Best Campgrounds near Ely, NV

I came to see the Charcoal Ovens and was unaware there was a campground here. I drove through it just to see what it was like and decided to stay. I was the only one here! The campground looks pretty new and very well maintained. The vault toilets were clean. Each site has a shaded picnic table. There was water, but they had just turned it on for the year and had not tested it to see if it is drinkable. There's a nice trail from the campground to the ovens. It's at 7000' so it shouldn't get too hot here in the summer.It's a great place to spend a night.

On the reservoir with beautiful mountain views

3 bars AT&T 5G

Loved this campsite. It had a big bench and a fire pit, and the spot for the tent was right by the creek. It was quiet even though the spots weren’t that far apart, and you feel like you’re alone in a national park campsite. Not to mention how cool the entire area is. 10/10.

Not sure where the mentioned sites with fire pits and a fee are, but right across the street from the coordinates there is a nice big gravel parking lot I stayed at with a few other folks.

Level paved sites were perfect for car camping. Campsite was beautiful with lots of trees and snow covered mountain views. We had one next to the creek. Sites had enough spacing between them for privacy. There was a vault toilet near our campsite and a tap but it was either shut off or frozen so no water available.

We often stop here on our way to/from Utah.  Nothing special, just fairly quiet, easy access, a good distance from your neighbors.

We were able to walk our dogs and have a quiet time.

We were here several different times of the year in a RV.

We have stayed here a few times with no issue. The people that answer the phone are nice and helpful. We stayed at this park along our commute to Oregon.

Full Hook Ups.

Easy to get into the park and easy to get situated. All dirty, with concrete pads for your RV or Trailer.

Not a bad spot, felt safe and headed out the next day during our commute.

Edited by slope game 1 day ago

There was lots of open space to park where ever. It was quiet!

Pretty nice campground with the reservoir, adjacent dirt roads, and closeness(yet not too close to the 50)

Stayed their for a night while going across Nevada. Nice views, pit toilets, tables, some sites have shade structures, metal fire pits, easy dirt road in.

There are cows and in my experience RVs left their generators running quite late were the cons if you consider those as such, but I really thought it was a good site.

Majestic views and hiking available in all directions. Only stayed for a couple of nights and was nursing sprained ankle so not much hiking around during my stay. Very peaceful with clean composting toilets.

Flowing creek behind my site that gurgled continuously (good thing). Clear skies and refreshing crisp air.

Interesting history of the campground. Kilns are well preserved and accessible. The camping is close by. No amenities, water, electricity but fairly clean composting toilets in camp area. A few trails at the kiln site and some hiking at the campground.

Lovely state park near Ely. Two campgrounds, but lake is emptied for maintenance so we didn't even check the other one out. Nice, mostly flat sites with quite a bit of juniper and some scrub pine in between so pretty private. Water taps and dump station. Flush toilets and free showers were nice. Very very quiet. Some trails fairly near by but we walked up a closed road for a bit. 

Food aside: Had freeze-dried (Readywise) creamy pasta chicken with some added chicken and it was good. Very low FQ (fart quotient). Veggie chorizo scramble for breakfast- bit of a bite but hard to identify the chorizo in there; potatoes were good for heartiness.

On the whole, it's avg. as far as campgrounds go

Great Basin was full, so went west on 6 about 8 miles and pulled into dispersed campground where there were some covered picnic tables at sites around a large central pond, following road up to equestrian corral and were several more sites. Stayed in#7 which was exposed, but the last one available so we took it. Free. Pit toilets are dirty but don't stink and trash has been emptied. Nice views to Wheeler Peak and out across UT

FREE! On the whole, avg., 3 stars. Not many developed BLM sites around.

Great Basin was full, so went west on 6 about 8 miles and pulled into dispersed campground where there were some covered picnic tables at sites around a large central pond, following road up to equestrian corral and were several more sites. Stayed in#7 which was exposed, but the last one available so we took it. Free. Pit toilets are dirty but don't stink and trash has been emptied. Nice views to Wheeler Peak and out across UT

Beautiful National Park with minimal use makes for a peaceful visit.

Night sky is perfect for stargazing. High elevation can be a problem but worth it if you can handle it.

Many trails to explore and wildlife to enjoy.

Nice spacing with trees between sites. Partial view. Couple of accessible sites. Garbage, picnic tables, fire ring, bbq, metal roof over tables, clean pit toilets male and female. Couple nice trails over by the historic wood burning ovens. Nice stream meadows to experience

Sweeping view. Dispersed site adjacent to road 19631. Gulley behind with a road. No services. Great 5G AT&T. Rough hill up requires 4wd. Consistent shape. Close to junction down to gulley.

Can’t have dogs on trails. As a ranger put it, dogs can go anywhere your car can. Campsite was great, pretty good privacy between them with the trees and everything. Bathrooms clean and there were multiple within walking distance of campsite.

We pulled in at about 4:30 pm on a Monday evening after Labor Day. Tried Upper Lehman, it was full. Lower Lehman is closed. So we chanced Baker. Drove into the left loop which has some larger sites, luckily found one of the three left that suited us. Only trouble is that it was super hard to level our 21’ class B. It is quiet and not many people have fires so it is not smokey. We can’t hear the creek from here but have some nice open views. It was very dusty on the road in and in the campground, but a light evening rain probably tamped down the dust. Partner says lit toilets clean. I haven’t used it yet.

