We consider this campground our "Home of the West." Where it is may surprise you.

One of our favorite parts of RVing is that we plant our "home" literally anywhere we want all over the US. We have lost count how many places we've parked our RV, and many of those camping spots become lost in the sea of memories. Others make their mark as a campground we really like, or even a favorite campground. These ones often grant us enjoyable experiences or novel, fun amenities. Then there is another subset: the campground that truly touches our hearts in a profound way. These are the campgrounds that aren't just where we park our home; they become home to us. They're the campgrounds that we can't wait to return to, and when we do, we take a deep breath and know that we are somewhere really special.

This is a small subset of campgrounds. In fact, there might be only 3 or 4 that truly fit into this category. Perhaps someday we'll talk about all of them and why they are so special, because they truly have their own unique draws. But today, we're shining the spotlight on one campground in particular, the one that has become our "Home of the West." Despite us having a rather tumultuous history with it, this place has an undeniable emotional tug on our heartstrings.

With 25 nights spent here over 3 stays, this campground is just shy of the number 1 spot for most nights at a campground. That distinction goes to Wompatuck State Park back in our home state of MA, but it's a weak designation at best, because we camp there because it is so close to home. We can also award our Home of the West with the most repeat visits, tied with Lums Pond State Park in Delaware, but once again, we have reasons to go to Lums Pond often. It's the best choice for a campground to blitz to every winter after we leave MA. We love Wompatuck, and we love Lums Pond, but of these 3 campgrounds that hold high accolades, only one stands alone as a campground we visit solely because we want to.

Have you guessed what it is?

Las Vegas Bay Campground in Lake Mead Recreation Area, Nevada.

We love looking back on our history with Las Vegas Bay Campground. We booked a site there early on in our Season 2 travel plans. We slowly became more comfortable squeezing into small, rustic campsites, and we preferred a designated site over dispersed camping. For $20/night, Vegas Bay fit the bill. Then, we returned the following month because our trailer had been adorned with a brand new solar installation. We knew this would be the perfect spot to test it out.

Our ulterior motive for booking Vegas Bay was to "set the record straight" after reading some less-than-favorable reviews. Not only did we fundamentally disagree with the negativity, one review in particular has now become a years-long inside joke. A Google Reviewer claimed that there was "not much to look at" at Vegas Bay. Funny, because we've RVed to almost all 50 states, and we maintain that Lake Mead has some of the best views we've seen anywhere. Many of the Vegas Bay campsites literally back up to a canyon! Our many, many photos speak for themselves.

Now, Whenever we arrive to a campground with phenomenal views, we jokingly say "Not much to look at here." We especially enjoy exclaiming this whenever we arrive back to our beloved canyon.

If there's one thing we love about a campground, it's good hiking. Las Vegas Bay Campground has a beautiful hiking trail that leaves right from the campground. On our 2nd and 3rd stays here, we purposely chose Site 72 because the trailhead is adjacent to the site.

The location also served as inspiration for some of my musical offerings.

This might all sound idyllic, but our visits to Las Vegas Bay haven't been all sunshine and music. On our second trip here, we got trapped in a Murphy's Law scenario that caused us so much turmoil, we ended up extending our stay to almost 2 weeks, when we were only supposed to stay for 5 days! The weather grew hotter and our morale sunk to new lows. Our only saving grace was that we really did love our campsite, and so if we needed to deal with a huge pile of issues, at least we had the views!

We got 99 problems but the view ain’t one! Things take a frustrating turn at a favorite campground

We found one of our most scenic campsites at Las Vegas Bay Campground and fell in love with the Lake Mead region. So, when we were given the opportunity to return, we drove full speed ahead. Anthony’s parents told us that, if we’re ever back in the Las Vegas area,

Brighter on WheelsNicole Anderson

We got 99 problems, continued

Continued from our last post. Haven’t read it yet? Read it first here! Our second stay at Las Vegas Bay Campground was turning out much different than expected, and we found ourselves trying to keep up with an ever-growing pile of problems. 1. When we got to the campground, we

Brighter on WheelsNicole Anderson

Granted, most of our problems weren't Vegas Bay related, except for their irrigation system flooding our campsite. We do, however, know that many of our problems were made worse by the fact that we were there. The heat was causing breakdowns of our solar equipment. Our lack of hookups became a real issue when we extended our stay. And, if we had left and gone somewhere else, we wouldn't have gotten two of our truck tires punctured by a nail. Even still, we couldn't tear ourselves away from this campsite.

