Emerald Desert RV Resort

This park is very nice with lots of trees, green grass and open space. Many of the individual RV sites are spaced nicely but there are a few that seem a little close mostly due to how they are arranged. This park offers about 6 different price levels so there should be something for most everyone. If you are looking for an economical deal, move on as the prices here are not cheap. As we say, “you get what you pay for” and if you don’t need these amenities, you can go elsewhere and save some dough. If you like a resort feel with a variety of weekly activities and a great pool area, this might be the place. It is close to the freeway which is good and bad if you are on the north side of the park. Train tracks are also an annoyance on the north side of the property.
The showers, pools, laundry facilities are nice and clean but laundry is a bit pricey at $5 per load to wash and another $5 to dry. This park seems to be very popular for long term RVers that winter in southern California. Planning is important if you are looking to visit in the winter months.
We want to point out that this is probably the best park that we have visited with regards to how the staff manages the residents. We rarely see any staff member driving around monitoring activities. Dogs, which are well behaved, are free to walk virtually anywhere they want without the “dog police” getting on your back about your dog being on grass. Heaven forbid that a dog would like grass. I will say that I have not seen any dog owner NOT stop to pick up after their dog. Perhaps it’s the clientele or maybe we got lucky but for dog owners, this is a great resort. The staff was also extremely flexible when we had 12 visitors come to our site for a picnic.
Yes Emerald Desert is on the upper end regarding cost but if you don’t mind that, it is a very nice resort with a friendly staff and lots of amenities. We would recommend it.

Stayed here mid-Nov through mid-Dec 2023.
Back-in 50 amp FHU concrete pad. Site #147.

General note: Our site is near the pool and hot tub so lots of people cutting through sites here this latest stay.

Staff: All new staff compared to our stay last year but still are very helpful.
Sites: Pavement sites with grass. The sites back up to one another in many parts of the park so double-check the map for your preferred site if that bothers you. Also, they water every night and the sites tend to flood a little bit.
Campground Road: Nicely paved.
Campground WiFi: Worked when the park was empty but could not connect once other folks started showing up.
Grounds: Clean and maintained well.
Bathrooms/Showers: Lockable shower stalls in an open bathroom. Not bad but could use some owner attention to broken things.
Laundry: Good laundry facility. Slightly pricey at $5.00 per wash and $5.00 per dry.
Location: 10 min from main shopping areas for anything you need. 1 hour from Joshua Tree NP. Lots of other things to do nearby as well.
Near highway: Directly off of the main road but is is not an interstate so it's quiet at night. Backs up to a generally quiet neighborhood.
Near train: Yes. You will hear it and often feel a slight rumble.
Cell: Verizon worked best compared to AT&T. We work on a vpn and could stream.
Cell: AT&T strong enough but just a touch less than Verizon. We work on a vpn and could stream.

Maybe my expectations were too high considering this is supposed to be a luxury RV resort but here's my experience. I arrived on Saturday and went to check in at the office. They were pleasant, assigned me a spot and gave me a map. I went to the spot they assigned me, and someone was already there. So, I went back to the office and told them. They apologized for the inconvenience and told me to go pick an open spot and call them to tell them where I ended up, so I did. They then said that someone was going to be arriving at that site on Thursday so I said ok just assign me a spot near this one and they did so I moved one more time and ended up in spot 8. I have a very manageable 21 foot class B but it would have been a major pain to have to move around a bunch of times for a bigger rig. Still, I had a long day of driving and just wanted to get set up and relax so the situation was less than ideal. Spot 8 is nice, however, there is a gate behind the site and people have been using it so I wouldn't recommend this spot if you would be bothered by people walking through your site. Monday I decided to run some errands so I left for a couple hours. Again, I have the class B so it’s also my vehicle. I left my chair, a dog leash and my rug set up at my site. When I came back from my errands... my site was empty. Also, I should note, the empty site to the left of me had a sewer hose hanging out of the sewer hook up for the whole time I was there and the site to the right of me had a water hose hooked up. No one had come to clean or remove items from those empty sites, but I leave the site I have rented for the week for just a couple of hours and they took all my stuff. I called the office and they apologized. They admitted it was them that cleared my site accidently but were only able to locate my chair which they brought back to me. Somehow the other items were nowhere to be found and they said they didn’t see them when they picked up the chair which I find difficult to believe since the leash was in the seat of the chair. I'm guessing they tossed it all into a dumpster and could only find the chair. Luckily for me, since I now have to replace them, they weren’t expensive items. But they were my belongings and I'm pretty salty about the whole experience. I’ve been traveling for months and have never had anyone touch anything at my site. Location is ok, the road and trains are loud. The bathrooms/showers re nice. The resort texts upcoming events, things like line dancing and pickle ball, all for an additional fee of course. Overall, overpriced and a bad experience, not planning on staying here again.

