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Mancos is a great place to camp. Set in a beautiful ponderosa forest, the upper loop of the main campground and both yurts remain open through the winter. The park is centrally located to a wide variety of local attractions.
The park has two campgrounds – Main and West – on two sides of the reservoir with a total of 32 campsites. Along the northwest side of the reservoir, the west campground has nine campsites (primarily for tent campers) with toilets but no drinking water nearby.
Mancos also offers yurts for a unique and cozy camping experience.
Yurt reservations are required year round.
Mancos State Park provides a great overnight stop or a beautiful location for an extended stay. Winter is a fun time to camp at Mancos State Park.
Come and enjoy a fun-filled, quiet and beautiful time at Mancos State Park!
From Mancos:Turn north on Highway 184 for 1/4-mile, take County Road 42 east approximately 4 miles to County Road "N". County Road 42 is paved for approximately 1 mile then it becomes a well maintained gravel road for the remaining 3 miles to County Road "N". Then take County Road "N" west 1/2-mile to the park entrance. From Cortez: Take U.S. 160 east from Cortez approximately 19 miles to Mancos. Turn north on Highway 184 and follow directions from Mancos. From Durango: Take U.S. 160 west from Durango 27 miles to Mancos. Turn north on Highway 184 and follow directions from Mancos.
Camping is by reservation only and can be made up until the moment of occupying the site, pending availability. Reservations can be made by visiting www.cpwshop.com or by calling Reserve America at 1-800-244-5613.
Dates of stay: 5/18-5/21 and 5/26-5/29 2020.Very nice park! Stayed on west side on first trip and stayed on east side (main campground) on the second. $22 per night reservation only camping fee plus $9/day entrance fee when you get there. Fishing was excellent on both trips (4 day limit on trout was easy to achieve). West side sites have bear boxes, picnic tables, and ground-level fire pits, and trash receptacles at the vault toilets. East side similar but with potable water available in campground (two places), a horseshoe pit, two dumpsters, and no bear boxes. Two tent sites on west side were park and walk in sites. Vault toilets were very nice. The men's vault toilets have urinals (which is awesome). Nice hiking trail all the way around the lake. Cell service was good. Was breezy-to-windy about mid-morning to late evening (7 pm) on most days. Dirt road spanning the damn is dusty with vehicle traffic. Unfortunate to see, but there was a moderate amount of trash along shoreline...beer cans, water bottles, fishing line/trash,...filled up 3 Walmart-like bags with a full trip around lake...way too much in my opinion. Fire ban went into effect 29 May.
Only a few miles above Mancos! No wake lake, excellent trout fishing and a great place to canoe, or paddle board. Camping spots too. Borders thousands of acres of national forest. Great for horse riders, and mountain bikes. There a few homes for sale near the lake! The views are amazing and water is a pretty blue!
Camped there the week before memorial day. Very nice campsites with pretty good separation between them. Nice trails for hiking, Jackson lake for fishing or SUP. The town of Mancos has some great places to visit. The staff was super friendly and helpful. I will return.
Nice getaway close to highways and towns. Because of this you do hear very slight and distant road traffic but not enough to be bothersome. You also see houses on the ridges above the lake, so you're in the woods but there are still reminders of the outside world around you.
Nice spaced apart campgrounds, seems like the West side pairs camper spots next to tent spots, decent set up. Oh! Not all campgrounds are even or level, bring those tire levelers, I drove up on a few rocks which helped but was still sliding a bit throughout the night. Depending on your set up, this could be a real downer.
Lots of bathrooms throughout the park, close to hiking trails, saw numerous mountain bikers.
You do need to pay for a daily park entry pass, even when camping, only exception seems to be disabled veteran and purple heart veterans plates, or a special pass you get through the website. *read up on fees before going* and ALL campgrounds are reservation only. From what I can tell there's not a regular staff person on duty and it takes a while to connect to customer service through their provided number, so for less stress, research ahead of time!
Park is kept up very well, you can see where the fees are going. Overall, highly recommend either for day use or camping 🏕️🥾🌲😎👊
