Best Dog-Friendly Camping near Panaca, NV

If you need a breather from Vegas, this is a great weekend trip! Great hiking trails and awesome views! Dog friendly! Restrooms and showers are clean! So many state parks in the area! Hour or less from Echo Canyon SP, Beaver Dam SP, Spring Valley SP, and Kershaw-Ryan SP. Town of Panaca is 15 minutes away if you need more ice or groceries.

We had site #6 - campground was not crowded, lots of empty spots. Easy walk to the reservoir. Large area for a tent, a centrally located fire ring and bbq. Each site had a nice covered table. We did have to kill a couple black widows that had setup shop under the table. And day 2 we fought some tiny little gnats that left some nasty bite marks on both of the dogs. bring bug spray in future All that did not put a damper on our visit. Bathrooms were an easy walk, and clean. The little library was great and had a nice selection and the Family had no problems catching fish (10 bass & 1 crappie) on this visit. We will be back.

One of the best hidden gems in Nevada! Great camping with clean restrooms and well maintained campgrounds. Plenty of good trails nooks and crannies to explore.

Highly recommended!!

Whipple cave is located 3 hours from Las Vegas, heading north. Coordinates to the cave can be found here: latitude 38.48909 longitude 115.01829

Once you get to the Whipple cave access road, pass the wire fenced gate located on the right hand side. Here, you will drive on a dirt road for about 2 miles. A 4w drive is highly encountered. You won’t be able to make the drive in a sedan. You will see the trailhead at the end of the road.

You can camp here for the night. There’s fire pits available throughout, it’s a very secluded area so you will not run into other people or crowds. Just an FYI, it gets pretty windy at night. Dog friendly! No reservation required, free to camp!

The cave is located a couple minutes away, up the mountain. You will see signs for it. You can enter the cave by rappelling down 70 feet. Once at the bottom, you can embark on a 2 mile spelunking adventure!!! You will need a 165 ft rope and headlamps to accomplish this adventure as well as technical rope-climbing skills.

Visited on October 10th. This was a quick one night in-and-out for us but very enjoyable. The water at the lake was low and no fires due to the lack of rain in months. There were a lot of families fishing. We are more into hiking but this spot made me think about getting into fishing as well. The sites are close to each other so there isn’t much privacy but everyone was very friendly and the bathrooms and showers are amazing (we are used to primitive camping). The ranger came by to check on everyone.

This is a first come first served location with no option of reserving at this time. There are fire rings and covered tables at each site. One note of caution, there were a lot of bees. I am not sure if it was the heat and lack of moisture but it did make lunch very uncomfortable.

We really want to go back and we want to go back in the winter as well to check out everyone Ice Fishing. I would love to do some hiking. It is such an interesting area, screaming to be explored. The kids and dog loved it.

Nice little campground located in the Cathedral Gorge State Park in Eastern central Nevada. Sites are first come first serve. Each has Electrical hook ups, but no sewer/dump facilities. Bathrooms have running water and a shower which is very nice. The hiking trails are great and provide lots of exploring on the Cathedral Gorge.

Steve, the “Happy Camper”

This was our second Nevada State park campground and it was just as immaculate as the first. The sites were level, groomed, and not a speck of trash to be found. Great Verizon service, no ATT. We didn’t use the bathroom because of covid, but based on the cleanliness of the rest of the place, it was probably perfect. The park is nice, definitely worth a day’s visit. This campground would make a good base for exploring more state parks nearby.

There are natural springs and the flora is gorgeous!!! The short overlook trail is absolutely stunning. Our trip was in Fall so the colors were amazing. We camped for only one night but had a good visit and plan to return since this is a very nice place. This is a small first come, first serve campground with electric hookups, restrooms, and more. Each site has a picnic table, BBQ, and fire pit. The picnic table has shade and there are trees around the campground. There are showers but I didn't use them to verify they work well or are warm. There are water spouts, for use but not to hookup. There is a dump station at the park entrance but no sewer hookups. We got the last spot in the campground, it fills up quickly and people came after us who had to leave to find another place. Lesson: arrive early in the day probably between 10am-1pm will get you a spot. The campground is at the park entrance and is 0.8 miles from the main park area where the playground, wading pool, grassy areas, and most trail heads are. That main area is also where you will find maps and the stamp to use on your Nevada state parks passport. When we came the wading pool was empty. But I guess during summer it's a nice refreshing place for children to play. There are two spots to play horse shoes and one for volleyball. The playground equipment is old but usable. Cellular service is better up at the main park area than at the campground but the campground does offer wifi for a fee. Just outside the state park is a grazing area with cows and just past that is the railroad- you may hear the train from your campsite. We liked that but I'm sure some people wouldn't. Animals in the area we saw: turkey, rabbits, kangaroo rats, frogs, and various butterflies. The camping price is$15 per night without hookups,$25 with hookups OR if you get the state park all access pass then camping is free and you just pay$10 for the hookups if you use them. Read up on the Nevada State Park website for more details.

