Alcove Campground

This is without a doubt one of the most visually stunning areas. No, it’s not your prototypical evergreen or hardwood forest.

The orange petrified sand dunes - aka “Slickrock”, is gorgeous. The clear skies, the starry nights - sublime. I fall in love with the SFRA each time I come back.

If you want total peace and quiet, well, the OHV’s can be noisy. And there never is even one bar of Verizon, even though a cell tower is nearby - the slick rock formations see to it that no signal will get to loop a.

Even my trusty WeBoost was of no use. Starlink came to the rescue quite nicely, however…

Loved every second of our stay. So much to do and watching the jeepers all day was cool to see. Didn’t like them riding the trail at 11pm but it was a great time. The only thing they need to work on is strict leash laws. People just let there dogs run free and crap all over without cleaning it up. So in summer it smell like hot dog doo. At least at our sight but other then people who don’t care I would definitely say it’s well worth the stay.

We stayed in the Alcove (A) campground here in site 16, which is one of only a few with good enough shade to let you sleep in past 7am in the summertime in a tent.

The BLM bathrooms here are pretty nasty. They are just pit toilets with surrounding fence posts and no roof or door — you hang an "occupied" rope across the entrance to let people know it's being used. There were only 2 on our side of the campground and they were often taken up. I personally didn't really mind it because it's not much different than a regular pit toilet with a roof, but I would not be happy if it were raining. There is a roofed pit toilet down the road about 1/10th of a mile near the entrance to the BLM land.

The thing that really annoyed me about this BLM spot is that they charge $15/vehicle PER NIGHT. We had two vehicles at our campground. It says $15/night for up to 5 people to camp on the sign. Normally, most places like this let you just pay a one time extra vehicle fee of like $10 or something. As long as you are below the maximum amount of people, you are usually good. However, this was not the case for this site. They charged us $15 for each vehicle for each night. Our total for 5 nights ended up being $150 which is absolutely ridiculous in my opinion.

Alcove is just down the road from Slickrock bike trail and has amazing OHV opportunities. Though I didn't take advantage of these, I could see how this would be an off-roader's paradise. The location was amazing as it was right outside of town and 10 minutes from anything in Moab, but still had a natural vibe.

Verizon service was nearly non-existent at site 16. However, if you walk up the sandstone hill towards town where the OHVs drive, you can get full LTE and call service. I kind of liked this — it allowed me to disconnect and enjoy the nature but still easily have it accessible if I wanted.

We chose a spot near the biking trails which were recommended as the hillside offers morning shade. Not sure we really got that, but was a nice spot for our truck and tear drop trailer, and we watched the 4th of July fireworks from out site! It's hot and we had limited breeze. Pit toilet was clean, very few people around and was really quiet. We planned to stay 2 nights, but the heat was too much....not unexpected in July. In a cooler time of year would stay again.

Easy access to town, trails and National Parks

If you can find nice BLM land in the area, we'd suggest that over this hectic heck-hole. We stayed there in early October and had to circle the same loop over and over again looking for signs someone was packing up. Finally a man stopped us and said he was a fellow Canadian and he'd be leaving in an hour. We pulled across the street, made lunch and waited until he was hitching up.

The sites are small and there isn't anything protecting them from the dusty wind. The area is popular with cyclists and ATVers so it's quite loud and congested. We have a 27 foot trailer and there are very few options for trailers that size. We recommend NOT proceeding past the staging area as those loops get smaller and more impassable and it's extra hard to find a place to turn around the further out you get.

It's about 10 minutes from Moab past the recycling center and dump. Not the nicest drive.

Have mixed emotions about this place. Convenient location to Moab and The Arches National Park. The scenery is amazing and really enjoyed trails just outside our door.

We were here to work at the Easter Jeep Safari Expo so there was a constant stream of Jeeps, dirt bikes, ATV's and mountain bikes through the campground. There is nowhere to hide. Jeep/ATV/dirt bike trails start/end within the campground loops so the noice was constant, loud, dusty and at all hours day & night.

Minimal Verizon in Loop A even with booster.

But we met so many great people!

This is a fantastic BLM campground if you don't mind roughing it a little. It is just a few miles from Moab, but you feel like you are in the middle of nowhere. But you have cell signal Yay! can't say that about a lot of the BLM campgrounds around here.

The sites are a little rough, but there are lots of them,so even a pretty decent sized rig should be able to find a spot. We found one for our 27 foot trailer. The camping spots are very well spaced apart, so you feel a little like you are on your own. The recreation area is popular with OHV and mountain bikers, but the area is so expansive we were not really bothered by anyone here.

The scenery is amazing in this whole area,and the starry skies are impressive.

There is no water or electric at all in the area, Only pit toilets. We filled up tanks at the Arches NP visitor center.