Best RV Parks & Resorts near Lake Mead National Recreation Area, NV

Don Laughlin’s Riverside RV Park Resort offers a prime location along the Colorado River with convenient access to all the entertainment and amenities of the Riverside Resort.

The park features spacious, level sites with full hookups and well-maintained facilities, including a laundry room and a dog park.

Guests can enjoy shuttle service to the casino, restaurants, and movie theater, making it a great blend of outdoor relaxation and vibrant nightlife.

Its proximity to the river also provides opportunities for boating, fishing, and scenic views, making it an excellent destination for travelers seeking both recreation and comfort.

Some of the best campground restrooms. Full hookups & affordable long term rates.

Had a great experience at thousand trails las vegas, it was our first rv park stay and the maiden voyage for our new (to us) pop-up trailer. Very clean facilities, friendly people and helpful staff. Bathroom stalls were very small but still a great stay overall

Granted, the only other Thousand Trails I stayed at was in Acton, CA. It was in a lush green/wooded area and it was well maintained. This place was pretty tight to move around and the spots are not the greatest size. Starts off at $51 a night but has all the usually Thousand Trails amenities. I did notice they do upcharge a few bucks if you are using 50amp. They do have full hookups and cabins on site. Area not the greatest, but you must go through the gate to get inside, so a little secure. When you are entering in the park, just be mindful that you have to turn right after a yellow mobile home parts store. The driveway is a little hidden.

Ranger Review: Midland X-Talker Two-way Radios at Cottonwood Cove Lower Campground, Lake Mead National Recreation Area, NV

CAMPGROUND REVIEW

Cottonwood Cove Lower Campground is located 14 miles east of Searchlight, NV, on the shores of Lake Mohave. The decent into Cottonwood Cove is quite dramatic (about 2900 ft), for which the roadside cactus can attest, as the types of cacti change even with the slightest elevation change.

The "lower" in Cottonwood Cove Lower Campground's name characterizes it's lower elevation compared to the "upper" campground, which naturally has higher elevation.

Cottonwood Cove Lower Campground is included in Lake Mead National Recreation Area campgrounds, and keeping with their custom, all sites are first come first serve. The Cottonwood Cove area has low elevation, at about 650 feet above sea level, which means it gets very hot during the late spring, summer, and early fall months.

Only a few of the 45 sites have shady cottonwood trees, and there are only uncovered picnic tables, so come prepared with a shade canopy for much needed relief! There are beautiful views of Lake Mohave, three very clean restroom buildings (no showers), water on taps, and fire rings at every site. There is an RV dump station located near the entrance to the Upper Campground (although the Upper Campground is closed).

The Lower Campground is situated behind a hill, which obstructs cell service. Walking only a short distance to the marina area, you'll find a strong 4G signal. The park service provides fee-based internet at the campground, but we didn't try it.

Cottonwood Cove has a full service boat marina, gas, motel, RV resort (with full hook-ups), watercraft rentals/supplies, sandy beach, and shaded picnic tables with BBQs.

Here's a drive-along tour of Cottonwood Cove Lower Campground: https://youtu.be/s6AQ6KqtxPg

Overall, we enjoyed our stay at this campground. It was a peaceful place, with jackrabbits, a couple of hungry ducks, many songbirds, and the stars at night were bright & beautiful. 4 stars (not 5 stars due to lack of provided shade).

PRODUCT REVIEW

As a Ranger for The Dyrt, I get products to test from time to time. While camping at Cottonwood Cove Lower Campground, we tested Midland X-Talker Two-way Radios (model T51).

https://midlandusa.com/product/x-talker-t51vp/

Camping in an isolated area behind a large hill was the perfect place to review these radios. However, with the hill as an obstruction our range was limited. [Note: We also tried these radios at home, and our maximum range was 3 small neighborhood blocks. Perhaps to achieve the maximum range of "28 miles," you'd need to be on the open ocean on a calm day or out on a very flat prairie.]

Here's a video demonstration of the Midland X-Talker Two-way Radios:

https://youtu.be/ocCEzY-MgUc

As you can see in our review video, we compared the Midland radios with a very inexpensive set. Midland's quality is far superior.

