By:
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Located on the southern end of the Medicine Bow Mountain Range in north central Colorado, Rawah Wilderness was designated by the Wilderness Act of 1964 and now contains 73,868 acres. "Rawah" is a Native American term meaning "wild place."
Elevations in the Rawah Wilderness range from 8,400 to 13,000 feet. The high peaks were carved by glaciers, resulting in spectacular cirque lakes and moraines. There are twenty-five named lakes, ranging in size from five to 39 acres. This high alpine area contains the headwaters of the McIntyre, Rawah, and Fall Creeks, as well as the Laramie River.
The Rawahs are host to mammals such as elk, moose, mule deer, black bear, bighorn sheep, marmot and beaver. There are many species of birds including the red-tailed hawk, white-tailed ptarmigan, golden eagle, raven, Steller's Jay and a variety of warblers. Lakes and streams are inhabited with lake, cutthroat, rainbow and brown trout. Graylings are also found in this area.
The Rawah Wilderness is very popular with summer backpackers, hikers and anglers. It is also popular with hunters in the fall. To encounter the fewest people, plan your trip for mid-week and use less popular trails.
Always use Leave No Trace techniques to help keep this area wild, clean and pristine.
Motorized equipment, or mechanized transportation is prohibited, including motorcycles, chain saws, bicycles or carts. Wheelchairs are exempt.
Group size is limited to 12 people and/or livestock combined.
Camping and campfires are prohibited within 200’ feet of all lakes, streams and trails to protect water quality, sensitive vegetation and to help assure solitude. Thin soils and mountain vegetation are easily damaged by fire and fires scar rocks and soil. Use a stove, a fire pan or an existing fire ring when and where fires are allowed.
Campfires are prohibited in the alpine areas above 10,800 feet. Campfires consume scarce vegetation and leave permanent scars on the fragile soils of the area.
Pets must be on a handheld leash at all times if hiking. Equestrian riders can have dogs under voice control.
The site is very pretty but the camp hosts need to be replaced to make people wanna come back.
The guy is friendly and later you will find out a push over when he is with his “boss”- his wife.
We camped a long weekend, all was good as long as he drove by several times and on Sunday morning the “Concentration camp guard” came along and starting to make accusations and threats that she would be calling Forrest services and sheriff.
If she would have done her job earlier the man’s toilet wouldn’t have been offline and closed for 2 out of those 3 days and she could have talked- or yelled at us earlier.
Overall - we will not be back to that camp ground and would not recommend it to others. Sad for the owner company to loose people over that
When we arrived we spoke to the camp host had a great experience. He told us if we could find a sit big enough for our two vehicles and small RV we would only need to pay for one site. He told us which campsite numbers could accommodate us. This was a off season Friday morning 2023. Camp host drove by several times Friday afternoon and all day Saturday never stopping or saying a word. Sunday morning he and his wife came in as we were packing up camp. Walked into our camp and angrily accusing us of moving boulders and cutting down trees. Niether happened. Told us there were boundaries in which we could not cross and we crossed them all and showed us where each “imaginary” rock & boulder boundary was. When we said we didn’t do what they were accusing us of the husband just stared at us and his wife was very combative and argumentative. We finally stated that we would be leaving within the hour the wife said good because the Forestry Service would escort us out…We are an older couple who have been camping for many years. I do not know what prompted these people to act so hostile toward us when we did nothing wrong. We are cautious campers who are very aware of rules and safety and we leave no foot print. Do better camp hosts. We will not be returning until those hosts are gone.
We stayed here at site #6 for one night while riding hwy 14 on our motorcycle trip. Nice quiet campground with that classic Colorado camping feel. Nice bathrooms. Place was very clean. I didn’t notice any trash cans and we just packed ours out. The 6.4 miles of dirt road was in great shape. Would definitely stay here again.
Beautiful spot in an oasis among lots of burned areas. Pricey per night though, asking $24, even on weekdays. I’ve been to less expensive campgrounds with just as clean of bathrooms.
Edit: I checked around and other campgrounds in that area are in the same price range.
