Belle Campground

We were boondocking at Joshua North prior to the Thanksgiving holiday and drove in the park to check it out and review some of the camping opportunities...we had never been to Joshua. Boy, what a zoo. We do not recommend the park during the Thanksgiving holiday. Wall to wall people and than some. But Joshua is just beautiful and so cool and we wanted to return to spend some quality time "exploring everywhere", so we came back.

For our temporary home, we chose Belle Campground. It was by far one of the smallest campgrounds with only 18 sites (versus over 100) and Belle featured about six sites that were spacious, private and could accommodate our truck and trailer. As the other campgrounds all had sites that were occupied with climbers and overnighters, we were quite surprised to be the only campers each night in our secluded campground. We loved the silence, the darkness and only our own distorted firelight shadows on the clusters of boulders surrounding us.

The campground and each of the sites were very clean and the two vault toilets were cleaned everyday...even with only one campsite being used. This is a primitive campground, so no potable water is available. Bring your own firewood too as we did not see any camphosts or wood for sale at the Visitor Centers. Our site was large enough to fit our truck and trailer side to side and we saw a few other sites that had the same capabilities. We were told by the park rangers that the best time during the week to secure the prime sites are on a Monday or Tuesday. Mid-week on gets enough traffic to fill this small campground.

Well, with the clear skies come low temperatures! Each night the temps got down to freezing, even less with the wind. We recommend taking a propane heater to break the chill at night before bedtime and in the morning...saves using your rig's propane guzzler furnace.

There is unlimited hiking right from the campground and many great clusters of rock formations for climbing. Our cellular service in the campground was non existent, but occasionally we would pick up one bar. You had to drive a few miles down the road toward Twenty Nine Palms to pick up a strong 3-4 bar signal.

We had a great desert experience here and hope to once again return.

Note it is $20 to get into Joshua Tree, that permit is valid for 7 days. Posted at the campground was a sign and envelopes $14 per night. Rules were basic, except running your generator there are specific 2 hour blocks three times a day that they can be run.

We found a pretty level pull through site plenty big enough for our Airstream and truck. There were a few composting toilets throughout the park. Trash and recycling. There was no internet in the park, we drove to the Visitor Center about 6 miles away for Internet.

With no internet we were forced to enjoy the beauty around us. We enjoyed the 4 mile Lost Horse Mine hike and the Skull hike. The sky's were clear at night and the stars were out in full force. Reminded me of home in Vermont.- Written by Amy

Its everything you'd want from Joshua Tree. Big rocks, Joshua Trees, Yuccas... We really loved this beautiful, peaceful spot! Out of many campgrounds this is one of our top 5. Its a small campground so get there really early and don't even think about coming on a Saturday unless you're feeling really lucky.

There is no water in the park, but the visitor's center has drinking water and isn't too far away. There is also no cell service in the park, again the visitor's center is were you'll find wifi and in town there is a library with free wifi.

This was our first visit to Joshua Tree, so we had our heart set on staying in the middle of the park. We were nervous as all those campgrounds are first come, first served, but we arrived around 10 am on Sunday and lucked out. We had to wait a few hours for someone to leave at noon, but we were happy to wait to secure our spot.

Site #5 was perfect for our trailer and Sequoia. They were parked side-by-side, but not too close; we were still able to pull out the trailer's awning. This site is sprawling and backs up to some boulders that the kids loved to climb on, and it's secluded from other sites so we felt like we were all alone even though the campground was full each night. It was pretty level. The campground well cared for and clean, and the rangers visit quite often. At the entrance, campers leave magazines you can borrow and/or leave your own. The vault bathrooms were fine. The road isn't close enough that you hear many cars or see their lights at night. It's very peaceful and the stars are abundant. Though Jumbo Rocks and Ryan would have been more centrally located among the highlights of the park, we were very comfortable at Belle and didn't mind the repeated drives to Hidden Valley or Keys View. Overall, we had a blast for four days and three nights there and enjoyed all our hikes--49 Palms, Lost Horse Mine, Skull Rock, Hall of Horrors, Barker Dam, Arch Rock, and Ryan Ranch. This was such an enjoyable trip!

Of all the campgrounds in Joshua Tree National Park, the Belle Campground offers the best experience. The setting is classic Joshua Tree, with large granite boulders and the namesake tree surrounding the campsites. Compared to other Joshua Tree campgrounds, it is small (less than 20 campsites), secluded and quiet. Its central location is convenient to most of the highlights within the park. It also has a small handful of sites that can fit larger trailers, unlike the other interior campgrounds in the park where anything bigger than a large camper van is pushing it. Overall, the setting is lovely but due to the small number of suitable sites, RVers might have a really difficult time finding a spot in this campground on weekends and any busy time for the park.

