Dakota Ridge RV Resort near Golden, CO Review

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Colorado is one of our toughest states to find campgrounds when visiting family.  Dakota Ridge RV Resort is an RV park in Golden Colorado.  We have stayed at many State park campgrounds in the Denver area.  This is one of the few privately owned campgrounds we have stayed at in the area.  Read on to learn more about our experiences here.

Location of Dakota Ridge RV Resort

Dakota Ridge RV Resort is located in Golden Colorado, which is a suburb of the greater Denver Metro area and is nestled at the far west side of town just before the roads climb up into the mountains. Roads into the area are all excellent and it is easy to access being only a short drive from Colorado’s main artery I-70, and near the intersections of Hwy 40 and 6th Avenue. If coming into the area from the north, south, or east the drive will be relatively easy. But if you are coming here over the mountains from the west it will be a very hilly drive at high altitudes and will of course be snowy in the winter.

There are fuel stations and grocery stores 5-15 minutes away, and any other convenience of a larger city within a short drive. It is very near the foothills for easy access to nature as well. There is some road noise from the highway, but not super loud.  Being in the foothills of Colorado, the elevation is about 6,000 feet. There are residential neighborhoods and commercial property in the surrounding area, but only a mile or so from hiking trails and an old school amusement park called Heritage Square.

Update 2021: The bar across the street that caters to motorcycle enthusiasts did a major expansion in 2020 which now includes a large concert stage with live music multiple nights per week.  It shuts down at 10pm, but is definitely worth noting.

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Area Attractions

This is an excellent location for access to city and nature. There are great hiking and biking (road or mountain bike) trails within very close proximity. Red Rocks Amphitheater is only a few miles away if you want to see a concert. There is an amusement park about a mile away, and you have very quick access to major roads if you want to get up into the mountains, or visit any of the Golden or Denver area attractions. 

Golden is home to Coors Brewery, and Buffalo Bills Grave. It is a cool little town. Denver has a long list of attractions. More advanced cyclists will be excited by the variety of roads and mountain bike trails nearby.

Amenities at Dakota Ridge RV Resort

The RV park has the main office, and clubhouse, pool, hot tub, laundry room and showers. The main building also has a pool table, and a small workout room with some relatively old exercise equipment. There is also a small playground for kids outside. Being November the pool and hot tubs were closed for the winter season.

They offer campsite trash pick up between 8-10am, and have a propane filling station that is open during business hours. The propane was about $0.30/gal more expensive than a nearby U-Haul store, but the price difference was worth it for the convenience of not leaving the resort. There is a nice hiking trail right out of the campground, which is also a nice area to exercise your furry friends. They allow you to wash your RV for an extra $15 fee.

Learn how we camp for (almost) free with our Thousand Trails membership

Mail / Packages

This resort does not accept mail or packages. You will need to have them shipped to a local post office (there is one very close by) or other location like a FedEx or UPS store if you need packages. We have family in the area, so we just sent out packages to their homes.

WIFI / Cable

They have campground wifi, but We use our own data with AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile, so we didn’t try their internet. All three carries had 4 bars of LTE signal so connectivity speeds were very good.

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RV Site Layout and Types

All the internal roads are wide, well maintained, paved asphalt surface. All sites are concrete pads, with grassy areas between most sites and some mature trees. It is a small to medium size campground with 140 sites. The campground is on a slight hill which creates a bit of a terraced feel to the sites. Sites all appear pretty level and well maintained, but some of the pull through sites have relatively steep entry or exit, which might mean that you can’t actually pull through the site without dragging or scrapping. Most sites are pull through, but there are about 53 back in sites around the perimeter. All sites are full hook-up with 50amp electricity.

This RV Park is pretty big rig friendly, but some of the internal roads have some odd angles. Most of the RVs in the resort during our stay would be considered a big rig by most. Certainly not all sites can accommodate 40+ foot RVs, but we would guess that more than half of the sites would easily accommodate that size.

Most all rigs were relatively modern RVs and in great condition. It is an attractive park, even in November when we visited, which is not usually one of Colorado’s most scenic. There are not any rental cabins, only RV sites. It is a nice park, and they claim to be the #1 park in Colorado, but not sure where that title was obtained.

This RV park probably has the most lengthy and strict policies we have ever experienced at a campground. None were outrageous, but felt it was worth noting.

PROS

  • Great location for easy access to nature, city and nearby attractions
  • Well maintained park with mostly level concrete pad full hook up sites

CONS

  • Some road noise from nearby highways
  • Expensive, especially during peak months
  • Fees for guests strongly discourages having anybody visit

Rates at Dakota Ridge RV Resort

We had a 28 day stay in November which is off season and a monthly rate. Our monthly rate was $850 + 63 (tax) +plus utilities, which came to over $1000 for four weeks. Remember this is the off season rate. From what we understand, a month long stay in October was $1800. We feel that is a bit high, but we find Metro area Colorado to be a pretty challenging area to find campsites. The location is very hard to beat with many family nearby so we were willing to pay to stay here and be comfortable.  

Update 2021: during our recent stay, we only stayed for 3 nights for a total of $182 (about $60/night)

We spend most of our time in Thousand Trails campgrounds with no nightly fee.  This helps subsidize our visits to campgrounds like this where we need to pay more.  Learn more about how Thousand Trails saves us money in this post.

Learn how we camp for (almost) free with our Thousand Trails membership

Summary

This is a very nice campground in a great part of the country. Roads in the area are great quality and easy to access for large RVs. Campground is very well maintained with large, level concrete pad sites, and good landscaping. Rates are a bit high, especially in peak season, but there is high demand in the area, and they don’t seem to have trouble staying full.

About our stay

We visited here in November 2017 and stayed for 4 weeks. As one would expect in this area, the weather was a bit cold during our visit. Most nights saw lows in the 30s, and a couple nights in the 20s. Sunny day time highs in the 50s-60s. We had a really nice time here and would come back to visit. Normally we stay in State Parks in Colorado, but wanting to stay for 4 weeks, we chose a monthly stay at this park.

We had a bit of sticker shock paying for our sites after nearly 6 months of paying next to nothing for our campground stays in Thousand Trails parks. 

Contact Information

To find out more or to make a reservation, contact:

Dakota Ridge RV Resort

Address: 17800 W Colfax Ave, Golden, CO 80401

Phone: (303) 279-1625

Website: Dakota Ridge

Editorial Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of any RV park, campground, or RV resort, and have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.

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2 thoughts on “Dakota Ridge RV Resort near Golden, CO Review”

  1. I had to call the police twice during my stay at this campground. The first time was because a neighbor helped himself to my tools under my rig, and got dog shit all over them in the process. Dude told me he wouldn’t stay out of my site and dared me to contact the police, so I did. The next day the landlord showed up screaming and shouting while I was in the shower to attempt to illegally evict me in less than 2 hours notice. Why? Because I called the police the day prior and they stated it was “causing problems.” (It is illegal to evict someone in CO for reporting potential domestic abuse. I have lived here for a year, this is legally considered my domicile).

    I have never received a complaint from management prior to this attempted eviction. I needed to call the police to stop these people from following through on this illegal attempt to leave me homeless. I’m a travel nurse and I have a nice rig. Its not a dump.

    Don’t go here, these people are nuttier than squirrel sh!t.

    Reply
    • Oh boy sorry to hear about your experience! We enjoyed out first stay in 2017, but then we stayed again in summer of 2021 and we felt a much weirder vibe, and less safe – especially with the expansion and noise from the biker bar across the road. We aren’t in a rush to return!

      Reply

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