There are TWO CAMPGROUNDS in Echo Canyon State Park. There is the upper campground with FULL hookups for RVs and there is the lower campground meant more for tent camping. They appear about the same elevation, perhaps upper is higher. The lower campground is across Echo Dam Road from the boat launch entrance to the reservoir. The upper campground is at the end of a dirt road that runs along the west side of the reservoir. You can see the upper campground(aka RV campground) from Echo Dam Road- it has few tall trees and likely enough RVs to stand out. The lower campground is more hidden in the mountain with the trees. We stayed in the RV campground and used the electric hookups. There were water and sewer as well but we didn't use thus can't verify quality. Everything looked clean and well kept and the water had TWO spouts, which is very nice. Each spot had covered picnic tables and a fire ring. There was a small pile of firewood you could purchase on the honor system from the information stand at the entrance. The park, like all the Nevada State Parks with camping, is first come first serve. And you pay at the kiosk drop box. A ranger comes by and checks on the campers about once a day. It costs$15 per night without hookups and$25 with hookups. If you get the state park all access pass then camping is free, you just pay$10 for hookups if you use them. We ended up here because we went to Cathedral Gorge state park but it was full. This park had plenty of spaces and was just about 20 miles away. We chose Echo Canyon rather than staying in the Cathedral Gorge overflow area because we needed hookups due to the cold weather. Unlike other reviewers, our experience was bug-free! Also, visibility was far! We saw hundreds of deer across the meadows. The winds at night were very strong and loud but didn't do any damage. The morning sun was strong and warmed things up quickly. Overall, we thought this place was a great value because of the full hookups.

I want to start off by saying I was never able to check with a park ranger and ask how the overflow camping is technically supposed to work but here was my experience. I arrived at the campground around 5pm on a Friday night and everything was full. After driving around for a bit I saw signs for Overflow camping. There appeared to be two sections where overflow camping is permitted. I will post pictures of the one I stayed in over by the slot canyons and day use areas. Since my setup does not require a tent and is super easy to move around. I was able to use the camp fire rings at the day use area for dinner, s’mores, and star gazing. It was actually lovely because the noise of the busy campground was far away and I had the entire day use area to myself. Then after I put my fire out I drove back over to the overflow parking spot. If you are in a Van or similar car/suv setup this may be an option for you if the campground is full. Also, I was still able to use the showers at the campground and use the bathrooms at the day use area so that was nice :)

Stayed for a couple of nights in April 2021. The campsite is pretty small and also popular, so get there early! We'd gotten some advice to arrive between 9:00 and 11:00 AM. Turned out to be great advice! We arrived at 10:30 and had several sites from which to choose. It wasn't long after we set up to see that the remaining available spots had disappeared quickly. Rigs continued to circle through for the rest of the afternoon. They have an "overflow" area, but there are no power hookups there.

The restroom/shower was clean, but there is only one shower stall in each of the restrooms. It wasn't a problem for us, since most of the rigs there had their own facilities. The app says the campground has water hookups, but it does not. The have potable water stations, where you can fill your tank before setting up, but no hookups at individual sites.

Seems like most of the folks were locked inside their trailers by 8:00. We were one of maybe three sites that actually had a fire and s'mores! It was quiet and peaceful in the evenings.

During the day, we explored the adjacent slot canyons. They are beautiful and a great way to escape the heat! Most are great for kids to explore, but be careful as we found one had a sudden vertical shaft straight down. Gorgeous for sure, but just watch your kiddos!

We highly recommend this cozy spot if you're in the area!

The rangers were very friendly. We chose site six.

