roadtripper715951

Coming from CA where you dry camp near water for $50/night, this place was pretty incredible. $14/night, barely anyone else here, and beautiful views of the Ute Reservoir lake.

We were looking for a place to stay the night once we passed Albuquerque heading East. Ute State Park is about 25 minutes from the highway and cell coverage maps indicated this would be a good place to do some remote work.

The North Camground is made up of several subdivided camping areas, including Yucca. Yucca is definitely the best one of them if you have a camper or RV. Each site has water and electric hookups, and I saw at least two sites with sewer as well (though I think those were reserved for the camp hosts).

Proximity to the lake was nice, but no real “beach” per se. If you want wanted to launch a kayak or something were at least two places to easily do that.

The Verizon cell signal was 1 bar of 3G, but the ATT signal was about 2-3 bars of LTE. Unboosted with my iPhone X I got about 90 Mbps down (yes, 90, not a typo). My 5 year old ATT hotspot didn’t do as well but still pulled in a respectable 15 Mbps with the Netgear MIMO antenna. The campground itself also had WiFi, which is pretty rare for a state park, and it was just OK... about 3 Mbps down.

It was also very windy when we were here, not sure if that’s a regular occurrence or not.

Great water views, sites right on the water, FREE and reasonable cell signal; a great fulltimer's combo.

We arrived on a Tuesday evening and there were still a few spots available, include one right on the water. By the looks of things, folks who are here are setup her for the long haul.

Here's a tip... if you have a long rig (ours is 31' feet) DON'T GO all the way to the end off the paved road onto the dirt area. The turn around is not really big enough to turn around without doing a multiple point turn and here's the kicker... there's a cliff, sans gaurdrail, that you'll have to avoid falling off of. So yeah, wouldn't recommend going all the way to the end dirt turn around with a big rig.

We came in at night not knowing where the campsites were in this very large county fair and community complex. We saw about 10 campers along the side of one of the roads where there were 12 spots, so we pulled in there and camped for the night. In the morning after walking around we realized there were many, many other campsites that were spread out throughout the park. They are basically power pedestals and water Spicket‘s everywhere throughout the park, so you don’t necessarily have to just park where you see other RVs if you’re looking for some privacy.

It looks like the camp spots next to the Rusty wheel’s building are the only ones that have full hook ups, but the sewer connections are difficult to find, some of them actually being buried in dirt, which may have been due to the recent heavy rain that they’ve had here.

The park itself is totally fine, there are two playgrounds for kids, basketball courts, disc golf course, baseball field picnic shelters, and many buildings for Countyfair type activities (indoor arenas for horse shows, sheep pens, and auxiliary buildings).

There are dumpsters on the side of the livestock building toward the center of the park.

There is a dump station near the administrative building toward the back of the park, adjacent to a stage.

Cell signal was totally adequate on both AT&T and Verizon, with between 20 and 30 Mb down and between eight and 18 Mb up for both carriers.

We decided to give this spot a chance despite there not being any reviews on Campendium because we needed to be close to Scottsdale. It's... just OK.

The area of Arizona that Box Bar Recreation Site is in in technically Scottsdale, but you're a good 40+ minutes for the main part of town, and Rio Verde, which is only a mile or so from the campsites is sort a strange housing and country club oasis in an otherwise very National Forest-y region. Rio Verde has what seems to be thousands of homes and lots of golf courses, but I have yet to find a single coffee shop, grocery store or gas station within the town. The nearest google result was 25 minutes away. The only reason I mention this is that entering the Box Bar recreation site you may think you're just outside a town center, but you're really not; you'll have to give a half hour or more to get supplies.

The camp here, you need the Tonto Forest Pass, which is $8, and you can get a 50% discount with America the Beautiful National Parks pass. You can use the VIPly app to purchase pass on your phone and then display a permit (provided near the entrance to the camping area on the sign posts) with the purchase and permit information. The sign posts also list a number of other areas where passes can be purchased (none of which are nearby).

The campsites themselves... well, the pictures from the USDA make it look like there is a wooded area with lots of flat space to camp... I don't know if the river topography changed recently or what, but this area was nowhere to be found. What was there was a dirt parking lot, and maybe 6 other sites where you could set up a camper. The parking lot would be suitable for big rigs if you could manage the few tight turns and steep inclines getting in there.