The Midland's instruction booklet is easy to follow, buttons are easy to operate, radio is comfortable to hold, and the belt clip is very tight (exercise care unlatching to prevent breaking). And… the NOAA Weather Radio scan was our biggest surprise, as you'll see in this video:

https://youtu.be/nZvTipRcln8

The radios can be charged while positioned on the charging stand or via a charging cord plugged directly into the radio and to an electrical source (such as a portable power bank).

Overall, we are very impressed with the clear reception and convenience of the Midland X-Talker Two-way Radios. We are looking forward to using these radios during our future no-cell service camping, fishing, and hiking adventures. 5 stars

Full hook-up RV park, with no shade structures and no picnic tables.  Guests may use hotel amenities including pool.  Arizona Charlie's is a popular local hotel & casino, with easy access to downtown Las Vegas and nearby major thoroughfares.

Nice friendly people, Good Sam Discount, AAA Discount, AARP Discount, Military And First Responder Discount . Clean, security 24 hours, Laundry Room, Bath House, pool area, TV Room. Full hook ups 50 amps available. Easy pull through sites, this is my third time here. They have daily, weekly, and monthly prices.

5 Stars!! Wonderful staff, Full hook ups, Pool, Hot Tub, Laundry, Club house. All Very clean. Security at gate to make you feel secure while in Las Vegas. We had our E-bike stolen while parked on Strip in oversized lot. So we parked at the Las Vegas RV park for the week and Uber to the hotel for convention.

We are fairly new to the Thousand Trails membership and started our travels in August 2020 with our first stop at Tall Chief near Seattle. We jumped between TT campgrounds all year. Every person we met gave us great recommendations. But, when we mentioned we were staying here everyone always scrunched their faces and said to stay somewhere else. We stay for free with TT so figured it couldn't be THAT bad. We were wrong... this place is pretty rough and should probably lose it's TT designation.

I will say the staff were all friendly enough but still pretty gruff at best. The park itself is bad. The walls around the premises are just cinder block with barbed wire at the top with trash blowing in the wind on them. The neighborhood itself looks a bit sketchy but it is adjacent to a hotel, a large retirement community, and a few businesses. So I don't think it's as sketch as it looks at first glance.

The bathrooms look pretty run down and the park was pretty ripped up for construction. Hopefully it hasn't been sitting that way for long. The pool didn't look very inviting. The place definitely isn't secure. You can just drive right on in at any time. There were a LOT of busted up RVs and travel trailers. Some even had sides replaced with plywood. Many spots were filled with garbage. Some spaces had 3-5 cars parked at them. For a Thousand Trails there doesn't appear to be any requirements on what is allowed to be parked here. If Thousand Trails wants people to actually join TT you'd think they'd want their parks to look nice enough to even want to join. (Thousand Trails marketing materials were even being used to board up windows).

All-in-all, if this is where people stay full time to live and work then it's fantastic there are decent places. RVs and travel trailers need places to be parked. It should not have a Thousand Trails designation though unless it meets that standard in my opinion.

As an alternative to the NPS campground across the road, this mobile home park has some full hookup RV spots in the rear of the mobile home park next to the laundry/restrooms. Note that the restrooms/showers are closed but laundry is open. Office staff said campers from the NPS campground can use the laundry. Cost for RV as of Feb 2022 was only $29.38 for full hookups. Only about 9-10 sites are available for RVs and reservations are required either online or in the office upstairs at the Callville Bay Store. No tents, no open fires, no wifi. However, cell signal is very good on Verizon, TMobile and ATT due to the cell antennas by the NPS water tanks above the NPS campground.

First, there are two areas. The RV park and the campground. The RV park has all your amenities and full hookups. Store, propane and great views of Lake Mead. If you are able to reserve a rv pad nearest the lake, you will be in for a treat. All spots have full hookup and picnic table. You have full unobstructed view of the lake from these pads.

The campground is separate from the RV park, but located directly next to it...really adjoining. Separate fees go to the National Park for camping. Currently, showers are not running. Has many pull thrus for rigs, as well as tent camping. Plenty of shade and spaces are not to close.

Decent location for dry camping. Only one loop of a few spots open so not sure if the others are new or closed foe the time of year.

There are three locations for RV parking. For the upper and lower Echo Bay campgrounds. These are drying camping spots. Across from the Echo Bay is an RV park with full hookups.

Nothing fancy about this RV park. Just a parking lot with full hookups. But location wise, you can't get much closer to the Las Vegas action.