Black Ridge Area Designated Campsites

Boondocking can be a crap shoot. I arrived mid week and it was pretty awesome.
Caution on the turn into the area, there is a couple inch drop off from the road to gravel. There is one little grade to get over so larger rigs need to be aware and approach appropriately. I am almost 37' towing 4 down and did not bottom out but larger rigs might. Follow the road and read the signs saying where NOT to camp. The "dispersed" (and I use that term VERY loosely, see further down) camping is a ways down on the graded gravel road (zero washboard Apr 2022). This is actually a dispersed are although the title says "designated campsites". This is the entrance off Yellow Circle on 191.
I pulled into the first large level area on the left. There are more spots to the right and further up the road but one should scout in their tow vehicle before going too far past this first area IMO. My spot was not too crowded and everyone was a couple hundred feet away from each other. That was mid week :( Then the weekend arrived. This is a VERY popular place. I then had rvs within 20 feet all around me. Not only that they had those construction type LOUD generators and they ran them well into the night (I woke up around 11:30pm and they were still running). I had my ear plugs in so I didn't hear them much. But you'll have to know this place is worse than a CG because there are no rules or management to complain to. I thought about leaving but didn't because I had 2 NPs to go visit. Arches is 25 min away and I arrived at 5:30 am to get in before the new reservation system wouldn't let me in. Cayonlands is about an hour away. Solar was great as this location allowed be to position with my solar was facing south and I was full by 2PM (even with a residential refer). Views were very nice of the snow capped La Sal mountains. You are probably 15-20 mins from the south side of Moab where pretty much everything is available, grocery stores, full range of restaurants, banks, repair, fuel, etc. Verizon and ATT were strong although I did notice some problem where all of a sudden both carriers would slow to a crawl. I am guessing from over capacity towers as there are not a lot of towers in this area. I was able to level pretty easily with my motorhome. Although I did not get any mice there were tons of them out and about. I noticed many on my trek to Arches at 5 AM in the dark. Be aware! It's a beautiful area it is just a real shame how one's experience can be ruined by inconsiderate people. But this is the state of boondocking these days. Although I said I would camp here again I would only come during the week. This weekend warrior inconsiderate folk are not for me. I find so many that consider themselves the most important thing on the face of the earth and I choose not to confront these type of people. I probably should have created 2 reviews. One for during the week which would b a 4-5 and one for the weekend which would really be a 1-2. Plan accordingly.

We were in a small RAV4 so we were not able to really check this place out. High clearance and four-wheel-drive would be preferred to really explore all the this place has to offer. However we were able to find a really decent spot far enough away from all the noisy RVs and noise and lights from the highway. Just took a little time to slowly navigate using a spotter.

As others have said, go a bit down the road and the open gravel lot is very obvious. Some fire rings scattered around. Going up the hill gets you a better view of the distant mountains, but the road gets a bit bumpier & rougher. It was fine in a crossover SUV. Only 3 other campers there when we were there on a Monday night. Some uphill freeway noise, but it's pretty faint.

Free and right off of the highway. When you pull in you will see no camping signs. Just keep driving back about a half mile and you will see the area where you are meant to camp (this is also where the road gets bumpy). You can pull off early or keep driving up the hill to get a better view. We had a 33ft trailer and chose to stay at the bottom. The views were still great. There were no crowds and we were one of 4 campers the whole time. Not sure if this was because of the heat (hot as hell during the day but cool and pleasant at night) or because of the Pack Creek Fire that was burning in the nearby mountains. We enjoyed our stay here. About 30 minutes to Arches, and an hour to Canyonlands.

The good- free, close to town, pretty easy to find a level site, pretty view of surrounding mountains, quiet and dark nights. Any size rig can fit easily. Roads manageable in dry conditions. Didn’t notice any trash at all.
The bad- rough roads but not impossible if you take it slow. You can’t park up front, right off the main road. You have to go back at least a half mile. No privacy unless you go back further but with the roads, I wouldn’t recommend it. As long as it’s dry it’s dusty but dusty is better than getting stuck in the mud!
Overall we’d absolutely stay again. Everyone camping there seemed to be having a great time, lots of families, and everyone was very respectful! Nights were quiet and stargazing was great.

As many in here have already stated this is a free BLM camping spot which is exactly what we needed for just one night. Close to Moab and Arches it’s a nice alternative to the $90+/nt rv parks packed full of campers. Our main issue is that we were in a 32’ class A and although it can accommodate big rigs the roads are not setup well for this. I believe that due to the high use of ATV’s in this area that the roads are torn up more that usual and this made for a rocky and rough ride back to the campsite. Seeing many 5th wheels an toy haulers helped to boost my confidence that it was possible to get back to the site however it rattled and shook everything g to its core. Once we managed to get into our spot leveling became an issue and parts of our site were super soft and sandy leading to some sinking of jacks and levelers. As for the reports of trash and issues with parties we did not experience any of this on a super busy Saturday night. In fact all of the groups with UTV’s/ATVs were respectful of quiet hours. Didn’t here party or even generators running late. This could be a great spot if people keep respecting it. We will not camp here again but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a good night sleep.

The first 0.6 miles after turning onto Yellow Circle Rd from Hwy 191 are closed to camping which was included in the BLM's Resource Management Plan of 2008. This is in part due to Visual Resource Management and Human Waste Management. Drive 0.6 miles down the road to where you see a brown BLM sign marking the camping boundary. Please respect the 14 day camping limit.

Convenient driving distance from Moab, good phone signal, and a lot of space, other than that is wasn’t the greatest. Roads were rough (but drivable), a good amount of trash on site, sites weren’t very level, no bathrooms and no privacy to be able to use the bathroom outside without other campers seeing you. Would only stay here again to save money.