Pawnee Campground

This small campground opens late every year. The campground lies at the foot of the Continental Divide, next to 25-acre Brainard Lake and the Indian Peaks Wilderness Area at an elevation of 10,350 feet. A forest of spruce and fir trees covers the area. Summertime temperatures are warm in the day and cool at night. Afternoon thunderstorms are common. It can be windy at times.

It is "dry" camping. No electricity, but there is water and vault toilets.

Since the season is short it fills up quickly. Best time to go is during the week.

There is NO cell service.

MOOSE LOOP IS THE NICEST. It is closest to the lake. ELK LOOP experienced a devastating micro burst and most all the trees are gone. Favorite sites would be 39, 38, 37,and 23, 24, 26, 25 and 28 are pull throughs.

We first drove past the road to the campground, because it was not marked like the other ones since it was part of the Brainard Lake Recreation Area/Indian Peak Wilderness Area that is the sign you will see. The road was a little bumpy getting in and when we got to the park entrance there was a line about 12 vehicles in line. After one of the employees noticed our camper they walk up to us in line and stated all the vehicles in front of us were waiting to get a parking spot at for the hiking trails. The employee confirmed there were open campsites then moved some cones for us then got us in.

Once we arrived at the camp ground was found two loops one of which was pretty much clear cut (assuming do to the beetles killing the trees) the other loop was wooded. The roads were paved but each campsite had gravel. Each campsite had large gravel level pads. The campground had pit toilets which were very new and some of the cleanest we saw yet. The were water spigots around the campground, but had a sign on them no filling of campers.

The views from the park were awesome .

We hiked the Long Lake and Isabel Lake/Glacier trails which were great as well.

This is a very popular campground next to Brainard Lake with some sites first come - first serve and others are reservable. The Elk loop is more open and farther away from the lake. The Moose loop is heavily wooded and closer to the lake. All sites in both loops are pretty well spaced apart with plenty of room. The scenery is spectacular and there's plenty of hiking trails, but you are at 10,350ft so be prepared for the thin air. It's also an easy lake to just walk around and enjoy the surrounding beauty. Moose sitings are common although we didn't see any on our visit. I really enjoy this campground, but it's not always that easy to get a spot because it is so popular. Best chances if you don't have a reservation is to come early on a weekday.

Stayed in Moose loop of Pawnee campground August 26-28. Sites in this loop are heavily wooded and provide a nice sense of privacy. No hookups are available but there is water to access. Camp hosts were very friendly and helpful during our stay. Major kudos to the camp host staff for maintaining the grounds and facilities. While it is a heavy usage campground we had no complaints during our stay. While sites are reservable approximately 1/3 of the sites are first come first serve, and according to the hosts fill up quickly during the short high altitude camp season. Moose are often seen at Brainard Lake and we were not disappointed during our visit.

Because of no cell service i have to only give it 1 star out of 5. It is a humans rights violation to not have cellular and data services available. How about forest-wide wife and cellular calls. Just because I go to the forest does not mean I want to give up my modern-day life-saving devices. We also need to get that epic photo and post it right then of the picture.

This place is fantastic. We camped there August 7 - 9, 2020. Tall pine trees shade every sight for almost all day. Highs in the 70s and lows in the 50s. Beautiful lake views are within a 500 foot walk. Snow capped peaks even in August. Very clean bathrooms. Spacious sites that are well separated from each other. We've camped at dozens of campsites in Colorado and this is our favorite. The Nepalese restaurant in Nederland is great. Excellent hiking trails are all over this place. No cell coverage but that just means you have more time to enjoy the peace, quiet, and beauty.

We enjoyed our stay here. This is not really a place to go if you're looking to be one of the only people in the campground, but it is still a great place.

No hookups or cell service, but that is part of the draw. The campground is fairly quiet, sites are spaced out a bit and campers were respectful of noise overall. Bathrooms were just a short walk around a corner from site 21. Can't speak to cleanliness as we did not use them. We loved all of the trees surrounding the campsites in our loop. The solar panel on top of our travel trailer worked well even with all of the trees. At night, it's dark-dark, which is great. Lot of stars visible on a clear night. It's not too spooky in the dark because even at night, people were still returning from hikes or walking to the bathrooms.

It is a short walk to the path to Brainard Lake (5 minutes max) and there are a number of hiking trails nearby. We were not prepared for the number of people that were in the recreation area to hike and hang out at the lake. The lake parking lot was full, as were other parking lots in the area, and then there were numerous cars parked on both sides of the road leading up to the entrance to the recreation area (not fun if towing anything). It was a bit nuts, but the crowds seemed to be in the recreation area only. The campground was pretty full, but in our campsite we could only see the sites across and next to us while all others were blocked from view. It was pretty quiet overall minus the random person setting off their car alarm or the pooped out little one having a melt right before bed.

We were hiking near the lake just before sunset when we saw two male moose having dinner across the road. There is lots of "evidence" (watch your step) of larger animals in the area. One of the park employees stopped and did some traffic management as people drove by in their cars and a number of photographers set up shop in a field just opposite the moose.

Recommendation: once you are in the campground, don't leave the area with your vehicle unless it's in the evening or early morning. We thought we'd check out the surrounding area midday outside the campground and ended up in a line to get back in. This area does not have a bypass lane open where you can go through, smiling and pointing to your pass. Instead you have to wait with everyone else. At certain times of day it can be a long wait as they let a few cars in as cars leave.

We thought the crowds were due to Labor Day and Covid, but the gentleman working the booth said it's always like this.

We arrived to a freshly raked campsite in a beautiful pine tree setting. Peace & quiet abound. Most campsites are private and surrounded with pines. Moose are in the meadow eating, sleeping & eating again. The scenery is amazing. My husband is handicapped and we couldn't walk to everything the park has to offer so we thought we could drive and park. However we found out that the only place campers can park is at their campsite unless they purchase a day use pass. We were pretty disappointed as we thought we would be able to fish and enjoy a short hike on a few of the trails. The passes aren't sold at the welcome station and even if they were, day use passes for the days we were camping were sold out. All in all this is a truly beautiful spot - just know before you go should you might need a day pass. If you need cell phone access there are turn outs on the road into Brainard where you can get a bar or two.