I enjoyed camping here, and I could see it being a great spot for a large group. As the description said, it's a working gravel pit. ... and the BLM got to work at 8am the morning after I arrived. So, be aware of that. There is no shoulder on the highway, so you can't really pull over to check road or flood conditions before pulling into the pit. In my case it was totally fine, clear and flat, but I didn't really enjoy going in blind.

There is a lower and upper camp spots. The upper is about 1mi up a dirt road and has some shade trees but no ramadas. Both have vault toilets. Trash at lower. Horse corral at upper. No cell service except one bar at peak of hill anout 3/4 mi up from lower. Great views of wheeler peak, good hiking trails. Bring tp for the toilets, which were clean just no tp. And FREE 14 day limit. Hot but not unbearable in late july.

First off I'll start by saying the "Get directions" location on this app is incorrect AND the GPS will take you down a private, gated, dirt road to get there. Also, there is only ONE campsite on this road.

When you set your GPS for this location the GPS will take you down Lehman Caves Road which is also highway 488 into the national park. About halfway down this road from the small town of Baker, you will be told turn left on Rowland Ranch Road. IGNORE THIS. Rowland Ranch Road is a gated dirt road on private property. Instead continue down Lehman Caves Road until you get to a left on Baker Creek Road. I have attached a picture of detailed instructions of this ^ in my review.

Baker Creek Road is a maintained road within the national park boundaries but is hard pack gravel with some washboards along it. Just a little ways down Baker Creek Road, you will come to NF-589. This road starts as a Y split. Your first left is a foot path only with no camping signs in it. Directly behind it is the vehicle accessible entrance. Enter at your own risk! This OHV road is narrow and rough with decent sized rocks. There are very little opportunities to turn around and I would strongly recommend AGAINST entering with a two-wheel drive vehicle or a trailer. With that being said, I managed to squeeze down this road with my stock 2015 Toyota Tacoma towing a 12x6 enclosed trailer. My truck made it no problem without 4wd but I was at the limit of capability with my trailers ground clearance, width, and length. I also pre-scouted the singular campsite on this road with my off-road motorcycle to make sure nobody was there first. The only way for me to turn around with my trailer on NF-589 was to use the campsite I stayed in. Just into the entrance of the road you'll come across a downed tree across the road. Don't worry, somebody remade the road to the left going around it so continue on. About halfway towards the campsite you'll come across a small picket sign on the left side of the road that marks the national park boundaries. The campsite is on your left roughly another 500ft after that, just barely outside the national park boundary. There are some good wash outs almost a foot deep and 6-8in stones in the road. My 6-ft wide trailer, which is slightly wider than my truck, was touching trees on both sides for most of the way down.

I'll say it again, there is only one campsite here. The GPS coordinates do not bring you to a campsite so follow my instructions instead. This campsite is tight as you first turn in but opens up in the middle about 20ft into it. It also has some flat open areas for tents just a few feet away from main area. The site is not level and on the slope of a hill. There are also some large rocks similar in size to the ones in the trail on the way in all through the site. My 4in levelers for my rooftop tent were not tall enough to counter this slope. I ended up having to use large boulders and back over them to level my truck so I could sleep. There's nothing here but a fire ring, that includes bathrooms of any kind. You are just in the middle of the woods.

I would love it if people would stop having glass bottle parties around campfires. When did ruining fragile campsites become the new cool? I always try to leave a free campsite better than I found it. I spend time cleaning up other people's trash, rebuilding fallen fireplaces, and sweeping off cement patios when present. I would greatly appreciate it if you would do the same for others.

Anyways, I was here for 2 nights. The views are slightly blocked by the trees but the trees are fairly short. If you can get above the trees like I could by sitting on the roof of my trailer when the sun went down, the views are actually stunning at this campsite. This campsite is almost walking distance to the Lehman Caves and just a few minutes drive to most other attractions here like the scenic drive to the Alpine Lakes at the base of Wheeler Peak. The campsite is completely silent but there is a home about a half mile through the woods to the North towards Lehman Caves Road so please be respectful with music volume even though it may feel as though you are in the middle of nowhere.

Full hookups, clean and neat grounds with a beautiful view. SXS trails too

This is my second stay this year. With Las Vegas temps reaching 115, This is a beautiful respite with highs in the mid 80s. Well kept camp sites are also a welcome bonus. Bring your own water. Super clean restrooms too.

There were two of us in RVs. We stayed in spots 3 and 5.  We were able to park so that both of our RVs opened to make the area in-between us as the common area.  There are several big trees so we had some shade some of the time.  Rustic and a bit dusty, but for a base camp it fit the bill.   We were there in end of June 2024.  The weather was in the high 90s so we were so glad we had full hook-ups.  We did not use the bathrooms so I have no comments about them.  We did use the laundry room and they had several nice washing machines and dryers.   All spots were sold out on the weekend so make reservations early.  Jen, the manager, is super nice and friendly.  Note about Lehman Caves:  Lehman caves were amazing. Make sure you make reservations early and purchase your tickets for the tour of the caves before you get there.  Several people that just showed up were not able to get tickets to go inside Lehman Caves.