castle mountain recreation

I have been camping at Wellington Lake since it re-opened. My dog and i love it up there. However, with new ownership this year the prices went up even higher. I had a horrible experience on September 26th. The previous night I looked up online to see if I should reserve a spot but there were so many available on the lake I decided to just drive up on Friday. I had just found out my dog was dying so I wanted to have one more weekend up there with him. Upon check-in the caretaker who lives on property was so rude, nasty and condescending to me. I tried to inquire if there was a spot available on the lake and she only shoved a piece of paper in front of me and said "Here's what's available on first come/first serve." I kept trying to find out if there were any available and she sarcastically said I don't have a computer here to look up what's been reserved. WHAAT? She wouldn't tell me if there were spots available and it was so awful that I was about to ask for a spot off the lake but she was so mean to me that I told her that I would rather drive all the way back to Denver than give her my money. I was so upset that I had just been treated so badly. I asked her if she was the owner and she just laughed and said "No, they live out of state". I'm bummed that I can't/won't go to my favorite spot anymore if that's who I have to deal with.

The campsite was nice, the location was really nice (only being 45 minutes west of Denver), but the facilities were disgusting. The campsite offers one fresh water spigot and you have to drive to get to it. The restrooms are plentiful, but they appear to have lacked any maintenance since they were installed. Unfortunately having a 5 year old daughter I had to make several trips to the restroom. It was everything I had to keep from puking as you get within 10-15 feet of the toilet. If this campsite wasn't so close, I would probably never go again, simply because of the restroom conditions. I will be looking next year for a new location to camp.

It doesn't seem like the management does much at all to enforce rules but if you like canoeing, kayaking, or paddleboarding, and or fishing this is a great place to go. It may be a little overpriced, but you do have to keep in mind that it is a fully stocked private lake so you don't need fishing licenses to go. It is a great lake to boat if you don't have a motorized boat because there aren't motorized boats allowed, so it is a great place to teach kids how to kayak.That being said the people that work there were always rude to us. I called to see if they had campsites available, they said they only take reservations by email so I went on to their website to see if I could get a campsite. When I hadn't heard back after a week they told me that their email was down. I finally had someone call me back and we got a reservation. When I arrived their manners weren't great at all without even saying hi, they just were like you better have a reservation because we are full. Thanks I do actually.We wouldn't have even tried going there if we hadn't been there in the past and had a lot of fun. We still a had a great time on the lake and hiking to the waterfall in the back of the park as well, just don't expect much from the management.

We've visited Castle Mountain 4 times in the last 2-3 years; a couple of times with Boy Scouts groups and a couple of times on our own, and like other reviewers have said, yes, it's overpriced for what you get (no water or electrical hook-ups at the site, poorly maintained outhouses, etc.), but it's close to Denver and a beautiful location, so we've returned repeatedly. After our experience this summer, though, we won't be back. We checked in on a Thursday and signed their extensive contract that details how the campground is a family location and quiet time will be enforced (no partying, inappropriate language, etc.) and that dogs must be leashed and cleaned up after. We were unlucky enough to have a large group of 15-20 people partying in the 2 campsites next to us on Friday night, and they stayed up all night, drinking, cursing loudly, and yelling at each other. Our family got absolutely no sleep that night. Their dogs had roamed free and invaded our campsite throughout the day on Friday and although we're dog people and weren't totally put off by this, the dogs also used the bathroom freely and our kids had to be very careful about where they stepped on their way to the beach. We tried to call the front office to report the partying during the night on Friday/Saturday morning, but there's no cell reception and their office closed at 9:00 p.m.The next morning at 7:00 a.m., my husband and I were at the front office to complain when it opened. We were hoping the party would be asked to leave per the contract we all had to sign when paying for our campsites, but the person at the front desk told us he'd, "Look into it." He also told us that there aren't any patrols after 10:00 on Friday night, so that explained why the partiers were never caught. We told him if that group were allowed to stay for Saturday night that we would not stay as planned, and he said there was really not much he could do, so we chose to pack up and leave.Once we got home, I did write to the manager at Castle Mountain to complain about our experience and they assured me that the person on staff at the time we complained was no longer working there and that they would now have 24-hour staffing. Not sure how true this is, as we haven't returned and I doubt that we will due to that horrible experience.

