We’ve enjoyed exploring Valley of Fire State Park on several occasions and were excited to return during this snowbird season’s trek through the southwest. For our previous two visits, we camped outside the park at a friends of ours RV Park and a nearby free boondocking area. Then day tripped inside this amazing park to hike through and photograph its remarkable scenery.
This time, though we decided to check out what it’s like to camp inside the park. Valley of Fire SP has two campgrounds called Atlatl Rock and Arch Rock. Atlatl Rock is the larger of the two and has a few loops with water and electric hookups ($30) with sites big enough for a 50-foot rig. Arch Rock is a short distance away with 29 smaller no hookup sites ($20) nestled in close to some huge red sandstone hills. All sites are first come first serve.
We chose to go with the Arch Rock as it had a number of very scenic sites with a little more privacy. The $20 dollar per night campground fee included the regular $10 per day park fee plus use of the nearby dump and fresh water fill station. The campsite was nice and roomy with a metal shade, picnic table, fire ring and BBQ grill. All around us was beautiful red rock formations dotted with desert plants. Birdlife was plentiful and we even spied several fairly large Chuckwalla lizards during our stay.
We found camping inside the park very convenient allowing us to quickly be out touring the park attractions versus spending time driving to and from an outside location. Around the campground areas themselves were some great little hikes and be able to hang inside the park to enjoy the night skies was an added bonus.
The park is open from sunrise to sunset unless camping in campgrounds or group camping area. After sunset, activity is limited to those areas. – http://www.valley-of-fire.com/park-information/
Once again our newly upgraded solar system and extra batteries paid off as we were able to spend three days dry camped with no need to use our generator. In fact, with the days now getting longer as we near spring and the higher sun angle the generator hasn’t been fired for nearly a month of dry camping now. I‘m a very happy camper!
We had another fantastic visit to Valley of Fire State Park. Every time we go we find a new corner of the park we missed before. There are scads of trails to explore with surprising landscapes around every corner it seems. Two favorites are the White Domes loop and hike out to the Firewave. This oldest of Nevada’s state parks is truly a gem and worthy of anyone’s RVing bucket list.
Check out my growing Valley of Fire photo gallery and a blog post from a previous visit.
Video Highlights from Our Valley of Fire Visit
The video contains a look at both campsites, Atlatl Rock petroglyphs, Arch Rock, my new dashcams footage of the drive to White Domes and a slide show of my best photos from this visit. Cheers Ray
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