Madden Peak Road Dispersed Camping
San Juan National Forest
Write a Review FR-316 Hesperus, CO 81326 970-247-4874 Official WebsiteGPS: 37.3476, -108.2016
Overview of Madden Peak Road Dispersed Camping
Accessibility is not guaranteed, always scout ahead before driving down dirt roads. Learn more: Boondocking 101.
Last Price Paid: $0
Reported by camper-800233 on 7/3/2024
Longest RV Reported: 42 feet (Toy Hauler Fifth Wheel)
Reported by Blake & Chelsea on 9/26/2019
Pad Type dirt
Open Seasonally Late April - Dec.
Elevation 8,103 ft / 2,469 m
Max Stay 14
Tent Camping Yes
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Q&A - Ask the Community about Madden Peak Road Dispersed Camping
To ask questions of the owner or manager please contact the campground directly. 970-247-4874
LeahM asked on 1/11/2021
Hello! Based on reviews, it sounds like the road and conditions are suitable for a minivan pulling a small pop-up cam...
DirtTrailJunkies asked on 8/3/2021
We were at Madden Peak Road recently and had no internet. According to some of the reviews, people worked in this are...
Reviews of Madden Peak Road Dispersed Camping 93 people have reviewed this location.
Cell Phone Coverage
Confirmed by 60 Users
Last reported 7/3/2024
Confirmed by 31 Users
Last reported 5/4/2024
Confirmed by 15 Users
Last reported 10/2/2023
“Great place”
Reviewed 6/13/2019
| Days stayed: | 14 |
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Overall Rating
Plenty of space between other campers, very nice and quiet, felt like we were the only ones here.
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Verizon 4G
This review is the opinion of a Campendium member and not of Campendium.com
Reviewed 5/13/2019
| Nightly rate: | FREE! |
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| Days stayed: | 2 |
Overall Rating
Nice quiet campsite, the gate to campsite is 1 mile off 160 with several good to fair sites. Bigger rigs probably should not try the upper area up the hill. We didn’t see any pull through sites. We stayed two nights at a site very close to gate, nice view, quiet with very little highway noise. While visiting Mesa Verde we took advantag... more
Nice quiet campsite, the gate to campsite is 1 mile off 160 with several good to fair sites. Bigger rigs probably should not try the upper area up the hill. We didn’t see any pull through sites. We stayed two nights at a site very close to gate, nice view, quiet with very little highway noise. While visiting Mesa Verde we took advantage of the $2:50 shower at campground on the way out of the park. We would definitely stay again .Bonus is fill and dump station in Cortez...dump is free ,potable water is 25 cents per 15 gal..bring your quarters .super friendly staff.
BevZ would stay here again
This review is the opinion of a Campendium member and not of Campendium.com
“Beautiful and conveniently located ”
Reviewed 9/18/2018
| Nightly rate: | FREE! |
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| Days stayed: | 7 |
| RV Length: | 23' |
Overall Rating
We had planned on only staying here for a couple of nights, but ended up staying for a week because we enjoyed it so much. We would’ve stayed longer except we had to move on due to repair work needing to be done to our fridge. Anyway, this is a great camping area; secluded, peaceful, shady, huge open areas to pull into, and fairly ... more
We had planned on only staying here for a couple of nights, but ended up staying for a week because we enjoyed it so much. We would’ve stayed longer except we had to move on due to repair work needing to be done to our fridge.
Anyway, this is a great camping area; secluded, peaceful, shady, huge open areas to pull into, and fairly close to Mancos and Durango. In Mancos, we found the cheapest diesel that we’ve found thus far in our trip, and there’s also a grocery store there where you can refill big water bottles for only $0.39 / gallon.
In Durango (which is in the opposite direction and more of a drive), you have laundromats, a Walmart, an RV repair and sales place (Tarpley’s), and some really yummy restaurants.
Being between these two towns really made this a nice spot to stay.
Oh, and the internet out in Madden Peaks is TERRIFIC! Verizon and AT&T both came in great; I could even get a super slow Sprint signal if I put the hotspot right next to the booster; no Sprint otherwise.
Two huge thumbs up; absolutely will stay here again.
