North Fruita Desert — Hotel in Fruita

Horrible experience. The website review says the upper campground was a free dispersed camping area. Which is what I was looking for when I googled "dispersed camping near me". But it's not. It's $20 plus a $9 reservation fee. No host. Supposed to reserve by a QR code. Didn't work. Neither would website accept my email and password I was attempting to setup. I called the number and it took 40 minutes. The road up is like 12 miles of road work right into the camping area. I can hear the machines and breath the dust right now. Sites not level. They have completely ruined the camping experience with it all. I didn't go camping to deal with all this time online and in the phone trying to jump through beuricratuc hurdles. Or have the noise sight and smell of heavy machinery all around me. But there was no warning online or on the "maps" online. Total antithesis of what I'm trying to do here. I came to relax and live cheap. I'm so frustrated. I feel si cheateed hustled and robbed. You've totally destroyed what camping was all...

If you observe the map, you'll see at the south end, just south of the "Lower CG & Event Area" it is outside of the paid camping area where it is free to camp. There is a whole area just for free camping. There are basically 3 small campground areas. The first one (furthest south) is free, but it's easy to miss because there is construction happening on the road where the entrance is, and you pass it as you're following the pilot vehicle. There is also a lot of construction equipment near the entrance currently. The next 2 are reservation/fee sites, which are the more obvious spots. The free area is quite large and flat. Might get pretty easy to get stuck if muddy, though. Great 5G cell...

Great spot. $20 reservations or free at the dispersed areas. Crowds on weekends, which have been quiet and respectful at night. It's so quiet at night during the week that any noise is noticeable.. so yeah, turn off your music. So many friendly people on the trails, too. Super clean pit toilets in the pay areas and trailhead. They have seemed to switch to super cheap T.P. so you have to use 2x as much.

Do they ever smooth the washboard road in? It wouldn't take much effort and would save a lot of wear and tear on...