North Joshua Tree Area

We arrived at the Joshua Tree Visitor Center just as it was closing. They could not advise us whether or not camp sites were available within the park (during the gov't shutdown) on a Friday night. They suggested we try this BLM site. We were looking for a place that would have cell coverage so we could plan our stay at JTNP. This was a good place to camp while exploring the central and northern sections of JTNP and we came back for 2 nights (2 others in Black Rock Canyon and 2 others in the Joshua Tree South dispersed camp sites). The road in was rutted in places, however we had no trouble with our 25 foot class C motorhome driving slowly. Once past the ruts, this site is like a large desert field with plenty of room to camp for many RVs. There are no services. Take out your own trash. There are essentially no trees and no shade. There's a beautiful view in all directions. There's good ATT and Verizon cell service. It's a 40 min drive, passing by many of the park's highlights, to Hidden Valley, in the center of the park. There was a rowdy crowd one of the 3 nights we stayed, otherwise, very quiet place. There were roughly 20 other RVs that we could see overnighting with us. There were many others further away toward the eastern mountain ridge. We really enjoyed the Ryan Mountain and Split Rock hikes in this area.

Fantastic view, spread out, quiet. We were here during the week and maybe 10 RVs but more than 500 feet away from each other

Great stop. Better than the campground. And you can still use the campground dump because it is before you get to the NP entrance.

Roads into the dry lake area are ribbon roads and some ruts. We have a 35 ft 5th wheel and it did fine(just drove slowly) , we were here the middle of the week and it was quiet. Great views in all directions! It’s a huge area and plenty of space for all!

Nice open area with a good view East. Folks spread out well.

Great place near the park. Free.

Just a big beautiful open space with lots of space. And it’s free, we found it clean and not very busy. Would definitely come back. Absolutely no services. Pretty good access.

Little used in Feb. 2019. We stayed two nights. Most vehicles were fairly close to the north side of the solar farm, or near the NW corner of the solar farm. Going further east or northeast would have been difficult and risky even with 4-wheel drive, due to recent rains making the ground and the dirt roadways soft and muddy. There was a 50/50 mix of more permanent looking campers and short term campers, when we visited. Nights were very quiet.

I rate it for what it is, a free place to park that’s five minutes from Joshua tree. We stayed here one night, the stars were beautiful, we stayed a bit too close to a “road” that went out to supposedly great atv’ing because they were driving by all night! Really that was our mistake, we are in a 38’ bus, so it was a little tricky to get around. A great place to stay if you are just passing through

The description in the app is a bit misleading. This is not a campground. There are no toilets. Instead, it's an amazing wide open space the likes of which don't exist in many places in the U.S. Thank you BLM. The good: vistas, freedom, mostly level!!! free. The bad: weekends can be a little crazy. Dirt bikes, bottle rockets, raves. But the place is so huge that you mostly won't notice. Pooping in a cat hole (BLM reccomends 6-8 inches) can be a very freeing experience. Just be sure to take your toilet paper with you and cover your tracks well for the next person.