Setting the record straight about Las Vegas Bay Campground
We had just finished getting our solar installed and wanted to go somewhere that could really put it to the test. The Nevada desert seemed like a perfect place. We could check a new state off our "States RVed" list, we could hike around Lake Mead, and we could visit a favorite city of ours, Las Vegas. Oh, wipe that shocked look off your face! We do in fact love Vegas, despite not being into gambling or nightlife. The best way I like to sum it up is, it's a city where you can feel stimulated and relaxed at the same time.
Even though our love for the glitz and glam of Sin City remains, lots of other things have changed. We did head into the city for a couple shows, but otherwise, Lake Mead was our primary destination. We reserved a campsite ahead of time in Lake Mead National Recreation Area to ensure that we could get a spot for over a week, to really test our new solar system. The campgrounds have no hookups, which meant this would be our longest stint totally dry camping. Until our solar install, we had only done shorter stays with no hookups, or at least had some electricity during the longer stays. We were venturing into new territory.
Choosing a Lake Mead campsite that would fit our RV was a hassle in itself. Many of the sites are pushing the limits in terms of size, with measurements just large enough to fit our 28ft trailer. Sometimes there is room to "overhang," which is the shortest way of saying, park partially on the site pad and partially off, but the problem with this was, we had no way of knowing what vegetation might be in the way. Sometimes you can Google Street View a campground, but in this case most of these street views were so old, the entire state of vegetation had changed. We narrowed our campground selections down and eventually picked Las Vegas Bay Campground. Based on the described measurements, many of the sites measured larger than we needed. We booked a site that said the parking area was a 40ft square and the site itself was about 5ft larger than that. It was also on an outer loop of the campground, where hopefully there would be some views.
I tend to only choose campgrounds that have an RV Life rating of 7.0/10 or higher, usually trying to stick in the 8.0+ range. Las Vegas Bay boasts over a 9.0. The only negative reviews I saw were that the campground was expensive and some people had trouble fitting their rigs into sites. Neither of those was a deal breaker. It wasn't until after reserving our site that other reviews started popping up from other websites. Lots of people were complaining about the lack of upkeep of the campground. Someone said there were a lot of homeless people crashing there, while another reviewer complained about the unusable dump station. What was the real deal here? Had the campground been run-down but recently undergone improvements? Were people just being grouchy? Or was there really something going on? We weren't just putting our solar to the test; we were putting the entire campground to the test! What would be awaiting us when we arrived?
Lake Mead National Recreation Area is huge. Just think: Lake Mead itself could cover the entire state of Pennsylvania and still be 1ft deep. That's pretty massive. We arrived to the west entrance station of the Recreation Area with miles still to go to get to Las Vegas Bay Campground. We told the ranger that we had a campground reservation, and he let us know that even campers needed to still pay the day fee. What?! We had never needed to do this before; usually a campground reservation is also your ticket to the entire park. I read rumors that one of the places we're staying this summer has the same rule, but until now, I thought it couldn't be true. I guess we'll see. Either way, it's true here. Thankfully we have our annual National Parks Pass which is good for National Recreation Areas too, so we just showed the ranger our pass and were on our way. Without a pass, the entrance fee would be $25 for up to 7 days. We were staying for 8, so if we had to leave and come back on our last day, we would have needed to pay another $25, making it $50 on top of what we already paid for our campsite, which was $20/night. Man, it's expensive to BYOU around here! (That's "Bring Your Own Utilities," and no it's not an RVer term...until just now). The reviews were definitely right about this one, but it was fine. We aren't planning to make a habit out of paying this much for boondocking spots unless they're really worth it, so we just hoped our site would pay off.
But before heading to our site, we needed to stop at the dump station. We had some dumping and filling to do in order to prepare ourselves for the next 8 days. The dump station had potable water on one end and the dump/non-potable water on the other end. Not so close that people would mix the water spigots up (hopefully), but very convenient for a one-stop dump and fill. We proceeded to commence with the boondocker hack: When dumping and filling, run inside and take a shower so that the wastewater will go right though the open gray valve, and the water will be immediately replenished. It's not the most fragrant of showers, but it gets the job done. With no one else waiting for the dump station, we were able to both rinse off while we dumped our tanks and filled our freshwater. We used literally every component at this dump station and can conclude that it was perfectly normal and worked properly, so the reviews that said it was unusable are no longer accurate, if they ever were.
While we finished filling, I walked over to our campsite to take a look and start gearing up for navigating Anthony into what could be a tight fitting site. I was blown away. Mad props to me and Anthony for choosing an outer loop site without really knowing what the views would be. We got some good ones! We were only one site away from one of the hiking trails, and behind our site was a beautiful canyon view. I don't usually check elevation when I look at campgrounds on the map, so I didn't realize we'd be so high up. This made the views even better. The downside to the site was that it was definitely not a 40ft length parking area. We'd be lucky to fit Buggy from ramp to tongue. It was a wide site, though, so wherever Buggy went, Clyde would fit next to him. We had some vegetation and small boulders in the back of our site, but not enough that we couldn't overhang at least a little. We would find a way to make it work. The site itself was actually quite spacious width-wise. Not only was the parking area wide enough to fit trailer and vehicle side-by-side, but there was a good sized area for the picnic table, firepit, and grill. Plus, even though technically not our site, our yard-by-proximity consisted of a wonderful space leading towards the canyon.