The major upside to Vegas Bay is that we are able to immerse ourselves in nature, and yet, civilization is just up the road. Henderson, NV has literally everything we could want for shopping, restaurants, and Amazon package pickup locations. Then, when we seek the city vibe, we have the bright lights of Vegas only about a half-hour from our campsite. We're not fans of gambling or nightlife, and yet, we love Las Vegas. It's a really fun place to walk around because something is always going on, whether it's street performers or the fountain shows at the Bellagio. Our travel life sometimes makes it difficult to time our travels with shows and concerts that we want to see. In Vegas, there's never a shortage of entertainment. We book our campsite reservation, see what performances are happening during the same dates, and make our plans. We've seen some amazing shows.

This time, we chose to see other types of attractions. People might not think of museums when they think of Las Vegas, but the city actually has tons of state-of-the-art exhibits, including several interactive experiences. As part of Anthony's birthday present, I got us tickets for Arte Museum, a sensory-immersion museum that takes you through rooms decked out in digital nature art, with added music and fragrances. Because we immerse ourselves in nature at Lake Mead, I thought it would be fun to also immerse ourselves in nature, Vegas-style. Then, to keep with the theme, I also bought tickets for Flyover. This is a ride where you sit in front of a giant screen, and a video flies you over various iconic landmarks. The seats have flight motion and other effects like water spray and fragrances, to make you feel like you are actually flying over the sights. We did a Flyover ride in Pigeon Forge and loved it, so why not take another "flight" as part of our nature immersion?

We had a selection of flight themes to choose from and chose the American West. First we watched an intro video of the history of how this region of the country formed. Then, we took flight over landmarks such as the Grand Canyon, red rocks, Yellowstone, the Rocky Mountains, Big Sur, and the Golden Gate Bridge. It's always fun to fly over places we've been, but we also noticed just how much exploring we've yet to do. There is still so much to see in this beautiful part of the country!

After Flyover, we walked up the street to Arte Museum, where we had tickets for the exhibits as well as the Arte Cafe. This museum is fairly new to the Strip and has rave reviews online. It's also won awards such as Modern Luxury's "Best of Vegas" in 2024. It's set up to be very Insta-worthy, and they even encourage visitors to hashtag the museum for features. However, images can only capture the visual components, whereas in person, we had a broader sensory experience. Personally, we felt the fragrances were a bit strong, and some of them missed the mark, almost like candle scents that are supposed to smell like the ocean, but only smell like perfume. The sound effects and music, however, hit the mark. The experience was quite soothing, and as someone who makes a living integrating music and nature, I thought they did a great job capturing the essence of each exhibit. The Rose Garden even had a small room with a piano, which guests were allowed to play. What a fun surprise!

Call us snobby, but the most talked-about exhibits left a little to be desired for us, namely the infinite ocean and the aurora borealis images. We've been fortunate to experience vast night skies over the ocean, and the auroras, several times during our travels. Nothing compares to the real thing.

After venturing through the exhibits, we went to the Arte Cafe, where our admission ticket add-on got us each a latte, which we sat and drank on tables displaying projected media art. A motion sensor follows our glasses around the table, where our lattes reflected a hot air balloon and a customizable name banner. The cafe wall also displayed nature-themed art.

As someone who does lots of work with multimedia, I couldn't help but want the visuals to be a sharper, clearer resolution. It's surely difficult and bandwith-consuming to display images large enough to fill walls 50+ feet long, but considering the museum opened in late 2023, the quality didn't seem to fit the times. I'm afraid that, without updates, these exhibits will be obsolete within a couple of years. Technology moves fast. Unless visitors end up appreciating the "vintage" quality, like the nostalgia factor of listening to vinyl records instead of MP3s, Arte Museum will end up becoming the floppy disk of the museum world. They'll need to do some work to ensure that the drive to visit will continue to exist.

We returned to our humble home on the canyon rim and spent the rest of our stay going about our typical routine. We had a few chores and repairs to get done, thankfully nothing like the last time, but it did result in Anthony climbing up on the roof again to fix a solar panel connector. At least this time it wasn't 90 degrees out! We ran errands and picked up Amazon packages. We enjoyed patio time and lots of walks outside.

Returning to the campground after 2 years really did feel like coming home. So much has changed in our lives, but the campground comforted us in familiarity. There was still the abandoned red car by the camp host site. The hummingbird that came to greet us and pollenate the shrub behind our trailer. The doves and ravens that provided soundtracks to our mornings. The whipping winds that made the eucalyptus tree - and our rig - dance. Of course, in 2 years, we aren't the only ones to have changed. The campground coyotes seemed to have moved onto new areas, perhaps closer to the lake, where the water levels have risen. The water levels may also be the reason for more campers enjoying time at the campgrounds. We had many more neighbs than previous stays. And, some construction of the campground, for better or worse. Better: Removal of a tree and boulder that made entering the dump station extremely tough. Worse: The hose connector now missing from what was the potable water fill, so that now there is no way to fill fresh water at the campground. But we take the good with the bad here at Las Vegas Bay Campground. As long as it provides the feeling of home in a far away place, it doesn't need to live up to any other conditions to make us happy.