Our first experience here a few months ago was pretty good. The area is beautiful and there was a great view of the stars at night. There was a decent amount of trash at our campsite when we arrived, but unfortunately that’s fairly common.
Our most recent trip just a couple weeks ago was bad enough to keep us away forever. The first site we stopped at was covered in syringes. EVERYWHERE! Thankfully we hadn’t let the dog out of the car and we noticed quickly enough to avoid getting hurt. We got back in the car and drove to another campsite that appeared to be fine. There was some trash, abandoned items and broken glass but we cleaned it up and forgot about it. At one point our dog came up to us and had horrible poop breath, then started acting really weird. We rushed her to the vet first thing in the morning when she couldn’t walk and had no interest in food, only to find out that she had eaten human feces that contained THC. Its really frustrating that people can’t seem to respect this beautiful place and don’t understand how to leave no trace.
There are amazing views along this road, and many places to pull over and set up camp. We arrived on a Sunday around 5 and had no trouble finding a private spot. The GPS coordinates do not take you to campgrounds, so don’t depend on that. Just drive until you find something that’s calling to you. Only downside is that there were a million mosquitoes, but thats probably the case everywhere right now.