Salida East Campground and Boat Ramp

Solid 3.5 stars. Know what your getting folks. The price is right at $18 a night, you get a large site, that is level, and has a very new fire grate and picnic table. A vault toilet nearby and no water or electric. No dump site either, so plan ahead. You can see the river, but I was hard pressed to hear it at night. I ran a fan at night to drown out the highway noise, which is typical of most of these AHRA sites that are close to the highway. The worst was the trucker "jake brakes" in the morning. Even the hum of my inverter generator was better than that. It gets pretty darn warm in the summer months, but gets cool at night (see pic.) Keep in mind, THERE IS NO DIRECT RIVER ACCESS FROM CAMPSITES! I was hoping for that. There is a small recreation area near the boat ramp where you can get

No dumpsters. I guess the idea is that you take your garbage home with you. That's fine if you're a local, but if you're 5 days into a three- week trip and home is another state away, it means that you stealth dump your garbage at a local business. Toilets were clean.

We had to change our reservation at the last minute to Salida east recreation area in a pinch becase of the no burn ban and fire near the spot we booked.When we arrived do to our panic booking we found, No water souce to fill water jugs for cooking, no bear boxes, no place to put your trash to keep bears away, and no shade at all. The photo of the site a lie, there was highway noise because it's 500 yards or less. Not a place you just want to relax, away from the city but good cell service . Update.8/7/24 I am changing my review a 3 after 4 days, later after we adapted to our invoroment and found away to create shade from what we had, because it was hot !! No joke we are all burned . We found the boat deck and enjoyed a nice spot earlier in the morning, that was close but is not our

The campsites have been redone and are very nice. They have tent pads and nice new fire pits. The toilets were being redone, and closed which was disappointing. There were also large construction vehicles present the whole time. The site is along the river, but you have to take a bit of a walk to get there as it's too steep for most of the sites to get down. The real issue is the location. It's right next to the highway, which is loud all of the time, and there's no shelter from wind or sun at nearly all of the sites. We enjoyed our time there, and it's beautiful, but I don't plan to go back for an extended period.

Hint, bring your own firewood. This is a great place to camp, a nice little spot next to the river. Less than 10 minutes from the local Walmart in case you need something but far enough out to make it feel like real camping. We found a good spot to play in the river and we're able to have a campfire. It was a good night.