We first tried parking the trailer stage-left but quickly realized it wouldn't work. We needed to overhang off the back of our parking pad, which caused our wheels to be lower than our steps, and so our steps wouldn't lay flat on the paved pad. We needed to position ourselves on the opposite side of the site so the steps could swing down and land on the gravel next to the site pad. Before moving the trailer, though, I had to take pictures. The sun was beginning to set and the almost-full moon had risen right above the canyon. It was stunning.
Here's what ended up being our parking situation once we finagled our way in. While it wasn't as long of a site as stated on recreation.gov, it was plenty roomy for us.
Some reviewers stated that their site wasn't level. While I can't speak for other sites in the campground (though none of them looked unlevel when we did our campground exploring), ours only needed a little bit of extra leveling. I quickly started to understand one of the reasons so many RVers were complaining about the campground: They were looking for an RV park, not a natural, primitive campground. When we're immersed in nature, experiencing vistas like this, we're not expecting perfectly level sites, and even so, this one was pretty darn close.
We noticed other reviewers talking about how there are no hookups. Did they not know this going in? Had they not done any research? It's so confusing because we chose this campground purposely because it had no hookups. Even when you reserve, recreation.gov clearly states what's available for facilities and what's not, as well as which loops allow generators and which don't. This kept with our theory that some people were looking for an actual RV park and didn't quite grasp the National Recreation Site situation.
Walking the campground loops, we noticed that the majority of sites were as wide as they were long. We wondered if this campground used to be mainly for tent campers and not RVs. They certainly didn't look like RV sites, which tend to be long and narrow. The wide sites, coupled with the large dirt areas, seem ideal for parking a car and pitching a tent in an area where stakes can easily be driven into the ground. A few sites had tent campers staying in them and it looked like a perfect set-up.
A common complaint I saw in reviews is that there was no camp host. At first I thought this was true, as the camp host site was blocked off, and behind it was a pile of picnic tables and an abandoned car. I saw a couple of rangers here and there and so I assumed a camp host may not be necessary, but as we were getting ready to leave at the end of our stay, we did meet the camp hosts when they came over to switch our site sign for the next reservation. Besides that task, I don't have a clue what else they do, but they were in fact there! They probably had a different site, one that wasn't filled with rubble.
The abandoned vehicle does allude to some truth in the comments about homeless people. In addition, we saw a couple of people with very packed cars and backpacks that looked like they might be less voluntarily houseless than we are, but it's a $10-20/night campground where you're allowed to stay for up to 30 nights. Honestly, if I was homeless, I'd consider staying there too. Also, don't kid yourself into thinking there aren't homeless people in the $80/night resorts too. Just camp your own camp. No one bothered us and everyone seemed nice.
Whether it's a job for the camp hosts or the rangers to reinforce good dog ownership, this was something that was definitely lacking. Lots of people tended to not pick up after their dogs. I theorize that they're not respecting the campground because in the past it sounds like things weren't in great shape. It's probably continued bad habits that remain through the campground's restoration. Perhaps a couple of signs reminding people would help. There are plenty of dumpsters for easy disposal of dog waste.
We saw truth in another reviewer complaint right away, but to us it was actually something really cool and not at all complaint-worthy. COYOTES! I know! The audacity of coyotes to roam in a natural, preserved area. But seriously, how do people who camp still not understand that we're in their home, not the other way around? Just hide yo cats, hide yo dogs, and you'll be fine. We're here for the nature, so we found it quite exciting that we saw a coyote from a distance on our first campground walk, and then a few days later, one ran right through our site. They're clearly used to people, but not so used to people that they come begging for food. They're still very skittish and mostly stay away. I don't think it was a coincidence that the coyote ran through our site about 5 minutes after we closed our patio for the evening.
But, of all the reviewer complaints, the best one of all came from a Google reviewer who decided to complain that there was, and I quote, "Not much to see here." Alright, let's get something straight. We're fast inching towards 100 places that we've stayed in our RV. We've towed about 15,000 miles since we launched full-time. We've RVed to half the states in the country and have visited even more than that. We've traveled to many, many countries. I think we have enough experience to say, without a doubt, that this dude is WRONG.
At least he gave us some prime reel content!
This is becoming a year of experimentation. We're experimenting with less planning and less hookups. We're taking some risks by booking tighter sites in more rustic areas. We're exploring new ways of camping on the western side of the country. Las Vegas Bay Campground was everything we could have hoped it would be for our first true test of our solar. We were totally self-contained for 8 days and everything worked swimmingly. We had wildlife and scenic vistas right outside our trailer. We had a beautiful hiking trail just steps away. And we never had a shortage of things to do, with the city life to the west and the lake life to the east. This is what it's all about. We immersed ourselves in nature but could still call upon civilization when we wanted. Las Vegas Bay Campground was the perfect home-base for all of our Nevada adventures.
Campground:
- Las Vegas Bay Campground, Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Boulder City, NV
- Site #71, no hookups, back-in, firepit, picnic table, grill
- Campground recommended? Yes
- Site recommended? Yes