The Belle Campground has trash bins and vault toilets, but no potable water on site and no dump station (we used the dump station at Cottonwood Spring campground to the south, and filled up our portable water containers at the Oasis Visitor Center to the north as needed).

As of January 2015, we had very intermittent Verizon with a booster, but not reliable enough for working. The best service we had in the park was at the junction of Pinto Basin Road and Park Boulevard (3 bars of AT&T 3G). We also had bits of Verizon service along the road between the North Entrance Station and the Pinto Basin Road junction. The library and McDonalds in 29 Palms have decent wifi.

Another thing worth noting… We came in through the Cottonwood entrance at the southern end of the park and the sign at the visitor center noted that all of the northern campgrounds were full as of 10:00 am on a Monday in January. That was not the case and we are glad that we did not rely on that sign for making a decision.

I spent one night in Joshua Tree National Park at Belle Campground. I chose this location because, well...there weren't many sites available on the day I arrived. The sites are first come, first served. I recommend arriving earlier in the day in order to reserve a campsite that works for you (RV, tent).

The location for my tent was tucked into a ring of rocks, which provided some privacy. However, many of the sites were close together. My neighbors were just on the other side of a low rock and I could hear their music/conversations after I had gone to bed.

I also noticed that the sites were bare - very little vegetation beyond the namesake Joshua Trees and only a few rocks to aid in anchoring a tent. I credit this to the frequent, heavy use of all the campsites in the park. It's very popular with people living in or near Los Angeles, CA.

Each site has a picnic table and the pit toilets are nearby. There aren't any water spigots, so bring your own water. My site would not have accommodated an RV, as it was very small and shared a parking area with the neighboring site.

Even with the minor drawbacks, Joshua Tree is still a wonderful park and Belle Campground was fine.

We stayed two nights in JTNP and enjoyed every minute of it. The rangers originally suggested we find a spot at Jumbo Rocks CG, but we found Belle to quieter, easier to navigate, and better for parking our 38' motorhome and toad. Parking among the rocks was wonderful. We met other campers who were very nice and we enjoyed hearing owls and coyotes in the evenings. Glorious sunsets from camp, too. The only negative was the first pit toilet you encounter was very fragrant (not in a good way). Those camped across from it must have suffered. The facility on our our back loop has zero oder that we could detect. I wish we'd had longer to stay and relax in this campground and to explore more of the park.
http://yukonandbean.com/joshua-tree-national-park/

Joshua Tree is one of our favorite places in California so we may be a bit bais but Belle is a perfect little campground. Sites 2 and 3 don't have much privacy but are very easy back ins for trailers 25' +. No cell service, no water, pit toilets, perfect landscape and beautiful sunsets is what you can expect. Enjoy!

Belle is a tiny campground with sites best suited for tents, camper vans and truck campers. Bigger rigs may be able to squeeze into a site or two, but options are limited.

Site 5 is the creme de la creme. It's tucked into a rock formation such that when you're camped you can neither see nor hear your neighbors. What a luxury! Traffic does pass by with relative frequency (especially once the sites start to fill throughout the park and people are getting desperate) but it wasn't enough to bother me. We were able to easily park two camper vans into this site with room to spare.

Sites have fire pits, charcoal grills, and concrete picnic tables. Clean long drop toilets and trash/recycling are available in the campground. No cell service, but driving a few miles down the road toward Twentynine Palms will get you Verizon and AT&T.

Site 5 has bolted climbing routes.

We somehow manage to always arrive at first-come-first-serve national park campgrounds on a long weekend, realize this scheduling error the day prior, then get worried about finding a campsite. Arriving at Belle 1PM on a Thursday before the MLK long weekend we managed to snag the last spot long enough to accommodate our 28' Airstream. Fortunately it was a spot near the end of the loop around the rocks, and it turned out to be far quieter than the spots closer to the entrance which seemed to be party central that weekend.

Large boulders abound, with Joshua-trees a-plenty, Belle is a great spot for a more peaceful stay compared to other larger campgrounds in the park. Being further away from any of the more popular areas of the park there tends to be far less pedestrian and vehicle traffic - Jumbo Rocks, Ryan, and Hidden Valley in comparison is bustling with tourists and rock-climbers coming and going.

The downside of camping deep within JTNP is that there is no cell reception at all, no water spigots, and if you can't find a spot you'll need to drive long distances to other campgrounds to look for a spot.