Belle Campground

We didn't dare come to JTNP without reservations with a 35' RV so had made some for the Black Rock Canyon campground but didn't want to be that far away from the center of the park. We stayed on BLM Red Cloud Mine Road S.E. of JTNP in order to be able to get into the park before noon on a weekday. The Red Cloud Mine Road was a mistake but positioned us well to get into the park in the morning. We pretty much had our pick of the sites on that Wednesday morning and settled on #17 which was roomy for our RV and toad and put us in the back loop so there was less traffic. Belle Campground is set off the road and is essentially 2 piles of rocks with half of the 18 sites nestled in around each pile. There is good bouldering in addition to Belle within an easy hike south to the White Tank campground. Except Black Rock Canyon, Belle is the closest campground in the park to civilization and is approximately 10 miles downhill to 29 Palms, CA. We could get no Verizon service until we drove out the north entrance to the park.
This campground provided us a great location for exploring the eastern and southern parts of the park as we had reservations for 5 nights at Jumbo Rocks campground following to use to reach out further to the west with our hiking and discovery. Our last 2 nights saw the campground fill up for the weekend but it remained quiet and pleasant.

This is a very cute, small campground. I think there were around 16 sites, all first come first serve. All the campsites are nestled into the rocks and the campground is very central in the park and is a short hike to the neighboring campground where arch rock is.

The best sites are in the back, but you're lucky to get one! We stayed for 4 nights and noticed that the turnover in the campground is pretty high every day even on the weekend and the spots fill quick. Most people only spend a night or 2. The best time to get a site is probably around 10 or 11, but its all about luck and timing, people were constantly driving through the campground and leaving. We stayed at the beginning of March and the campground was full every day.

We were in site 7, sites 6, 7 and 8 are pretty awkward and don't have much privacy, especially between sites 7 and 8, its hard to tell where site 7 ends and were site 8 begins. It was really cold and really windy so most people were in their campers anyway.

All sites have a grill, campfire ring, and table.

All in all, I'd stay here again. But next time I'll try my luck at Ryan campground!

The Joshua Tree National Park in itself is very beautiful and fun to explore, but is very busy on weekends especially if the weather is cool.

Availability: The Belle campsite is first come first serve which means it can be a little hard to find a spot. We got to the park on a Sunday around 8:30 AM and were able to find a nice person who said they were leaving and we could take their spot. If you’re not lucky, then pretty much you drive around the loop until there’s a spot that’s empty, and you take it as quickly as you can before someone else does! Through out the day there were people occasionally driving through to see if they could find a spot, and at various time of the day spots became empty. All the signs said the campground was always full even if it wasn’t. Some of the campgrounds are reservation only.

Campsite: We stayed in site 14 which is a perfect secluded and quiet spot. The rocks provide a perfect shelter from neighbors. The sites are really not level at all so be prepared for that. Each site has a grill and a fire pit. There are no hookups or water or sewer.

Bathrooms: There are two bathrooms but both are vault toilets with no flushing water, or water to wash your hands with, and no showers. The toilets were mostly clean, not too bad and not stinky.

Trash: There are a few dumpsters around the campsite, some for only recycling and one for propane bottles only.

Pets: Dogs are welcome at the campsite but have to be on a leash at all time and should not be tethered outside or left in vehicles. We saw several dogs not on leashes while we were there and one dog came running up to us even though the owner was calling for it. So beware if your dog is not friendly with others.

Cell signal: I have Sprint and I had no signal for almost the entire time I was in the park. Occasionally as we drove through I would get a bit of signal and a few texts would come in but then it would be gone. My friend has Verizon and he had no signal the entire time we were in the park.

This campground is our all-time favorite so far! Camping in the middle of giant boulders and Joshua Trees... like someone else said—perfection! The only knock I have is due to a few humans... We came in at 3:45pm on a Saturday in September and were stoked to find a few spots still available. We paid for site #14 next to a huge boulder perfect for climbing to watch the sunset and sunrise. We clipped our receipt to the poll and went exploring. We camp in our suv so we didn’t leave anything behind but the receipt. At 6:45pm we came back to find an RV in our reserved spot. Our receipt was still clipped to the post. No humans in it to talk to. We took our receipt and thankfully we found another spot that had been occupied a few hours before. Site #3 was actually even better, bigger and more private. We camped there and enjoyed some incredible stargazing. At 12:30am a woman drove up to the site across from ours. She left her headlights on and truck running while putting up her tent until 1:45am. That was an unpleasant interruption to sleep but otherwise the campground was peaceful. We would definitely stay here again. No AT&T service except for a short moment on the main road coming into the campground. The overnight price was not posted when we were there but the ranger confirmed it is $15 and may increase at some point.

We arrived around sunset-and found that everything was full at Belle and Jumbo Rock (that could accommodate our 35ft Airstream. We ended up camping our first night in the BLM south of the National Park.
We got to Belle early the next day to make sure we got a spot. Site 4 was amazing! We could tuck our trailer way back in the rocks, had plenty of room for our truck. The site came with a charcoal grill, fire pit, and a picnic table. Our spot was very large-had a large rock with a spot to climb up and overlook the park.
Get there early-check out is noon, but it seemed most people left way before then and it fills up very quickly!
There is no cell service in the park-unless you climb up Ryan’s Mountain-which has awesome cell service.

We somehow manage to always arrive at first-come-first-serve national park campgrounds on a long weekend, realize this scheduling error the day prior, then get worried about finding a campsite. Arriving at Belle 1PM on a Thursday before the MLK long weekend we managed to snag the last spot long enough to accommodate our 28' Airstream. Fortunately it was a spot near the end of the loop around the rocks, and it turned out to be far quieter than the spots closer to the entrance which seemed to be party central that weekend.

Large boulders abound, with Joshua-trees a-plenty, Belle is a great spot for a more peaceful stay compared to other larger campgrounds in the park. Being further away from any of the more popular areas of the park there tends to be far less pedestrian and vehicle traffic - Jumbo Rocks, Ryan, and Hidden Valley in comparison is bustling with tourists and rock-climbers coming and going.

The downside of camping deep within JTNP is that there is no cell reception at all, no water spigots, and if you can't find a spot you'll need to drive long distances to other campgrounds to look for a spot.

Belle is a tiny campground with sites best suited for tents, camper vans and truck campers. Bigger rigs may be able to squeeze into a site or two, but options are limited.

Site 5 is the creme de la creme. It's tucked into a rock formation such that when you're camped you can neither see nor hear your neighbors. What a luxury! Traffic does pass by with relative frequency (especially once the sites start to fill throughout the park and people are getting desperate) but it wasn't enough to bother me. We were able to easily park two camper vans into this site with room to spare.

Sites have fire pits, charcoal grills, and concrete picnic tables. Clean long drop toilets and trash/recycling are available in the campground. No cell service, but driving a few miles down the road toward Twentynine Palms will get you Verizon and AT&T.

Site 5 has bolted climbing routes.