Road 18 North Fruita Desert Trip Summary
NOTE: Please feel free to correct or add to my observations and assumptions. My goal is to relate to others my experiences and help the community.
I have been avoiding R18 stuff for a number of years now, mostly because of what a pain in the ass it's been trying to camp there or generally in the entire area. For those of you not familiar with the area, there is James Robb State Park camping area just outside Fruita, a really horrible RV park, Colorado Monument, or BLM at Book Cliffs / North Fruita Desert / R18. Here are my experiences with each.
• Colorado Monument - you can't mountain bike there, just camping. It's crowded. You are next to a road (or nearly on one). It's in the wrong direction…. It's worth seeing, but if you are there to mountain bike the awesome trials, it's not convenient.
• The RV park off exit 19 - Packed in like a tin full of sardines, it sucked. We pulled in there one time a few years back, looked around, and left. Literally, so packed then if you walked out of your camper you nearly walked into the next one.
• James Robb State Park - What a great place to camp. Showers, grass, playgrounds… The trouble is that it's nearly always full. People book it 6 months out. Unless you can plan accordingly, or you show up Mon-Wed to snatch a first come first served, forget about it.
• NFD / R18 BLM - I honestly have not been here since 2005 ish, when it was undeveloped and uncontrolled 'disbursed' camping. Since then, NFD has been developed by the BLM with their 'restricted camping area'. Many people complain that it's now not free, but $10/night to maintain pads, toilets, and fire rings is a pretty small fee. Unfortunately, this place fills up, and unless you are there by noon Thursday, you are SOL (S%#T out of luck).
So last weekend, my wife and I went out to GJ / NFD to ride over the weekend, the weather pretty much ruled out anything on the front range from Cheyenne (we wanted to go to Curt Gowdy) to Taos (Angle fire opened next weekend… bummer). Since it was a no camper and no kids trip, we went for it. Here are my observations and suggestions for anybody else looking to hit NFD / R18.
I called the BLM office in Grand Junction and asked if the NFD campground would have space. I was told that since we were coming out Thursday and no big events were going on, we should have no problem. As a backup, I did call the James Robb office too; we missed the last first come first served spot by a few hours…
We rolled into NFD around 8:00 Thursday night and where greeted by a line of cars exiting the campground. It was full. Coming up the road, I did notice cars packed down the valley towards Fruita, but was not sure if it is the OHV trailhead parking or the lower lot (it was dark and like I said, it's been years since I last visited). Reviewing the NFD map at the campground entrance, I found areas that were 'disbursed camping' outside the restricted area but staying there involved a few caveats.
1. All fires must be in a fire pan or designated fire pit, firewood collection is prohibited (because there really is not a lot of wood in the desert…, ok no fire tonight…
2. Permanent or portable toilets must be used, 'no crapping in the woods'.
Ok, so we headed west on V.7 road, past Western Zippity Do Da and camped on the unrestricted BLM land. There was another small party out that way, otherwise it was a quiet camp, no fire, and if you need to go to the bathroom, we would drive the two miles back to NFD campground and use their facility, at least that was what we would tell the Ranger.
The next morning we broke camp, drove of the lower parking lot and had a great day of riding. We did edge loop, zippity, PBR, Prime Cut, Vegetarian, Chutes and Ladders… Our persistence and willingness to deal with a small camping inconvenience was rewarded with just great riding…
During our ride, we notice a great deal of cars and campers just to the East of the lower parking lot down in a small valley. We approached a group and asked them about camping here. They said this area was just outside the restricted area and dispersed camping was permitted. I did notice there were lots of fire rings made of stone, but not fire pans. Not sure if these were approved by the BLM, but there were plenty of fires out there. Also, the close proximity to the NFD provided toilets took care of the bathroom issue, although there were substantial lines at times during the mornings after coffee took its toll.
My wife and I found a spot, set up camp, and proceeded to enjoy a TGIF happy hour. As we relaxed, more and more campers continued to wander into the small valley. Everything from families with RVS to groups of riders, to solo campers. Next to us was a group of 6 people with 6 dogs.
We are all familiar with the stories of camping with the masses. Here are my notes from that Friday night.
• Our neighbors were fairly nice, but after they got their 'bud on', they lost awareness and let their dogs bark incessantly. Seriously, this guy was holding his dog on a leash, chatting away for at least an hour, and it just sat there and barked. Not a big deal, but WTF?
• Cars came and went all that evening and night, all looking for a place to crash. Not a big deal either, just sweeping headlights and concern that somebody may run us over if they are not careful…
• Two car alarms went off between 10-11:30 pm, that was cool
• The ever present loud music and partying was off in the distance, we managed to pick the lucky side.
All in all, it was not that big of a deal, but I could see how some obnoxious *******s could really make for a stressful evening. We were fine. We left Saturday morning and headed east to get our hot soak on in Glenwood springs, donating our wood to our neighbors. Like I said earlier, there is no wood out there, so our neighbors were quite grateful for the donation.
To summarize my points
1. The campground has only 34 spots and on any good weekend, they will be full. Its first come first served, $10/night, with good clean toilets.
2. If you can't get a spot in the campground, don't despair, there is plenty of room outside the restricted area, but you have to deal with the occasional *******.
3. There is no water out there, so bring plenty of your own
4. There is no wood, so bring your own, also bring your own fire pan too if you have one. This allows you to have a camp and fire away from the crowds if you choose.
