Sawtooth Canyon Campground

This BLM campground is ringed with stunning jagged hills, hence the name "Sawtooth". You can hike to the top or do some climbing if that's your preference. We talked to some folks who were hiking up to meditate. Just a quiet spot with something other than a flat desert horizon.

Others have commented on the rude host. Well we were there in mid Nov 2016, there was no camp host but there was a sign advertising for a camp-host position.

Not sure I would stay here in Summer but it is great during cooler months.

Between Christmas and New Years we needed a place to hang out, this place filled the bill. It was mostly empty, and very quiet. No services, other than pit toilets. Enough cell service to stay in touch. Some hiking, although it appears to be a popular climbing place.
We really liked this place.

Do be aware, we read the other reviews that had mobile service and it depends on what site you park in. Also AT&T and Verizon were both on what we only know to call a circle of signal. To us, that means we have signal in and out. Site 5 had zero AT&T signal. We didn't check our T-Mobile. We just assumed there was no signal for that.

It's so quiet here that your ears ring and it was mostly clean. Someone left quite a mess of their food at a site near ours. But otherwise it was clean. The pit toilet by our site was clean and we saw the ranger come by. They are looking for a volunteer Campground host. Maybe that's the job for you?

There was a solid hike right outside our door. 2,500 steps according to my iwatch. Fantastic view from the top.

We arrived in the dark of the night on a new moon and had no problems finding a site. There's also a large pull out next to the turn in off the road. If you needed to arrive at night in your 40 foot class A, you could stay there until morning.

This place is amazing. My first boondocking experience in my new 2017 Forest River 2400S MBS RV. I came down highway 247. When the GPS (Google Maps) says to turn...TURN! :) Or you will miss it. The road looks a bit sketchy. I was like..hmmm what am I getting my self into. The first mile is a country road that is rough but nothing to bad. BUT! then out of nowhere you have white gravel road. Welcome to Sawtooth. It's amazing. I think there are 14 or 16 sites. Each with a cement padded picnic table, fire pit, and charcoal grill. Super clean. Restrooms for campers but no hookups at all.

Great hiking and climbing. Lots of rock climbers on the weekend. But hardly anyone during the week in the months of January and February when I was there. I went twice. Each time spending a week at a time. My dogs loved climbing and hiking. The views are amazing.

I have unlimited T-mobile phone,text,data and unlimited hotspot on my Samsung Galaxy Edge 7. To obtain service I would have to place the phone on the metal part of the window and if lucky I would get one bar of 3G service. If I climbed one of the rocks I would get at time 1 bar of LTE. However, when it was cloudy NO SERVICE at all. Even if I climbed the highest rock. That said I purchased a Weboost 4G-X OTR Antenna. With the antenna I would get 1 bar of LTE in the rig with 8mbs download and 2.5mbps upload.

This is a 14 day BLM camping area, a favorite of rock climbers. There's some good hiking and great views of Lucerne valley and Stoddard Valley on CA 247. I had Verizon 2 Bar LTE but no digital TV reception at my sight. Easy access. I stopped in the first large area and walked around for a compatible site for my rig. Weekends can be busy here. I stayed 6 days and enjoyed it immensely.
See my Video at: https://youtu.be/Lu-c-Zbs7CI

Hard to believe that this campground is free. We pulled in on Sunday and there were only 3 open sites. Lots of campers come here for rock climbing.

Each site had a picnic table with a patio and shade shelter. There is also a nice masonry BBQ and fire pit.

The campground is down a 1 mile gravel road. Part of it is washboard and a few ruts.

We had no problem fiting our 30' airstream into a spot. Would not recommend anything too much longer.

No water, no dump and no trash. There is a pit toilet.

Stayed one night here. Got there around 1pm on a Saturday and most of the 17 sites were taken (only 2 left). The largest group site was taken by Boy Scouts, and I would think that would be pretty normal for such type groups as it would support larger communal type campers. It is a very peaceful campground and only about 1 mile off the main highway. Cell (Verizon) service was good all day and dropped to no service at dusk until next morning, not sure why.

I was here midweek at the end of March and it was mostly full. Spring vacationers, I suppose, but not the least bit noisy. I got a good spot, though. Coming from the south there was no signage for the turnoff. In fact, the turnoff is barely visible until you're almost on top of it. If I hadn't been watching my GPS, and known there was a campground back there, I would've felt like I was heading down some fruitless dead end or to someone's ranch.

For a free campground it's unbelievable how beautiful and clean it is. Be sure to take the highways when coming to get here. We came across stoddard valley rd and Lucerne pass pet Google, do NOT GO THAT WAY. GOOGLE ALMOST KILLED US THOUGH on the directions to here going that way, not only did we almost flip our truck and slide off a cliff, the road dead ended into a mountain. We had to spend the night at the dead end then backtrack the next morning. My phone would not get service at the site I had to walk out to the road.

Other than that and the fact that it's 15 miles into Barstow to get to the nearest store. . . This place is awesome.

I arrived on a Monday and there was only 3-4 others in the campground, most were climbers. There were only a few spots that would work well for a large rig, mine is 38' long. I chose site 6, which is in a string of 3 sites in a pretty open area nestled against the mountains. Had some weekender campers on Friday and Saturday night, but not bad at all. The rest of the time I had the run of the place. No real hiking, but you can climb all over the crazy mountains and watch the climbers scaling the various rock faces. Lots of 4wheel drive trails in the surrounding OHV areas. Only 15 miles from Barstow for any supplies you may need and a cool little pub about 5 miles away from the campground. Cell service is really dependent on where you park with the giant rocks all around. I chose a pretty tough spot for coverage, but I did maintain 2-3 bars of LTE most of the time with the booster. Maybe 1 bar 4G without booster. The sites all have picnic tables, canopies, fire pits and BBQs.