We spent the weekend at a nice campsite near Grant. "Nice" being defined as easily accessible by car on a Friday evening after work with no reservations and a four-year-old and six-year-old in tow.
Handcart campground is a little 10 site campground about ten miles west of Grant. Take 285 out of Denver until you get to Grant. About 7 miles past Grant, make a right on county road 60. Go about 7 miles on CR60 and you'll see the campground on the left - don't be fooled into turning off 4 miles-ish in, go nearer to 7!. And if you go a mile or two more and you'll run into Hall Valley campground, which isn't quite as secluded but offers an easy option in case Handcart is full. The caveat is, if you're traveling by car you might have to idle your way bumping down county road 60. The only vehicles I saw that could normally handle how rough it was were ATV's and a Hummer - it was brutal. But we did witness a Prius survive the drive so it is doable.
I thought campsites 6, 7, and 8 were the choicest spots, being closest to a creek. Apparently the creek is mineral-polluted (you can sort of see the discoloration in the pic above... iron ore maybe?) but it was nice to hear it in the background sleeping in the tent. Sites 7 and 8 are the most secluded with 8 being the furthest back. The entire campground is shaded really nicely. The host mentioned bear activity around sites 7 and 8 but that's really to be expected at any campsite in Colorado. There's no trash service so you'll have to pack your trash out and we couldn't find any hiking trails nearby; granted, we didn't venture too far away.
All in all, it's going on my personal favorites list.
p.s. we found out what 50% chance of rain means for Grant in August... it rains about 50% of the time. Thank goodness for modern tents - THANK YOU Sierra Designs!
