No set date yet for reopening Rocky Mountain National Park’s largest, most popular campground
Christian Murdock, The Gazette
Now is the time when people in the know reserve their summer campsites at Rocky Mountain National Park. And for now, they are still without the option of the park’s largest, most popular campground.
While the six-month rolling window for reservations has opened at Glacier Basin, Aspenglen and Timber Creek campgrounds, Moraine Park Campground remains offline.
Construction that closed the campground in 2023 and 2024 has yet to finish, casting uncertainty for 2025 — at least for now.
“The contractor is working to finish up the project and it is expected to open this summer,” said Kyle Patterson, Rocky Mountain National Park’s public affairs officer. “Unfortunately we are unable to predict the start date (for an opening). We need to be confident regarding the availability of specific sites before we make sites available through reservations.”
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The message was similar around this time last year, when the spokesperson expressed confidence Moraine Park would open for the summer of 2024.
“The campground was supposed to open last season,” Patterson said. “Unfortunately, the contractor’s production in the field has not matched the contractor’s schedule.”
Patterson previously cited “typical delays associated with weather, differing site conditions and design-related issues.”
Construction has been described as “a critical infrastructure project,” with work involving drainage and erosion mitigation, replacing tent pads, adding wheelchair accessible sites, installing electrical hookups and upgrading walkways and parking areas. The job also calls for replacing water and power lines around the campground and beyond to Moraine Park Discovery Center.
Moraine Park Campground has been said to attract 30,000 overnighters every year. Among campgrounds on the park’s Estes Park side, Moraine accounts for 244 of 472 sites listed online.
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The additional year of closure meant an estimated $1.3 million in revenue for the park lost, Patterson said. That represented campsites booked from Memorial Day through Labor Day, she said.
“The funding supports a wide variety of park programs that are impacted due to this loss,” she said, mentioning educational programming, search and rescue, trail maintenance, visitor center staffing and wetland restoration.
Patterson said help from nonprofit partner Rocky Mountain Conservancy “has prevented these impacts from being widely felt by park visitors.”
Though, a strain is felt by those seeking a campsite.
“Having Moraine Park Campground out of the lineup for camping opportunities causes reservations at our other campgrounds to fill up even more quickly,” Patterson said.
She recommended people “plan ahead as much as possible” and “research options in Rocky Mountain National Park as well as other locations.”
First meeting on master plan to open Stratton Park coming Tuesday night
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