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AT&T 4G
Verizon 4G
WanderWithTheWorkmans would stay here again
This review is the opinion of a Campendium member and not of Campendium.com
“Awesome campsite on the edge of the mesa”
Reviewed 8/20/2018
| Nightly rate: | FREE! |
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| Days stayed: | 14 |
| Site Number: | 37.3461,-108.1993 |
| RV Length: | 21' |
Overall Rating
This is an excellent camping area, with many large pull-through and back-in sites. If you want to drive the whole length of the road first to scout it out, there are plenty of sites to back into to turn around. I was lucky to get the best site, right on the edge of the mesa, with a view of the whole valley 500 ft below. This site is... more
This is an excellent camping area, with many large pull-through and back-in sites. If you want to drive the whole length of the road first to scout it out, there are plenty of sites to back into to turn around.
I was lucky to get the best site, right on the edge of the mesa, with a view of the whole valley 500 ft below. This site is at 37.3461,-108.1993. Go 1 mile up from the highway, and turn right at the cross-roads. Garmin GPS calls this road "Railroad Grade". I guess it was once a logging railroad. Then take the first right, and the site is at the end of that short road. It's not far to walk from the cross-roads to scout it out. The site is on top of a natural gas pipeline, with a broad cleared area in front down the side of the mesa, and behind. A hiking tail along the mesa passes just behind the site. (Do not go any further down "Railroad Grade" with an RV. There are no campsites, and there's nowhere to turn around.)
I had 4 bars of Verizon 4G, but the internet was slow.
I got water at the Cortez sanitation department dump station. It was 25 cents for an unlimited amount. You have to press a button by the coin slot to stop the water. There is no faucet - just a threaded pipe sticking out horizontally, and the pressure is very high, so take a hose, or get very wet filling your containers as I did. The dump station is free and very clean. There is a whole line of recycling dumpsters for every conceivable recyclable, but no trash dumpster. I got propane at Suburban, on the road to Cortez.
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Verizon 4G
John T would stay here again
This review is the opinion of a Campendium member and not of Campendium.com
Reviewed 8/1/2018
| Nightly rate: | FREE! |
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| Days stayed: | 4 |
| RV Length: | 35' |
Overall Rating
We had a spacious pull through site. There are large areas cleared, good for bigger rigs. We have a 35' TT and haul it with a Dodge 3500 extended bed. We had plenty of space. Multiple large/medium/small sites the first 2-3mi down, after that (the road gets really rough) there are multiple great tent sites with great views further up th... more
We had a spacious pull through site. There are large areas cleared, good for bigger rigs. We have a 35' TT and haul it with a Dodge 3500 extended bed. We had plenty of space. Multiple large/medium/small sites the first 2-3mi down, after that (the road gets really rough) there are multiple great tent sites with great views further up the mountain! It was pretty clean here. No highway noise, good signal, not really a view at my site but there are sites with great views. A lot of sites were taken on a Saturday. Somewhat busy for a boondocking spot (road traffic/hikers).
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Verizon 4G
Madi would stay here again
This review is the opinion of a Campendium member and not of Campendium.com
“Good location”
Reviewed 6/9/2018
| Nightly rate: | FREE! |
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| Days stayed: | 6 |
| Site Number: | N/A |
Overall Rating
Madden Peak is a good location for exploring the area. There is a lot to do in the area and the campground makes a good base camp. The road in is typical dusty gravel but it's only about a mile to the campsites. The campground is different than most of the dispersed forest areas I have been to, with more bushes than pine trees. How... more
Madden Peak is a good location for exploring the area. There is a lot to do in the area and the campground makes a good base camp. The road in is typical dusty gravel but it's only about a mile to the campsites.
The campground is different than most of the dispersed forest areas I have been to, with more bushes than pine trees. However, it appears that there are several fairly flat, fairly private sites to choose from. I was happy with the site I found a short way down FR-568.
Target Tree Campground is just east of Madden Peak for $20 per night.
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AT&T 4G
Robert would stay here again
This review is the opinion of a Campendium member and not of Campendium.com
“Private Boondocking”
Reviewed 5/21/2018
| Nightly rate: | FREE! |
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| Days stayed: | 7 |
| RV Length: | 35' (Class A) |
Overall Rating
We lived in Colorado for four years and every weekend we would throw the tent into the back of the Jeep and head out for a weekend of BLM camping. We never knew exactly where we would be tenting, but we would set off in a general direction and know that we would find a beautiful view, and/or a beautiful view with a mountain stream if w... more
We lived in Colorado for four years and every weekend we would throw the tent into the back of the Jeep and head out for a weekend of BLM camping. We never knew exactly where we would be tenting, but we would set off in a general direction and know that we would find a beautiful view, and/or a beautiful view with a mountain stream if we got really lucky, because Colorado is full of unbelievable BLM opportunities and because our Jeep offered us the capability to hit any FS road.