Sites are a bit small & close together but it’s spotless. Heated bathrooms with free showers. Overflow camping along the road to the group camp & picnic area.

We have a 36’ Class A with a Cherokee Trailhawk tow and stayed in site 23 for 3 days in early May. The CG is 1st come, 1st served, and very small, just 22 sites- some sites are small and some will accommodate larger RVs. All of the sites were occupied when we arrived, but there are two dry overflow areas you find out about after cruising the CG, and two ADA sites that can be occupied if all of the other sites are taken(Last to Fill rule), so we ended up in one of those. We try not to use ADA sites, but didn’t really have any other options. The CG and overflow areas stayed full while we were here, even mid-week. There are 2 showers in the bathhouse by the ADA sites, which are coin operated, so have a quarter ready for each 5 minutes, but you’ll lose the first minute waiting for the water to get acceptably hot. Not sure if the other bathhouse is coin operated too or not. The shower spray is acceptable, but the nozzle could stand some cleaning to produce a better spray. There are a couple of nice trails in the park as well. 

AT&T coverage was marginal, with 2-3 Bars of 5GE service, but speeds only up to about 0.8 MB/s. There were only a few tall trees, but none obscuring our view to the North or SW, so we were able to get DISH coverage on all three western satellites at our site. We didn’t use the CG WiFi as we had an unobstructed view to the North and so had great Starlink coverage, with speeds up to 18 MB/s. We didn’t try the OTA antenna.

This was our first stop on our two week excursion. It was first come, first serve. Thankfully we got a spot with electric and water. There are showers here. It was too cold to check them out,(the shower on our conversion van is tiny) bathrooms are nice and clean and plentiful. Go see the slot canyons and moon caves. Several trails in the park. Well worth it.

Quite clean and flat sites. Only had power but had nice and clean bathrooms with handicapped showers. Completely ADA accessible. I was even able to drive close enough to some of the rock formations in the day use area that I could walk up with my cane to feel them and get a photo.

We stopped here on a road trip last year. We were just passing through and saw a sign for a campground and decided to camp for the night. The campground is a little oasis in the desert, with just a few sites situated among small trees and scrubby plants. The night we stayed - on a weekday in July, there were just three other campsites being used.

What we noticed right away, before we even started exploring the park, was that the wildlife was super tame. The jackrabbits and lizards came right into our campsite to check us out, and there were birds singing everywhere - not what we expected from a desert landscape. We hiked the short trail over to the cathedral area. The sun was setting and we were greeted by a family of desert foxes. We didn't get to close to them, but they were super curious about us and wanted to investigate. The babies were running in and out of the labyrinth of rock pillars and caverns. It was the cutest thing ever. We didn't stay long because we didn't want to disturb them.

The next morning we hiked the main trail to an overlook, which was really awesome. We left before the sun got too hot. I'm not sure this park would be a great destination for a vacation, because you can pretty much see all there is to see in a few hours, but it is a beautiful clean campground for an overnight, and I will definitely stop by again if I'm in the area. Also, I hear the star gazing is amazing here. It was cloudy night we arrived.

Came into the park late Saturday afternoon. All hookup spots were taken but dry camping is no issue for us. Utilized the overflow camping area. Great hikes and found nearby atv trails for our side by side. Much needed weekend getaway!

Very nice place. Big lot's and very quiet.

What a surprise?  Nice, small campground. Electrical hookup in all sites.  Note that there are free showers at the restrooms in the campsite.  The other facility nearby charges for showers.  Fire rings and large shade structures over picnic tables. Plenty of room for parking extra vehicles.  The formations in the park are fun to explore.

This is a quaint campground. It is first come first serve and there are not very many spots, so you will want to be there early. There is a nice walking/biking trail that is right out of the campground. Our site was spacious but some are smaller. We would stay here again.

This campground is super busy in the fall. We arrived at approx 3 pm and there were only 3 sites available. Within the next 20 minutes, the entire campground was full. The next day, as people left, people filled the spots. The sites are really small and close together. There are fire rings at every site, but grills at about half of them. Our site didn't have a grill, but we managed ok. The awesome thing about this campground is that there are electric hookups at every site, which was very convenient for charging the phone, iPad and charge box! Wifi is available for a small fee which was awesome also! The bathrooms were very clean and heated, and even had a free shower!

The nature hike to the slit canyons was super short and the kids loved exploring the caves!