Monarch Park Campground

Made our reservation to stay back in March. We called 2 weeks before our trip to make sure everything was good. It was and they sent us our confirmation for the stay. We arrived on Saturday, June 24 our reserved time and Elsie (the owner) ,who is an unpleasant woman to deal with, informs us that they are booked full. So much for making a reservation with them!

So even if you have a reservation with a confirmation, don't count on actually having a place to stay with them when you arrive after driving for days!

Do yourself a favor and FIND ANOTHER PLACE TO STAY!!! It will be better and less stress in the long run!

This is the worst place you can stay. If I could give it a negative review I would. It is not kept up. Trees hanging ,no wifi, no phone access. You are basically without any access to the outside world. Went into Salida to get wifi. The neighbor had three large dogs that went poop right by our Rv and several times a day we had to clean it up to get in our Rv.. We would have left this Park except it was Labor Day weekend and we couldn't find anything else open. Park only gives military discount if your active duty. not if you are retired. Very hard access to park our 36 ft 5th wheel. had to put in 4 wheel drive to get up in spot.

We stayed here one night while traveling since it was close to the highway and was convenient for us. The mountain views were nice and had a creek running though the campground. The campground must have been hit hard by the beetles since they were logging many trees off in the campground.

Site #17 was great with lots of flat room. If you reserved site #15 next to it, you could have a good group/part. Bathrooms were not as good as other campgrounds I've been to. Site #11 was very un-level. And our original site #4 was not clear after some sort of storm, so that was a bummer. lots of downed trees and slash all over campground. It really needed some TLC.

This is a first come first service campground near the summit of Monarch Pass on US50. Access dirt road is well maintained and it was no trouble for our 25ft motorhome. We had a lovely campsite overlooking the meadow and pond. On the first night, we had two other parties camped nearby. On the second night, we had the entire area to ourselves. Clean pit toilets... Water is from hand pump. Convenient bear proof dumpsters... There is a steep highway grade nearby so there is traffic noise. No dump station... We used dump station at the Poncha Springs Visitors Center near the junction of US50 and US25. Two and three bars of cell service and we were able to stream music. Two thumbs up.

Found the beautiful Monarch Campground easy to get to from the highway. Dirt road was smooth with a few bumps. With the Golden Age pass is only $11 a night. $22 without pass. A beautiful stream and fishing pond in the camp and level sites. Only issue was a few mosquitoes- used a repellent and all was great. A little road noise but not bad. No signal for cell.

Fantastic secluded campground not too far off the main road.

Extremely clean bathroom.

Site 34 is right next to the river, and several other spots overlook either the tiny "lake" or are near the river (really a stream this close to its start).

There is a surprising amount of noise from the road, but it's only a little bothersome when a semi is heading down the mountain with their engine break going full bore.

Stayed during the first week of August and frost was on the trees by 10pm. It gets VERY cold at night, so cold weather gear is a must. The days are warm, but mild, and the afternoons were rainy.

The area has been hit hard by pine beetles, so wood is easy to come by but there are a ton of downed trees. Also be mindful of where you pitch your tent as some trees look ready to come down.

T-Mobile has full 4G service (I don't have a 5G phone so can't comment there). I was able to stream no problem.

Easy access and hardly anyone here on a Thursday. As mentioned by others, lots of downed trees so hard to find a shady spot, but we found #12 which was very nice. Says 32 ft, but out 25 ft trailer and truck fit without needing to unhitch.

This is a beautiful and breathtaking scenic campground. We stayed in site 34 next to a bubbling creek. Very quiet, only a few other campers. The vegetation is beautiful, the air smells refreshing, and the water is extremely clean. We used the stream water for our RV. The campsite was very level and well taken care of, and perfect for our 26’ RV. This is a gem in the mountains! Highly recommend staying here!

We have a 36 ft Class A with a Cherokee Trailhawk tow and stayed in site 28 for 3 days in mid June. We couldn’t get fully level, but it was a good site otherwise. The sites are fairly nice for a FS CG and very well spaced. Some sites are fairly level, but others will present some challenges. The camping fee with one of the park passes is very reasonable. There were only 3 other campers when we arrived and only a handful through the weekend. As is apparently our lot in life, as soon as we camp at altitude a cold front moves through, the temps drop and it gets rainy and/or snowy. Snowed about 1.5 inches Saturday morning. One of the upstream branches of the South Fork of the Arkansas River runs right past the site as well. There is some occasional road noise from US 50, but isn’t that noticeable.

AT&T coverage was decent, with 2 Bars of LTE service and speeds up to about 3 MB/s. We had a clear view of the southern and northern sky, so we were able to get DISH coverage on all three western satellites at our site and Starlink had speed up to 9 MB/s.