West Sedona Designated Dispersed Camping

This is literally just a parking lot for huge rvs ( can you call yourself a camper?)  I’ve been coming to this area for 12 years . It used to be beautiful, peaceful , special. Today it is full of noisy generators , big rigs, atvs kicking up dust everywhere, zero privacy.  I don’t hear coyotes anymore,  and the trees are dying from being covered in dirt.  The road is like a freeway with rigs, cars etc all day long .  Gun shots from the nearby shooting range.  How can they even call this nature 😩

As many people have mentioned this area has been almost ruined. It’s basically a big rig RV park at this point. You can tell the impact of too many humans on the land, it’s quite shocking to see. It also doesn’t mesh with the values that I think a lot of true backcountry and dispersed campers go by. If you get a spot you are packed like sardines next to each other. Which makes for extremely unsanitary bathroom situations. The NF should limit RVs to first come first serve at certain parking lot areas along beginning of road. After a certain point only vehicles and tents. Super disappointing because the view is stunning. I’m sure this will soon become a pay to park type of area in the future.

We camped here in early/mid feb 2022 - dispersed camping road was very full - what seemed to be a lot of families with kids with RVs utilizing the OHV trails & many other tent & RV campers. Everyone was camped along the left hand side of the road, some on the right early on. It was awesome - such a great view for sunrise & sunset with free camping.

We read the locals concerns of what was happening to the area, especially post covid. We agree there were a TON of campers, everyone seemed to find a spot along the road with privacy from each other, which was nice - yes this affects much more ground area. We also noticed the increase in garbage along Highway, and are glad we didn’t encounter the buckets of human feces…

But - the camping that is now allowed come feb 2023 is extremely diminished. It is completely catered to RV’s and not to rent campers. There is zero privacy, and absolutely no where to use the restroom responsibly, even in nature - because you’re on top of each other. The amount of camping spaces available went to such small of a number that it’s basically become a parking lot. They did do a nice job creating the few spaces they did.

All in all we really enjoyed camping here previously & think there is a better way to be utilized while still protecting the space.