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Dispersed Camping

West Magnolia Campground

20 Reviews

About

National Forest

Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests and Pawnee National Grassland

West Magnolia Trailhead provides access to eight miles of singletrack trails for hiking, biking and horseback riding west of the Peak-to-Peak Highway south of Nederland. An additional eight miles of Forest Roads are open seasonally (check the Road Status Table before your visit) to motorized and non-motorized activities. Along these roadways are designated campsites. Camping is allowed within 50 feet of the campsite markers. There are no facilities of any kind. The free Boulder Ranger District Motor Vehicle Use Map displays National Forest System (NFS) routes open to motorized travel and is available online and at the Boulder Ranger District offfice. Recreational shooting closures exist in this area. Click here for more information.

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Location

West Magnolia Campground is located in Colorado

Directions

From Nederland, head south on Colorado Highway 119 for 2.8 miles. Turn west onto County Road 132W. Limited parking is available just off of the highway, or continue one mile west and turn south through the second Forest Service gate to the main trailhead parking area.

Coordinates

39.94678221 N
105.51764655 W

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Access

Drive-In
Park next to your site
Walk-In
Park in a lot, walk to your site.

Stay Connected

WiFi
Fair
Verizon
Fair
AT&T
Good
T-Mobile
Unknown

Site Types

Dispersed

Features

For Campers

Phone Service
Pets
Fires

For Vehicles

Big Rig Friendly

Enjoy dispersed camping on government land and leave no trace. Pack in and pack out. No (or limited) services at this camping area. Permit may be required.

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Contact

General Info

William C.

Guide

Reviewed Jun. 4, 2023

Scenic Campground

Scenic campground. Some spots are more secluded than others (19-22 are the furthest out). Most sites are very shaded (8-13 are in a meadow area and are almost full sun).

Good for tent, car, or RV/camper use (though no shore power or water/waste hookups onsite).

Proximity to Boulder/Denver is very convenient— but means it can get crowded and difficult to find a spot on the weekend.

Lots of mountain bike and hiking trails through the area. Sites 22 & 15 are both near trailheads and get a bit more foot traffic near the campsites than some of the others.

Overall- it was a quiet and relaxing stay. Highly recommend.

Site22

Month of VisitJune

Derek S.

Traveler

Reviewed Jul. 30, 2022

Excellent for free car camping

Istarted my site search on a Friday morning aound 8:30am. Almost all of the sites were already occupied i felt lucky that i found site 16. The roads around the whole campground were a little rough but i did okay in my Ford Escape. All of the sites seems to be really spread out.

There were several people in the campground. Many hikers, mountain bikers,and an occasional dirt biker.

One suggestion I would offer is to read the fire ban signs very closely. I was visited by the forest service who helped me put our my food that was very small in the for ring. Luckily he found me before the fire service did because it would have been a $500 fine.

Site#16

Month of VisitAugust

(5) View All

Dave

Guide

Reviewed Jul. 28, 2022

GREAT Campground!

West Magnolia was awesome! Not only is this pretty easy to reach, but Peak to Peak highway is great to drive. Just take P to P south from Nederland and turn right on HWY 132… Campsites and trailhead are about 1/2 mile down.

Hiking/biking trails everywhere. Campgrounds were clean with a few exceptions.

This is dispersed camping… Most of the sites are tucked away, without view of your neighbors. Fire rings provided, that's it, no amenities.

We camped at site 15 and 11. Both offered a great experience, but different settings.

15 is close to the main road (132), but tucked away in the evergreens. Really cool site, fire ring provided (but this area was under a stage 1 while we were there). You can still catch a glimpse of the mountains if you position your camp facing west. Plenty of space… You could get a group with 2-3 trucks setup in there no problem.

Campsite 11 is one of the best (in our opinion). Nice and wide open. You could also get a group of 3-4 trucks/tents on this site. Facing east you can see mountains, sunsets/rises are incredible. Its a little off the path, so people rarely drove by our camp while we were at 11.

During the day we hiked around and checked out all of the other campsites, they all looked great and had their own pluses/minuses. We'd like to camp at site 13 in the future. Pictures don't do the views around Magnolia justice.

We will absolutely be back here down the road.

Site11 & 15

Month of VisitAugust

(9) View All

Freedom F.