Stayed in end-Nov 2022
Site type: Back-in, FHU 50 AMP. Site 417

THE GOOD
Site: Grass and pavement. Fairly level.
Staff: Very nice folks and really helpful.
Location: Fairly close to Joshua Tree NP.
Grounds: Clean and nicely maintained!
Cell: Both AT&T and Verizon were good.
Amenities: Playground, tennis court, pickle ball courts, small golf range, covered RV storage.
Trash: Daily pickup of trash.

THE BAD:
Noise: Fairly quiet campground, but there is train and traffic noise.

WORTH NOTING (not good or bad):
Trash: there is nowhere to throw out your trash on your own if you don't get it out for the morning pickup.
Sites: Some sites back up to one another in some parts of the park. This seems to make folks comfortable walking through sites.

We stayed here for 4 nights while visiting our parents who live in Rancho Mirage. The resort is extremely clean, well-maintained, and quiet. We are normally boondockers, so it felt decadent having full hookups, daily trash pickup, and all the rest of Emerald Desert's amenities such as sparkling swimming pools, daily activities, free Saturday Continental Breakfast, etc.

We upgraded to the "luxury" site which meant that the spacing between sites was a bit greater and we had a lovely patch of green grass between us and our neighbors. We have a very small trailer, so our only issue was the distance from our sewer connection and the resort's. With so many nearby stores, it just took a quick online order for curbside pickup at Wal-Mart for extra hose and we were good-to-go. Literally.

As others have mentioned, Interstate 10 and a set of major East-West train tracks lie right behind the resort, but neither were very disruptive to us. YMMV.

We will absolutely stay here again and again, and we highly recommend it to others. In fact, we challenge you to find a nicer RV resort anywhere else!

Overall, we really liked this place. The grounds are clean and well kept. You get your own little area of grass. Like most parks, you are close to your neighbors, but not packed in like sardines. We had some peekaboo views of the mountains. It is near the freeway and train so there is some noise, but when I went to bed I really didn’t notice it and was able to sleep. It is a bit pricey, but it is quite nice and very clean. Not unexpected given it’s location. We will absolutely stay here again when in Palm Springs area.
I would give this place a 4.5 if possible. 5 star for me requires huge, very private spaces without road/train/freeway noise.

The people who work here are very nice. excellent communication via email and a call about the gate code. Cleaniness of the facilities was excellent. This RV park is right next to I10 and train tracks. Not sure if the further away spots would be any less noise. but I do ot think so.

For what they charge i would want to find a place without the noise.

Overall, a clean, well kept RV resort. Pool was lovely (and heated), bathrooms and showers were immaculate. Didn't have a chance to check out bocce or pickleball courts, but they looked in good condition. The office closes at 5pm, and while they have a pretty good check in process, that only works if they remember to send you the gate code to get into the resort! It took three calls to the afterhours line to get someone, but everything was easy after that.

At $85 a night, seemed a little pricey, but probably cheaper for longer stays and lots of amenities if you have the time to take advantage of them.

We would definitely be happy to stay here again.