North Fruita Desert Campground

I've camped at federal campgrounds from coast to coast and the Canadian border to the southern border and this campground and the one nearby in Rabbit Valley are the worst value I've encountered. A simple example can be had by comparison to the nearby Saddlehorn campground at the Colorado National Monument. Campsites there are only 2 dollars (1 for seniors) more per night but include flush toilets, sinks with water, water for drinking and cooking and dumpsters for trash. The BLM CGs have pit toilets, no water and no trash service.

This is a great location if You want to ride your bike right out of your campsite. As of 10/4/21 the upper campground is by reservation only but the lower campground is till first come first serve. For us the upper lot had more charm nestled into the hills. There is also still BLM area right outside the lower campground but it looked pretty crowed more just like a parking lot. We felt it was worth spending the money. Campground was super clean, newer pit toilet but no trash containers. So it was pack in pack out. Overall a great stay and we would come back.

If you are a mountain biker, this place is for you! There is boondocking spots right outside the campground but we felt it was worth $10 a day to be in the campground. They have pit toilets. Not the cleanest but it is a campground! The road heading out to the campground is pretty rough for the first mile but it gets better. If you ride, take the frontside trail till it hits the dirt road. Take the dirt road up into the canyon. It's a beautiful ride! This also connects you to the Sarlacc trail. Our campsite had some small trees so we were able to sit in the shade if we wanted. We would definitely camp here again.

We had full cell coverage which is a must since I work remotely. We had full AT&T with an extender.

We stopped here traveling from Moab to Denver. There are both high and low spot camping sites here and also some convenient side of the road pull-off sites that are for the most part completely level. Several bathroom facilities available. No other services, dry camping. Privacy is limited but a great place to camp among all the surrounding MTB trails. The surroundings are landscaped with small trees. Pets/dogs allowed but there are free range cattle roaming here and there. Cell service is spotty to no service. We will definitely stay here again.

Stayed here on March 20, 2017. Campground was probably half full. Everyone camping was there for the mountain biking.

C Loop was the least busy area. Each site has plenty of space for multiple tents and there was a variety of pull out and back in site. Most of the side loops looked to be better for small rigs, but a few of the sites on the main campground road could accommodate a large RV.

If I were to camp here again, I would probably stay in the free camping area that is just south of the paid campground. Look for the road dropping down the hill to the right just past the main trailhead parking area.

18 Road before the campground was pretty washboarded, take it slow.

This area is called 18 Road by all the locals and references the system of mountain biking trails in the area. The campground is right in the middle of the trails, and I'm pretty sure everyone that was there had a bike.

The campground itself is pretty uneven, with small sites and no great turnarounds, Luckily its also a loop so you can take a second pass to find a good site. There weren't many for our 27' Airstream, and we actually ended up moving from a spot in the A loop down to D loop a few hours after arriving. We LOVED our site - it was huge, right on the edge of a bluff, with great views of the surrounding landscape.

There is also free camping farther down the hill (its much flatter as well!_. If you take the right hand turn off before you reach the trailhead parking, there's plenty of space for dispersed camping. We chose the campground, however, to be in the middle of the trail system (instead of at the end) and make it easier for our kids to ride right from the trailer. It was totally worth it.

This is a super popular spot over the weekend (it was full in early May) but by Sunday almost everyone had cleared out and we had the trails to ourselves. Most of the trails are single direction (up or down) so the possibility of running into someone while biking was minimal. We will definitely be back to ride some more!

I can't remember what our un-boosted signal was, but we definitely had at least 4 bars of Verizon 4G with our booster.