Camp Hale Memorial Campground

We boondocked here for 2 days and loved every minute! The area is rich in history; it's where the 10th Mountain Division did their winter training during WWII. It is close to many jeeping and ATV trails (if you don't have an ATV there are some for rent at Nova Guides right here on the site), it is within 45 minutes of Vail, Breckenridge, Leadville and Beaver Creek, and the camp sites aren't really campsites so very low density and no one bothering you! We stayed at the North end near some of the old bunk house foundations but there are still live rounds in places so be sure and stick to the roads and don't pick anything up!
Best time of year is summer and fall -- winter is great area for snowmobiling but they don't plow so no place to "land", and spring is pretty barren.
There is a restaurant at Nova Guides and many within 30 minutes, but no cell service, no amenities - this in boondocking!!

Its NOT free. $19/night. great view and open areas. Gorgeous location.

Camp Hale Memorial Campground is a great spot! There’s only 20’ish sites, well-spaces out from each other so it is not crowded and you don’t feel like you’re on top of other camp sites. Bathroom facilities were really clean. Gorgeous views...we had a great night camping there!

Great UTV trails but make sure you read all rules of where you can ride...they are really strict and will write you a ticket if you're on a prohibited trail ($280). Great Rock climbing areas as well. Plenty of dispersed camping around the Camp Hale area. Really cool to see the remains and remnants of the old Camp Hale base. If the mountains and terrain could only talk...now that would be great stories to hear. They still have the street signage for example "Hospital Rd". This area also has few "group" campgrounds.

We stayed here in early July of 2020. There are beautiful views all around. Ages ago I learned to ski at Cooper Mountain, so it was fun to learn more about the history of the mountain. As a bonus to our dogs (two German Shepherds), the road into the campground, which used to be the main road of the Camp Hale "town," provides great walking for dogs that need a lot of exercise. Now, to the nitty gritty:

1) Cell service: There is none, zilch, nada, nil. Whoever reported that they had three bars of AT&T must have looked at the top of the mountain and not actually from the campground. Under normal circumstances this would not have mattered to us, but in this instance were were specifically looking for a campground with cell service because we had to do a bit of work.

2) Site 11 is gorgeous! All of the sites are designed as tent or back-in sites except this one; it is designed to be a pull-in situation. That didn't work well for our 30-foot travel trailer. It was no big deal, we just needed to go wrong way around the loop. The real issue was finding a place to turn around, but we made it happen.

3) Site 12 needs to be either a pull-in or tent situation because it is right next to the vault toilet. Again, just go wrong way around the loop.

4) Vault toilets were cleaned daily.

5) Campground host was cool.

We've driven by Camp Hale many times and never knew there was a campground there. It thought it would be close to the highway, but it's not and is pretty quiet, other than the huge flock of sheep that were grazing nearby. Pretty cool!

The sites are well spaced, and most have pretty good tree coverage. You're close to some great hiking and mountain biking from within Camp Hale.

You should know that there are no services other than good vault toilets. There is no water at all, so you'll have to bring all you need. Also, contrary to Campendum, there is no ATT cell service. It's about a 20 minute drive either way to get service.

We'll be back!

Overall this was a really great campground to stay in. I only give 5/5 stars if I would return and this is a campground I’ll return to.

The campsites were very spacious and overall the entire campsite, (including bathrooms) was very clean and well maintained. We booked this at the last minute midweek and there were still open sites when we came in.

We stayed in site #17, a nice spot for our trailer with solar panels, but it might be rather exposed if you don’t have some kind of shade. Other spots perfect for our trailer with views are : sites 11 (near toilets), 14 and 15.

The cons: There was no cell phone service for us (t-mobile) or water / electricity. Our battery on our trailer did fine and was at 100% when we departed with our solar panels. No water or electricity as this is a campground . It was a distance from our home in Denver — about 3 hours total — but that isn’t enough to from returning.

We explored the area and loved the little town of are’s Cliff and the Mango’s Mountain Grill, as well as Minturn and ate yummy burritos at the Rocky Mountain Taco. Check out the Colorado Trailer nearby as well as the (obvious) Camp Hale Historic Monument. I