Best Dispersed Camping near Grand Junction, CO

I came out here for a night's rest while on a trip, it was very remote, and slept well. I came in late in the night, but woke up to beautiful views of the surrounding area. Even though this is off the highway, you won't feel like it. You'll see some lights from the highway, as well as some light pollution from Grand Junction, but it worked perfectly to camp here. I didn't see any one else while I was out here for the night and morning I was here.

BLM road warning: The road in definitely isn't meant for a stock Prius, but it's definitely doable if you're very careful. :) Didn't quite bottom out, but got close a few times, lots of rocks as BLM roads usually have.

Directions help: I followed my Google Maps to the coordinates, and it lead me a weird way. I'd recommend reading the directions on this page to get to the intended camp site. I took a wrong turn, however, I ended up at a nice little dispersed camp site. My mistake was I took a left at the fork, instead of a right. Either way has camping spots, incase the original site is full. :)

I was up there on a Tuesday-Wednesday so it was very quiet and there was no one else at the site. It’s right on the water although there is a drop off you have to climb down, but it’s not bad. There were some cattle that walked through as I was setting up but otherwise very chill. All sites had areas for parking and fire rings. Driving off the forest road and onto the small road getting up to the campsite, 4WD isn’t required but highly recommended, it is a very rough road. High clearance is necessary. The sites seemed kinda close to each other however there are trees and stumps that define each site. Amazing views, light rain, and still my favorite forest.

I arrived in Grand Junction with intentions of seeing a buddy, but when he was not there I had to find a place to camp out in a hurry. Luckily I found this place thanks to The Dyrt!

There is a long pavement road that takes you down further than I wanted to travel. There were numerous locations that I passed up, first there was a narrow area surrounded by cliff face and some trees, further on down there was canyon land. Many of the spots in the canyon area were already taken by other campers, some of the locations they had seem to have spectacular views.

A couple miles into the canyon land I decided to pull off to the right and set up shop there. This place gets completely dark at night and the stars will come out and shine if the sky is clear. It does tend to get a little windy if you are near the canyon edge.

There is no bathroom or even running water that I've seen. There seems to have been a creek a long time ago but the water has since dried up and is no longer flowing. Not much snow in the area. 4x4 is not necessary. I had decent connection (AT&T) which was spotty at times, and my handheld radio picked up several stations as well.

Overall I would definitely return again next time I am visiting Grand Junction or the National Monument.

This area is likely the last free dispersed camping area adjacent to the new Lower North Fruita Desert developed campground. However, as the developed CG expands down to main road, this area could be signed "no camping" anytime in future. As of May 2022 this area was very popular since the Upper and Lower BLM CGs had gone all reservation. Nice views, but no water, or any amenities. No trash dumpsters, even in the developed CGs. Cell signal is good for Verizon and TMobile. Only three stars as not very scenic here, absolutely NO shade, no trees and motorized use crowd base here also with the noise of motorcycles ect.