Spruce Group - Lake Isabel

Spruce Group Campground, in the Lake Isabel Recreation Area, is a great place to bring groups for picnicking and camping on the scenic Lake Isabel. The campground accommodates 50 guests for day-use and 40 guests for overnight camping, and some RVs can fit in the paved parking area. Lake Isabel is one of the few lakes in Colorado developed purely for recreation purposes. Built by the Civilian Conservation Corps, it attracts campers who enjoy hiking, canoeing, fishing and watching for wildlife. St. Charles Creek flows near the campground and offers additional opportunities for fishing. The St. Charles Creek runs next to the campground, and dense spruce trees surround the site. The shoreline of Lake Isabel meets the rocky slopes of the Wet Mountains at an elevation of 8,600 feet. The Pike and San Isabel National Forest includes over a million acres of wilderness and over half of Colorado's mountain peaks that reach above 14,000 feet. Lake Isabel welcomes non-motorized boating and fishing. Brown and brook trout are stocked in the lake, and the St. Charles headwaters reap brook trout. Visitors can enjoy hiking, bicycling or motorcycling on either the Snow Slide Trail or the Cisneros Trail. The 15-mile Cisneros Trail, also open to ATV riders, leads to the heart of the Wet Mountains, through forests and open, wildflower speckled valleys, connecting along the way to the St. Charles Trail, which heads to St. Charles Peak. The Frontier Pathways Scenic Byway is a great route to explore and shoot photos. Spruce has a picnic shelter that seats 25 to 30 people, plus a horseshoe pit and volleyball court. Two 3-foot wide grills are on-site and individual sites have campfire rings. Drinking water is provided via a hand pump, and an accessible double vault toilet is in the campground. There are no defined tent pads. The road through the group site is paved, and a parking area fits a limited number of RVs.