Masons Draw Campground

This is a small campground that requires a lot of very winding, steep driving to get to. It is in the mountains and not in the low desert, so it's a bit cooler. There is no water, but there is a vault toilet shared by the 5 sites. We were there in mid June and only 3 of the sites (including us) were taken. I sure like an unmanned campground where there aren't stupid rules like no privacy tents. But I don't really like a campground that is covered in cow pies and smells like cow poop everywhere you go. I'm from NW Iowa and live in SE South Dakota, so I don't really consider cows a novelty for vacation. They were nice and friendly, of course, but also smelly and loud.

Their website says the sites are $5 a night but that's only if you have a Lifetime or Access pass. Otherwise it's $10 a night. It's a fair enough price to not have to dig holes to poop into and to have a cleared space for tents. 

The trail across from our site was fun. Lots of wildflowers and great views. My biggest problem with the campground wasn't the campground's fault. We had to leave a day early because it was so windy. Not a constant wind, but random strong gusts, so it was impossible to sleep. No matter how I guyed the tent, it was blowing the tent in. But worse was the dust. It's still desert, afterall, and a thick layer of dust was covering everything and we were breathing it in all night as the wind blew it into the tent. This is probably a normal desert thing, but, well, I hate the desert. It was a road trip and we had to go through some desert spots to get to the places we were headed. Again, not the campground's fault or the forest service's fault, but I would not stay there again.

So if you don't mind smelling cow poop constantly and breathing in tons of dust, then this might be the spot for you. The solitude was pretty nice, though.

Quiet and secluded but sites are quite close together. Cool and in the aspens.

Much cooler temps up here. Surrounded by aspens, lots of deer and elk. The pit toilet was pretty clean and the tables were in good shape. Fire pits and bbqs at each site. Some sites have more car space than others, probably not good for large RVs or trailers.