Camping at Eleven Mile State Park is awesome! There’s lots to do and see but be prepared for the wind! Here’s my takeaway of 11 mile State Park.
Things to do
Camping
There are quite a few camp grounds around Eleven Mile Reservoir to rent. We booked ours online at Reserve America which allows you to book any of the drive-up camping sites. They also provide quite a few backcountry camp sites that you have to either hike or boat to in order to camp at. They cannot reserved so it’s first come first served.
Park Interpreter Guided Events
Visit the Colorado Parks & Wildlife event calendar and under ‘filters’ select Eleven Mile park and you will find all the events presented by the super awesome Park Interpreter, Charlene Barnes. She’s super knowledgeable, recruits additional talent to make the events better and is generally just super awesome. If there’s an event during the time you’re at Eleven Mile then you should definitely consider going to it.
Junior Range Program
If you have a youngster between the ages 7 and 12 you should definitely ask for a junior ranger book from the front park office when you arrive at 11 Mile State Park. If you help your youngster complete the book and are around the park at 10:AM on a Sunday (this is when the Junior Ranger award Ceremony was when we were at the park) then they can become an officially recognized Junior Ranger! My Nephew completed the program while we were camping at 11 Mile, the award ceremony is at the tail end of the video on this post. Charlene, the park interpreter is really awesome and does a great job working with the kids and helping them become Junior rangers!
Boating (and Fishing)
We brought a canoe which was a little difficult to handle on the windy days we were there but there were definitely quite a few boats on the lake for the fishing tournament that was going on the weekend we camped at 11 mile. If you have a canoe you can put it in the lake anywhere, you just need to have your name and address on it in permanent marker. That seems to be the only rule they have. Try not to tip over as swimming in the 11 mile reservoir is not allowed. As for the fishing, we watched the weigh in for the fishing tournament and saw one angler bring in a 29″ northern pike! To say the least, there are some huge fish in 11 mile reservoir. They also have a marina to get outfitted if you’re missing any gear or need to rent a boat.
Things to know
Restrooms & Showers
All the restrooms throughout Eleven Mile are vaulted (hole in the ground) style. Restrooms labeled for men, women, family and handicap use are spread throughout the camp sites and the marina.
The showers are coin operated and cost $1.00 for 4 minutes up to $1.75 for 7 minutes. You cannot control the temperature but the water gets pretty hot after the first 45 seconds of running. The showers are located in the same building as the park office and are closed for an hour mid-day for cleaning. If you’re staying more than one night it’s definitely worth bringing a towel, soap, sun screen and lotion to get the sun, wind and dirt off you at some point. Change machines are inside the restrooms so it’s not necessary to bring quarters however $1.00 in quarters will get you clean.
The Wind
The wind and sun can work together to really make for a rough combination. We had a tough time with…
- Canoeing
- Sun and Wind combination burns
- Keeping our tent from collapsing during the day.
- Badminton (we brought our own set but it doesn’t play well in wind)
Fortunately the wind seems to die down at night but after a weekend under the sun and in the wind our whole party was sun burnt, wind burnt and ready to head home.
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