NOTE: Please feel free to correct or add to my observations and assumptions. My goal is to relate to others my experiences and help the community.
I have been avoiding R18 stuff for a number of years now, mostly because of what a pain in the ass it's been trying to camp there or generally in the entire area. For those of you not familiar with the area, there is James Robb State Park camping area just outside Fruita, a really horrible RV park, Colorado Monument, or BLM at Book Cliffs / North Fruita Desert / R18. Here are my experiences with each.
• Colorado Monument - you can't mountain bike there, just camping. It's crowded. You are next to a road (or nearly on one). It's in the wrong direction…. It's worth seeing, but if you are there to mountain bike the awesome trials, it's not convenient.
• The RV park off exit 19 - Packed in like a tin full of sardines, it sucked. We pulled in there one time a few years back, looked around, and left. Literally, so packed then if you walked out of your camper you nearly walked into the next one.
• James Robb State Park - What a great place to camp. Showers, grass, playgrounds… The trouble is that it's nearly always full. People book it 6 months out. Unless you can plan accordingly, or you show up Mon-Wed to snatch a first come first served, forget about it.
• NFD / R18 BLM - I honestly have not been here since 2005 ish, when it was undeveloped and uncontrolled 'disbursed' camping. Since then, NFD has been developed by the BLM with their 'restricted camping area'. Many people complain that it's now not free, but $10/night to maintain pads, toilets, and fire rings is a pretty small fee. Unfortunately, this place fills up, and unless you are there by noon Thursday, you are SOL (S%#T out of luck).
So last weekend, my wife and I went out to GJ / NFD to ride over the weekend, the weather pretty much ruled out anything on the front range from Cheyenne (we wanted to go to Curt Gowdy) to Taos (Angle fire opened next weekend… bummer). Since it was a no camper and no kids trip, we went for it. Here are my observations and suggestions for anybody else looking to hit NFD / R18.
I called the BLM office in Grand Junction and asked if the NFD campground would have space. I was told that since we were coming out Thursday and no big events were going on, we should have no problem. As a backup, I did call the James Robb office too; we missed the last first come first served spot by a few hours…
We rolled into NFD around 8:00 Thursday night and where greeted by a line of cars exiting the campground. It was full. Coming up the road, I did notice cars packed down the valley towards Fruita, but was not sure if it is the OHV trailhead parking or the lower lot (it was dark and like I said, it's been years since I last visited). Reviewing the NFD map at the campground entrance, I found areas that were 'disbursed camping' outside the restricted area but staying there involved a few caveats.
1. All fires must be in a fire pan or designated fire pit, firewood collection is prohibited (because there really is not a lot of wood in the desert…, ok no fire tonight…
2. Permanent or portable toilets must be used, 'no crapping in the woods'.
Ok, so we headed west on V.7 road, past Western Zippity Do Da and camped on the unrestricted BLM land. There was another small party out that way, otherwise it was a quiet camp, no fire, and if you need to go to the bathroom, we would drive the two miles back to NFD campground and use their facility, at least that was what we would tell the Ranger.
The next morning we broke camp, drove of the lower parking lot and had a great day of riding. We did edge loop, zippity, PBR, Prime Cut, Vegetarian, Chutes and Ladders… Our persistence and willingness to deal with a small camping inconvenience was rewarded with just great riding…
During our ride, we notice a great deal of cars and campers just to the East of the lower parking lot down in a small valley. We approached a group and asked them about camping here. They said this area was just outside the restricted area and dispersed camping was permitted. I did notice there were lots of fire rings made of stone, but not fire pans. Not sure if these were approved by the BLM, but there were plenty of fires out there. Also, the close proximity to the NFD provided toilets took care of the bathroom issue, although there were substantial lines at times during the mornings after coffee took its toll.
My wife and I found a spot, set up camp, and proceeded to enjoy a TGIF happy hour. As we relaxed, more and more campers continued to wander into the small valley. Everything from families with RVS to groups of riders, to solo campers. Next to us was a group of 6 people with 6 dogs.
We are all familiar with the stories of camping with the masses. Here are my notes from that Friday night.
• Our neighbors were fairly nice, but after they got their 'bud on', they lost awareness and let their dogs bark incessantly. Seriously, this guy was holding his dog on a leash, chatting away for at least an hour, and it just sat there and barked. Not a big deal, but WTF?
• Cars came and went all that evening and night, all looking for a place to crash. Not a big deal either, just sweeping headlights and concern that somebody may run us over if they are not careful…
• Two car alarms went off between 10-11:30 pm, that was cool
• The ever present loud music and partying was off in the distance, we managed to pick the lucky side.
All in all, it was not that big of a deal, but I could see how some obnoxious *******s could really make for a stressful evening. We were fine. We left Saturday morning and headed east to get our hot soak on in Glenwood springs, donating our wood to our neighbors. Like I said earlier, there is no wood out there, so our neighbors were quite grateful for the donation.
To summarize my points
1. The campground has only 34 spots and on any good weekend, they will be full. Its first come first served, $10/night, with good clean toilets.
2. If you can't get a spot in the campground, don't despair, there is plenty of room outside the restricted area, but you have to deal with the occasional *******.
3. There is no water out there, so bring plenty of your own
4. There is no wood, so bring your own, also bring your own fire pan too if you have one. This allows you to have a camp and fire away from the crowds if you choose.