thefreefive

As other reviewers noted, this area changed from a State Park to a State Wildlife Area recently, so it is still listed in many guides as a State Park.

This campground has undergone some changes since we were last here in 2009. The only staff presence here now is the campground hosts who stay in the centrally-located administrative building. The gate entrance/fee station is no longer manned.

Tall RV's need to be aware that the entrance at the gate station is only 13' 2" high. Taller RV's will need to enter the park through the exit lane on the left. The height numbers are fading and difficult to see at night.

Services:
The park has up to 50amp electrical and a dump station - that's it! There is no water at the park, either potable or non-potable. According to the camp hosts, the water quality tested poorly and the water here was shutoff because there were not funds to make the required changes. Therefore, you MUST bring your own water here. Since there is also no water at the dump station, it is not possible to clean out hoses after dumping.

There are three loops - A, B, and C. Only loops B&C have vault toilets available. The bathhouse is closed.

The sites are very nice with shelters, tables and fire rings on concrete pads. Parking is mostly gravel but a few sites have pavement parking pads. A majority of sites are pull-through and they are well-spaced.

Location:
This campground is in a great location with spectacular views of the Great Sand Dunes and the Sangre de Cristo mountains. The National Park is a short ~30 minute drive. Alamosa is also about 30 minutes away.

We certainly hope this park stays open but it appears funding is a problem. It's not clear whether there will be any maintenance on the park going forward or what it's ultimate status will be. However, at present, given the price, this campground is the best value around.

We had decent cell access with Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile though both AT&T and the Verizon towers got congested and slowed down most evenings. We test T-Mobile but didn't use it. For Sprint this is a roaming area.

While this review applies to the Windy Hill campground, the bulk of it also applies to most of the other campgrounds near the reservoir.

Overall this was a great campground. It was uncrowded, which made the experience so much better and we were able to snag a site with a great view.

Cost: Nominally $20 but $10 of that is for access to the park. If you have an America the Beautiful pass, or another annual pass good for national forest access, then camping is $10 a night.

Sites: The sites are fairly spacious, level and gravel. All have a picnic bench, steed awning, and fire pit. Most sites have trees. Only the host sites have hookups - this is dry camping.

Most sites can fit larger RV's with no problem (we had plenty of room for our 40-foot class A plus our minivan toad), but some of the curves could be a challenge for larger RV's and some of the trees could also be a problem.

Facilities. Windy Hill has showers and flush toilets, a very nice bonus. There are also plenty of water faucets and dumpsters scattered around. There is, however, no dump station - it's located up 188 at the Tonto Basin Dump Station.

Internet Access: This site is remote, but we had good internet access. However, signal throughout the campground is highly variable and you can go from no signal to 5 bars within a short distance. Those who need internet access should check at available sites. We had good access on AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile:

AT&T: This area is an HSPA+ area. We generally got around 4Mbps peak, slightly slower in the evenings.

Verizon: LTE is available but we only got about 7Mbps peak - around 5 was more typical.

T-Mobile: T-Mobile was about the same as AT&T but latency was quite a bit higher for us.

Rocky Ridge is one of the campgrounds for the 11 Mile State Park. The campground consists of several loops, two loops have electricity. There is no sewer or water hookups at any site.

Reservations for the vast majority of sites must be made online, you technically can't show up late after closing and take a site.

We paid $36/night for an electric site including the online reservation fee. In addition, campers are required to purchase a park pass at the entrance which is not included in the campground fee (unless you have an annual Colorado park pass). Passes are $8/day per vehicle - motorhomes with toads only count as one vehicle.

The loops are literally on a rocky ridge above the lake and most provide good views. There are also tent camping sites including walk-in sites. The facilities are basic - pit toilets in the loops but clean and well maintained.

Since the campground is on a hillside many sites are not flat and bigger rigs may not be able to be leveled. It's difficult to tell from the online reservation system which sites are actually flat and which are sloped.

There are few trees near most sites, so do not expect shade. Also, the location on a ridge at the edge of a vally means wind is common.

There is a lot to do in the area, especially for those interested in fishing and boating. The marina is very popular on the weekends.

Cell service is sporadic. Verizon had decent data connection. AT&T was either good or bad subject to micro-terrain and the quality of the modem. With AT&T's flagship Nighthawk M1 I got consistent 5-6Mbps but other AT&T devices were roaming or well below 1Mbps. A cellular booster did not help these devices. Sprint and T-Mobile were not tested.