Headquarters Campground

Was looking for a place to stay on short notice, Salton Sea Beach did the job!
Had full hook ups, many people complained about the "smell" so we were worried if it was gong to be unbearable. Its just dirty salt water. We are from WA so that doesn't bother us :)
I would say the "salton sea" was not THAT great of a site, super dirty, dead fish EVERYWHERE so pet owners beware. If we are in the area again, I would try to find something near Painted Canyon.

Normally full hookup sites would not have been our thing but we arrived in the rain and just wanted everything easy! We were not dissapointed. The campground at headquarters has two sections. One with hookups (basically a parking lot) and one with trees. We were close to the neighbors but we found everyone very friendly. There is a lot to explore in the immediate area. The visitor center is great with very helpful volunteers. There isn't a town close by so make sure you come with supplies. We would definitely stay again but probably in the quieter no hookup area.

The Salton Sea is strange. A gigantic briny accidentally created and quickly-disappearing lake in the middle of the desert that is as smelly as it is visible. The shore of the lake is literally littered with the remains of thousands of tilapia (you do not want to walk along it barefoot).

My kind of place!

When we were here in January there were many varieties of birds and assorted waterfowl who obviously have made the most use of this quasi-oasis in the desert. A great spot for birders and bird photographers.

The campground is nothing special, it's basically a parking lot with several pull-thru spaces, but we were in need of hookups to fill our tanks and charge our batteries. The lake shore is a quick walk across the parking lot. The train track is close, loud, and frequent. Verizon LTE was excellent and I was able to stream football in HD.

We likely won't be back here again. If we visit the Salton Sea again, we will stay at the better (and cheaper) dry camping campgrounds further south on the road. It served its purpose, and is a decent spot to stop before heading north to Joshua Tree or south to Anza Borrego Desert State Park.

Beautiful view of the Salton Sea with mountains in the backdrop offered an amazing sunset. The beach was full of dead fish, though, which is supposedly seasonal. The smell coming from the sea was that of a sea - very salty, making for an interesting "sea without the waves" experience.

The campground is split up into two sections: The 15 full-hookup sites are at the edge of a large parking lot for the visitor center, picnic area and boat ramp. It was almost empty and made for a good, safe place for our boy to bike around. The sites themselves are paved pull-through sites (not quite level) with dirt pads in-between some of them, where the hookups and picnic tables were.
Further down is dry camping area that also has additional 5 sites with water/electric but no sewer (dump station is available). Oh, and electricity is 30 Amp only, no 50 and no 20 Amp plugs.

The area is noisy due to big freight trains passing by the campground frequently and fast (you can even feel the ground shake a bit), and blowing their horn. So if you are sensitive to noise at night then bring ear plugs. We noticed them but slept well despite the trains.