Hey friends,
In early January I'll be coming up I-25 toward Colorado Springs with a group of 8-10 other people. We're looking for a cheap place to stay, and hopefully not too far off the interstate, b/c we Texans probably can't handle much driving on roads that haven't been cleared and salted.

We'll be bringing a ton of extra blankets, sleeping bags, pads, and enough tents to cover all of us. Hopefully that means we'll all be able to handle the temperatures that we might encounter, at least if we stick to low elevations (which we'll need to).

So, does anybody have any suggestions for a campground that might still be open, good random patch of public land, really cheap (but decent) hotel/motel, or um . . . do any natives want to open up their back yards for some college kids?

Just looking for suggestions, basically anything between Walsenberg and Colorado Springs.

Ian,

You might want to try to find a youth hostel in that area.

Start with http://www.hostelz.com/

Hostel locations tend to be spread out in the US, but they're usually pretty good when you come across them.

HTH,

Matt

On that stretch of I-25 I think you'll find mostly private land. You'd probably have to get off the highway to the west to find any national forest land (free).
There are a couple state parks that should provide winter camping sites, Lathrop west of Walsenburg and Cheyenne Mountain on the southern edge of Colorado Springs.
There are private campgrounds along the way; I know nothing about them though.
Mueller state park is about an hour west of COS, is higher elevation, and offers both camping and cabins. That might be an option too.
It is likely to be cold but you already know that.
http://parks.state.co.us/

Thanks for the help guys, I ended up booking at a KOA Kampground. Anybody heard any good or bad things about them?

This roadtrip is also for the sake of moving ME up to Colorado Springs, so we realized that we wouldn't have enough room in our 3-car caravan to haul both a giant pile of insulation AND all my worldly possessions. That's what led us to KOA. They've got heated cabins with beds, and we're a big group, so we got a fantastic rate, in a lodge with its own bathroom and kitchen! All we need to bring is bedding and maybe light blankets. Sheesh, I need to use these KOA things more on roadtrips with my friends. The deals are incredible!

(hoping nobody has a wet-blanket review for KOA sites)

Edited by freeradical on 12/29/2009 13:18:47 MST.

Most KOAs are pretty good; depends on the specific operator.