Twin Lakes is located between Buena Vista and Leadville, almost in the center of Colorado.  This area has many National Forest campgrounds with great scenery that are usually on a lake, river, or stream.  NSF campgrounds are less expensive than Colorado’s state parks, costing $18 per night or $9 with the America The Beautiful pass.  I went online a month ago looking for campgrounds in this general area to make reservations for the July 4th weekend.  The only spot anywhere was at one of the Twin Lakes campgrounds and with only one left I booked it immediately.  It was either that or stay home.

Well, we hit pay dirt as far as views, space, and privacy.  Tulip is barely visible behind the big pine tree and at the same time we had plenty of sun for our solar panels.  No hookups but there was water nearby and a dump station at Sage Loop.

This is the view from our site #53 on Valley Loop in the White Star Campground.  It’s a pretty good walk to the lake from here but it doesn’t matter since we now have the extra vehicle for little excursions.

You would never know that there are two large campgrounds in this picture.  White Star Campground is on the left side of the highway nearest the lake.  There are three loops – Valley, Ridge, and Sage.  Sage is next to the lake and would be our first choice.  Lake View Campground is in the trees at the bottom of the picture.  We drove all through it and didn’t care for it at all because of small sites closer together and too many trees.

The road you see above is highway 82 and winds between the mountains, up Independence Pass and over to Aspen about 35 miles away.

This path leads to a small break between the two lakes and a little beach.

 

Molly loves to camp because she gets to go on many walks instead of just being let out the door  at home.