If you want remote boondocking that is full of hiking yet close to the Las Vegas metro area, look no further than Desert National Wildlife Refuge!
Since we’ve been spending a lot of time this winter in the Las Vegas area, we’ve been on the lookout for new places to set up camp for a week or two. The beginning of February found us looking to the north of Las Vegas where we found some epic dry camping in the Desert National Wildlife Refuge.
Desert National Wildlife Refuge is the largest wildlife refuge in the lower 48 states, containing more than 1.5 million acres, six major mountain ranges, and one of the largest intact blocks of desert habitat for the bighorn sheep in the southwest United States.
How to get there
Corn Creek Visitor Center, the main entry into DNWR is located approximately 25 miles north of downtown Las Vegas and about 4 miles east of Highway 95. Dry camping is mostly along Alamo Road to the north of the visitor center. We found a spot to set up our trailer at the corner of Alamo Road and Joe May Road. There was only one other spot along Alamo Road up to this point and it was already occupied when we drove past.
We decided not to take our fifth wheel any further down Alamo Road. The road is gravel and not passable in some places, and high clearance vehicles are recommended for all travel beyond the visitor center. There are plenty of places to pull off along Alamo Road if you have a camper van or other small vehicle, though.
Amenities
This area is dry camping only, although you can get fresh water and throw trash away at the visitor center. We strongly recommend having empty grey and black tanks and filling up on fresh water before heading out to DNWR.
We picked up the Verizon 5G network here and had absolutely no problems working or streaming the entire week.
What to do
There is so much hiking here that it would not be possible to explore it all in the one week we stayed here. We explored the trails around the visitor center, as well as the road next to our campsite. Unfortunately three of us fell ill shortly after we arrived here and we didn’t get to explore as much as we wanted to.
We really look forward to exploring more of Desert National Wildlife Refuge when we get a chance to camp there again. It was so quiet and even the weekend traffic wasn’t disruptive. Overall this was one of our new favorite places to camp.
Have you been to Desert National Wildlife Refuge? What did you think of it? We’d love to hear from you! Drop a comment below or email me at alicia@simplejoyfuljourney.com. You can also find us on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest @simplejoyfuljourney. And if you haven’t already, don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter at the bottom of the page before you go. Have a great week!