After we pulled in, we couldn’t believe how amazing the sites were. Everything was going great until it got dark and it was time to go to bed. Within a few minutes of hitting the sack, we heard scuffling around the engine area. I opened the hood and two little mice were sitting right on top of the engine. They ran right down to the bottom and just hung out even after a lot of banging on the engine. One of the mice ran all the way back to the tail pipe. These mice are well known to chew your car wiring because the wiring sleeve is made of soy based insulation which mice love to chew on. You might think nothing would happen but then the car wouldn’t start in the morning and you’re left stranded with potentially thousands of dollars of repairs. We tried all the internet’s recommendations: popping the hood open, spreading hot sauce around the car, spraying the engine area with Lysol spray, using dryer sheets…and these just suckers kept coming back.

Needless to say, we scrammed out of there never to return!

Okay all the photos and reviews for this site are for City of Rocks camping inside the park. The campsite according to the map is an entirely different campsite; so ignore all the information, pictures and reviews.

These are all FREE campsites. As the land is BLM it is public land and there is no charge. It is just outside of town and goes up the hill. 

There are probably 15 or so campsites ranging from single use to a few group sites. The road is very bad. Cobbles, ruts, some large rocks. There were RV's and some sedans so it is possible just warning you this road is rough. There was very limited Verizon service there.

Each campsite had a fire ring and almost all of the sites have a picnic table. There was some construction going on so it looks like they are adding more sites possibly. There is no running water and no bathrooms. Most of the trees are too small to hammock but some people were. Most of the sites were taken when I went in late October but continuing to the end of the road there were 4 or so spots left. 

It is just a few minutes from town so you can get to the hot springs or the restaurants really easy.

Really beautiful and low key state park. The rock formations are really cool and the whole place has a calm and peaceful vibe. There are pit toilets but no other amenities, not even trash, so please take your trash out with you. 

Camp sites are scattered all along the main road, and broken up into area numbers. Kind of confusing until you see it for yourself. The hard part here is that the sites are all so different that you really need to see the site for yourself before deciding where you want to camp, but the cell signal here is minimal and sites MUST be reserved through Reserve America (online or by phone).  The highest sites towards the end of the road do have cell signal for both verizon and ATT, but everywhere else in the park there was no reception. There is wifi at the visitor center.

Another bummer about the reservation system is the $10 fee per transaction. Sites are $14/night, so we paid $24 for one night.

NOTE: when you are reserving on Reserve America, "City of Rocks RV, ID" is a private RV park in the area. The park you want to choose is City of Rocks National Reserve, ID. 

The park is a designated dark sky park, which is cool, but from our site (#63) the lights from the town of Oakley were pretty bright on the horizon, though the stars in the sky were still amazing. We are in a 26ft class c and there were plenty of sites for us to choose from when we visited mid week in July. Very few other campers there when we were there. The paved road ends shortly after the visitor center but the dirt and rocky and at times washboarded road was ok in our motorhome. We stopped at the visitor center on the way up and got lots of helpful info from the rangers on duty. 

No hookups or dump station at this park, but we stopped at the Castle Rock campground on the way out and filled our tank with potable water and dumped for free.