Black Rock Canyon Campground

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. :(

This was a very nice spot! Joshua trees everywhere on the camp ground. Clean, quiet and nice staff. We used late checkin and could choose a great spot. Campground is remote and I would recommend some sort of GPS to find it. It is not exactly near the main entrance of the park. (30 min drive) It is located in the park though, but not on the main road where everyone goes. It is on the outer end of the park and you do not have to pay the entrance fee for the national park since there is only the campground and nothing else in this region of the park. Dump station costs 5$. Portable water is available free of charge everywhere on the campground (even water hoses can be connected to the outlets) or included in the dump station fee when filled up at the dump station.

T-Mobile LTE was great. While there were only 1-2 of 5 bars of signal, internet speeds were decent with around 10 Mbps. Don’t expect coverage anywhere else in the park though. I don’t know if calls would have worked, only used the internet. I would also like to point out that the campground has free WiFi which is available near the house where you register and possibly on the surround campsites. Speeds were actually really good (see screenshot). ISP there is Time Warner Cable btw

Stayed here for 4 nights, starting Oct 10th, 2016, in a Airstream International 23D.

The Good

• Easy access off the main road, oddly through a residential area. While the roads within the campground were in rough shape, there were no major issues.
• On-site dump station, at a cost. $5.
• Gorgeous Joshua Trees everywhere! Fantastic morning bird watching and hiking. Gets HOT just 2 hrs after sunrise!
• Easy access to town for groceries and petrol, and 30 minutes from the center of Joshua Tree NP.
• Strong Verizon signal.

The Bad

• Nothing to report.

The Ugly

• Nothing to report.

We loved our stay here - and especially our site #29, from which we could directly access the hiking trails on this side of the park. The only reason we would not camp here again is because there are so many other spots we would like to try nearby, in- and out-side the park. It's true that we didn't get anywhere NEAR level, but that's because we were not equipped with leveling blocks or any other doo-dads that would have made it possible. Beautiful well-spaced sites. Great hikes. The picture I added was from the top of the Panarama Loop - phew! - where you can see both San Gorgonio Mountain and San Jacinto.