The 5 suitable campsites aren't well defined; you can pretty much park wherever you want once you get into the area, but it's very uneven throughout and lots of large pits to avoid when maneuvering around.

The river is right there, and a rope swing for kids if you walk the river's edge to find it. River itself is fast moving.

At the time we camped there, it looked like someone may have been "permanently tent camping" down by the river on the other side of the brown metal fence/barrier.

There are garbage dumpsters near the entrance to the main camping area, a few porta-potties in the main camping area, and access to at least two hiking trails.

Internet access was decent... on AT&T about 10mbps down and 2mbps up. Verizon about the same (both unboosted and un-mimo'ed). Internet access in the "town" of Rio Verde wasn't much better... LTE signal was strong but throughput was ssssllllooooowwwww...

It's just sort of an "eh" place to camp, but it was quiet and very little light pollution if that's something you're looking for.

Despite visiting the campground while it was under a flood warning, we still had a positive experience. Due to the amount of rain, everything was soaking wet or under water, but the sites themselves were really well thought out and spaced. Lots and lots of space between you and our neighbor, with you back to the woods (and in our case facing the lake). COE campgrounds are amazing in general, and this is just another example of that. PS watch out for the skunk that lives in the woods between site 28 and the bathhouse.

If you want to stay somewhere smack-dab in the middle of some authentic Georgia Spanish Moss-laden woods, Skidaway Island State Park is the spot for you. Really beautiful wooded scenery all around you. Only complaints were that our campsite was pretty uneven, so much so leveling blocks couldn't compensate, and the nats were pretty bad at the end of March when we came. Other than that, the amenities were clean and well taken care of, the ranges were helpful and friendly, and every RV'ers expect to work and be available did indeed work and was available.

Unboosted: 1-2 bars (AT&T)
Boosted: 3-4 bars (AT&T)

We stayed here for 1 night on our way out West with our 31' Airstream. It is pretty remote (about 20 minutes from the interstate on dirt roads) and very quiet. The sites were large enough for our 31' Airstream however they were difficult to get into because the narrow road and railroad ties lining each side. We had to try a couple different sites before finding one that we could maneuver into.

Each site has a fire ring with cooking grate, picnic table and bear box. Vault toilet available. No amenities (elec, sewer or garbage collection) however there was a hand pump for water.

No cell phone reception without a booster. With our booster and direction antenna we got about 3 bars of Verizon LTE, which was enough to making phone calls and browse the internet.

The best thing about this campground was the trees! They were huge! Big trees and big pine cones kept the kiddos happy for our short overnight stay.

Its basically a few camping spots in a grass field (mowed) with a view of the lake. No picnic tables or fire pits at the sites, but there is one shared pavilion with a single picnic table.

We stopped here for the night on our way East from Caprock Canyon State Park. No reviews on campendium at the time so it was a risk, but it’s not bad at all. We were the only ones here, and we found a perfectly level spot (though it looks about only half of them were level). We thought it was only $10 per night before we got here, but it looks like the city up the price to $20 per night, which is still a steal in my book considering the proximity to the lake and the full hookups. Just pay the iron ranger. No bathrooms or other facilities on site, but there is a dumpster.

ATT service was poor, wavered between 2 and 3 bars with 3 Mbps down. Verizon on the other hand was great, full signal, and 16 Mbps down.

There’s a town (Nocona) nearby with all the amenities and places you’d need to stock up.

This is a very quiet area, we could definitely have stayed here a few days to relax if we weren’t just overnighting. Worth the diversion from the main highways if you’re looking for a reasonably priced place that’s not really run down with lake access.

Would be 5/5 if there were amenities on site (like bathrooms, picnic tables, fire rings).

Like most of the other reviewers, we thought this campground was spectacular. Our site, #20, had hude stone steps leading down to the river that runs adjacent to some of the campsites, and the portion of the river we could access from our site was stone-bottomed and only a few inches deep; PERFECT for our 3 little one to romp about it without us having to worry too much. Site #20 was a little tricky to get into with a 31' pull-behind, but we managed after a few tries.

Only negative was the somewhat busy road nearby... you won't be able to escape the road noise wherever you are in the park.

Relatively speaking, the park is beautiful with its little lake and wildlife, though there are trains passing within 100 yards of the campground about every 45 minutes or so. We’ll signal was fine, but throughout was poor on both AT&T and Verizon (something like 2-4mbps down and 1 up).