I've been to many campgrounds/rec areas, not only in Colorado. Here's my take on this one:High points:* Beautiful view: lake, mountains, woods - nice!* Many camp sites are right at the water* large camp sites* nice hiking trails* the lake is great for fishing, boating or any other water activitiesLow points:* very basic facilities: all you get for your money is your site, a fire ring, picnic table(s) and stinking hole-in-the-ground toilets. No store (except for wood), no ice, no showers, no boat rental, ... The closes town is Bailey which is 11 miles up a bumpy, winding through the woods dirt road.* toilets, as i mentioned, are far from clean and the smell is awful!* there are fresh water but they are not very conveniently located. Basically, you have to fill at the front office which means you have to drive all they way there for water.* no mobile reception so no way to contact the front office in case of any need other than going there. They close the office at 9pm so you're pretty much on your own after that.* 10am checkout time is ridiculous! This is the earliest I've seen in ANY campground so far.* there is no online reservation system (or any other reservation system...). They will hold your site for you unless someone else comes in and claims it. I really think they should either add more or charge less. We paid $30 per night for 2 adults and 2 kids. Yes, you pay by person. I think that's way too much for what you get. But we still had fun.

Castle Mountain Recreation (aka Wellington Lake / Reservoir) is somewhat remote given that the roads that lead to it are dirt and fairly washboard enhanced which compels one to take in the scenery. Ensure that you bring all that you’ll need as the nearest store is ~ 1hr away.Once you’ve arrived the check in is painless. On a popular weekend the sites right on the lake might be all taken, but depending on your camping setup you might not want a lake site. Every campsite is within easy walking distance to the actual water. The fee structure is a little odd as you pay for day use (which one can stay for the day - leave at 9PM) and camping instead of just a night. Plus they charge per person – which makes it more expensive than the National Forest campgrounds, but if those are all full and you really don’t feel like camping in the wild off a road this is a good choice.This is a private campground with a lake. It’s not quite a KOA as there are no services to speak of. Campsites comprise of a picnic table (sometimes two), a fire pit and a pit toilet within the distance of a campsite or two, and there is potable water at the office. There is a variety of campsites that can accommodate tents, pop-up trailers, bigger pull trailers, RVs and I’d guess they could even accommodate a Greyhound size bus RV (but I’d check with them before you pull up in a behemoth RV and not just go off this review). After you are settled in and camp is deployed the activities can entail fishing (no fishing license is needed), swimming, boats that are human powered or a small sail are allowed, basically any floatation device, there are some hiking trails – which range from easy to fairly adventurous (the easy would be a nice hike to the waterfall, and the arduous hike would be attempting to summit Castle Mountain itself).There was a Boy Scout camp at one time (seemed abandoned to me) that is close to the waterfall trail. There is a faint trail from the base of the mtn and the edge of that camp which I managed to follow to the ramparts of the Castle. I was not able to discern a route to the top, but I understand (afterward) that if you skirt around at the base of the ramparts to the south one should be able to route find their way to the summit. I have heard too, that if you follow the gulley up from the waterfall ( which did seem to have a faint trail for the little way up I followed it) to basically the summit ridge and then use route finding skills one may summit that way. And I’ve been told that some bushwhack their way up from the west which is a gentler slope.Another neat thing to do while here if you’re restless is to take a drive to Deckers via FR 211 which is ~ 17 miles and takes about an hour. A high clearance vehicle should make it with no problem and certainly a 4x4. Maybe if it has been dry an ordinary car. The route crosses a couple of streams, passes a buffalo herd, and offers awesome profile views of Pikes Peak, then crosses through some of the Hayman fire carnage, and then you’re a short jaunt to Deckers where a waffle cone of soft ice cream awaits. I’d recommend taking FR 550 back. FYI odds and ends:Bring a grill for the fire pit, and/or a gas stove. Check with CMR before you arrive to see if fires are allowed. The only time I saw people catch fish was when they used worms. No luck with flies, spinners, power bait or fish channeling for the times I’ve been there. There are big fish there though. Bring enough firewood – there is wood there but it is a campground…Families can let the kids ride their bikes around the lake- the road is a hard packed dirt road and there is plenty for kids to explore and for parents to relax. Grown ups can ride their bikes too.