18 Road

This is a great place to camp if you’re looking to get away from town but not too far away. Lots of access to biking trails, and you’ll be camping near but not next to other campers. The road within the camping areas is rough and rutted, so a high clearance vehicle would be better than a passenger car. The night sky though - incredible view of the Milky Way!

Upon entering public land, 18 Rd goes from a good paved road to 3 miles of rough, washboard gravel and old, potholed blacktop before the turn off to the camping area at 39.2969, -108.7078. The camping area is 1 mile long, with over 30 level sites, many of them very large, and also a number of badly sloping sites against the hill on the left. The road through the camping area is in very good condition.

I was there mid-June, and there were never more than 3 other campers, and never more than 3 at the paid campground at the end of 18 Rd. Of course, it was 90 degrees, so that may be why so few were there. If you are a tent or van camper, there are toilets at that campground.

I camped at the first site on the right (coords in site number above). It was hard, level and spotlessly clean, with a view directly across the valley to the cliffs and canyons of Colorado National Monument, which looked very impressive at sunset. There were prairie dogs and rabbits for company.

The area on the other side of 18 Rd from the camping area is a mountain bike mecca. The area closer to town is open OHV, but I never heard any OHVs when I was at my campsite.

I had 2 bars of Verizon with -110dB, but 4G was barely usable, with less than 0.2 Mbps down and 1 Mbps up. The tower is to the south (using the map on the Network Cell Info Lite app), so it is not shielded by the hills at the sides.

There is free water, a free dump station and dumpsters at the Colorado Welcome Center in Fruita. The tourist information office there is well stocked with brochures for all of Colorado. There is a propane refill and a laundry at the Exxon station on the south side of the Fruita I-70 exit.

Ho-Ly Crap.
Never have I ever left a spot because I was so frustrated with an issue. What issue was that? DUST. It was windy and this place was literally unbearable with the dust problem. No, it wasn't like 40mph winds, either... it was just typical out-west afternoon winds. Maybe 10-15mph? Gusting higher or not. We got there in the afternoon one day and were gone the next afternoon around 4pm.

Aside from the dust, the views are very nice. It's pretty. Scenic. We had ok cellular. The road coming in is atrocious. It's not paved, it's graded, but when we came in it was in dire need of help.

There's a long graded road to travel before you hit the turnoff to the right to camp. Then THAT road is pretty bad as well. It has huge ruts in it so you have to make sure you put your wheels where you aren't going to scrape a low-hanging (mine) weight distribution hitch. So going in to find a spot took about 45 minutes if I recall correctly.

Spots are fairly spread out. You will see your neighbors. You are just outside of Fruita and about maybe 20 minutes to Grand Junction?

I have never left a spot out of frustration. It was a mutual, almost unspoken decision we made around 3 that afternoon... we packed up as fast as possible and just LEFT to arrive at a Wal-Mart parking lot in Rock Springs, Wy around 11 pm.

That's why I give this a 1-star. I don't foresee going back and risking the mess that was the dust issue. I've been to dusty spots all over the west. None compared to this.

A 3.5 mile drive down the washboard section of 18 Rd. leads to a dirt road on the right with a BLM sign. The sites vary in sizes and can fit around 15+ rigs. It’s a fairly popular area; there were numerous rigs parked when we arrived mid-week. There are no amenities in the vicinity, aside from vault toilets at the North Fruita Desert paid campground ($10) further down the road. But it’s 10 miles into downtown Fruita where there’s a grocery store, breweries, coffee shop, restaurants, and bike shops.

The mountain bike trail system here is officially named North Fruita Desert, but they are more commonly known as 18 Road or Bookcliffs.

We had 2 bar Verizon LTE where we were parked, but it was a slow 2 bar signal.