Best Tent Camping near Mesquite, NV

Sand Hollow is a beautiful man made lake with bright red sand and clear waters. This park allows for motorized and non motorized boats, off road vehicles, rentals, camping and dogs.

There are very limited spots by the water to camp, and fires are only allowed in specific fire rings. Outside firewood is not allowed. There is also an entrance fee to enter the park, National Park Passes will not work here.

There are nice day use areas, and areas designated for camping. Tents and RVs allowed, although most access roads are covered in thick sand. I would not recommend taking a low clearance vehicle. There is also a small restaurant for food and vault toilets for use.

You cannot camp around the entire lake. The back portion is fenced off, only allowing half of the lake to be occupied. I chose to camp as far away from the other campers by the backside of the lake. It was a very beautiful, sandy spot right by the water. However, it seemed like the other people staying at the park had no sense of respect or personal space. We set our tent up around 2:00pm and we constantly had ATV's, families with dogs off of the leash, fishermen etc walking/driving right through our site. This continued even through the night until quiet hours. Light and sound travel very well over this lake, so someone drunkenly singing with their buddies across the lake sounds like they are right next to you. People are driving their cars at all sorts of hours blinding you with the reflection off of the water. There are Park Rangers that drive around but don't seem to do anything. There was litter everywhere hidden in the sand. There are a couple of trees and bushes that provide some shade but I would recommend bringing a shade tent. There are also a couple of metal tables with attached chairs at some campsite locations.

This would be a beautiful location to visit for the day with your family. I would not recommend camping here overnight unless you don't enjoy personal space, respectful neighbors, quiet hours or humming RVs.

Arch rock campground is further up the road from Atlanta campground. It used to be a first come first serve campground, but just this month changed to a reservation system. If a site is not reserved and it is after 3pm, you can pay the iron ranger $10 for the site. Arch rock sites are more scenic than the other campground, but also more primitive with just vault toilet and water spigots distributed throughout the camp. No electricity. Desert big horn sheep do frequent the area. It can be very hot temperature. Sites are only modestly separated with little screening. Though the sites further up the loop are more dispersed. Each site has sun shade, table, fire ring, and 12’x12’ tent pads. No T-Mobile.

The campground is small and clean with 1 restroom (no showers) and located next to the reservoir. The site was beautiful and scenic from all sides. We tent camped for 2 nights. Each site offers a shaded pinic table, fire pit, and tent pad. Most other sites are within eyesight but for a campground we felt that we had enough distance (plus the shade cover) to give us some privacy. There are no trees or hardscape to keep all sites out of view but there are lots of karge creosote bushes. There are trails and easy access to the reservoir and watercraft rentals (i.e. jet skis, paddleboards, kayaks). The staff was friendly too. We enjoyed our stay and loved how dog friendly everything was.

My friends and I came here as somewhat of a celebration vacation. We had a little trouble our first night because we arrived so late and the campsites are first come first serve, but the next day we were able to score two of the walk-in campsites. Both have fire rings and a picnic table, and it provided us with enough privacy to truly enjoy our space, but we were close enough to cook dinner and have fires together at night. It’s so incredible laying in a smooth rock cove, eating hot dogs and laughing with your friends! I love the walk in camp sites here and will probably be back in the future

We reserved several nights here, based on the expectation of cell reception and electric. I'm working remotely, so these are must haves. When we got there, we found that there was zero service on either of our carriers, and no WiFi available.

Only the RV sites have power, and the RV sites were pathetically small. They were basically parking spots with tiny shared picnic tables between them. It looked more like a Walmart parking lot than a campsite. Very disappointing.

If you're able to go without power and internet, the tent sites were fairly nice. But if you need either, look elsewhere.

PROS: • Restrooms w/ flushing toilets • Showers w/ hot water • Parking within your site, loved the proximity • Faucet w/ running water on site • Fire pit w/ removable grill • BBQ grill • Covered picnic bench • Covered metal garbage cans walking distance from your site • Pet friendly • Visitor Center driving distance from site (within park) w/ items i.e. fire wood, fire starters, etc. • Lots of hiking trails to choose from! We drive to all of our trails

CONS: • You have to be very patient to score a site. The sites are first come, first served — no reservations and the signs have always said that the campgrounds are FULL when I go here, apparently they’re not. My gf had gone earlier to the park bc I had to work and she had to scout for a spot. Initially, she was not able to find anything so she went for a hike then returned and scored a spot. Patience is key! • RE sites 16 or any that are up against a boulder. These sights are like megaphones. Everything said and done in these sites could be heard from very far distances. Night 1; musicians graced our ear drums with guitars sounds and singing. Night 2; family tortured our eardrums with their screaming child (sound echoed!) and conversations that had TMI written all over them. This is me venting but just be aware if you’re staying in any of these spaces and don’t be a d*€% in general :)

Overall: love this place! Great for beginners in the world of camping. It eases you into it (w/ the access to toilets and showers) rather than straight roughing it off the bat.