Lake Turquoise

This is a great area to camp as there are lots of places to camp.There are sites by the water. The main boat ramp is the Matchless and the campground near that ramp is Silver Dollar. Molly Brown is in the center and quite large. It features a dump station and a fresh water. We did notice that the fresh water had a large leak that sprayed water on us while we tried to use it. The dump is not included in your camping fee and now costs 10.00 to use. Belle of Colorado is a tent only section and is great when you don't want to risk hearing generators. We normally stay at Father Dyer. This is one of the smallest campgrounds and has small sites just right for pop ups and tents. Very few sites can accommodate large RV's.Over the the 4th it was quiet during the day. There is also Baby Doe with sites by the water and the last campground is located where the river comes into lake and is called May Queen. We noticed that you can now reserve some sites there. They have walk up sites for tenting that are very nice. There is also camping at the Matchless ramp and at the Baby Doe Ramp Area that are not reserved but are actually a very large parking lot with tables are around the edge. Not the best for camping.They also have a large group camping area that offers several separate areas, called Printer Boy. There is a second dump and fresh water located there as well. Most of the campgrounds have stainless steel flush toilets. I would take some of the disposal papers to help with shock of the cold in the morning. I also put Downy Sheets in the bathroom as it seemed they needed to empty the tanks.

There are many activities for you to do there are great hiking trails, jeep trails and of course you can go to town (Leadville)and ride a train, see Baby Doe's Mine, some good restaurants are in town as well. At over 10,000 feet you will find this camping a little cool and you will need warm jackets, sleeping bags. We actually saw our breath on Sunday Morning.

We did see fox, deer, grouse,grey jay,chipmunk,squirrel and lots of mosquitoes due to lots of standing water around the area. It was very green and lush something we had not seen. There was lots of snow on the mountains and the wildflowers were everywhere. The lake was full but windy and boating in small boats was difficult.