Fast forward to our current set-up: 34' DP towing a four door JK. Boondocking opportunities are now a little more few and far between in CO for our rig, but it's doable with a little more research. Which brings me to Madden Peak Road. Totally big rig accessible!
Access: Right off 160 (on a somewhat blind curve right at a merge area with no left turn lane while heading east and most people flying along at 70mph - BE CAREFUL!) with a brown road sign: National Forest Access - Madden Peak Road. Wide, graded gravel road with a place to unhook off to the left a little ways in. Sites start showing up a little ways after the pull out. At the intersection, you can take a right hand turn, which has many sites along both sides that are tucked back into the trees. This gets pretty narrow with heavy vegetation fairly fast and no turnaround for a big rig. Turning left at the intersection will take you onto private property. Going straight at the 316 sign will send you towards more big rig accessible sites lining both sides of the road. The road does narrow a little bit and becomes a little more rocky, so taking it slow is the name of the game, but not a big deal. As everyone else states, nothing much past the second row of powerlines.
Site: We chose the HUGE site (group site?) on the left side of the road right before the first set of powerlines. Not an amazing view to speak of, but not bad either. Lots of vegetation for privacy, you feel somewhat alone out here, and sites are very spread out. Nice fire ring (burn ban in effect right now). The site is somewhat sloped, so we did have to use our leveling blocks. Grassy (albeit, dry) and hard packed dirt, which I can see possibly becoming an issue if any measurable rain fell. Very clean site. The ranger does drive by every few days and takes note of your presence. The road isn't all that busy (5+/- cars per day). Your site is surrounded by access to several FS roads which offer very fun exploration on bike or by four-wheel drive. At night, you can hear the kiln at the nearby sawmill emitting a very low rumble, but didn't affect sleeping at all. We heard no other noises from the sawmill. Stars are great. Solar in our particular site is great since it's a more open, grassy meadow type site.
Trash Disposal: We called the local Forest Service and they told us we could throw our trash in the dumpster a couple miles east on 160 at Target Tree Campground. Dumpster located at the end of the one way loop across from the camp host. However, I would still call to make sure they haven't changed this info. Local visitor center, although nice when I called, had no idea where we could dispose of our trash.
Groceries: Mancos - at the natural grocer, Zuma, or for more staple sundries, P&D Grocery. For a larger selection of everything, 25 miles to the west is Cortez or 25 miles to the east is Durango.
Local: Mancos offers a brewery (Mancos Brewery), a super tasty cidery (Outlier/Fenceline Cellars), several art galleries, an awesome breakfast/lunch joint (Absolute Bakery Cafe), excellent coffee (Fahrenheit Coffee Roaster), a great Mexican restaurant (Chavolo's), a very cool yoga studio (River Studio Yoga) and a friendly post office. Mesa Verde National Park is a stone's throw away.
Connectivity: 4 bars of LTE (Verizon), non-boosted. However, it would sometimes get bogged down. We had no dropped calls during our stay, but uploading or downloading files could take a minute. Overall, we were able to work all day during the week very effectively and with little issue.
Enjoy!
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Verizon 4G
Go That Road would stay here again
This review is the opinion of a Campendium member and not of Campendium.com
“Great Boondocking Site!”
