roadtripper2628252

This place is half permanent mobile home park and half RV park. It is tightly packed but with very wide roads. A mix of graveled and paved roads in the park. About ¾ of the sites were filled. Our site was very small and pretty beat up but it was enough room and everything worked. We used 30 amp, septic, and water. The standard price for us was $25/night for these services. Passport America got us ½ off for the first night and the Good Sam Club got us an additional $2.50 discount for each of two nights.

Amenities are the strength of this park. Water, electrical, septic, propane fills, book and movie library, laundry, restroom, showers, community room with wifi, (all very clean) and they will soon have a gas/fuel station on the property. Laundry is $1.25 per load. The park is right on Hwy 80 so there was some road noise. Our MO seems to be dry camping interspersed with a night or two at a park with amenities and this fit the bill very nicely. This was our stop before heading out to road 687 in the Dragoons.

Not many stores in St. David, I think only a dollar store. Benson is the place to do your shopping before heading to dispersed. If you look at Google Earth and think you are going to get to the north end of Road 687 in the Dragoons by taking East Horse Ranch Road out of St. David near the Monastery, forget it. That road is gated. Middlemarch Road from Tombstone is the only way there.

Everyone in the camp office was very friendly and helpful, both in person and on the phone. A couple neighbors came over to say hi when we parked. They have various community events. Drop in music in the community room was the event when we got here. We will come back here again after our dispersed session in the Dragoons.

Stayed here one night on 11/8/23. Looks like a marvelous area. We just took one of the first sites available off Hwy 12. Saw the lights of two other campers way off through the trees. Nothing to add to other reviewers except that there have been prescribed burns through the campsites recently. There are still a few areas with some stumps burning. About a fourth of the brushy ground surface has been burned so it is not really a hinderance to doing anything here. The smoke didn't seem bad last evening when we pulled in but it is kind of smoky. Clear skies. 15 degrees this morning.

Coming in last night it looked like there was a paved bike trail alongside hwy 12 which goes to Bryce Canyon park from here.

The road in is long and bumpy but it’s not as bad as some reviewers had led me to think. The Middlemarch road is 10 miles long and there is washboard, but there are many stretches of pretty good road, and the first mile of that 10 is paved. I did 10-15 mph for the washes and cattle guards, and there are some washboards and rocky/bumpy areas. But I dropped my trailer tire pressure from 80 to 60 psi, packed everything in the trailer very tightly, and did 35ish mph without much angst. It went well.
As mentioned, the Middlemarch road is very wide. We parked on the side of Middlemarch just before the last cattle guard at about 10 miles, grabbed our bikes and went up 687 looking for a good spot. There are 8 sites along 687 suitable for big rigs before the cattle guard at 2.1 miles. There are also many other options for smaller units. The section after the 2.1 cattle guard is a popular climbing area with many smaller sites available and a few larger sites. There is a big wash at about 2.8 miles which I would be unwilling to cross with my 30' bumper pull trailer. Your last chance to turn a big rig around before that wash would be at about the 2.4 mark. Most larger trailers and coaches stayed closer to the beginning of 687 than us. There was turnover but the larger spots were mostly filled for our time here.
The Middlemarch road goes past the 687 turnoff but gets much more rugged. There are two spots for big rigs within 1.5 miles of the 687 turn off but you don't want to go past that. There are a number of smaller sites up there as well. Adventurous souls with 2 WHD, and a bit of patience, can get over the pass and get down to Pierce on the east side of the Dragoons but it would be slow. I went over it twice. My pickup handled it easily, but slowly.
The first 1/4 mile of 687 once you leave Middlemarch is the worst. Very rocky/bumpy with small rocks. No big dips or washouts, just bumpy and a wash. I did 2 MPH for that ¼ mile. After that, 687 is pretty good all the way to the big wash at about the 2.8 mile mark. You take it slow and strategize your way around dips and trees but it’s pretty comfortable.
We loved our site at about the 1.9 mile mark. We were biking/hiking most every day. The stars, sunsets, and alpenglow are very nice. Mostly the January weather was very comfortable for a couple Montanans, but we hit 12 degrees a couple nights and had a buildup of graupel one evening. We felt comfortable to leave our site for the whole day a few times. The coyotes are yipping outside as I write this. We saw deer and scorpions but no snakes. No cattle while we were here but droppings everywhere. We could see no neighbors, but there was occasional traffic on 687 and we are close to it. Our site was pretty flat but not horizontal. We did get the trailer horizontal by maxing our wheel wedges. We had 1-2 bars of Verizon 4G LTE without a booster. I am sad to leave.

