mancos state park

The surrounding area has so many places to see and this state park offers a good base camp from which to do that.

Great place to sleep after 9 hr. drive day to National Parks and Monuments. LOTS of coyotes, owls, hound dogs, donkeys!? at night, but that's part of the ambience right? Yurt smelled like cigarette smoke despite rules posted, but I have a sensitive nose. Spacious accommodation for us and our children. Thanks for existing Mancos SP!

that about as good as it gets here. It's pretty basic and needs some attention from the Dept. of Wildlife (which runs the park system in Colo).The amazing thing is that this is the only State park to serve the SW area. We're talking about Cortez, Mancos, Durango, etc. You would think this would be one of the finest parks in the State, but is the only park I have rated this low. Let's get into specifics.The staff is fine.. there are no faults to blame here. No visitor Center. Weak trails. Fishing is pathetic (as the crappie will clean all bait and they are tiny. Dam only deep part and covered in rocks to make it impossible to bank fish. No trees for sun protection on lake, so the trout go deep by dam now have to fight those rocks. Hot lake means trout only comes out after 7:00pm and could be dark.. or will be soon.) No water available anywhere. No electrical outlets available. The reservoir was really low when I was there.. and it seemed tiny. The roads were in good shape, as I drove around the lake to check out the whole area. It just seems to me with such a population in the area.. this should be a top-notched Park. however, it's just the opposite. just something to think about.

We stayed at Mancos State Park in one of their yurts for 4 nights. The yurts were great -- plenty of room for a family of 5 -- 1 set of twin bunkbeds and 2 full size futons. It was hot while we were there, but the yurts cooled off at night. There are 2 yurts and they are close together, which, as long as you get a cool group staying next to you is fine, but I imagine it wouldn't be so great if there was a group next to you that was obnoxious. If you camp at the campsites, there were many campsites that were spacious and had plenty of space between the other campsites. There is no running water -- so no showers or toilets, but there are water sources where you can get drinking water. When we needed to get clean, we just took the kids to the rec center pool in Cortez and Durango to swim and take showers. There is a lake at the State Park that has a lot of fish. Our kids didn't have luck fishing, but we were told the fishing is generally good there. We were disappointed that the park advertised canoe and paddle boat rentals but the day we wanted to rent, they said we couldn't because they didn't have enough people working at the state park that day (but never gave a clear reason why we couldn't rent the boats). We used this as a point to explore the Mesa Verde area -- Mesa Verde National Park, 4 corners, Durango and Pagosa Springs -- it is only about 30 minute drive to many attractions.