Dry Camping at Crawdad Cove and Boxcar Cove Lake Mead

     Lake Mead is located just east of Las Vegas.  There are opportunities for dry camping.  I visited Lake Mead to investigate two places where people dry camp.  One of the access points to Lake Mead is Lake Mead Blvd.  This was our entry point. 

 
   
The first thing  you encounter is the toll booth.  Yes it is true, if you want to get near Lake Mead, you have to pay.  For five days of access it cost you ten bucks. About nine miles past the toll booth you find the turn off for Boxcar Cove and Crawdad Cove.  A couple of miles down a dirt road you get lake side.  At boxcar cove you can dry camp for 7 days.  At Crawdad Cove you can camp for 15 days.

Crawdad Cove is nicer than Boxcar and attacks more people.  There are no designate camp sites.  You just find a flat spot and set up camp.  When I was there were a couple of camper and about two dozen day users.  There are no bathrooms. 

If you consider the fact that it in the middle of nowhere,  both places were relatively clean.  The water was warm and the swimming was great.  It is said that the fishing is very good.  Off season, this would be a great getaway.  The questions remains as to whether I could get my bus down the dirt road.  At the time that I was there I could have.  However the road runs through a wash and the conditions change.  So if you are taking an RV, check the road before to commit to driving in.

This is the dirt road which leads down to the coves.  It is graded and for the most part an easy drive down.  This road runs through a wash and there are short areas of loose sand. We made it through without a problem.  Be careful after a rain.

   
The road splits after about a half a mile.  Boxcar Cove is to the left and Crawdad Cove is to the right

 There are several jetty like structures at the site and folks park right along side the water.  For the most part there are a lot of shallows for swimming.  The water was clean and clear.




     This is one of the fingers of water that are present at Crawdad Cove.






     There were only two campers at the Cove on the day that we where there