Once again our stay at a KOA park was a disappointment. Thankfully our reservation at Pueblo KOA was only for two nights as we travel through Colorado to Great Sand Dunes National Park. It’s a decent park with all that you need as a traveler, but the environment was a bit dismal and for this price I expect a lot more.
Nights: 2
RV Park Cost: 90 ($45/night)
Discounts Used: KOA Club Card 10%
Address: 4131 Interstate 25 North Pueblo, CO 81008
GPS: 38.410009, -104.616496
Website: www.pueblokoa.com
Pros
- Numerous amenities
- Full hook ups
Cons
- Roads in poor repair
- Expensive
- Unattractive grounds
- No 50amp hookups
- Train and road noise
The small pool looked clean. The gazebo in the back is a hot tub.
The Details
I’ll start by saying that the park is reasonably clean and the staff friendly. If you need a place to park for a while it has the essentials and then some. There are bathrooms, showers, power, water, sewer, a store, large pull through spaces, a small playground for kids, a small pool, and even an on-site pizza kiosk in the office. While none of these things were outstanding, they were all quite decent.
But for $45 a night I expect more than Pueblo KOA has on offer. The most troubling issue at the park was the state of the roads between sites. Some are fine, but others have very large pot holes and dips which I’d never want to drive my trailer over. All of them are narrow and tricky to navigate. Maintaining a safe path for trailers is an essential for a good park. It appears they are in the process of making some improvements judging by the equipment scattered around but it was pretty bad while we stayed there.
Most of the land here is brown sand and gray gravel. It is dusty and looks kind of like a gravel pit construction site. It is located in a scrub desert with no water source so the lack of greenery is understandable. I imagine more could be done with native desert plants or stone to make the park look nicer than it does. The area around the office is decent, but the lots themselves felt grim and ramshackle. The soundscape was likewise dismal. Despite its remote location, noise from the highway and a nearby train track thundered through the trailer all night long, even with all the windows closed.
There are trees on site, but they seem out of place in the desert and it yet it still felt barren and dull at our site.
Another disappointment was that they have no 50amp hookups. This isn’t uncommon in some older parks but it is a negative factor for us as it limits our use of AC in the Airstream. While the park was clean enough for me, it wasn’t nearly as clean or well appointed as many other parks charging the same or lower prices. The park facilities look old and don’t seem to have had much investment put into them over the years.
One bright spot is the operators have a Hunt Brothers Pizza franchise in the main office and you can order pizzas and hot wings there during lunch and early dinner hours. The price is reasonable and they will bring it to your trailer. We tried both and for the price the quality was decent enough.
Again, this is not a bad park, just a very mediocre one at a premium price. It seemed safe and has the basics. But I would not stay for any length of time nor recommend it based on the price and the dismal environment. So far this has been the pattern with KOA campgrounds we have visited: over priced and under performing. Its a small sample but it’s led us to start thinking about specifically avoiding their parks in the future.
