By:
Submission
Located in the northwest corner of the park, the road to Black Rock Canyon dead-ends at the Black Rock campground Joshua Tree. Campsites are located on a hillside at the mouth of the canyon surrounded by Joshua trees, junipers, cholla cacti, and a variety of desert shrubs. Spring blooms usually begin with the Joshua trees in late February followed by shrubs and annuals through May. This quiet, family campground is a good introduction for first-time campers. Each campsite has a picnic table and fire ring with rest rooms and water nearby. If you forget to bring your firewood, shopping facilities are only five miles away in the town of Yucca Valley. Campsites vary in size and can accommodate both tents and RVs. A day-use picnic area and a dump station are also available. For horse owners, a separate area is provided for camping or for staging a ride.
Take Interstate 10 to Route 62 into the town of Yucca Valley. Turn south on Joshua Lane and follow signs to campground, about five miles from the turn.
If coming south on Highway 247, go straight across Highway 62 and continue onto Joshua Lane. There will be no sign for the park as you cross Route 62.
The campground has seen better days. For a popular NP, it should be maintained with a better campground road, leveled sites, and bathrooms. There seems to be a lack of funding or low priority in maintaining a standard quality campground you would find elsewhere. Look at Organ Pipe Cactus NM, for example.
There is no firewood for sale at the office, so you will need to purchase somewhere else. Unfortunately, this is a premium service that campers are looking for.
As a camphost myself, I saw very little effort by the onsite volunteer camphosts. Riding a golf cart shouldn't be their only duty. Walking around the campground to pick up litter, rake the sites, and clean out the fire rings should be some of their expected duties.
And the trail parking right at the main entrance should be prohibited!!! Try navigating a large RV between parked cars without hitting anything is a formula for disaster.
The campground is also right next to residential homes. Not a place to camp if you're looking for solitude and dark sky. It's disconnected from the main park and requires you to drive to Joshua Tree to enter from the west side. There are other campsites within the inner park that would be better suited.
We stayed here for New Years eve at site 82 and 81. Site 97, 98, and 99 are probably the best if you don't want to be surrounded by people. Roads are not maintained but manageable with any car really.
Black Rock Canyon Campground is a wonderful place to go camping. It’s family and dog friendly and very close to Joshua Tree National Park entrance (25min). There is also a visitors center on the campground with a pet-friendly shop. The bathrooms are clean and accessible and they have potable water taps. We loved camping out here. The highlight for this place is the stargazing at night. Definitely include that in your night plans!
Great campground in a beautiful place. Water, flush toilets and dump station all a plus.
The negatives are no hot/ warm water in the bathrooms. No towels or hand driers. Most campsites are not level and the flush hose at the dump station needs fittings to work with your tank flush.
