Timely post. We also live in Colorado and bought a 19-foot fiberglass camper last year for similar reasons. It's sitting in our driveway now. =)
We went into it with eyes wide open that it is an absolute luxury item that comes with a real financial tradeoff. We have two small kids (3 and 6) and spent many nights tent camping with them when they were younger. My wife and I were both die-hard tent campers (backpack and car camping) before kids. But after being unexpectedly forced into motels a couple of times because of harsh weather in southern Utah, and dealing with the kids waking up at 6 a.m. on frosty summer mornings in the mountains, we decided that a hard-sided trailer was the way to go. So far it has been great, we spent nearly 30 nights in it last year and will probably spend about the same this year. Several random thoughts to consider:
- The camper has expanded our ability to camp almost year-round, and has made even "summer" camping (which around here, as you know, often means low temps in the 30s) much, much more relaxing and fun with the kids. We spent multiple late-fall weekends in Rocky Mountain NP, and Thanksgiving week in Moab, all with nighttime temps in the 20s without giving it a second thought.
- We decided a pop-up didn't offer enough benefits over a tent to make the added costs and hassles associated with towing a trailer worth it. If I'm going to be towing, having something with a hard side and bathroom for the places and times of year we camp was key for us. That said, we have lots of friends with pop-ups that love them, plus they can generally be towed with a wider range of vehicles.
- 19 feet (from trailer bumper to hitch) is about as big as I would want to go. Many USFS sites in the Rockies are designed for a max trailer length of ~20 feet (and we can store it in our driveway). If we only had one kid instead of two, I would go with something smaller or even a truck bed camper or van instead.
- Finding a site has not been an issue. In some instances it has made it easier, by allowing us to pull out on the side of BLM and USFS roads without searching for a place to pitch a tent.
- When evaluating the tow capacity of your vehicle, take manufacturer's numbers with a grain of salt and make sure your vehicle has a greater capacity than you will actually be towing. As towing neophytes, we learned the hard way that a vehicle's tow capacity does not necessarily account for towing up and down Colorado's mountain passes at altitude with kids, water, propane, camping gear, bikes, etc. all on board. We ended up swapping our old SUV for a vehicle that has a higher tow capacity, even though the listed tow capacity for our old SUV was around 2000 lbs greater than the dry weight of our camper.
On balance, despite the unexpected purchase of a different vehicle, the camper has been worth it for us. Only you can evaluate if your anticipated use as a family will be worth the expense.