Salton Sea Sra

I have been coming here for 25 years. Sadly the lake is disappearing, but it have beautiful sunsets and is isolated and peaceful ( except for the occasional train). Avoid in the summer, but winter is amazing.

This review is for the New Camp campground. For some reason Dyrt has listings for all of the developed State Park campgrounds within the Salton Sea SRA except for this one. It is near Headquarters campground but is not the same campground. First off, know that New Camp has no views of the Salton Sea. For that, you need to select one of the other campgrounds. What is nice about New Camp is that the sites are large and well spaced apart and there is a degree of privacy allowed due to vegetation. Some but not all sites have electrical hookups. There is a well maintained restroom with flush toilets and showers. The campground is small and the restrooms don't get savaged like many other Cal State Parks I've been to. We met the campground host, who was super friendly, and helpful, and very knowledgeable of the local area. My dog, camping buddy and I had a great time exploring some local hikes and attractions using New Camp as a base camp for three nights. There is a busy train track that runs parallel to much of the Eastern shore of the Salton Sea and is very close to New Camp. We didn't find this particularly bothersome.

This site serves our needs since we just needed a place to camp on our way up north. The Salton Sea is beautiful in the daytime and around sunset and it was a great play to see the night sky. However other than that there isn’t much to do and there is not a whole lot around. The camp sites are also right next to each other at the beach sites.

We stayed in site 42 of New Campground. We had W/E (water pressure is really high) and the sites have plenty of rooms to spread out. A ramada, picnic table, large fire pit. Some sites have shade trees. Beautiful views of the Salton Sea (thats pretty much all its good for due to pollution and high salinity from what I read- advise against swimming boating etc. Bath houses were clean (showers $0.25/2 min).

The campground is right off highway 111 and the railway so there is a lot of noise (which didn’t bother us). Just 45 min drive to Joshua Tree NP and plenty of hiking and scenic drives in Box Canyon.

The campground area was closed due to Covid, but the park areas were open for day use. It was a nice place to visit and take some scenic pictures, but not much else to do there.

We camped here on New Years Eve. It was quiet. This area is interesting. Has a Mad Max Thunderdome vibe. Definitely go to Salvation Mountain then drive thru Slab City. I walked thru the odd Outdoor Art Gallery called “East Jesus” fascinating population of people live out there. We camped at the Mecca camp which is a mile south of the ranger station. The actual Salton sea is right there. Great for bird watching bring binoculars. The sunrise and sunsets were some of the prettiest I’ve ever seen. Best hook up site #138 but hands down best tent site #134. If I didn’t get either of those I would not have stayed as sites are very close with zero privacy barrier. The best part of this campground were the hosts. Good folks

Do not come here. Just don’t come. The gnats/flies literally rain from the sky and cover everything.... cars, tables, YOU! It’s a beautiful sunset to see on the lake but right afterwards you’ll experience a traumatic rain of insects that’s comparable to the plague of gnats or locusts from the Bible.