Estes Park Campground at East Portal

The rooms could stand to use televisions inside. The housekeepers made the two beds in our room two different ways… kind of odd. The bathtub wasn’t cleaned at all. I left a used wash cloth in the tub and it was still there. The new towels were left on the poorly made bed and not hung up in the bathroom.

Visited 8÷14−8÷16÷15 Campsite A43, Tent Paid $ 30.00 a night.
Pro’s — Staff friendly and helpful. Allowed me to borrow a grate for the firepit. Showers and bathrooms were reasonably clean (your camping). Campsite was clean when we arrived. Had a fire pit (no grate on ours) and a picnic bench. Mule deer walked through quite a bit and saw a flock of wild turkeys.
Con’s — As mentioned, campsites are very close together and small. No privacy really. Being so close and the roads are tight — campers have a very hard time getting in and putting the campers in place. If you don’t know how to back a trailer in well, please don’t rent one and come here. They allow check-​in at any time although quiet time is posted from 10pm to 7am. During our experience, we had a family next to us come in at 11pm — took them over 45 min just to back their trailer in (yelling, engine roaring) much less then set up a tent, etc. But it was a form of entertainment. Would not be my first choice for camping.

Love this place! Out of town, next to hiking trails including the trailhead to Rocky Mtn NP and beautiful views, depending on your campsite. Sites are spaced out so you have some privacy. Bathrooms were decent and New, very nice management.

Diamond in the rough. If you’re looking for a place to unplug and get away from the grind, this is the place. Tucked away at the end of Tunnel road, this secluded campground offers amazing views and service. It is ideal for pop up campers and tents. The shower and restrooms are clean and new. The sites are small. Trailers over 25 foot will have difficulty navigating around trees and the curvy campground roads. It isn’t a RV park. It is a rustic quiet secluded area. The only reason I didn’t give it 5 stars is because the shower house closest to our site only had one of the two shower stalls that worked.
The camp hosts were very friendly and helpful. They seemed to want to make sure we had an enjoyable stay.
We camped in our pop up and it was a perfect fit in our site. Next time we go to estes park.. We’ll be camping here again.

We camp a LOT and have stayed at a ton of state campgrounds throughout the country. This one we VERY disappointing. There is no privacy at all and I didn’t see a single site that resembled anything like the pictures. The toilets were overflown, there are apparently no quiet hours that are enforced, and people had dogs off leashes and were coming into our site. We had to sleep through the sound of radios and partying noises pretty much all night long. We had 2 nights pre-​paid and packed up and got out as soon as we could after our first night. Find something else — you would do better off sleeping in your car in the walmart parking lot.

Please note… When you come to Estes Park/​Rocky Mountain National Park area, you are presented with SEVERAL camping options! I won’t mention any names, there are a couple of campgrounds with Corporate ties. A couple with lakes and ponds. One in a meadow. Etc…
Then there is this little beaut. Nestled in a stand of Pine trees, adjacent to the east entrance to the R.M.N.P. I can see where it could be tight during a weekend or holiday. We opted for mid-​week during the fall leaf color change. Still an extremely busy time.
Our ‘host/hostess’s were polite, pleasant and informative. They suggested a bigger site, moved us and didn’t charge anything extra. Even though the spot they put us in was more expensive than the one we reserved!
As previously mentioned, the bathrooms were spotless and power cleaned every a.m.
This is a campground run by the county, so not many expenses have been spared, but it is not over-​the-​top nor extravagant. Away from the crowds. More than just a field with parking spots and reasonably priced.
GO!

Don’t waste your money! The campground is run down and the camp host is an ass hole. The campsites are super close. I had to listen to the campsite next to me snore all night long. I will never camp here again. I would give them a zero star rating but you have to give at least one star. Again DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY!

We camped at the Estes Park Campground at East Portal over the Labor Day weekend. Even though it will filled to capacity, the campground was actually pretty quiet and more private than some of the other ones we saw. Yes, the campsites were smallish, but we still had plenty of space for our 22 ft. tent trailer. The camp hosts were as friendly as can be and management was awesome when one of our groups couldn’t make it. They refunded our money immediately, which is surprising since it was last minute. The showers and bathrooms were incredibly clean and well maintained. The rangers did a fabulous job of enforcing quiet hours after 10 p.m. and ensuring no glass bottles. It was nice not to have to worry about the kids getting into broken glass in our campsite. We also love camping in the national forest, but sometimes it’s nice to have the amenities such as water/​electrical hook-​ups and actual bathrooms. We will definitely visit this campground again.

NEVER AGAIN! CAMPERS BEWARE!!!
This campground does not deem getting at «stars» as it was the absolute worst campground in my 34 years of camping I have ever been to.
The owner/​manager is there only to take peoples money, they are not about customer service. I was there with a youth group for what was supposed to be 2 nights. We had their «group site» which was a joke, it was really just 2 sites together. The first night there, after a 12 hour drive, we cooked dinner for the kids (25 of them), we were cleaning our dishes, and putting everything away, and the owner drives up in his golf cart, and starts YELLING at me in front of every there, that we broke the rules about washing dishes in the bathroom. We didn’t actually wash the dishes in the bathroom, we were washing them at our site (we did however notice 2 people washing dishes in the bathrooms). The owner didnt want to hear anything about it, he told me that he was calling the police and we needed to leave now. Did i forget to mention that we were from California on a 2 week caravan camp with, so this was a new area for us. We got all the kids together, started packing stuff up, the owner grab a mess kit and threw it at one of my kids, and started swearing at us. If you are not familiar with this area, there really are not other campgrounds around, let alone that could have 30 extra people show up. After we packed all of the stuff up, and the kids it was around 11pm. We left, but not before we exchanged words with him (not in front of the kids) and made a few phone calls, THANK GOD FOR THE THE YMCA! They have another campground (not near estes Park campground) but 2 hours away, so we made the drive and stayed at the YMCA. This was a horribly place to stay. I mean who throws out a group of kids at 11pm at night, and throws stuff at them. He was very unreasonable and not friendly at all. The campgrounds are small and not private at all.

This was my first camping experience at an actual campground, so I don’t have much to compare it to.
The campground is not far from downtown Estes Park and it’s also about a mile away from the YMCA of the Rockies. Although I didn’t use it, there is a free shuttle that takes you from the grounds to downtown so you don’t need to worry about driving and parking.
This campground borders Rocky Mountain National Park so you can easily take day trips into the park for hiking, sight-​seeing, etc.
The area here is beautiful and Estes Park Campground is nice as well. I had a tent site and it was a very short walk to both the bathroom/​shower area as well as the water and trashcans. The bathrooms were clean and well maintained.
Each site has a picnic table with a good fire ring and they sell fire wood in case you forget to bring your own. Just make sure you get some while the workers are there. The employees seemed nice, but I barely ever spoke to them so I don’t have much insight into that.
This campground was not full, which I was thankful for. Most of the sites seem to be really close together and you can easily hear the conversations of others around you. They have quiet hours from 10pm-​7am, but judging from my first night there, this rule is not at all enforced, as there were girl scouts singing annoying songs until after 12am.
For the most part I really enjoyed my stay here. Everything was clean and I had no real problems. I’ll probably come back again next year.