Best Dispersed Camping near Las Vegas, NV

NO facilities at all. No water, no trash pickup, and no toilets. Bring Everything and pack it all out. 

If there are fire restrictions, PLEASE don't light campfires. After years of drought, this place is a tinderbox. Your mistake could easily trap people further up the canyon with no way out. It is Illegal for a reason. 

The first mile is an easy dirt road, suitable for RV's and Campers.

The rest of the way is a fairly rough forest road - heavily rutted in places, with some steep drops. I wouldn't take anything but the smallest trailer back here, but it's perfect for tents. 

That being said; my AWD Subaru Outback made it there and back with no problems. 

Beautiful and cool during the summer - gorgeous stars at night.

A very short but kind of rough road right off of Valley of Fire Hwy less than two miles from the Parks north entrance. Free boondocking with no amenities. Follow the road and find your spot! You can see the traffic going to and from the park, but it is not a nuisance. The park is technically closed from sunset to sunrise so the only traffic is the occasional camper, arriving at the campground within the park. There are so many trails and points of interest to visit inside and outside the park. I highly recommend paying the price to drive through the park and then through the Lake Mead national recreation area into Henderson, Nevada near Las Vegas. The road along Lake Mead is as beautiful as Valley of Fire is!

Great place to disperse Dry camp. Spots are scattered along the main road. You can camp close to the interstate or 3 miles away at the lake. The lake shore gets crowded. The road is bumpy but we saw cars all the way down to the lake. The sign recommends 4x4 high clearance vehicles. The mine road offers good views and a few camp spots. 4x4 is definitely recommended for this road. There is no garbage collection so pack it out. One vault toilet near the lake. Bring your own firewood. No trees for wood in this area. Wood can be purchased at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area Campground Store. We spoted motor homers near the interstate, ground tenters, rooftop tenters, van campers and pull behind campers at the lake. We camped up the N Mine Road with our RTT trailer.

We couldn't get a spot inside Valley of Fire State Park so we decided to boondock on the BLM land outside the park. We knew there were plenty of spots but a lot were out in the open where everyone can see you. We wanted a bit of privacy and wanted to feel like we were out in nature not just parked in an empty desert. We decided to go searching for a better option and went down a dirt road, crossing our fingers. Lo and behold we found what we feel is a primo campsite! It's just outside the park of a dirt road. The coordinates are 36.413656-114.616805 and there's actually 2-3 spots back there. The first one is the easiest for bigger rigs or regular cars. The other two are up steep, sandy hills that are more suitable for a Jeep or ATV. There are rock fire pits(but be careful about fire restrictions) to designate the camping areas. It's private with hills all around. You can faintly hear the road and if you need better cell reception hike up one of the hills. It's a fantastic private spot that felt remote and special. The ONLY negative we encountered was trash. We did a sweep and picked up a lot of broken glass bottles, some aluminum cans, a bunch of bullet casings, and other trash. And nearby there's an old washer or dryer that someone dumped and used for target practice. We didn't clean that up because obviously, that's just too big. Anyway, the spot is so close to Valley of Fire you can just head on into the park for hiking and day use or head back out to the freeway for more supplies. For us, this spot was absolutely perfect and we had zero troubles, but I can imagine if it rains or shortly after it's been raining that this particular spot might be terrible. DO NOT CAMP HERE IF RAIN IS IN THE FORECAST.

April 22, 2018

This area is one of my favorite spots to go to at Lake Mead. In order to get there, follow road signs to Crawdad Cove, the road is loose gravel and dirt so be weary what vehicle you take, so roads require 4 wheel drive. The dirt road will split into a "Y" so stay left. None of the back roads are marked, so you might have to do some exploring. Just try to follow the water and stay on the larger dirt roads. Once you get to the lake there's a nice gravely Beach area and multiple places to set up camp (there are rock fire rings too). I wouldn't recommend camping there because it is a high traveled area, lots of people launch canoes/kayaks, and other boats there. However there are camping spots the entire way down to the water (you can literally pull off of the road and camp where ever you want, there's no assigned/numbered or reserved spots) and all along the banks of the river. If you get there early enough in the day you will avoid park entry lines and you can get a really good spot by the water!

There's lots of good fishing spots, and you can always see the fish jumping out of the water! You can also hike anywhere around here. I have two dogs and really enjoy hiking around and swimming. It's about a 45 minute drive from Las Vegas but worth it to let my dogs run around and swim in the water. If you do bring your dogs be cautious of coyotes in the area, I've seen a couple walking around the area during the day looking for food scraps, and packs of them howling at night.

We set up camp on the left side of the cove on top of a cliff, with a beautiful beach area below all to our selves. There were a couple of other people camping nearby as well. There were multiple places to cliff jump, and fish (bring water shoes because there is some broken glass). The sound is really amplified in this area so please be respectful of the other people around you. All of the sites are primitive, so no toilets or running water. Bring bathroom supplies (I'd recommend bringing baby wipes and hand sanitizer... And a little shovel 😉) and lots of extra water to drink and put out your fire. There is one drop toilet and two large dumpsters along the road but not close to the lake. The sunsets are breath taking and there's lots of different birds, animals, lizards, and flowers if you go at the right time of year. Bring sunscreen and a shade tarp as there is no shade out there.

If you have a non motorized watercraft you need to get a special sticker for it in order to use it at the lake. If you want more information you can ask the Park Rangers when you enter and they will give you some papers about your boats and where to obtain registration.

Beautiful mountain. In the summer months I’d like to camp higher up. This site is about half way up the mountain and the quick difference going from Vegas through the desert and ending up on top of a lush green mountain side nestled below overhanging peaks is amazing. I always seem to arrive during the night which is something I need to correct, don’t do that. Especially if you are a first timer and have zero knowledge of an area. 

When you pull into the empty turn around and onto the dirt road you could be immediately disarmed. The second you pull off the road you notice gang symbols spray painted on the tree’s (sad) and a lot of empty beer cans. It could be alarming but if you continue up the dirt road it clears up. Really beautiful sites all around. I went in February and got some nice slow flurries which was a nice treat. Problem was that is snowed through the night and I woke up to about three inches. When you’re going in its all down hill, exiting with snow reminds me why I need 4 wheel drive. Enjoy the photos, I will be back!

-Chuck 
P.S. Don’t forget, always leave the area better than you found it!
          LEAVE NO TRACE. P.S. Don’t forget, always leave the area better than you found it!