Traveler

Reviewed Jul. 20, 2022

Great Campground

This place has some really nice sites and views. Can get pretty difficult to traverse in areas. I have a minivan and a few places in the backside of the grounds you can definitely bottom out. Otherwise great place to start. T-Mobile is spotty in certain areas and non existant in most of the Campground.

Site1

Month of VisitAugust

Jessica M.

Scout

Reviewed Jun. 12, 2022

So dang pretty

We snagged a smaller site closer to the entrance. Pretty views if you walked up a little bit. Only bummer was how much glass we had to pick up; why go camping if you’re gonna be a Dick and break glass?

Site4

Month of VisitJuly

Casey J.

Scout

Reviewed Jun. 8, 2022

Beautiful dispersed spots in range of Boulder

Beautiful spot; close enough to civilization to feel secure yet secluded enough to feel private. In the section of camp spots I stayed at, most were full, but I got one as soon as I pulled in probably by luck. Judging by the fact that it is a Tuesday, I would assume this place would be packed on a weekend. The road getting here was a little rough but extremely short, no need for a four-wheel drive. The campsites are spread out enough to limit others noise pollution and feel secluded. There is a fire ring at all campsites, but no amenities. Overall, pretty good for dispersed.

Site1

Month of VisitJuly

Aneece D.

Traveler

Reviewed Jun. 3, 2022

Beautiful campground (site 11

The road was easy to get down and well maintained. (Jeep stock undercarriage) Unfortunately, there is some road noise, and houses built around the site (though not close).

However, it was perfect for what I used it for, which is a place to sleep at between hikes.

Site11

Month of VisitJuly

(6) View All

Presto .

Scout

Reviewed Mar. 26, 2022

Access Roads Closed Nov. - May

Was going to check it out today but went on their website and seen the access roads are seasonal so gotta wait a little longer

Site

Month of VisitApril

hannah P.

Guide

Reviewed Mar. 15, 2022

Closed

We came from Boulder and it took us down a 10 mile dirt road that was pretty bumpy (you can avoid this just make sure your GPS takes you the longer way). Once going through all that hassle it was closed 🙃🙃

Month of VisitApril

N I.

Legend

Reviewed Oct. 18, 2021

Stark

Camping in designated campsites only even if a site has a fire ring. The sites are posted with numbers. The road in will pass a trailhead and the designated campsites will be one mile past. You will pass some private houses and the turn for the campsites will be to the left. The gravel road to the sites is in good shape. Once you turn off the gravel road the campsite road is not the best. As you travel further down the road they have built burms across the road to stop the rain from washing the road. Be careful as you might drag if you have very little clearance. The sites are small and have rock fire rings. We arrived early in the day and mid week and all the sites were taken with tents. Some of them had fallen in which made us wonder if the spots were dust being held for the weekend. I know this happens but I was in hopes that was not the case. Well we discovered later that it was the case. By the time Friday afternoon arrived all tents had been replaced with small RV's. Get there early in the week and maybe you will get a site. The Mountain Pine beetle is destroying the forest and what was once a beautiful tree covered forest is becoming a pasture. The forest service is taking down the trees and removing the stumps. If you can get a site this is a great area.

LNT

Pack it in pack it out

Stay safe happy travels

Month of VisitNovember

(12) View All

Corey M.

Guide

Reviewed Aug. 20, 2021

Crowded

It’s first come first serve and it fills up quickly. We got there after dark and checked out every spot before deciding to just camp at the trail head because every spot was full. The spots are SUPER secluded though which was awesome and easy to find. Very well labeled. There were also lots of pretty wildflowers when we were there. Also I had full bars of service and was able to look up where we were going the next day and communicate with my friend.

Month of VisitAugust

amber P.

Guide

Reviewed Jul. 9, 2021

Beautiful, amazing, free campground

Oe of my family's fav places, beautiful views, camping spots super far away from one another so awesome privacy, and completely free. Spots fill up quick on weekends, you can stay 14 days. No amenities so bring what ya need and shower prior.

Site#8

Month of VisitJuly

Sean T.

Traveler

Reviewed Jul. 2, 2021

Nice dispersed camping!

I didn't mind the the neighbors too much as the sites are really well placed. No comments at all. The only reason I'm going to downplay west mag is that not all neighbors realize how important fire safety is. 4.9/5, would bring my kid.

