Saddlehorn Campground — Hotel in Fruita

I am a little surprised at all the wonderful reviews of this campground. There are definitely some great things about it, but we encountered a lot of problems. I am a person who likes to plan ahead and so I reserve sites online in advance. This campground only lets you reserve sites in Loop B, so I can only speak for the site we had (47). Hopefully, the tent sites in loop A are much better.||||Pros:||- Beautiful views and beautiful park (the only reason for 3 stars)||- Clean bathroom (but no shower)||- Very dark and great for looking at the stars||- Was quiet when we were there in late September||||Cons:||- The picture of the site looked awesome, but when we arrived we found it was sloped and extremely rocky.||- The website said this was a trailer or tent site (up to 3 tents) and there were three of us who each had our own tiny tent.||- NO tent pad at site 47 (although the website says there are tent pads) and the ground was sloped and rocky. It was a very windy night (winds from Hurricane Rosa) so we really needed to stake our tents. I had to move my tent 4 times to find a place that wasn't solid rock under the thin layer of dirt and could still only get 3 stakes in the ground. ||- Campground rules said all tents had to be within 30 feet of the picnic table. With three tents and the condition of the ground, that was impossible. My son and another friend had to move much farther back toward the cliff, well beyond that 30 foot rule, before finding places to stake their tents. ||- No campfires are allowed, ever. ||- No poles to hang a lantern, which would have been great since it is an incredibly dark campground (at least on loop B) and there are no campfires allowed. After a day of hiking we returned to make dinner and it was already getting dark. Without a way to hang our lantern, it was almost impossible to see what we were doing without someone holding the lantern above while we cooked.||- Not sure if there is water near the sites; I never saw it.||- The parking area at our site would also not have been big enough for anything ||other than a tiny camper. This site shouldn't even have been a site!||||I had paid in advance for two nights, but we packed up and left the morning after the first night there losing our money for the second night. I never drove into loop A so I hope that it was better than what we had. I've camped all over the southwest and this is only the second campground I know I'll never stay in again.||||I would love to come back and hike more of the park, but I will definitely not plan on camping...

We stayed here for 2 nights on a 2 week camping roadtrip. If you enjoy the high desert, and maybe even if you don't, you will love the views. It's a huge mesa overlooking Grand Junction so at night there are views of the city but don't expect fantastic stargazing because of the proximity to the city. I've read some reviews that say the drive up to the campground and visitor center is scary- it's 2 lanes of paved road. 🙄 Granted, there's no shoulder, but, truly nothing to worry about at all unless you take your hands off the wheel. I'm not a desert girly. This was my hubby's pick, so it wasn't my favorite stop. However, despite the wind and the dad gum red dirt in my camper- it's admittedly a cool spot. My issue isn't the setting, it's the campground itself. You are literally right on top of your neighbor. There are some chest high scrubby bushes around but zero privacy. We needed to burn a couple days on our way to Moab (yay more desert 🥳) and came here based on location. I knew the reviews were mixed but hoped for the best. We stayed in loop B spot 30. It was non-stop noise. Not generators- just the noise of way too many people crowded in together having their own separate parties, conversations, etc. Car doors, alarm chirps, dog barks, children yelling, children crying, cars driving through, laughing, etc. Nobody doing anything they shouldn't be- but it was unpleasant. You couldn't help but overhear private conversations, kids whining and coughing IN THEIR CAMPER

We enjoyed our stay at the campground. The camp host is very nice, even letting us know when the weather forecast changed. The scenery is beautiful, you're sitting on a plateau above the park. No critters getting into anything while we were there. We did see a lot of birds and lizards, which was fun. Although I never saw any bugs on them, my dogs' ears really got chewed up the first night. I slathered on a little ointment for the remaining nights and had no more bug issues, so just watch out for that. There were signs posted that tularemia is going around, so we were concerned. There are no campfires allowed, which makes it a bit harder to tent camp, but they do have charcoal grills which helps somewhat. Loop c is the dedicated tent loop, we were in b. Which is fine, but it was all RVs and then us. There are flushing bathrooms and running water, which is huge. We noticed that most people stayed only 1 or 2 nights, which made sense because you can drive through the entire park in less than an hour. I recommend checking out the rattlesnake canyon arches if you have 4wd, but it is a long rough road to get there. There are nearby bike trails and fishing as well, so lots to do depending on what you like. Attached is our view of the sunset from...