Estes Park Campground at East Portal

Nice little campground away from the hustle & bustle

Let me start by saying that we LOVED this campground...with this caveat. If you need electricity and water, it's the best thing around for tent/popup/small RV camping. If you're more comfortable dry camping, they I'd stay in the National Park in a heartbeat.

That being said, we camped here for a couple of reasons. When we camped here last summer, we were brand new to the camping scene. We had used our popup twice before this trip and were still learning the ropes. We weren't ready or prepared to bite off dry camping quite yet. When I camp I really like to be in the woods. I don't like RV parking lots that are so common in the private campground world where you're all lined up in a row feet from the next huge RV. Camping to me is being where the sticks, dirt and views are. Not saying that there's anything wrong with private campgrounds in general...and we will inevitably stay at some periodically. But my heart is in the woods. Other than the National Park campgrounds, Estes Park Campground at East Portal is the only place you can find in Estes park with power/water that's wooded.

Planning for our trip last year we could barely find any info at all on this campground. I pretty much had to guess on which site to reserve. Let me jump to the point and say that sites 34 and 38 work well for a camper, 64 being the best (it has AMAZING views and is huge, just a long way from the restroom). Sites 39 and 40 are adequate. If you’re in a tent, A3 is amazing! It’s secluded with a view overlooking the reservoir and the mountains. Otherwise, tent campers should stay on the top perimeter, sites 20, 22, 23, 25, 27, 29, 42-44, 46, 48, 49, 51-54. It’s nice to back up to the woods and gives you a little bit of space. Getting level in the campground can be quite a challenge depending on which site you're on.

So, how are the restrooms??? They actually weren’t bad at all. The restroom near site 38 is older than the other one. It’s cleaned each morning, but got it buggy and grubby towards the evening. The other bathroom is REALLY nice. The last few mornings we picked the newer one because, well, it’s newer. It also has 2 shower stalls that are connected by one open changing area which worked well for me and my boys to all grab a quick shower (might not have been as much fun with a stranger). The showers in the older bathroom are individual stalls. They’re sufficient but nothing special and kind of tight. All together there are 5 shower stalls for male and female. One really nice touch is that each bathroom has dish cleaning sink. We’d never stayed at a campground where they had a wash station and we found that it was REALLY nice to have. And the kids actually loved doing the dishes themselves…now how to reproduce that at home?

There are no laundry facilities on site. We have 3 kids and of course, after a few days, we needed to do a laundry run. We found a great laundromat called Village Laundry that was fantastic. While our clothes were washing we found a really cool little coffee shop called Kind Coffee right on the edge of town along the river. We had a great time letting the kids play around the river while we enjoyed soaking up the sights and sounds (and the free Wifi!). It’s a great diversion.

One thing that was really fun about this campground was the level of intimacy with your neighbors. It didn’t feel crowded, but at the same time we were close enough to our neighbors to have easy conversations with them. We had lots of great talks, had wonderful neighbors and even made new friends with some folks that we were near. Now, if you had bad neighbors, it could be a different story, but overall we were overwhelmed by everyone’s friendliness while we were there. The campground is small enough that we felt comfortable letting our kids roam around. The playground was really nice and a short walk from most of the sites.

Tips

-Stop in at Brownfield’s Souvenir Shop for a little shopping. It was by far the cheapest souvenir shop in town and had some great apparel options for about half the price of the other stores.

–Donut Haus– This little donut shop ranks as the number one restaurant in Estes Park, and for a good reason. You better get there early as the line is out the door till they sell out. They were very reasonably priced too. I think I spent about $15 for a dozen donuts of various sizes and a large chocolate milk.

-Do the hike into the National Park from the camground. It's a 1 mile hike to Glacier Basin Campground in the park and the hike is beautiful.

We loved staying at this facility. Although neighbors are on top of you, for the most part it’s quiet time at 10 pm, making night hikes to the side of the mountain so easy for a beautiful view of the night sky.

Newer showers lack spray to wash quickly. Older showers close to 37 have hottest water and powerful water spray. With thick hair, this matters a lot. :)

We had a blast here. All the camp host were extremely helpful and out-of-the-way nice to everyone.

I almost hated to write a good post because I don’t want this gem to get too popular.

