RV Park Rating – Winding River Resort (Grand Lake, CO)

July 20, 2010 by libertatemamo 7 Comments

Here’s a review of the awesome park we stayed at in Grand Lake for 2 weeks. This is a HUGE park so we’ll dedicate a longer review and a few more pics. Suffice to say we loved it… 

Link to website here: Winding River Resort 

1. Site Quality = 2/5
   The site quality is not the strong point in this park. It’s a rustic country park and the sites reflect that. All sites are dirt, of various sizes and levels. Several do get muddy in the rain and hookups are not always in the most obvious location. However there’s generally alot of open space and nice separation between sites. A portion of sites are full hook-ups (30A only) and others are only water/electric, but the hookups work as they should. All sites have dug-out fire-pit and bench. Several sites cater to horse-campers and have separate pens for horses and 70-feet lengths.
2. Facilities = 4.5/5
   There’s two main sets of toilets/showers and both are modern and work as they should. They are kept clean although they do get alot of use (and the surrounding area can be muddy with unpredictable Mountain weather). Nice pressure in the showers and all have separate chair and hooks. My only ding is that I wish there were a few more facilities. Since the park is so huge, the showers are sometimes full.
3. Amenities = 4.5/5
   Very nice set of amenities here. This park is really a country wonderland. It’s huge (takes a good 25 minutes to walk from end to end) with open space, grass, playground, horse stables, animal farm (with donkey, pigs, sheep, chickens, rabbits and a bunch of other “petting” animals) and pasture-land. They also offer hayrides, chuckwagon meals (breakfast and a few dinners), and ice cream social. As a bonus a river runs through the park and you can access the water from the bank. As for WiFi it’s free and it does work…sometimes. When we were near the entrance it worked, but did not work in the back of the park, so they get a bit of a ding for that.
4. Location = 5/5
   I really can’t imagine a better location. This park borders the Rocky Mountain National Park on the one side and National Forest on the other. So, you can literally hike into either location right from the park. It’s beautifully surrounded by mountains and only ~3 miles to Grand Lake (for shopping, eating etc.)
5. Pet Friendliness = 5/5
   This is a country park run by horse-folk so it’s extremely pet-friendly. There’s literally acres of space for doggie to play including grassland and river. The owners have a dog “Nugget” who runs free-range in the park helping the workers and acting as the local dog-greeter. So, they’re open to off-leash walking (as long as the dog is under control) and are happy to have the dog meet the local horses and animals in the farm.

Overall rating = 4.2
BONUS ALERT – Acres of land, river and views right smack next to Rocky Mountain National Park and the Arapaho Forest 

 Summary: Honestly this may be the biggest RV park we’ve ever seen and it’s as close to nature as you could have it. Located beautifully at 8,400 feet right smack in the middle of a mountain valley with access to Rocky Mountain National Park on one side and National Forest on the other. They have acres of land and cater to horse-camping as well as tents and RV’s. It’s basically a nature-lovers playground with plenty of space between campers and gorgeous mountain views. The only negative is that it’s a bit on the rustic side (no fancy sites here) and they’ve been devastated by the Pine Beetle so there’s only a spattering of trees left (the owners had to fell over 8,000 on the property). We talked to people who said the park used to be like a dense forest before the beetle took most of the trees. Despite that we loved the place. We were able to walk Polly for miles (around the park and the national forest), play in the stream, pet the animals, go for a horse ride, and personally we don’t mind that it’s a bit rustic. We’d definitely stay here again.