SiteSite #3

(4) View All

Shelby B.

Scout

Reviewed Jun. 29, 2021

Clean and well dispersed sites

There are several sites scattered throughout this campground. They are spaced far enough apart from each other to offer privacy and are clean. There was a nice metal fire ring at the site I stayed at, but this time of year there are fire restrictions in place so we didn’t need to use it.

I had 2 bars of 5G on both Att and Verizon with my signal booster. If you need stronger internet for video calls it’s easy enough to drive the 10 mins to Nederland.

Month of VisitJuly

Briley M.

Scout

Reviewed Jun. 22, 2021

Great for camping and any outdoor activities

I would have said 5 stars if it wasn't for all the trash, the sites are all pretty large some more open than others but all were a good distance apart as well. Great spot for mountain biking, hiking, and camping.

Liz W.

Scout

Reviewed Oct. 15, 2020

Full at 5:30 on a Wednesday

Arrived at 5:30 to find all of the spots were full aside from one (#18), possibly because of the negative review of it on this app? It was a great site for someone just staying the night. The sites are VERY spaced apart. The sun had already set by the time I found the last available one. Don’t be afraid to ask other campers if you can share a site, some of them are massive! High clearance vehicle recommended to get to a lot of the sites, but not all.

Justin B.

Scout

Reviewed May. 26, 2020

Some dancing allowed

Cell Service is patchy at best. On verizon I had 2 bars of gen 1 service, and could only get patchy data with my multi directional cell boster. I moved on because of this. Gordon Gulch is five or so miles away with LTE service.

Pros

I love this place because of its proximity to Nederland and Denver.

Great views can be had easily. Site 13 has nearly 180 degrees of views (not of eldora however), but it is highly exposed challenging the toughest of tents.

Roads are very easy except for the more remote areas. My Ambulance conversion which is not 4 wheel drive easily handled it.

Its clean. I found two pieces of litter which makes it one of the cleaner spots I frequent.

Cons

It can get busy and can be challenging to find a spot with only 15 sites. Plan on getting there early.

Poor cell service.

Ole Johnny Green Jeans and Johnny law love to patrol the area multiple times a day, so do not violate the fire bans. The ticket is a million dollars($510). Do not discharge fire arms. They will hunt you down. Plan to be on the best behavior you can muster. You can have a beer and some dancing is allowed provided no ankles are showing.

But if you live in the Denver area, you really need to visit once. It is a great quick spot with close proximity to Nederland. If you go there, go to the mountain man. It’s a fun little shop.

Chris W.

Scout

Reviewed Sep. 11, 2019

Site 18 of Dispersed Camping Sites

We rolled up to West Magnolia TH on 9/7/19. All sites were filled, however, we managed to find someone packing up at Site 18 and waited for about 20 mins for them to clear out before taking over this site. The site was good at first glance, however, being on the edge of the mountain biking trail we had numerous people literally roll through our campsite as they were seeking other parts of their trail experience. Kind of frustrating as we felt the campsite was clearly labeled but that didn't matter to most people.

If traveling here I would recommend getting here early to procure a better site...avoid #18 if you can. The area has many great mountain biking trails and very few hiking trails. Nice views though with many nice Aspen groves.

Site18

Month of VisitOctober

Amanda V.

Guide

Reviewed Sep. 21, 2018

Its campable

Spot 21 is the best for privacy but the road is a bit rugged getting back there. I recommend a high clearance vehicle to enjoy. There are decent amount of campsites to pick from. Don't keep any valuables unsecured, as this campsite is a bus ride and a hitch away for the Boulder homebums. Don't mind the transient kids, they're just there. Campsite 15 also has a pond right by it if you want a bonus view while camped. Also, it's a good place to gather firewood.

Site21

Month of VisitJuly

Megan C.

Guide

Reviewed Sep. 1, 2018

Great free forrest service camping!

Great (free) Forrest Service campground west of Boulder, CO near a cute little town Nederland. Camping in designated spots only, spread out and lots of space, access to mtb bike trails and there were some campers with motorbikes/4-wheelers in the area (but we didn't feel bothered by this). Road was mostly accessible by 2WD, we had to turn around once in a spot that was too rutted out but only led to one more campsite down the road.

Month of VisitSeptember