Lovell Canyon Dispersed

Tent campers from UK here. First boondocking experience in the US. Road a little bumpy but our hire car coped fine. Just a couple of us up there, plenty of room, a large RV parked at the head as I don't think he would have made it down.

Previous visitors had sadly left a load of rubbish for someone else to clean up. Close to Vegas and a good stopover.

I was excited to stay here after the reviews. It is a gorgeous area. But there were no great spots for a 30' TT that were available. I saw only about 5 spots that would have worked at all (a couple of which were right next to the paved road) unless you want to jam right up next to someone. We found a spot sort of near the road and an access road with a few car-camping sites up it. It looked like a wash area. No one was in those spots, so we thought we were good for one night as dark approached. Especially with it being a Monday night in March.

The real annoyance started after dark. We heard a car tear down the main road about every 5-10 minutes. Then several tore past our campsite up the dirt road next to us. I have no idea what was going on out here, but it was really noisy with vans and cars coming by that quickly. I am guessing many folks are using this for staying overnight after working in the city. They seem very familiar with the roads to be going that fast. There are gun shells and glass pretty much everywhere. Several of the sites have fast food trash in them. No one was that loud after they got parked, but it was just a bunch of after dark traffic.

It is also worth noting that if you are coming from the east, it is a pretty steep climb up State Road 160 before you get to the turn-off. I am glad we were not prepared to stay here for a while or we would have had full fresh tanks and that would have been tough to do.

I would caution you about staying next to the road. Know there will likely be lots of traffic at night, but likely almost none during the day. If you can snag one of the few spots away from the road, it would likely be an awesome place to stay.

Lovell Canyon Rd is paved and goes in for 11 miles. Some big sites along the way to fit at least a 28 foot Camper Trailer. If your driving a Van or just camping, look for the gravel roads to the left and right about 4 miles once you make the turn left. Some amazing spots to boondock and watch the Sunset. If you like hiking, this is the place to setup. Quiet and peaceful. Watch for glass in some of the fire rings however.

Most people wants to stay around Lake Mead or Valley of fire when they come to Las Vegas.
But most people have no idea what they are missing.

Lovell Canyon is significantly less windy than those places. It is cooler and there are trees everywhere the further up on the mountain you go.
This place is quite, clean and easy to get too with out having to expose your rig to a very long dirt road.

And the best for last.
It is only a few miles from Las Vegas!

Prior reviews made us unsure we could fit in Lovell Canyon but we tried anyway—and we’re glad we did! Lovell Canyon road is paved from the 163. It was no problem traveling in 5 miles or so with our Ram 3500 dually and a 37 foot fifth wheel. (Just be aware of the—paved—dips and go slowly!) We scouted a few roads off the paved one but all were treacherous: narrow, rutted, etc. They would be ok for tent camping and OHVs. Off either side of Lovell Canyon Road, though, there are many sites—several of which could fit a big rig. The area we snagged was at the top of the first big hill. We fit our rig, our chase car, and a few friends’ vehicles no problem. Following the road a few miles down into the valley there is a large clearing that would be able to hold a couple large rigs or a few small trailers. Definitely arrive in daylight. The day we pulled in was Friday of Veteran’s weekend and the area was pretty full! Be aware: despite shooting being illegal, the area is riddled with shot, broken glass and other items used for target practice! We made the kids wear shoes and they had fun picking through the rubble. We didn’t hear any shooting while we were there. The area seemed clear of other garbage-type trash. Saw the cops drive through once/day. It was quiet except for the odd quad or too-fast car. We filled our water bladder at the sheriff’s office in Blue Diamond and packed our waste and trash back into the city with us. Because the Spring Mountains are between you and the Strip, the stars out there are the best in the Vegas valley!! Also: brr. Temps into low 30s in Nov.

There are quite a few places to camp along Lovell Canyon Road. The main road is paved and goes for miles past where the pin point is on Campendium. There are a few spots before and after the pin and you can also turn right or left to find even more places to camp.

If you pull the location up on Google maps, you'll see something marked "Lovell Canyon Campground." There aren't any officially marked campsites there, but it is a good location for tent campers - we saw a few during our stay. I wouldn't try to bring an RV there, however, many of the other spots along Lovell Canyon are RV friendly. I would recommend scouting ahead before going down any of the dirt roads with your RV.

We ended up in a spot that accommodated three RV's comfortably and was relatively private. Only a few cars drove by including a game warden during our stay.

The location is close enough to Vegas where we were able to go into the city for dinner, groceries and laundry. We probably could have done all of those chores in nearby Pahrump, but we opted for Vegas.

There's a great hike at the end of Lovell Canyon Road where it splits off to Forest Trail 917.

There wasn't any Verizon service, so I used the "Wi-Fi Calling" setting on my iPhone and it worked great!

AT&T - DOWNLOAD: 16.57 Mbps, UPLOAD: 7.29 Mbps
T-Mobile - DOWNLOAD: 6.27 Mbps, UPLOAD: 4.44 Mbps