Nobody rents a van to stay in Denver, but there is a first night and an easy afternoon here before the long drives start. Golden Gate Canyon State Park is the close-in one that feels like the mountains rather than the suburbs, within an hour's drive of the metro area. Sites are $28 and open six months out, and the campsite is only half the payment: Colorado Parks and Wildlife charges the vehicle a gate pass on top, $12 to $17 there. Red Rocks is free and open from before sunrise until after sunset, though on concert days the amphitheatre itself usually shuts to visitors after lunch. It sits on the Lariat Loop, the foothills road through Golden, Morrison and Evergreen and over Lookout Mountain, which is an afternoon on its own. After that you are committing to a whole day, and Rocky Mountain National Park is what most people here commit it to. Campervan rentals across Colorado cover everywhere else in the state. Every fee, rate and closing date below was checked in August 2026.
Rocky Mountain National Park, 66 miles up US 36
Trail Ridge Road is the reason to go. It leaves Estes Park climbing, runs out of trees, and then spends eleven miles up on open tundra with bighorn on the shoulder and the range going off in every direction. Give it half a day. Elk are the other draw, down in the meadows at either end, early.
The Park Service puts Estes Park and the east gate 66 miles out on I-25 and US 36, and has Trail Ridge shut from about mid-October until late May. Moraine Park is where a van sleeps, $35 a night in summer, no water hookups anywhere in the park and room for 40 feet. Summer sites are reserved on Recreation.gov and none are sold same-day.
Mount Blue Sky, a 49-mile byway off I-70
You drive to the top of this one. The road leaves I-70 at Idaho Springs, climbs past Echo Lake and keeps going until the pavement stops a few minutes' walk below the summit of a fourteener, with mountain goats on the shoulder and bristlecone pine near the top. It is the highest paved road in North America, and it is a day out rather than a night away.
Recreation.gov caps vehicles on the summit road at 30 feet, which a campervan clears without anyone thinking about it. CDOT has the summit open Memorial Day through Labor Day only and a reservation required to drive up, so this is a day you book rather than decide on.
Great Sand Dunes, 234 miles south
The tallest dunes in North America, heaped against the Sangre de Cristos at the end of a very long valley. Medano Creek runs at the foot of them in late spring and turns the place into a beach with mountains behind it, and after dark the sky is the reason people stay the night instead of driving down and back. The Park Service puts the visitor center 234 miles from Denver on US 285, which is a driving day rather than a detour.
Piñon Flats is the park's one campground, $20 a night and reservation only. The park keeps it open April through October and does not allow sleeping in a vehicle outside a designated site, so a night here means a booking rather than a pull-off.
RockyGrass and the Folks Festival, in Lyons
Lyons sits on the road up to Estes Park, which is how a bluegrass festival ends up on a Denver van page. RockyGrass fills the Planet Bluegrass grounds by the river in late July, and the Rocky Mountain Folks Festival takes the same field in early August. Both sell camping on site. Passes there are sold per person rather than per site, and putting a van on the field takes a vehicle pass of its own.
One-way rentals out of Denver
You do not have to bring the van back to Denver. Indie Campers picks up at Henderson, about twelve miles from the airport, and will take it back in Salt Lake City, Las Vegas or Seattle. There is a charge for finishing somewhere else, and some vans are not allowed to go. Both show up on the listing when you choose your dates, and what a one-way rental involves has the rest.
If there are more of you than a campervan sleeps, an RV in Colorado is the other option, and those pick up around Denver too.