Lees Ferry Campground

A mid sized campground located on an elevated hill west of the river. Clean, well maintained, level sites, shade covers, tables, fire pits, bathroom sinks/flush toilets, paved access road with hard pack dirt/gravel site pads. Had peek-a-boo view of the river and awesome mountain views. Only about 10 other campers present over the holiday's. 3 bars of T-Mobile 4G LTE through Cell One... $20/$10 with interagency pass...

Expected this to be just a ho-hum stopover but really wish we had more time. Lovely canyon, easy access to the Colorado River for wading (but careful, and it's chilly). Lots of activity down at the boat launch a mile down the road. Spots here are very tight and first come first serve. Note that several of the sites essentially share an awning and picnic tables - some are labeled "group" and some aren't, we took one that had a gentleman tent camping on the other side. He was friendly so it was fine but privacy isn't really a thing here. Coverage was surprisingly good.

We enjoyed our stay here. Easily found a site on a Tuesday. But even during the weekend, there were some empty sites. As others have said, hike Cathedral wash (if only to the big drop off), visit Lonely Dell Ranch, Cliff Dwellers, and the Condor viewing up the road. The drive to Page is 45 min, but worth it to stock up at Walmart.

Bathrooms are very clean and they have potable water and an area to wash dishes if needed. Verizon was LTE 2 bars and good enough to stream some movies.

First let me say the 5th star is only missing because the potable water didn’t allow for me to connect to my rig (gravity fed system won’t work on my rig).

I have a 33’ 5th wheel and I was able to find a number of sites that would work for me. You might be able to go a little bigger but I think real big rigs (40’+) will not work.

Some logistics:

• national parks pass gets you access but we couldn’t confirm that there was no need for us to pay per night so we paid. All for a good cause.
• when we arrived there was a ‘campsite full’ sign up but we took a chance and found an open site
• there was no camp host on site. So to figure out what to do you can stop and read instructions. We found out that any site that is taken will have a tag on the site post with a date on it. No tag means site is available. You have 1 hour to settle in before filling out the ‘envelope’ and putting your tag on the post. Ranger do the rounds a few times a day to check and update.
• if you need water or to dump tanks go past the campsite entrance to the dump, on the right, to do that before finding a site or before setting up.
• there is no water to electricity and the shared facilities provide only toilets and hand washing. No showers etc.

Attractions

• the cathedral wash hike is amazing. We didn’t have the gear or courage to go all the way and it is quite technical after around 1 mile in. It is easy enough that far though and the canyon experience is amazing.
• go to the old ranch and walk a bit beyond the ranch down the hole to the old cattle coral. Very interesting experience
• don’t miss the Navajo bridge or, down the road a bit, the cliff dwellers.

Stayed here 9/27/2020 to 10/4/2020. Unfortunately I forgot to write down my site number and now I've forgotten it, but I was in the lower loop on the south side, not all the way to the edge that goes parallel to the river, but close to it.

Coming in there is a self-service kiosk, but I didn't do anything with it as I had an annual pass. I'm not sure if you need to pay this fee if you're camping or not... it was pretty unclear. The fee station for camping is past this kiosk and inside the campground. You basically grab a site, then come back and fill out an envelope with the site number and your payment. This was all I did (I didn't even hang my annual pass or anything) and I was fine all week.

I got here on a Sunday morning and had read that it was generally pretty full, but the campground was almost empty when I arrived. I later found out that it had been closed and only reopened a few days before I arrived, so I think that's probably why it was so empty. After a couple days it pretty much filled up and stayed mostly full the rest of the time I was there.

It was definitely hot here, even in late September/early October, usually getting to the mid to high 80's. Quite a few people were running generators but I never noticed any excessive noise here. And once the sun goes down it immediately cools way down, so I never had issues with generators at night.

One important thing I want to mention is the cell service. You can usually pick up a couple bars of LTE here (Verizon), and with my booster I was able to get full bars. However, a lot of the time the speeds were horrible and I often couldn't get any data at all (even though it showed I had full bars). I talked to some of my neighbors and they were experiencing the same thing. So working from here was pretty difficult for me, especially since the closest place where you can get decent cell or WiFi is Page, which is about 45 minutes away.

The location is amazing. It's right on the Colorado River, which my dog had a blast swimming in. There are also a bunch of hiking trails around that you can easily get to from here. You can also go check out the Navajo Bridge just a few minutes down the road. There is a small convenience store and gas station in Marble Canyon (no diesel unfortunately). And the restaurant in Cliff Dwellers was surprisingly awesome. For any groceries, supplies, and restaurants, Page is your closest option which is about 45 minutes away and the drive is beautiful.

I'm sure it was just chance, but I met more great people in this campground than probably any other campground I've stayed in. I quickly became good friends with almost everyone around me. It seemed like everyone here was extremely nice and open to hanging out. Like I said, it could have just been that I happened to get in a good group, but either way it really made my stay here fantastic.

We got there at the right time to nab the best site, as someone was pulling out, although I forgot the site number. (To get to our site turn left at the entrance, 2 sites are at the end of the loop, ours was the one on the right).

Most sites can accommodate large rigs, not all are level though! It’s an older campground, so it appeared tired. Sites and bathrooms were clean. RV’s will run their generators.

We fly fished, watched the rafters take off for their Grand Canyon float, took Spencer Trail to the top of the canyon, hiked down Cathedral Wash to the river, checked out Lonely Dell Ranch and orchard, and walked across the Navajo Bridge.

We had perfect weather, always a plus.

We stayed here over nite in early September on our way to the North Rim. Only 5 or 6 others there so we got a spot over looking the river. 40 foot toyhauler fit fine but is tight. We ran generator to cool down and turned it off at 9pm as quiet hrs are 10-6. We were tired and fell asleep ok but woke up in a pool of sweat. Should waive quiet hrs in the summer when over 100 degrees, IMO.
Walked down to the river in the morning and over to the orchard for some fresh off the tree. Orchard caretaker was great, a lot of info from him.
Will stay again, but maybe not in the summer.

We thoroughly enjoyed our stay at Lee’s Ferry. The campground is all first come/first served and spots turn over frequently. The campground also completely filled up nearly every day during our stay, so arriving as early as possible is a really good idea.

The campground is situated on a hill between the Vermilion Cliffs and the Colorado River. The setting is beautiful, but as the park ranger noted, there isn’t a single level space in the campground. So be prepared to get creative. The sites along the edges are back-in with a limited number of pull-thoughs in the lower loop and group camp sites in the middle of the upper loop.

Each site had a grill or firepit and picnic table with a ramada. No hook-ups, but there are flush toilets and a sink for dish washing. No showers at the campground, pay showers are available at the Marble Canyon lodge. Grocery up, there are limited services in Marble Canyon. The dump station is located on the hill by the staff residences.

We enjoyed playing in the river with Riley – it felt at least 15 degrees cooler there than at the campground. Must be all that 44° river water. Brrrrrr.

We had 3 bars of Verizon 4G.

I stayed one night at Lees Ferry in the autumn. The campground was almost full. There is no vegetation between sites but there are sheltered picnic tables for each site. Due to the exposed location it can get quite windy.
It was a little noisy when I was there with campers pulling in, driving around and setting up late into the night.
Woke up super early and headed down to the river to watch the sunrise over the water and the cliffs. Absolutely gorgeous!! There are many hikes in the area and it is a good spot to stop on your way to the GC or other spots.