With Thanksgiving behind us, it’s time to start thinking about summer camping reservations at Colorado’s four national parks, 11 national forests and 42 state parks — if you’re able to plan that far ahead.. And yes, you’ll need to do that to score prime spots.
Campground reservations for most of these public lands can be made up to six months in advance. That means reservations for Memorial Day weekend went on sale last week and reservations for early June are on sale now.
National park and national forest reservations are made through , while reservations for state parks are made through the .
Moraine Park, the largest campground in Rocky Mountain National Park with 244 campsites, was closed for reconstruction in 2023 and 2024, and reservations are not yet available for 2025.
“The contractor is working to finish up the project and it is expected to open this summer however we are unable to predict the start date,” said park spokeswoman Kyle Patterson. “We need to be confident regarding the availability of specific sites before we make sites available through reservations.”
Camping reservations for the rest of Rocky’s camgrounds are available.
Park officials initially hoped to reopen Moraine Park in 2024. The loss of those campsites represents more than half of the 472 developed campsites on the east side of the park and typically serve about 30,000 campers annually.
Summer wilderness overnight backpacking permits for Rocky Mountain National Park become available on March 1 through recreation.gov.
