Best Tent Camping near Trona, CA

Nearly all these campsites butt up against the Badlands-esque rock formations with mini slot canyons to explore right at your campsite. My son absolutely loved this place. I loved it. We had a great time!

It costs $25 per night and has zero amenities but the landscape makes up for it. Joshua trees and amazing rock formations, Jack rabbits and desert squirrels... it’s just great.

1 bar AT&T if you’re lucky. No water, no electricity, but there’s a dump station near the visitor center. No electric car charging. Lots of tents and small rigs, nothing big. Campground uses narrow one-way dirt road. There are about 50 campsites with a picnic table, fire ring, rocky tent pad and fairly level gravel parking spot. At least 2 spots are ADA with concrete parking spots and nearby restroom.

Now during COVID time it’s self registration, not sure about other times. We stayed one night and never saw a ranger. The campground was about half full and didn’t fill up while we were there.

General: Smallish (approx. 50-site) campground that does not take reservations. No hookups, one walk-in tent site, and the others are either back-in or pull-through. Some are “double” sites that would be ideal for sharing. 

Site Quality: Varies. All sites (except four, three of which are designated handicap sites) are a mixture of sand/gravel. Not all are completely level, and some accommodate larger vehicles than others. 

Bathhouse: Pit toilets only. Some are open air and some are enclosed; the one closest to our site was clean. 

Activities: hiking, photography. Good night sky area. The nature trail is accessible directly from the campground and the Hagen Canyon trail is ¾ mile from the campground. Red Cliffs is another short trail across the highway; these are the most popular (and short) hikes in the park but there are others. The views are jaw-dropping and well worth exploring. 

Note that although there is a dump station, there is a $20 charge to use it. 

We arrived around 1 pm on a Sunday in late March and had our pick of sites, however, the campground filled in to about ¾ full by the end of the day.

Stayed at this campground in 2012. Mind you this was my FIRST real camping trip, I was utterly excited. The trail up to this campground is very rough. there was signs after the kilns for 4x4 only. However, we did see a little car mob up this road, like they had done it before. The road took us to just over 8,000ft elevation. Small campground, but cozy. Drop toilet close by that doesn't get serviced too often because of location. You could see telescope peak and the trail was just off the campground. Campsite had picnic table and a fire ring, thankfully. It was FREEZING when we went. Lets just say I was not prepared for how cold it was going to be. It got down to 12°F and lets just say I had just a "normal" camping sleeping bag. The view down to the valley was gorgeous. We hiked up a little ways.. maybe 3/4 a mile the telescope peak trail, then turned back. We orginally had come up to see something that was happening in the sky that late evening ( 1-2 am-ish), but by 9pm it was too cold to stay up, even with a fire going.

The campground was about 80% full which was surprising since it was pretty solitary out that way.

Free to camp.

First come, First Serve.

Nestled in the mountains just west of Death Valley this campground is a cool (both temperature and vibe) place to stay. I camped here in late March just before temperatures got outrageous. It’s about a 45 minute drive from Stovepipe Wells (which has gas, food and other services), but the elevation and thus cooler temperatures are well worth the extra time and gas. I had come for a short weekend trip to the park and didn’t spend too much time at the campsite beyond sleeping. The sites are nice and quiet surrounded by desert sage brush which doesn’t offer too much privacy. The campground has 23 sites pit toilets, potable water, fire rings and picnic tables. It’s first-come first serve but I had no problem getting a spot despite the fact that I arrived after sunset. The best part of this campground is that its FREE!!! I’ve stayed at much worse campgrounds that cost $25 + a night.

The road to the campground was filled with wildlife so do drive carefully. Many animals also darted towards the car as I drove in so please drive slow. I was also stuck behind a wild burro for a while as it was using the road too :p

The park was rather warm for March reaching well over 100ºF. The wildlife seemed rather hot as there was both a roadrunner and a coyote resting in the shade at the visitor’s center. I was able to see quite a lot of the park in the weekend. It wasn’t very crowded despite being there at a more popular time of year though the park is rather large. I was also there during a meteor shower which was amazing. The sky in the park and at this campground are very dark and the star gazing was particularly spectacular.

Overall this was a great campground in one of the nation’s most iconic desert landscapes. I would highly recommend!! For more info click here.