Navajo State Park

We spent three nights here at the end of August 2026, on our late-summer 2026 filming trip through southern Colorado and Utah, the last big trip before Erin's surgery. We were in site 344 in the Rosa loop, with full hookups, and paid about $45 a night. Our full field report is still being written, so here is what to know about the place itself.

The short version

Navajo State Park sits just outside the small town of Arboles in southwest Colorado, about 35 miles southwest of Pagosa Springs and 45 miles southeast of Durango. The park covers 5,088 acres on Navajo Reservoir, a 15,000-surface-acre lake that stretches about 20 miles south into New Mexico.

A little history

• Ancestral Puebloans lived here until a severe drought pushed them out around 1050 CE, and Ute and Navajo people settled in the area in the 1300s.
• The Dominguez-Escalante Expedition passed through, and the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad ran tracks here that were important to the local economy until 1967.
• Navajo Dam was built in 1962 to provide irrigation water for the Navajo Indian Reservation.

What it is known for

• Sailing, houseboating, power boating and fishing, with a boat ramp, a boat inspection station and a seasonal marina store.
• About 9 miles of trails.
• Wildlife including mule deer, river otters and bald eagles.

Camping

• 142 campsites across five campgrounds.
• Rosa has full-hookup RV sites, 8 walk-in tent sites and laundry. Carracas has electric-only RV sites. Tiffany has basic RV sites, 6 walk-in tent sites and 3 cabins.
• Windsurf Beach has 15 small primitive sites, and Arboles Point has 4 double sites with views of the San Juan River.
• From mid-September to mid-April the camper services buildings close, including the dump station at Carracas.

Good to know

• A reservation is required to camp, and reservations cannot be made at the park.
• Low water has left a stretch of dirt between the reservoir and the Windsurf and Arboles campgrounds.
• A park pass is required to enter.