Lake Fork Campground

We got the senior discount off the regular $16 rate. As noted by others, it ain’t fancy but it is clean and quiet with an incredible view of Mesa Reservoir. Very few other campers during the night that we stayed.

Only partially full. Weather mainly raining.

This place is very quiet and I enjoyed my two nights I stayed here. It is $16 a night and you can pay via cash or they have cards… Well. The upper lot is first come first serve and the lower lot is reasonable. Both of them have really good views and both areas can be windy. The showers were still closed at the end of May during my stay they’re open. There are trash cans as well as clean restrooms. I enjoyed this place so much because of the lack of campers. During the summer, I imagine it fills up and due to the nature of the campsites only having feet between them, it would not be an enjoyable experience when busy. There are some really nice hiking trails in the area and you are pretty close to Black Canyon national Park as well. I had enough AT&T service to work pretty seamlessly in the top loop.

For three "parking lots" Lake Fork Campground is pretty good. There are no trees,which was good for our solar panels, but it does get hot and oh so windy. Our site was on the end of the back row on the upper lot, so we had a bit more room and some greenery along side of it. We were next to a bath house and adjacent to the tenting area. The bath house was cleaned daily. There is a building in between the lots by the boat ramp labelled showers. One of the Park Rangers said they had not been open since at least 2019.

One of us was working from the road. Now the weird thing was that the connectivity on AT&T was typically really good in the morning, but every day it got very spotty after lunch time.

Ahh access; the day we arive by chance, we only had to wait a half hour to get through the construction on U.S. 69 from Montrose. Monday through Thursday the road was open only in a couple narrow time slots. Our main objective was to go to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. It was awesome: much underrated! Fortunately, the road back towards Montrose was open all weekend. We also went to the Gunnison Pioneer Museum. There was so much to see from. Model As to a train and old buildings. So worth the $10.00 entrance fee.

Except a bit of road noise from U.S.50, it was very quiet during the week. It filled up on the weekend,so the noise then was from the other campers. It also got a bit smokier; and we were reminded that pot is legal in CO.

We have a senior pass, so our fee reflects using it. Gunnison was the place for laundry, groceries and propane.

This was our 3rd choice but turned out to be our favorite. Beautiful views of blue Mesa reservoir. Clean area spots are fairly private. It’s a big parking lot with toilets which are clean.

As mentioned in previous posts there are 3 levels. When we were here some spots were labeled reserved, some were labeled open for 1 night and the majority were unlabeled so I am not sure what their status was. I think there were only 4 trailers in all 3 levels the weekend before Labor Day weekend. The drive thru spots were in the upper lot and obviously were not designed for current trailers. It would be difficult to get 2 trailers in the side by side spots if both had slide outs. We parked in the middle level and had a very nice view over the marina and lake. Not much to do here if you are not a boater.

We arrived on a Sunday afternoon with no reservations. There are three “levels” to the parking lot type campground. The lower level is all non-reservable. Some of the middle and upper levels are also non-reservable. You will be amongst trailers and truck campers in the lower level, Class A’s in the upper level. Our rate reflects a 50% discount for an annual parks pass, otherwise it’s $16/night. We got a spot next to the slope down to the lake. Very sunny for solar power. There is a nice dump station with rinse and potable water that is free to campground users. There is a very nice boat ramp. We launched our kayaks and did a nice 8 mile kayak on the lake.

There is not too much road noise from Highway 50 which is located at least 500’ and above the lower level. The road gets very quiet after dark, but this is the main road artery between Gunnison and Montrose.

The cell service was decent. It was 4 bars EXTENDED with 3G on both Verizon and AT&T. We had no problem connecting to the internet or making phone calls; however, downloads took a while due to 3G speeds.

The campground has various sections. The top one had some reserved sites with electric. We stayed at the bottom one which was asphalt but had a good view of the reservoir. These were first come first serve sites. We launched kayaks at the boat ramp and did two great paddles one up a long inlet 14 miles round trip. We did 2 hikes in the area one Dillon Pinnacles was nice out to some geological formations 4 miles round trip. We were here 13 days ago. The last two places we stayed had no cell service so just now writing the review. The dump station was right at the entrance and was easily accessed with good water.

I really liked having a dump station and potable water. The publics toilets were clean. I camped on the lower level with a great view of the reservoir and the boat dock. Just one big asphalt parking lot and thankfully, it wasn't packed because the sites are close together, I don't recall seeing any 30/50 amp service. The only reason I wouldn't go back is because the campground was three separate levels and resembled a concrete jungle. Brian, the host was a great guy with a great sense of humor. The sites are pretty close to level but I did use blocks.

We loved the Lake Fork Campground at Curecanti National Recreation Area. We stayed in the lower or eastern-most area which is basically a paved parking lot with scattered water spigots, spotless bathrooms but no other hookups. (there is a nice dump station on site) We had the place to ourselves for 4 nights! The lake views were gorgeous, access to and from the area was easy and it was a perfect location to explore Montrose, The Grand Mesa, etc to the west and north as well as Gunnison and Crested Butte to the east! As others have mentioned - very little cellular service here. We had 4 bars of Verizon 3G so voice was fine but data throughput was dismal at best. But - Dish satellite had a clear view so football was no problems on Sunday & Monday! Staff was very friendly and we chatted most mornings as they stopped by to check on things...