Spent a couple nights here heading back north to Montana. It is a decent enough spot. It supports bigger rigs, but only 4 or 5. The main benefits are easy access, gravel surface, centrally located for a lot of exploring in the Kanab/Zion area, The highway is close and it is heard. The area generally is popular with OHV but we never saw one actually come into the camping area. It is a dead end and probably most folks know that. There are some other smaller single spots up the dirt road a little ways. 3-4 bars Verizon 4G. Main downside is highway noise and cleanliness. We would definitely use this place again.

We showed up Monday evening March 10. Easy to find the location. Parked before the first entrance and walked the campground, selected a spot, and settled in. Came in the first entrance with a 30' trailer. I have high clearances so it went ok. Second entrance is much smoother. Planned to stay a few days but we both got sick and stayed 7 days.

There are fire pits, but no tables, pit toilets, hosts, or fee deposit boxes. The only water is in the creek. The place is getting pretty worn down. There was not a lot of garbage but stay out of the brush (no pit toilets). The noise wasn't bad even on the Saturday evening we spent here. But this is not the pristine wilderness experience you are looking for. It's where you sleep while vacationing in the area. Everyone was very well behaved while we were here. More than half are cars with tents but a few other camp trailers, all smaller than ours. Not much generator noise.

Many sites all along the creek. Not very many sites for rigs as big as us. Surface is clay and gravel. We were here during a minor rain one afternoon and we would not have been able to leave for a day after that because the clay was too sticky. Sites are separated by a shrub standing 4-5 ft tall. And there are cottonwood trees. Firewood is in very short supply onsite. It is private property to the north and the south and fenced. We saw some other places back toward town where people are setting up tents and/or trailers but we didn't investigate.

This place is right across the road from the 2022 Red Bull Rampage (the superbowl of mountain biking). That site was clearly a draw to a number of the folks here.

In contrast with previous reviewers, I have had 2-4 bars 5G Verizon the whole time here. So I wonder if another tower has gone up nearby.

We would stay here again. Convenience is its best attribute and the inevitable impact of crowds on a small unmanaged piece of ground the worst.

We stopped in between dispersed camping to charge/clean up. Everything is clean here. Easy pull through sites. Easy to find. Charming management. They accept Passport America. The fuel at the intersection is cheaper than any where else in the area. The Pipestone National Monument is interesting. They have showers, cooking facilities, book & DVD library. The water tastes great. Sunsets were nice. It's on a rise so you can seem much of the Arizona Strip to the south. At most it was 2/3 full but evenings were always very quiet

Downsides: Goat heads, they're here. Wind. Calm while we were here, but it is high and open. 1-2 bar 4G Verizion.

This will be one of our regular rest/recharge stops.

I exaggerate, but it felt that way at the time. We were sick. Trying to get home to Montana from Arizona. Had been driving all day. Tired. Rain starts. Wife sees this place up ahead on Campendium. Sleet starts when we pull in. Its closed. Wife calls the number and the guy says "You bet, stay anywhere you want". I would rate this place an 8.

It is close to the interstate. So very easy access but highway noise. Suitable for bigger rigs. Some pull through. Gravel or asphalt surface. Picnic tables, fire pits, rain shelters. Pit toilets. It sounds like new management this year. He says they will open next week (about April 1). 4-5 bars 4G. Stop in and say thanks from me.

It's not that this campground was low quality. It's just that I like more remote camping. I agree with what previous reviewers have said. I would also add that we stayed at site 29, which was advertised as having 50 amp but was way too small for a rig having a 50 amp plug. Our trailer was out into the roadway a bit. We were told that when this campground was being extended, sites 27, 28, and 29 were planned to be larger but while digging they ran into buried artifacts and stopped digging. So those sites are small with 50 amp service. Our neighbors with 20' and 22' trailers fit nicely in their spots.

Pulled in on 11/8/23 to stay one night but left right away. We pulled into the first area off Hwy 12. It was very easy access, suitable for bigger rigs, level enough with planning, but it was so dry and dusty and windy we decided to move on. Still plenty of open spots.

We would agree with many previous reviewers that the location is good for visiting canyonlands, Arches, and Moab sites. And I think that is the main selling point here. The campground is in some rolling hills of Pinion and Juniper. You should not walk away from roads or trails so as not to destroy the cryptobiotic crust.

We prefer remote solitary sites and this is not that, but the campground is clean, as quiet as you might expect on a beautiful weekend in the Moab area, and about equidistant to the two parks. It is a little more than a half mile off the paved 313 on a fairly rough graveled road. The pit toilets are quite clean. There is a garbage dumpster, but no water. Maybe only a fourth of the sites would support our 30 ft trailer.

There is much single track biking right from the campground. One end of the White Rim trail is close. The graveled road goes a long way past this campground, maybe to the Green River, and there are some dispersed campsites out that road. Nothing for larger rigs though, and the road gets more rough.

If we ever did come back to the Moab area, we would probably stay here.