Dirtbagging in Estes Park

Hey y'all,
I'm moving to Estes Park in a week and am going to be living in my van. I just wanted to post and ask for some advice on showers, laundry, parking, etc. Thoughts?

Showers/laundry near the Safeway. I forget what it's called.

Camping/parking unless you are willing to pay, there isn't much in or near town. Ironclad crag is in national Forest about 20 minutes outside of Estes. Or camp at the Monestary down canyon. Really good climbing and some free camping.

Lumpys has rapture closures until July, I forget the exact date. And there is a lot of snow up high right now. We've been snowed on several times in the past week.

Raptor not rapture

From extensive trial and error, I've pretty much come to realize that Estes is a hard place to find free camping... The closest reliable place has been south on 7 and east on Cabin Creek Road, which gets you to some free National Forest dispersed camping (but its 30 minutes out of town and there is ZERO cell service). It sounds like you could probably do some stealth camping in your van, though.

Free bathrooms in the Visitor Center, food and drinks at the Safeway, and the Safeway Gas Station has a spigot on the north side for filling up big water jugs. For showers, you could probably try the YMCA. If you find any sweet free camping, post it up! I'll be dirtbagging in Estes for 10 days in late June.

Josh Schutz wrote:Raptor not rapture

Just break into Eric's house and shit in his toilet when he's not home. Bonus points if you leave him an upper decker.

If nothing has changed in the last 4 years since I lived there "Dad's Laundry" is the place you can get showers near Safeway. There are also a couple places you could park that are closer than Allenspark (ironclads) or the Monastery. Send me a PM if you want more details.