Derry Ditch Dispersed Camping

I was hesitant to write a truthful review of this area as I love it so much, but reminded myself it's public land and should be shared.

Please leave no trace so this area continues to be wonderful.

The area is closed seasonally for Elk breeding from February to June.

Access to this section of Buero of Land Management property passes through private land. Please respect this. The road up us very well maintained packed dirt with two sneaky speed bumps. They are located before and just after the house and they must be taken extremely slow or your kindeys will feel it. The road itself is a steady incline but if you have enough tow vehicle, 4x4 will not be needed to get your trailer up.

At the top is a spectacular view of Mt Sherman and it's neighbors on one side and Elbert and Mt Massive on the other. There are about 10 very large sites on the BLM land before it changes to National forest property. All of these sites can take any size rig with ample turn around. The roads are a packed gravel and very well maintained with a slight bit of washboard which we only noticed on our mountain bikes.

The area does undergo controlled burns and firewood cutting. These areas are well signed.

We expected to hear highway 24 from our sites but it honestly is very quiet. We occasionally hear a helicopter but the road noise is essentially zero.

There is no recreation in the immediate area but we did ride our mountain bikes on the roads. The nearest RV dump is in Leadville as is the nearest grocery store.

Nearest the entrance we has 3 bars of 4G with 92 megabit download and 12 megabit upload. As you go further back and away from the entrance it drops to 2 bars.

Please help keep this area open for years to come.

I arrived before sunset and the road in is easy enough to drive in just go slow, I was in a RAM promaster city and made it in fine even after rain the day arriving and leaving. I was the only one there, just be weary it is bear country so follow all appropriate steps. Signal was waving between 2 to full bars of 5G on AT&T. There was a little bit of road noise but nothing unbearable and pretty easy to not notice

Absolutely awesome
Stunningly beautiful dispersed camping at its best. To find the most precious spot you need to get to Forest service Road 130 S as in South. There is a forest service ranger station on the south side of Leadville where you can get a motor vehicle use map MVUM. But even without a map the roads are marked. 130 starts near Highway 24 on the west side across from massive lakes, near a large bank of mailboxes. You'll see a sign asking you to respect the private property owners rights. Just keep going up the hill and you will find the forest service signage indicating the public lands. Many people don't go much further. But the truly spectacular sites are a couple miles further. The roads are narrow and steep but manageable. Keep going down 130 until you reach an intersection with 130A and 130 B, A goes north and B goes south. But keep going till you reach a T intersection. 160 goes north and 130 S goes south. Go left, south till you reach a slightly challenging switch back. Just on the other side of the switchback is a wide open space with room for many rigs including good size trailers. Very quiet with very little traffic of any kind. The Leadville 100 foot race goes right by every August.

SITE
Lodge Pool flats
MONTH OF VISIT
July

Keep going, it gets better