Black Rock Canyon Campground

This is an okay campground. As most people have said, roads are brutal, sites are very unlevel. We actually did okay with leveling, 3 inches under all the tires on the passenger side got us there.

The size limit is technically 35 feet, we had no problem getting our 45 foot rig in and out. The corners are tight and ground clearance maybe an issue getting in and out of site for some rigs. No on hassled us about our length. The sites are actually generous in length and fully wide enough.

There's a dump station and water available. They ask for $5.

Flush toilets, but no soap or anything to dry hands with in restrooms.

The big downside for us was the intense wind. It absolutely pounded the campground all night and we barely slept. Others may not have an issue, but it was very unsettling for us. All the tenters were bailing out early in the am and all the rvers were hunkered down inside.

We came through the park from the South the day before, and since there was no room in the park for us, we decided to come out and stay here for the night before heading to Palm Springs. In retrospect, other than the $5 water, we could have happily stayed at the BLM land just North of the park.

We really liked this campground mostly because of the natural setting. You can get really good views from some campsites, ours being one of them. Most campsites also have Joshua trees on them. As for the park quality, all the roads are broken and in dire need of repaving. There aren't many signs in the campground. The restrooms were clean. Generator hours are 7AM-9AM, 12PM-2PM, 5PM-7PM, this is good from the noise standpoint but can be a pain if you don't have solar and need to charge the batteries to get ready to run the furnace overnight. Overall we liked the CG and would camp here again. Note: This CG is outside of the National Park, the West Entrance of the JTNP is about 30-45 mins drive from here. Also it was very windy when we camped here around Thanksgiving.

Lots of great, spacious sites. Campground is definitely on the noisy side, lots of groups, but has running water and clean bathrooms. My tip would be to look at a campground map and pick a spot near water access, otherwise filling water jugs is a bit of a hassle. Lots of cool trails right off of the campground and the campground itself has great views and Joshua Trees everywhere.

Just beautiful - we have a 19 ft trailer and ended up in a pretty sloped site which wasn’t ideal, but there are other flat sites we’ll try next time if we go back. Grounds were nicely tended to and lots of wildlife were around. Can’t beat the views, especially the higher up the mountain you go. Nice trails around the campground. They have a dump station, cleaning water and fresh water, which was easy to access within the camp ground.

Regardless of the completely crumbling roads, absence of signage, extremely un-level sites, and strange location, this campground is still one of our favorites. Rarely do you get such a beautiful camping experience bring right next to mature Joshua Trees in a quiet environment, close to town, but far enough away to feel like wilderness. The campgrounds in the rest of the park (that are worth camping in) do not have signal whatsoever which make working full-time on the road impossible. This one is a happy compromise.

For longer stays, Black Rock is a fantastic jumping-off point for countless adventure in this area - the palm canyons of Palm Springs, Salton Sea, Pioneer Town, and of course into JTNP itself. It's located at the end of a large residential area outside of Yucca Valley with a surprisingly high speed limit, but far enough away from town that it feels secluded. I would not recommend Cottonwoods as there are simply no Joshua Trees in that area of the park, and there are nicer places to stay nearby.

For shorter stays, and if you don't need Internet, I would highly recommend Belle (FCFS), Ryan (FCFS?), or Jumbo Rocks (book early!). Jumbo is a bit crazy from hikers walking through to Skull Rock or the rock/juniper monument.

Be very careful with your site selection, know where your site is before entering, and be prepared for dealing with deep ruts, crumpling roads, and people who don't know how to park off the main road. Due to a snowstorm due to barrel through the I-5 corridor, we drove through the night from Sacramento and backed up into our un-level site in a mostly empty campground at 2AM, which was an interesting experience to say the least!

Dump station was easy enough to get to, though you really should scope out the route as the roads are so badly crumbling from maintenance neglect and recent rain storms.

Verizon coverage was excellent, with very good speeds, and only the occasional drop-out during the rain storms.

This was by far the worst experience we've ever had in our 30+ years of camping. We called the campground prior to making our reservation to be sure that our motor home would fit in the site and were told it would be no problem. With that information we made a reservation and drove 5 hrs from Phoenix to get there. When we arrived at check in I asked where the water spigots were located so I could add some water to the tank in my RV. I was told that there was water available and was shown on the campground map the spigot locations. The first spigot I tried had no water, the water discharge from the second spigot leaked water from everywhere but the hose bib connection so I decided to ask the camp host where I could get water. He was anything but hospitable. His first response was that he was "off duty and I needed to ask someone else". Seriously, you can’t even answer a question? I saw that he had a hose connected to his 5th wheel from a nearby spigot which had a wye connection so I asked if I could possibly get water from there and he said no. He said that campers weren't permitted to connect a hose to any standpipe in the facility. How are we supposed to add water to our RV’s? After getting no help from him I then went back to check in to ask if there were in fact any water spigots that I could get water from. I was told to check the handicap spot but it too had been modified by the maintenance crew to prevent water from flowing out through the threaded hose bib connection. We were then told that the standpipes had been modified by the maintenance crew because someone had contaminated their water supply and they didn’t want anyone connecting a hose to get water. Seems that the maintenance crew might need some plumbing training. We were then told that we could drive into town and find someplace to get water. It would have been nice to know before we made the drive to get there. Also, remember the phone call asking if our RV was too big for the campground? Well we incurred scratches from tree branches and shrubs on both sides of our motor home attempting to get to our campsite and had to back out to leave. Needless to say we didn’t stay and will not return.

It seems to be the most available of the Joshua Tree Campgrounds, which I guess means it's not the most desirable? The market speaks. It's not far from the town of Joshua Tree and a couple of general stores, although it doesn't feel civilized when you're out at the sites. Many of the sites are not level and otherwise require negotiating some uneven spots in order park your rig. There are a lot of tent campers here as a result. It's a bit of a drive to get from Black Rock Canyon to the main hikes and sights within the Park. But there are some pretty nice hikes that leave from the campground. Beware the kangaroo rats!

To clarify, the price reflects the Senior Pass my husband has for National Parks; the regular rate is 20$ per night. We paid 10 per night plus 5 for the dump fee, so 35 for 3 nights. The 5$ covers unlimited dump.

The campsites are spacious, with fire pits for each one. There are not many trees that provide shade, so if you have an awning, that would help. Black Rock has a visitors center right in the campground. They are super helpful about hiking trails. You don't even have to get back in the car to get to the trailhead. We hiked to Warren Peak in a couple of hours.

The weekends tend to book up, so think ahead. Even though we camped in November, we couldn't get a weekend reservation. I guess I thought that November is off season, but not here. It's actually a fabulous time to be at JT because of the nice temperatures.

My favorite thing about this park is the location; if you need to get to town for any reason it's not far; maybe 5 miles. Oh, and hearing the coyotes howl in unison was pretty cool, too! I rated the noise 5 stars because nature noise is OK by me.
BTW-better cell service than expected. I was able to update my travel blog with no problem. Check us out at rideandseek.blog

Great spot to spend a few days. The views and hiking are top notch. No hook ups but does have a dump station but they charge extra even if camping here. :/ No entrance to the park but not a long drive. Most of the sites were very unlevel. In fact some of our neighbors had to move as the couldn’t get level. We had to raise some tires 6.5 inches. Other than that we loved it here and would have stayed longer but the place was booked up for the weekend so we had to leave. :(