Ignoring The Barking Dogs: Sportsman’s Campground

It has been ages ago, but I had mentioned that I ought to do a review or two of some National Forest Campgrounds and at least one RV Park. However, other things got in the way or sidetracked the idea so I never got it accomplished.

So, today I will write about the above campground, which is located roughly 18 miles northwest of Pagosa Springs in the Weminuche Wilderness area. We had a two week vacation there in August of 2009. Click on the link below for some pictures of different Rocky Mountain places and look for the ones labeled underneath as Weminuche Wilderness.

http://www.americaswonderlands.com/rocky_mountains_pictures.htm

As for the campground, it is situated within some Pine trees and is equipped for some pretty large RV’s. They also have a few cabins as well. At one time, the John Wayne movie “The Cowboys” was filmed in the area and their website has a picture of him with a couple of kids. I suspect that those kids are the current owners and operators of the campground. Here is their website link.

http://www.sportsmanscampground.com/

There are a total of 28 campsites, but four of them are permanently leased to individuals and are not available. This is a very popular resort campground where a large number of the folks come back year after year. When we were there, we were advised to go ahead and book our reservations for next year before we even left if we wanted to insure that there was a space for us. With that in mind, I strongly advise anyone interested to be sure and contact the campground well in advance.

From Pagosa Springs, one would turn off of Highway 160 at Piedra Road, also known as Co. Rd. 600, and follow it out of town and towards the northwest. For some reason, on Google maps, Co. Rd. 600 turns into Co. Rd. 631 just before the Piedra River crossing. Once past the Piedra River, the campgrounds are only a few more miles north and on the right at the second junction of Taylor Lane.

Upon our arrival and check-in, we were immediately invited to participate in a pot-luck supper scheduled for a few days later. Everyone we met that were owners or employees of the campgrounds, including the workkampers, were extremely friendly and helpful.

As we were setting up our RV (the 26’ Rockwood fifth wheel we had then), I was having difficulty remembering how to “deploy” the awning. The process had been demonstrated to us a couple of different times by the dealership, but since we had never used it, I couldn’t remember the process. There must be some kind of “signal” received by experienced RV’er because as one gentleman walked by, he stopped and asked if he could be of assistance.

With his help we had the awning out and figuring a way to anchor it from the wind. Our immediate neighbors were one of the workkamping couples and they had a campfire every night, and we were invited over every night. They were all a great group of people.

This was our first ever time of RV’ing when we had all the hookups. Our normal camping experience was boondocking in a National Forest campground. After this two week vacation to Sportsman’s, Jo was hooked on having the hookups. She really likes taking a shower every morning.

Anyway, the sites are fairly easy to back into, with only one that I remember that was a pull through. While there was not much in the way of barrier trees or shrubs between the RV sites, there was a fair amount of space between them. There is a clubhouse with laundry in the middle of the campgrounds. It also had showers and a kitchen as well as a pool table and other recreational material.

The staff was great and very friendly, and while Jo and I did book a reservation for the next year, that year was to be the one when we ordered and purchased our Mobile Suites. After paying for tags and taxes, we really didn’t have the money to go back in 2010. However, I suspect that at some time, we will try to get back up there for another 2 week vacation.

Now, let me share some photos with you. What I will do is first show pictures of our RV site at Sportsman’s and then tomorrow, I will show some more of the other areas of the campgrounds. In yet a later post, I will begin telling of all the places we went on that two week vacation.

With this picture, you can see the nose of the truck in the campsite to the left of our site and the buildings on the right of the site are a few of their cabins.

This is from a different angle, but with the one vehicle that was in the right of the other picture being gone.

This image is taken from further away and gives a view up the lane. Large RV’s would need to circle and come from the direction of beyond our RV site.