I'm so glad I found this place it's very close to Rocky Mountain national Park, from Site A64 you have a great view of it. We had Elk & Deer every evening before sunset graze behind the Trailer. There is a small lake there you can fish, and a great hike right from the campground by the lake along a river. This campground is for 22' or less but they do have a few larger ones you have to call. The campground hosts were great they gave us great information. There is no cell service but you can go up the street to one of the restaurants and use their WiFi if you sit inside and have a drink or eats. Great location we will return.

We wanted to get out of Denver, baby! Made two different reservations for the same campsite at different times, for a three night stay. The campground is run by the City of Estes Park, and I am totally impressed. When we got here, one of the hosts - Joe - blocked the road for us leading to our site and helped us get our little travel trailer lined up in the spot. He went above and beyond the call of duty, directing me so that I finally got everything completely lined up. Only gripe? The site isn’t exactly flat, which could be helped by bringing in more fill dirt. Our site, A39, has water and 20/30 amp electric. The small store at the check-in point is fully stocked with everything you’d need. Each site has a fire ring (they sell firewood), a picnic table, and a bear box. So far, the only negative is that slightly banked site, but I’m still giving this place a 5 star!

This is a wonderful campground! It is off the beaten path, away from the bustle of Estes Park. Each site had ample shade from large trees. Large sites, had spots designated for tents and some for RVs. Bathrooms were very clean and they had a small camp store where we checked in if you forgot supplies. They also sell local firewood right there. Very friendly staff. And, they have just a wonderful playground. It was brand new and the kids loved it. We usually prefer camping in smaller, remote places, so we were a bit worried this would be too much like an RV park, but we were very pleasantly surprised. It felt private and quiet. We woke up to find a large elk grazing right next to our site! We would definitely camp here again. Another bonus is there are hiking trails that lead right into the National Park just outside the camp entrance! Beautiful stream along the trail, lovely hike!

We stayed four nights here and loved every minute of our time here. It’s outside of the hustle and bustle of the town and close to the entrance of RMNP. Our site 64 was beautiful with our views of the mountains all around us, deer visiting us each night, and ample space for our family. The campground hosts were very nice and helpful. We hope to visit again.

Everything about this campground is wonderful. Our site was 38 which was quite large and right across from the bathroom, showers, and dishwashing station. I loved it because without hookups you the sewer you didn’t have to fill up your black tank. The hosts were so nice. Playground was brand new and my kids LOVED it. Very quiet and peaceful!

SIDE NOTE!!!!!!!

PLEASE KEEP FOOD LOCKED AWAY. They provide a bear box at each site and there were bears in my campground twice in 5 days. I don’t mind, but because people leave food out the bears keep coming. This particular bear has been tagged twice and the third time they are tagged for nuisance behavior they are euthanized!!!

Excellent location from which to explore Rocky Mountain National Park and the greater Estes Park area. Sites are clean and well-maintained. There are a few full hook-up sites, RV sites with electric and water hookups, and tent-only sites. There is a dump station near the entrance that worked well, but it is directly adjacent to some campsites so be sure to be courteous.

This campground is for tents or for trailers 22' or less, and the sites are very close together so keep this in mind if you prefer more privacy. The playground appears to be fairly new and is very popular, so keep this in mind depending upon whether you need to be nearby for your kids or prefer to be a bit farther away from the sounds of kids playing.

The camp hosts were very friendly and knowledgeable about the area, and the camp store is well stocked with all of the essentials you might need. Of course, they also have ice and firewood for sale.

Despite some reviews, even with a cell booster, there is absolutely no service on Verizon here; T-Mobile service drifted in and out on a very weak signal from time to time, but voice service was acceptable closer to the entrance (in our site we could get voice service if we stood between our trailer and the bear box - YMMV). Since we work on the road and needed Internet, we went to the public library in Estes Park where they had excellent WiFI, lots of comfortable options for workspaces (including "study rooms" that were perfect for Zoom meetings), and a Starbucks right down the road.

Finally, if you like wildlife, you should be happy here! We saw elk and deer both within and on the outskirts of the campground several times.

The campground was just what we were looking for it was perfect for our pop-up camper. We stayed at site a 64 which I may be biased but I believe is the best spot in the park.
I couldn’t say more about the Camp hosts they were so friendly and helpful. The bathrooms were so clean it was a pleasure to stay here.