Esmeralda RV Park & Campground

We stayed here 3-5 September. It was a last minute spur of the moment reservation since California decided to close all the forests. There's not much around save for a little quaint saloon within walking distance. The bartender is super friendly and awesome. Sadly the Boonies restaurant succumbed to the covid closures and is out of business. Thankfully this little campsite made it. Great spot with great views. Very quiet and there are hot springs near by with other places to explore. The free wifi is great if you're working while on the road. I highly recommend it.

The grounds are well kept and almost fully level, I had no trouble leveling. Lots of large cottonwood trees shade the whole campground.
The bathrooms were immaculate. Letting the dogs off leash in the adjoining alfalfa field gave them a nice bathroom as well!
Check in at the store was really easy. The store has the basics, bread milk eggs and of course Spam, oh, and other stuff including adult beverages.
Gas was expensive, but it’s 60 miles to the next fuel.
Right next to the road but little traffic and almost none at night.
All and all a great time.

The owner, Linda, is simply wonderful. We stopped here while traveling back to our hometown to hunker down for a month or so during Covid19. We stayed a week - arrived on Sunday and left on Saturday. This RV campground is in the middle of nowhere Nevada, but it is wonderful. The views are stunning, the campground has trees to keep it shaded, though we were there in Spring, so no leaves on the trees yet. It is very kid friendly, even during a pandemic. The owner told us to let our kids play in the water around the trees when she watered the trees. It happened twice and our two young kids had a blast stomping in the puddles and playing with mud. The owner also let us know that we had a total of 3 spaces to ourselves. Space 11 is a rental that was undergoing some maintenance and space 12 and 13 were ours to use. We had picnic tables, trees to hang our hammocks, and a quiet place to pause and rest up on our travels.

The campground has a bathrooms and showers, though we did not use them. I was told there was lots of hot water though. There is a laundry room with two washers and dryers. It was $1.75 to wash and $1.75 to dry. They worked well and everything was clean. There is also an outdoor settlement type museum area that the campground owner owns, a community area with a fire pit, horse shoes, and grills, and picnic tables.

Oh and there is also decent wifi available. The download speed ranged from 30-40. Our ATT and Verizon did not work at all, but we have Google Fi phones (Sprint and TMobile) and we had full LTE.

There is a convenience store, gas station, propane exchange, and maybe a restaurant across the street. Since we were here during Covid19, we didn't eat out. There is hiking around, but not anything that appeared suitable for young kids, so we didn't check it out. The Nevada border part of Yosemite is about an hour away and there are beautiful views of the peaks from the campground. I did notice there is a hot spring about 30 minutes away and I wish we had been able to go. The owner did suggest we check out the historic cemetery, and we did. It is certainly unique and probably worth the drive.

The only reason I gave it 4 out of 5 is because it is in the middle of nowhere!
Linda the owner is very friendly, warm and inviting.
The deli has good lunch during the week.

Access: Easily accessible from the main road, large open spaces to turn and pull into.

Location: The middle of nowhere but if you are driving south from 95 to this location it is BEAUTIFUL. It lays just east of the White Mountain range which is beautiful and almost the same height as the Sierra Nevadas, which are just an hour and a half drive away.

Cleanliness: Sites were maintained though with it being spring some trees could stand to be trimmed down a little. They have bathrooms but I didn't use them.

Site Quality: Large cottonwoods surround each Rv site and the entire property, good for keeping down the wind and provides shade and the most pleasant smell. All connections worked well and the wifi was the best of any park I have stayed at.

Noise: It is off the main road but there is barely any traffic. Only the sounds of birds and sprinklers occasionally.

The craziest part of our visit here was that my alma mater had a geoscience trailer set up there, with students working on their masters theses. I assume this is why the wifi is so excellent? I learned so much about the Furnace Creek fault line and geology in general. We drove from Dyer into Bishop one day and went to see the Bristlecone pines, but the road still had snow so we didn't make it all the way. The scenic outlook on this drive is NOT to be missed.