Valley of Fire State Park – Other reviewers at rvparkreviews.com

March, 2016

The Lowe’s overall rating (based on value for the
money, quality of amenities and utilities, site suitability
and what we think other RV’ers in our situation would
be looking for) = 5 out of 10 stars

Noise level and overall “feel” of the park?
For such a small campground it was unusually noisy with daytime
vehicle traffic, which created clouds of dust on the gravel roads.
Lots of tent campers intermixed with larger RV’s – not our favorite
environment.  Park rangers were super-friendly and helpful.

Road and site access/type?
All gravel, and extremely dusty.  Access into sites was easy.

Sites spacious and/or level?  Comments?
Sites were spacious, plenty of room for a large RV and a couple
of other vehicles.  Biggest complaint here – terribly un-level sites!
We lucked out finding one that we could manage with all of our
lumber and jacks, but we saw people abandon sites because they
couldn’t get close to level.  Big ding for this issue!  We also didn’t
like that they didn’t take reservations and were first-come
first-served only.  We would prefer to have a reservation and saw
some rigs sitting around for a  while waiting for someone to leave
so they could pull in.

Utilities and WiFi/cell reception?
The electric/water only sites had strong 50-amp and 30-amp
power and good water pressure.  No WiFi provided by the park,
but we managed to get by with our boosted Verizon hotspot and
the cell phone reception was marginal as well.

Picnic table and/or fire pit?
Yes, a nice covered picnic table on a concrete slab and a good fire
pit which we used several times.  Firewood was a bit pricey, but
available at the visitor center.  They were the only game in town
for firewood, so bring your own or be prepared to pay.

Bathrooms/showers/laundry room?
The bathrooms we checked out near our site were clean and nice.
Showers were in separate rooms and not so nice, but still clean.
I would shower there if I had to but I wasn’t attracted to them.

Pet friendly?
Pets had to be on-leash within the campground, but there were
hundreds of acres all around where dogs could run free if you
want yours to run through desert brambles.

Bicycle/walking trails nearby?
Plenty of paved and gravel roads for bicycles, we saw a lot of
people riding around.  Walking trails – mostly easy-to-moderate
and fairly short – abound here and were the reason we stayed a
week.  Fabulous scenery for hikers, and even a short gravel road
“scenic drive” for car-bound folks.

Groceries & other services nearby?
The closest grocery store was in Overton, about 13 miles away.
We brought everything we needed to last a week and didn’t get
a chance to check out the town.

Comments:
This was a dusty, busy park – even during the week.  It would
have perhaps been more enjoyable if we had stayed a shorter
length of time like most of the other campers, but we were
waiting for weather north of here to warm up a bit so we
stayed a week.  The views of nearby and distant rock formations
from the campground were world-class, and that boosted my
rating a couple of points.  The campground itself was not a quiet
getaway that many folks might be looking for.  There is another
small campground very close by that has no utilities with a
variety of site lengths and most of them seemed to be more level.
My suggestion would be to stay here just long enough to check
out the beauty of the area – about 3 nights, during the week if
possible.

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