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Newly approved boat-in campground at De Beque hopes to make rafting the Colorado River more accessible

Tracy Ross
The Colorado Sun
Boaters on the Colorado River near the new raft-up campground Kathy and John Haas have been developing near De Beque Canyon. Called Kampa Lampa, it's set to open in early August.
Kathy Haas/Courtesy

If you’ve abandoned the dream of rafting the Colorado River because it’s too hard to get a permit or multiday boating sounds intimidating, linger a little longer in your REM stage because a new boat-in campground is coming to the Colorado this August. 

By early fall, boaters will be able to put in at the Parachute boat ramp off Interstate 70, paddle 10 miles on the Colorado River and, for $40-$50 per campsite or $10 per person, pull into a primitive campground where visitors can spend the night before taking out in the town of De Beque, another mile or so down river.

Be warned, though: At “Kampa Lampa,” guests will have to bring their own sleeping gear, food, fire pan, groover (a portable toilet) and other accouterments of rafting. By next summer, groovers, fire pans, picnic tables and designated tent sites will be available — “plus swag with the Kampa Lampa logo and the words ‘ding-dong’ on the back,” said Kathy Haas, adding the name has no relation to the song “Shama Lama Ding Dong” from the movie “Animal House.”



Kathy and John Haas have spent two years clearing invasive trees from their 7.5-acre parcel on the Colorado River upstream of De Beque Canyon in advance of developing their new Mesa County campground, shown here.
Kathy Haas/Courtesy

Read the full story at coloradosun.com.

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