Capital of the world, and home of Indiana University of Pennsylvania. I had an event that brought me to Shelocta for 3 nights, sot he Wheel-In-Campground was my choice.

The owners were friendly by phone and in person. I was personally escorted through the gate to my campsite to be shown the layout of the grass site. The sites here are parallel instead of the usual perpendicular layout most campgrounds use. It was explained that is gave each site a larger, "yard", which it indeed, did. Each site has a picnic table, very large fire ring, electric, and water connections.

My site was right along the Plum Creek and had large shade trees at the back of the site, but not near where campers and connections were located. The area has had an extraordinary amount of rain, recently, so it was fairly saturated, but not muddy. I noticed sites that looked prone to mud had ample gravel to make the experience more pleasant.

I did not purchase firewood, but my neighbors did, from a local lumber mill.

The gate locks at 9:00 PM each night, but you may purchase a $10 cash refundable gate card to provide you with after hours access.

Their website listed a lot of activities for families, although I did not participate in any.

The campground has a playground, bathhouse, pond with paddle boats, There were some families wading the creek, but it is pretty muddy. My Shih Tzu came out of it with a nice shade of a brown from the mud.

The campground was relatively clean and quiet. The sites were large from front to back and very wide, but there is no privacy.

If you need a campground close to Indiana, PA, this is the ticket.

What I liked:
•Spacious campsite convenient location between Gunnison and Crested Butte
•Electric at all sites!
•Great hosts, very helpful
•Very scenic
•Quiet
•Water connection was reachable from my site!

What could have been better:

Not a thing!

Price per night: $18, electric only, water and vault toilets available, dump station at nearby Tall Texan RV Park ($12) on north end of Gunnison, sites: pull through