Mount Rose Campground

Great spot for free dispersed camping near Lake Tahoe. It was very hard to find free camping around but this lil rose mountain was super pretty and accommodating.

We've only been to Tahoe once and stayed here. It's high up in the mountains which keeps it cool during the day. The campground has recently been refurbished and the staff keep it really clean. My favorite thing about this park is that it borders the Tahoe Rim Trail. It's amazing for mtn biking, hiking and running with great views of the lake and to the great basin. We will definitely be back. It's a quite, peaceful campground with mature trees for shade. There are water spigots and bathrooms, but no hookups. There are a few pull-thru sites which were awesome. Each site has a grill and there is fire wood onsite at the camp hosts. The lake was beautiful and looked like the Caribbean in spots. We drove all around the lake to look at other campgrounds, but they were much busier and more crowded. From here we went to Truckee which was a great little town and stayed at Donner Lake. When they get some rain and snow, we will be back.

I wanted to stay here but the campground is closed
The turn-in to the campground is very sharp from the highway. It is just at the start of the pull off area which is across the highway. Going north the turn for the campground is on the right just before the large parking area on the left.

This is the first time we've stayed at Mt Rose Campground. This is a National Forest campground and areservation (www.recreation.gov) is highly recommended. The $16 nightly fee was after our Senior America the Beautiful Pass discount. Only 26 camping sites in the campground, of which only 8 are first come-first serve. There are 6 tent only camp sites. All sites are paved, with a concrete patio (picnic table, fire pit and bear-resistant food storage box) and a designated spot for a tent with a sandy surface. Be aware that this campground is located at a high altitude (8,800 feet) and caution is advised if you are not used to doing activities at this altitude. On the plus side, the temperatures are at least 10-15 degrees cooler than in Reno.

The campground is very quiet. We hardly heard our neighbors, as each site is nicely separated and the trees helped screen noise. Lots of pines for partial shade. There are lots of chipmunks, which are very bold (one climbed on picnic table bench and then onto my lap while I was reading! One also climbed our RV steps and peered through the screen door. I guess folks have been feeding and/or were messy while eating. The vault toilets were clean and well maintained. The camp host drives through the camp multiple time a day. This is a dry campground (no water, electric or sewer hookups at the sites). Water is available at spigots placed throughout the campground. No flush toilets or showers. Quiet hours are from 10pm to 6am. We could barely hear any generators, as the sites are well placed and the trees helped absorb the noise.

We had very good Verizon service (4 bars 4G). Our speed test was 55 Mbps, which is good enough to stream or do a Zoom meeting. I'm assuming other cell carriers will have similar signal strength, as we are just below the cell towers on Slide Mountain.