Any suggestions on where to trail ride and camp in the northern or central part of Colorado? We live in southeastern MN and are looking for something that's around a 12 hour drive and also a place to stop midway to spend the night. For accomodations we would need corrals, showers, hook-ups, water for the horses and a place that allows dogs. A variety of on and off trail riding, scenic and hopefully full of wildlife. The less commercialized the better, we prefer to hang out at camp when we're not riding. 

Thank you & happy trails to you..

Jane

I don't have any suggestions. But let me educate you just a little.

Most of the west is different from riding in the east. In that we are often on Public Land.  Forest Service, BLM, State Trust Lands etc. So you don't have private horse camps that are designed for horses. And Forest Service and BLM campsites, when you do find them, Most the time you don't get the hook ups.

Almost 100% of my camping is with self contained camping.  We choose camp site where horse water is available. And feel lucky if there is any people water. 

Here in Utah, groups like Back Country Horseman have gone in to popular trail head campgrounds and built corrals. The Forest Service still collects the $10 per night for the camp site. But you have a corral nearby.  Usually horse water is a river or lake that is near by. These camp grounds usually have a Bivy or outhouse, a flat spot to park, and picnic table.

This is a back country horseman corral

In other areas, Ranchers have grazing permits on public land. The ranchers under permit from the governing agencies, have built holding and sorting pens. These are corrals, where the ranchers will load and unload their livestock, sort and work the cattle.  These pens are often empty and the people do use them for their camps. But the Ranchers get first rights. If you are using them and the rancher pushes a group of cows in, Your horse need to be removed. Some of these corrals, can be very large complexs of corrals capable of holding 300+ cows, others will be simple 20 foot round pens.

I know that several of the camps built by the Forest Service for public use here in Utah, feature hitching rails to tie your horses at. BlackHawk  in northern Utah and Tasha Equestrian Campground in Central Utah  are two examples.  http://www.publiclands.org/explore/site.php?plicstate=UT&id=1362

Most of the dude ranches that back up to Public Land, Want you to ride their horses, So most are not greared for bring your own horse.

The fortunate side of this, That we have great access to lots of land to ride, I rarely pay anything for camping, Just pull off the road in a wide spot and set up camp.  Most the time, I high line or put up an electric fence.

Places to stop on the way, I have stayed at Hobby Horse overnight stable in Mitchell, SD it is just off Hwy 90 shower is extra over at the Flying J Truck stop. Custer Park on the Western side of SD has overnight camping spots in the park for horses, no shower but pens and pit toilets & horse water, trails right out of camp if you want to stop a day and ride some challenging spectacular trails on the way. 

We have stayed at Hobby Horse as well for a lay over and we sure appreciated thier conveniences. Last 9 years we have gone to Custer State Park so who know's maybe we have seen you in camp or on the trail:)

Happy Trails.............

Your photos are absolutely beautiful. Wish we had more time to make a trip such as this, hopefully down the road we can do so..I appreciate you taking the time to send me this information. It has to be just wonderful riding out there!! Feel free to send more photos and travel information:)

Happy Trails...

Maybe some of this might help....

http://horseandmuletrails.com/

Realize also that most the trails in my part of the west are pack trails, So they usually are a in-out type of trail.  To make a loop would involve a very long ride or having somebody drive over to another location to retrieve you.  Most trail heads will have enough trails to offer 2-3 days of riding with out repeating any trails, if you stay longer, There are plenty of trails, but the first 5-6 miles each day will be a repeat.

Us locals just move the trailer over to the next trail head. But if you are setting up an extensive camp, you may not want to pack up and reset up after moving 25-30 miles to gain access to the next drainage.

Also a lot of our areas are wilderness. Meaning that the trails are primative. Nobody is picking rocks up to make sure the trails are smooth. The rangers do usually keep the dead falls cut back. But the rocks can be a challenge to folks not used to them.

I met some folks out from Minn a couple of years ago. I ran into them on top of the mountain. They told me where they were camped and asked directions for the shortest return trail. I told them to follow me since i was heading in that direction. After 5-6 miles I had to cut off to return to my camp. I told them to just keep following the trail for another 2 miles and they would come to their camp.  They said, "We've been following a trail?"  I had to give them a quick lesson on forest service markers, since the trail was not well used and would fade in and out and they had not noticed the rock cairns and other markers.

I have been checking Winding River out this past week and it looks interesting as it has the facilities we are looking for. We have camped at French Creek the past 9 years and we love it. We couldn't get in this year, they are booked full the days that we take vacation. Don't want to head north of CSP due to Sturgis week, have you ever heard of or been to Country Charms? It looks like a nice place.

Thanks again.

Yes we have living qtrs and when it's just my husband and I we primitive camp but will have other parties traveling with us. We do have a water tank and generator  Looking so forward to spring and riding:)

Thank you...