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$16 a night. Bathrooms, water, bear boxes. This spot needs more camping spots. Other than that it’s a nice little area tucked away from the lake.
Just posting about the Dry Gulch Trail. It's a good trail for about 2 miles. After that it becomes hard to follow, rocky and then heavy sagebrush over grown. Wear long pants to avoid brush scraping. before the first cattle reservoir, there seems to be an optional trail toward the North East that leads to a nice mesa overlook.
Great campsite. Beautiful and just a few spots. No hookups, water and bear boxes for every other camping spot.
Wonderful little spot for traditional camping. Spots are first-come first-served so it does fill up on busy days, but my friends and I were able to score 2 sites right next to each other on a holiday weekend. Just be sure to get there early! Fee is $16/night and they do have a way to take cards or cash payment. Rangers were extremely friendly!!! Great advice and really accommodating. The whole area felt safe.
Cell service was spotty, but available. Calls were fine, music streamed alright, but I wouldn't try to stream movies here. Only got ~3 bars of 4G at best. This is a small valley and fairly isolated.
The bathroom was pretty decent and well kept up with. A ranger checks it daily in the mornings and stocks it with TP. Looks like it gets thoroughly hosed out at least every Monday. We had spots right next to the toilet and it didn't ever smell bad around there. Fresh water available from a few blue spigots around.
Camp sites are tucked back amongst plenty of trees with space for hammocks. Flat areas for at least 2x 4-person tents. Each site has metal fire pits with a grill for cooking and picnic tables. Some of the picnic tables are fine, but others are a tad dirty, so bring towels and/or tablecloths. Our site (#7) had a ton of space for setting up a cooking area and pop-up canopy in addition to our tents.
Parking space for 2 full size cars or a vehicle with a small trailer. Some spots have more space for trailers than others, but if you have a big rig, keep going down the highway to the Lake Fork campground.
You will need to bring your own firewood. The rangers cut down dead trees every once in a while and the wood is technically available to use, though wet, slow to bun, and not the best for a standard campfire.
Overall, it was super close to a lot of good stuff. Only 20 minutes or so from downtown Gunnison for supplies. Very close to the Bay of Chickens rec area with some cool beachy spots, as well as the Dillon Pinnacles hiking trail. Only an hour or so from Black Canyon.
