California is the land of National Parks and Forests. Within the state boundaries there are three of the great National Parks, viz.: Yosemite National Park, General Grant National Park and Sequoia National Park. In these parks the U. S. Government has arranged facilities for motorists to camp, either using their own equipment or renting tents and utensils after arriving in the parks.
Of the 171 National Forests no less than twenty are found either wholly or in part within the State of California. These California National Forests have a combined area of nearly eighteen million acres—more than twenty thousand square miles, equal to all the New England states, leaving out Maine and Vermont. The figures given after each of the names of the California National Forests represent the acreage. These forests are: Angeles (820,980), California (807,444), Cleveland (547,981), Crater (46,977), Eldorado (549,392), Inyo (1,269,980), Klamath (1,470,841), Lassen (936,877), Modoc (1,182,986), Mono (784,620), Monterey (316,058), Plumas (1,144,835), Santa Barbara (1,688,571), Sequoia (1,882,980), Shasta (803,448), Sierra (1,489,934), Siskiyou (349,069), Stanislaus (810,399), Tahoe (542,226), and Trinity (1,430,547).
The U. S. Forestry Department is authority for the statement that during the season of 1921 “over one and one-half million visitors entered the National Forests of California, most of whom traveled [216]by automobile and were prepared to camp.” This number was exceeded in the season of 1922.
Much of the National Forest area is accessible to automobiles and more roads are being constructed all the time by State or National agencies. Owing to the activities of the Forest Service and the automobile clubs, California can now claim to have the best signed mountain roads in America.
The Forest Service has arranged a great number of camping places for motor tourists.
COLORADO
Municipal Camp Sites
| Town or City | Charge or Free |
Toilet | Drinking Water |
Fireplace or Stove |
Lights | Bath or Shower |
| Alamosa | F | Y | Y | Y | Y | |
| Arriba | ||||||
| Ault | F | Y | Y | Y | Y | |
| Berthoud | F | Y | Y | Y | Y | |
| Boulder | F | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| Brush | F | Y | Y | Y | Y | |
| Buena Vista | F | Y | Y | Y | ||
| Burlington | ||||||
| Canon City | F | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| Castle Rock | F | Y | Y | Y | ||
| Cheyenne Wells | F | Y | Y | Y | ||
| Colorado Springs | 25c.–50c. a day | Y | Y | Fuel | Y | |
| Creede (2 parks) | F | Y | Y | Y | Y | |
| Cripple Creek | F | Y | Y | Y | ||
| Denver | F | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| Eagle | ||||||
| Flagler | [217] | |||||
| Florence | F | Y | Y | Y | Y | |
| Fort Collins | F | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| Fort Morgan | F | Y | Y | Y | Y | |
| Fowler | F | Y | Y | Y | Y | |
| Fruita | ||||||
| Glenwood Spr’gs | F | Y | Y | Y | Y | |
| Grand Junction | F | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| Greeley | F | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| Green Mountain Falls | ||||||
| Holyoke | F | Y | Y | Y | Y | |
| Hotchkiss | F | Y | Y | Y | Y | |
| Idaho Springs | F | Y | Y | Y | Y | |
| La Veta | F | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| Leadville | ||||||
| Limon | ||||||
| Littleton | ||||||
| Loveland | F | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| Manitou | ||||||
| Matheson | ||||||
| Meeker | F | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| Monte Vista | F | Y | Y | Y | Y | |
| New Castle | ||||||
| Ordway | F | Y | Y | Y | Y | |
| Ouray | F | Y | Y | Y | Y | |
| Pagosa Springs | F | Y | Y | Y | Y | |
| Palisades | ||||||
| Peyton | ||||||
| Pueblo | F | Y | Y | Y | Y | |
| Ramah | ||||||
| Red Cliff | ||||||
| Rocky Ford | [218] | |||||
| Silverton | F | Y | Y | Y | Y | |
| Simla | ||||||
| Starkville | F | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| Steamboat Sp’ngs | F | Y | Y | Y | Y | |
| Sterling | F | Y | Y | Y | ||
| Trinidad | F | Y | Y | Y | Y | |
| Victor | F | Y | ||||
| Windsor | F | Y | Y | Y | Y | |
| Woodland Park |
State Parks
Colorado has no State Parks, but the claim of the state authorities is that “every town and community in Colorado has an auto camp.” The City of Denver has a Mountain Park system that is unmatched. It consists of a series of plots aggregating about four thousand acres distributed over a region embracing approximately one hundred square miles, connected by some seventy-five miles of mountain boulevards, and providing many camping spots. Denver offers every possible hospitality to the auto camper. The Executive Secretary of the Denver Civic and Commercial Association writes, “An auto camp, in my judgment, is just as essential to any city, town or community that wants to thrive and prosper and keep abreast of the times as a railway station.” Denver business men say that the months of July and August instead of being the dullest months are now, next to December, the best months [219]of the year. For over seven weeks during the summer of 1921 Denver had a little city of 5,000 people a night at the auto camp.
National Parks and Forests
Colorado possesses two of the National Parks, the Mesa Verde Park and the Rocky Mountain Park. During the season of 1921 the Rocky Mountain Park was visited, according to the report of the Forest Service, by 120,388 people who came in 30,264 cars. A majority of these were auto campers.
There are now seventeen National Forests in Colorado, with acreages as indicated, viz.: Arapahoe (634,903), Battlement (651,227), Cochetopa (905,723), Colorado (847,328), Durango (614,129), Gunnison (908,055), Hayden (65,598), Holy Cross (576,905), La Sal (27,444), Leadville, Montezuma, Routt, San Isabel, San Juan, Uncompahgre, White River, Pike, and Rio Grande. The combined area of these National Forests totals more than thirteen million acres.
These National Forests are free to the public, and all that the Forest Service asks of the visiting camper is care with fire and proper camp sanitation.
Colorado is called “The Switzerland of America,” and the National Forest system of splendid roads gives access to pretty much all the finest scenery, almost all of which is included within the bounds of the National Forests. This system of roads connects [220]up these Forests, so that the motor tourist can readily reach any one of them. To guide tourists the Forest Service has laid out a system of fifty-four logs, or routes of travel for the auto tourist.