Travel dates :: April 24 – 28, 2016
We left Flagstaff, Arizona on April 24 caravanning with @UpInTheAirstream north to Lone Rock Beach Primitive campground for four nights of beach camping! Honestly if we didn’t have our friends with us, I’m not sure we would have been brave enough to camp on the beach. I had some reviews of people getting stuck in the sand on the beach (and others who raved about the spot) and we are usually pretty cautious with our trailer and camper – so might have skipped it all together if we didn’t have company joining us. I’m so glad we didn’t skip it – this place is incredible.
Lone Rock Beach Primitive campground is part of Glen Canyon National Parks Recreational Area. Camping is just $14 and it’s completely primitive – no hook-ups, a few vault toilets, no assigned spots, just a beautiful beach on Wahweap Bay.
It’s technically in Utah – but seriously right across the Arizona border, so the biggest challenge you might find is figuring out what TIME it is – since Arizona doesn’t honor daylight savings time, but Utah does. 🙂
As soon as you cross from Arizona to Utah, you’ll take a right onto the Lone Rock Beach road. It’s about a mile in and you’ll pay your $14 at the National Park station. Then you get to pick which road you want to take down to the beach – for us, there was only one obvious route without huge ruts or holes. We let @UpInTheAirstream lead the way and we found a sweet spot to park both our trailers on some harder gravel with beautiful views of the lake. We arrived Sunday afternoon and lots of people were packing up to head home from the weekend and we found it rather quiet the first night we were there.
You can clearly see the dark rock areas in the photo above. These are the areas you probably want to park on. At least have your tow vehicle or your motorhome wheels on the harder gravel areas to give you some traction when you go to leave. We have 4-wheel drive and didn’t have any issues – but we also were intentional about where we drove and parked on an area with more gravel. But we had heard lots of horror stories of people getting stuck here. I think the combination of a BIG rig, parking on soft sand and not having 4-wheel drive will get you stuck pretty easily here. In fact, the guys had to help a young lady in a sedan up to her frame in sand – she ended up having to be towed out.
I’m not trying to scare you away – it wasn’t that bad – you just need to be intentional and aware when you go to pick your spot. Really it’s worth it if you can be brave and find a spot fit for your rig.
The kids ran up and down the beach for hours. They played football, they built forts, they created sand castles and despite some pretty constant and swift winds, we couldn’t keep them inside. Too much fun. I imagine this place on a summer day would be complete bliss – sunshine, water, sand – if only the weather had been warmer the kids could have also swam in the lake. I also imagine this place is PACKED and a bit rowdy in the summer – so be prepared for crowds if the weather is more favorable.
My view from inside the Airstream. The CGear Sand-Free Multimat came in super handy here with the sand. This amazing mat allows sand to fall through it, but it CANNOT come back up through! Worth every penny – especially for us because we have the kids running in and out!
I love beaches because the kids never seem to get tired of digging and playing in the sand. This was my view MOST of the time we were there. The wind blew sand up – and the kids were caked in sand every night – but with huge smiles on their face – so that’s what is important, right?!
I’m not normally an early riser but a couple days I couldn’t help but wake up with the sunrise streaming through the Airstream windows. Incredible sunsets here – do NOT miss them, if you can help it. I got up around 5 a.m. a couple days and photographed the sunrises. I sat outside the Airstream and it was so quiet you could hear birds wings flapping as they flew overhead. It was one of the most magical places we’ve camped. So you’ll have to put up with a bunch of photos. . . since I took so many . . . .
I loved having @UpInTheAirstream as our neighbor in this beautiful setting!
Another day, another sunset
My view when I’d get up early and work. It was easy to get up early here!
When the clouds cleared and the sun appeared – the lake turned a deep blue/green color, it was incredible. And the sun fed our solar panels helping keep the battery at a decent level, but we also ran the generator in the morning and the evenings to keep things at full capacity. We had arrived with a full tank of water and an empty black tank – so we had no issues here for the four days we were camping.
While camping here we went on the Lower Antelope Canyon Tour, went river rafting on the Colorado River, visited Horseshoe Bend, completed the Junior Ranger badge at the Glen Canyon Dam and more. I’ll share about these adventures in another post very soon.
And on our last day here Hadley broke her upper arm. They had created a fort in the sand and she jumped into it – landing haphazardly on her elbow and breaking her humerus near the growth plate in her elbow. Of all the places we have been – breaking an arm on a soft beach was the last thing on my mind! I wrote more about Hadley breaking her arm here – thankfully the Page Arizona hospital had amazing care and it was only a short 20 minute drive away.
Have you been to Lone Rock Beach Primitive campground before?
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Beautiful photos!
Thank you, Tracy!