Reviewed 5/15/2018
| Nightly rate: | FREE! |
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| Days stayed: | 8 |
| Site Number: | 37.3478980,-108.2019650 |
| RV Length: | 30' (Travel Trailer) |
Overall Rating
This campsite is not open year-round. There is a gate near the turn-off that closes during the winter months. We stayed the first part of April 2018 and it was open. This was a great boondocking spot for us. We dumped and filled up our water at the Cortez City Industrial Park RV dump which was about 30 minutes away from this campsi... more
This campsite is not open year-round. There is a gate near the turn-off that closes during the winter months. We stayed the first part of April 2018 and it was open. This was a great boondocking spot for us. We dumped and filled up our water at the Cortez City Industrial Park RV dump which was about 30 minutes away from this campsite. Recommended if you are coming from the West. There is also a free dump and water station at the Giant in Durango if you are coming from the East. The camping spot is very easy to get to and is right off Hwy 160. Very close to Mesa Verde National Park and Durango, Colorado. There were very few campers here, so it was quiet and peaceful. The dogs loved the grassy area and we did not have to worry about leashes with no campers anywhere near us. The spot was fairly level and we didn’t have any trouble with leveling blocks. It snowed one day while were we here with quite a bit of accumulation. Thankfully the temperatures did not stay cold, so the snow did not last long. At first the road coming in is wash-boarded, but if you go slow it is fine. The road does gets better as you drive down. They graded the road while we were here which made it a much nicer ride. We stayed about a mile down the road and saw around 6-7 spots in the immediate area with some off the side roads. The spots are huge and could fit any size RV. I wouldn’t recommend going much farther than our spot as there are only a few decent campsites further. The road does eventually get very bumpy several miles up. We saw very little traffic, so we did not mind being closer to the road. You don’t really get great views from this campsite as the trees block the nearby mountains, but there are other sites with better views. Our spot was in a nice open area so solar could do its magic. The AT&T cell signal when we arrived was good. We consistently got 3-4 bars LTE without boost. For some reason the last day we were here the cell connection went to crap and we only had about 1 bar. We were able to get 3-4 bars LTE on Verizon as well. We stayed 8 nights and would highly recommend.
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AT&T 4G
Verizon 4G
MasseysLife would stay here again
This review is the opinion of a Campendium member and not of Campendium.com
“Easy access, easy to find, great spot”
Reviewed 5/9/2018
| Nightly rate: | FREE! |
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| Days stayed: | 4 |
| Site Number: | N/A |
Overall Rating
Madden Peak Rd, FR 316 great spot, large areas to pull into. As posted by others if you are a larger rig park before crossing the 2nd power line. FR-568 turns to the right and there are a few more sites to park. This is an old railroad grade & is perfect for a short bicycle ride- we did an hour out to Cherry Creek and back. Great h... more
Madden Peak Rd, FR 316 great spot, large areas to pull into. As posted by others if you are a larger rig park before crossing the 2nd power line.
FR-568 turns to the right and there are a few more sites to park. This is an old railroad grade & is perfect for a short bicycle ride- we did an hour out to Cherry Creek and back. Great hiking/cycling straight up FR316 too. Scenic spot and great cell coverage.
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Verizon 4G
Katilla1968 would stay here again
This review is the opinion of a Campendium member and not of Campendium.com
“Big Rig Accessible Chill Zone”
Reviewed 4/26/2018
| Nightly rate: | FREE! |
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| Days stayed: | 4 |
| Site Number: | 37.342876, -108.204021 |
| RV Length: | 34' (Fifth Wheel) |
Overall Rating
While stated to be closed until May, we lucked into a light winter in the region and an open gate allowing us access to the area in mid-April. We rolled in on a Sunday afternoon on a slightly washboarded dirt road to find several spaces that we could have shimmied into. However, since the more 'scenic' spaces were filled in that eve... more
While stated to be closed until May, we lucked into a light winter in the region and an open gate allowing us access to the area in mid-April.
We rolled in on a Sunday afternoon on a slightly washboarded dirt road to find several spaces that we could have shimmied into. However, since the more 'scenic' spaces were filled in that evening (I'm looking at you 37.346103, -108.199353) we opted to just take the 'close to the highway' pull through spot (which is no really close to the highway, but is closest to the highway). We had no problem rolling our 40' into the spot and getting pretty level too.
Un-restricted sunshine powered our solar panels through the day, and silence surrounded us all evening. There is some light traffic during the day - mostly outdoor enthusiasts enthusiastically driving the road to do outdoor stuff it would seem.
We did note that many folks stop up here for an 'overnight' and most folks fail to make it beyond the pullout near the National Forest sign or the pullout after ours (us included I guess!) But don't be afraid to venture on down the road and take the fork to the right or go straight at the fork - just be cautious that both roads do narrow out after 1/4-1/2 or so and turning around could be difficult. (Always scout ahead - ALWAYS SCOUT AHEAD!)
Verizon was 12down/4up, but AT&T was pretty unusable for us (unboosted/enhanced) at 2 bars.
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AT&T 4G
Verizon 4G
Liz & Jake would stay here again
This review is the opinion of a Campendium member and not of Campendium.com
Page 8 of 10
14 reviews
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Amenities
Hookups
- dry camping
- Dispersed Camping
Site Amenities
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