We stayed here for most of our camping trip to Colorado and loved it! It's easily the most beautiful campground we've stayed at. There's only ~5 sites, each with a picnic table and fire ring. Right now there's a burn ban so we unfortunately didn't get to enjoy a fire. There's vault toilets that aren't very clean. The site is maintained by volunteers and is free to camp at (donations welcome) so make sure you bring everything you need including water and toilet paper. The lake is beautiful and has a ton of Rainbow Trout!

We would recommend 4x4 to get there, but it's not required. If you're going to go past the campground, 4x4 and/or decent clearance is a must. Along the road to the campground, there's 22 free dispersed sites with bear lockers. After the campground, there's free dispersed camping. So even if you can't get a site at Portal, there's quite a few options in the immediate area.

There's lots to do in that area. We hiked to Anderson and Petroleum lakes and that was beautiful! The turn off is about 10 minutes South of Aspen, then you drive 6.4 miles on a dirt road to the campground. If you drive another 3.5 miles on the dirt road, there's a trailhead for the lakes there. There's no drinking water, no cell service, but lots of beautiful nature and amazing hikes!

Also, it's quite colder than town and other campgrounds in the area - during the day, it could be 80 in Aspen but only 65 at the campground. It got into the 30s most nights so make sure you bring warm clothes and a nice sleeping bag, but shorts for the warm sun during the day!