We went up there and drove around on Sunday. The campground hosts were busy pulling up stakes as today is their last day. Campgrounds beyond loop C are now closed, and the fees are ½ price, so $14 for electric sites. The only other sites are walk in tent sites. All water will be off, and there will be no trash pickup.
Other than that they weren't very helpful, although they felt the campground would be fairly busy if that weekend turns out to be nice.
We drove a big loop around up to Lost Lake and then out West and down. The roads are all majorly graded, mostly gravel, and the levels of maintenance vary in the winter. Some could be really interesting if it rains or snows, but largely it was just a scenic drive. Lost Lake is neat, but there is very little room for vehicles at the campsite on the lake.
About 8 miles from Dowdy there are 8-10 stone fire rings near the road, down little side two tracks, spaced over a few miles. Any one of these would make a nice small group site (4-6 vans) but there is not a lot around to look at or do.
South and West of the lakes we took CR-162 and 171 to loop around back to Cr-74e. 171 was good for some light wheeling (2wd light) but there were a ton of offshoots- I remember seeing 171-I among others. The whole area is littered with forest roads... pretty much like anywhere in CO.
From what I gather the whole area crosses in and out of National Forest, and there were plenty of residential (mountain residential anyway) communities, cattle guards, etc. I marked a few good looking campsites for the future, but nothing that would accomidated more than two vehicles.
It's a beautiful area and we're looking forward to caming up there... it's nice and close, a little over 2 hours from us. That said, I would rather go somewhere central or even Western slope that might be further from us, but get more people from Colorado to attend.
