This campground is in a very cool location. You can walk straight out to the beach. There’s a monarch Grove right next to you. And it’s about a 15-20 minute walk to Pismo beach Downtown and the Pier where you’ll find all of the main attractions in the area.
Most of the campsites have little to no shade unfortunately. Each campsite has a fire ring though and each campsite has plenty of space between each site. While it’s not private, it’s spacious!
Good cell phone service too.
Upside: • You’re right next to half dome! A short walk away towards the center of the Valley and you’ve got a great sunset view of the dome. • Also located right next to the the trailheads for Mirror Lake and the Mist Trail to Vernal Falls (most popular trail). You can also start the Valley Loop Trail from here. • You’re in the valley! This saves you hours of driving in and back out and parking; plus, you get experience Yosemite in the morning and evening with a much smaller crowd. • Wildlife - Coyotes wandered through a couple times. Beautiful! Unfortunately, no bear encounters for me. Follow the food storage rules though. Don’t ever leave food out. Food in the lockers, NOT in your car. Especially not visible. I saw both ravens and the coyotes go nuts on one picnic. • Plenty of mostly clean restrooms. Not a bad idea to bring your own toilet paper.
Downside: • Campsites are right next to each other with no privacy *e.g. no tree barrier - between sites. Some sites are better than others. Not that you have much choice when booking but check out the site photo on Recreation.gov to manage your expectations. • Generators – three 2 hour time slots throughout the day where visitors can run their generators and it gets loud. • Between 11AM and 2PM, there’s a lot of foot traffic of people cutting through the sites to get the those popular trailheads after the parking lots fill up.
Other notes: • Cellular service with Sprint/T-Mobile was spotty, coming in and out. Usually out. Perfect signal 5 minutes down the road towards the Yosemite Village.
This review is for the open camping.
I arrived and after looking around for a long while for someone, I was given a quick pointing out of where everything generally was. A map or better signage is sorely needed.
The grounds were peaceful. There are open-air showers, a community kitchen, sauna and swimming hole. The mini A-frames and dome look very cool, even from a distance.
I tried out the sauna. It didn’t seem to be working for over 40 minutes. No one was around to troubleshoot. It just started working eventually on its own and was nice, relaxing.
Great hidden gem. The campsite down a dirt road and the area offers tranquility!
This a great campsite for a quiet night or two and can be used as a base for exploring the Groves in the area.
Bathrooms and showers basic.
On arrival for my one night, the wall board by the office had all the reservations with site numbers, map and local recommendations.
Grounds have plenty of areas for dogs, clean bathrooms + showers, and OK wifi that was a bit spotty at times. The orange trees provide a little privacy between sites and a little fun.
You definitely could hear the trains in the evening and night; it didn’t bother me as I use a white noise machine.
They have what looks like a nice lounge area looked nice, but with COVID, I did not take advantage.
I’d give this a 3 star during COVID but it’s probably closer to a 3.5 star post-COVID if not a 4* for kiddos!
The grounds themselves are OK; not much to look at. The bathrooms were old and a bit dirty. The ghost town is walking distance through a short cut or you can quickly drive over to the parking lot.
I wouldn’t recommended visiting during covid. There were only a few gift shops open. I just wanted to grab an expensive beer and sit outside on one of the patios and that wasn’t an option. Everything from the train to going into the mine was not available. Mostly understandable, but still, it would have been nice if there were socially-distanced, safe food or entertaining options. You can just walk around the town right now.
This is a good central spot for getting to Badwater Basin and Zabriske Point and similar spots easily.
No hookups but plenty of access points for drinking water. Bathrooms were clean.
Spots are pretty close together so don’t expect much privacy here. Surrounding rocks and view were pretty during sunrise and sunset.
As it’s Death Valley, roaming only cell signal. The Ranch (5-10 min drive) has ample parking and Paid Wi-Fi if needed.
This “resort” was overcrowded, loud and packed with off-road vehicles. Unattended children were recklessly running in front of vehicles dangerously while their parents were getting drunk at the bar.
The back-in spots are paired with 3 parties and they are basically on top of each other. There is no privacy or space. You might as well be sleeping in each other’s RV.
There were so many ATVs and vehicles that I couldn’t get into the campground site. It caused my vehicle to get stuck in the sand. Instead of helping, the resort takes no liability for that and they make sure you know that. Security have a “3rd party” come get you out when it’s clearly an off-the-book employee who knows the staff personally.
This is NOT a campground to have a campfire, a drink with friends by the river and enjoy the view.
Being inside the NP is nearly invaluable. Especially in the winter when you’d can drive to basically all of the viewpoints and hikes if your rig is <25ft.
✔️ The grocery store, post office, and bank is walkable or a VERY quick drive. Yavapai Lodge Dining Hall is also normally open here. ✔️ The bathrooms were clean ✔️ The full hook-ups perfect ✔️ The nearly morning or evening visitors of Elk were fun. They are regulars here!
My biggest tip is that you can WALK via the Greenway Trail from RV village almost straight to Mather Point and the Visitor Center. It’s about a 20 minute walk through the woods. Just walk straight west from Row F / Row P and you’ll hit the trail which is open to hiking and biking. This is very nice if you’re trying to do the shuttle and don’t want to do a full loop to get back to the RV Village.
Downsides: Mather Campground has a lot more shade. This basically had none. Big parking lot feel other than the Elk. I thought it was a no generator campgrounds but there was definitely a generator hum in the evening.
Quite location off the highway with extremely friendly owners and plentitude of services. This is a really good location as a base for experiences and activities in the surrounding areas; plus, it’s under an hour drive to the east side of Zion NP.
The grounds look like they were built by an interior designer + expert contractor. ✔️Spa bathroom/showers with indoor or outdoor option. Even heated floors! ✔️Brand-new laundry machines $2/load payable via Venmo or Paypal ✔️ Community club house area with outdoor seating and more ✔️ Small office workspace area ✔️ Fiber Wifi internet with range to all of the campsites ✔️ Propane Exchange/Delivery ✔️ Propane fire pit for $5 fee ✔️ + Other services/partnerships whether that’s RV detailing I saw being done on site or adventure partners
The beautifully designed, modern campsite is extremely thoughtful and well laid out with many small impressive details. This is the type of site where you could stay for a month or two and feel completely at home.
In the morning and evening, the mule deers hang out in the grass surrounding the campground. They don’t fear the people or the noisy RV groups. Bathrooms are clean and well maintained. The campground is walking distance to the pedestrian entrance of Zion and Springdale. Zion Brewing is literally right there. The Visitor Center is a tad bit further where you can pick up the shuttle on the weekends to the hikes along the Zion Scenic Drive. Make sure to get your ticket ahead of time or jump on the app at exactly 5PM MT to get your $1 shuttle ticket. They DO turn away people trying to get on the shuttle without a ticket. Decent Sprint LTE cell signal here.
Not far from Guerneville. Incredible view from the top of the campsites area. The walk-in camp sites actually have better setups albeit a little less private.
The campground definitely feels and removed from city life.
One lane road access that would be intimidating at night.
Highly recommend