Turkey Springs Road Dispersed Camping

This dispersed FS camping road was great. Found a spot closer to the top of the road but there was quite a few more down the road. The spots are for the most part super flat. Most are dirt but a few are grass. Tons of OHV, biking, horse, and hiking trails around. Free dry camping up to 14 days. Great free close to Pagosa option.

Off the forest service road. Lots of roomy places to pull out. About 7 miles from town and on the way to some great hiking. And actually plenty of trails all around if you want to MB or trail run.

This was a great spot but the views aren’t great. You’re up in the trees right by the mountain bike trails. The drive to Turkey Springs is really pretty and you can see Pagosa Peak off in the distance. Once you hit Turkey Springs, the road turns to gravel and you can pretty much camp wherever you wan. There are probably at least 100 possible sites along that road. There is a Speedway at 160 and Piedra Rd has a dump but no potable water. The Speedway 2 miles west at 160 and Pagosa Springs road has potable water and a dump but is smaller so it may be challenging more large rigs. Do yourself a favor and drive up Piedra Road to the waterfall. It’s a nice gravel road with a half mile hike at the end.

Have a 35’ 5th wheel, just a few sites for big rigs that I found. The general area has a lot of dispersed camping. If coming from Durango, do not use the Google directions from Campendium, took my rig through 3 residential areas. Go to CR 600 form hwy 160, Piedra road, this takes you right to the NF.

I loved staying here for two weeks, as a full-time RVer who needed an easy spot to work remotely from. You only get views on the drive in or if you go hike or MTB at Coyote Hill, which you can hike or bike to from the campsites, but the large Ponderosa Pines everywhere are wonderful. If you’ve never walked up and put your nose on the bark of a Ponderosa Pine and inhaled deeply, do yourself a favor and start now-it smells like pure butterscotch!

The Campendium coordinates stop just after you turn left on to Turkey Springs Rd and don’t take you to any particular site. When you turn left onto Turkey Springs Rd off of Piedra you will come to the first campsite on your right. It is large and a great site, but it doesn’t have Verizon signal. If you keep driving you will get to the area with cell service. I took the next left (maybe a half mile further) and then crossed the cattle grate (which is just after a trailhead) and found an awesome and large site on the left, surrounded by Ponderosa Pines. Even though the Verizon signal only showed two bars, I always had plenty to hotspot off of to work.

Trails were right out of the back of the site and it was an awesome low-traffic trail system on which to walk my dog. These are mountain bike trails, too, but super flat and mellow overall.

Town is about 15-20 minutes away, almost all paved except the last part. Depending on how far in you drive you may have a couple miles on washboard but it isn’t terrible and it is definitely worth it. I hate washboard and this was worth it. Both Speedways in town have a dump station but the one on the corner of Piedra when you turn off the highway, while larger, doesn’t have potable water. The one a couple more miles toward Durango does have potable water but is a smaller area for larger rigs than The other one.

There are hot springs in downtown on the river-free ones or resort-style paid-ones. Take your pick! There’s also a Natural Grocers and a Good City Market in town

If this place didn’t have a 14-day limit, I’d still be there because it’s easy. Oh, and there was zero wind the entire two-weeks, and it was very quiet.

I tried the other two main free, boondocking areas on the other side of town towards South Fork and couldn’t find a cell signal. I think this area is the best and easiest for Pagosa Springs.

This was a fabulous place for my partner and I to stay for a few days while we hung out and explored town. The coordinates bring you to turkey springs rd. Turn off and there was a “drown campfires” sign. We drove another 8-10 minutes until there was a fork in the road with another campfire sign. Take a left at the fork and that’s where we started seeing campsites. There were plenty all along the road and we drove for another 10 minutes or so from the second sign until we found an empty site. Dispersed with fire pits and I have ATT and had service - it was absolutely beautiful and the perfect camp site. We didn’t get here until a little after sundown so it was a little difficult to identify the sites but we were still able to do it with a flashlight. Would absolutely stay here again!

We came into Pagosa Springs wanting to work remotely, relax in the hot springs, and let the dogs roam. Great for all that except service. Took us about 15 min to get to town. We had trouble finding a spot for our 27’ rv because all the big spots were taken. But keep going and we eventually found one to back into. Quiet, secluded. We took 2 lefts off of reviews—which was the smartest plans. Tons of trails nearby. Also beware—very hard to find potable water. Go to speedway on way to Durango not on Piedra Rd.

We were almost at the end of 923. Huge trees. We were able to get enough solar. There's a big open meadow at the end of the road with better solar. We had 2 bars LTE on Verizon and 1+ on T-Mobile. Patti from the FS led us to this spot. She runs a tight ship and we didn't observe anyone "living" here. She said you can camp anywhere within 300 feet of the road. The trails are easy to moderate for mountain biking. The road is in fair shape. You won't get stuck but you won't go fast. There's a small amount of ATV and motorcycle traffic. The flowers in the meadows were amazing.

This is a great campsite if you love being in the mountains surrounded by lush forests. You are right in the middle of Turkey Springs hiking and biking trails too! The road in a nice gravel/dirt road and even though it rained the 2 days prior the main road was still good to drive our 30' fifth wheel down and most campsites we saw were fine to pull into.
When you turn on Turkey Springs Road there are a few campsites to your right about a 0.5-1mile down, make sure to go left at the fork in the road. You will see a trailhead to your right (it also crosses the road) the campsites near this trailhead seem to have the best cell service. There are quite a bit of campsites down this road. If you can't score one of those four campsites by the trailhead, keep driving past the cattle guard and you will see a good amount of sites (mainly on your left) for the next 1-1.5miles.

If you want to know the best free things to do while in Pagosa Springs including hikes, hot springs, art studios, and waterfalls then check out this blog post: www.nomadsinnature.com/blog/best-free-things-to-do-in-pagosa-springs-co

we stay here for 5 nights, recommend this! We even got cell reception up here too! beautiful trees!