Camping end of July in the Southwest

It seems to be a secret, but there are some great areas in southwestern New Mexico and southeastern Arizona which are at high enough altitude to be great July camping. These aren't typical desert-type places. Instead, they have pine trees and streams--a lot like Colorado without the crowds. Google up Gila National Forest and the Coronado National Forest. You can camp in established campgrounds or find your own places down a dirt road somewhere. (It is usually legal to camp anywhere in national forests and BLM land.) There's water but you should plan on either purifying it or bringing your own drinking water. The Great Sand Dunes National Park doesn't have much but it's right next to a mountain range and a national forest. National Parks are great to visit but not the best choice for camping, unless you really like the sound of the guy in the 45' RV next to you firsing up his generator to watch TV. Hope this helps.

There are also excellent places to camp in southern Utah in the many small mountain ranges. Check out Boulder Mt near Capitol Reef. Most visitors go to s. Utah area for the red rock scenery as there are mountains and lakes elsewhere. Virtually all the parks are desert, not mountains.

Okay, here's what I could come up with quickly...

At Zion National Park... The main campground is shaded by large Cottonwoods and is a very short walk to the Virgin River where you could play in the water. It will be very hot likely though in July.
Instead of camping at Zion, you could camp about 30 miles north near Cedar City. Here is my recommendation... google Cedar Breaks National Monument. The campground is at 10500', and its always been green when I was there. Usually some rain in the afternoon too. There are campsites with spruce and fir, but its a first come first serve campground, so arrive early. Cedar Breaks is cool in itself too, its like a mini-Bryce. Sadly, much of the forest at Cedar Breaks was killed recently by Bark Beetles, but the campground is still one of my favorite. There are also quite a few national forest campgrounds in the area with Aspen and/or spruce/fir or Ponderosa Pine.

Bryce's campgrounds are all high enough that if there has been some summer rain by that time, they should be greenish, however they aren't exactly wet areas. They do have some trees though, mostly Ponderosa, but some Douglas Fir too. Its the best you can do without driving a long ways to the park for the day. The other closest campgrounds are down in the desert such as the one at Kodacrome Basin State Park.

Mesa Verde has trees, but they are short oak trees which grow in clumps and provide little shade. It can be green, but it depends on summer rain. There really isn't anything close by without driving a long ways that would be any better. I kinda like the campground personally, but thats me.

The park you refer to in south-central Colorado is Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve, its not new, its just had some area added to it that used to be private land. I belive it was first a national monument in the 1930s. I have never camped there, but I don't remember much in the way of trees, (well it is a bunch of sand dunes afterall), and its pretty much in the desert of the San Luis Valley. However, you could camp up int he mountains nearby if you wanted to instead where green grass and real trees are more likely.

As for the Grand Canyon, well the main campgrounds do have some trees, but not all sites do. Mostly Juniper, Pinion Pine and a few Ponderosa. As for green, probably not yet in July, and even when it is 'green', its not really that green, and at least in places like the Mather Campground, it will be dusty unless it just rained. You could camp down near Flagstaff instead, but its an hour and half drive north to the park instead. However, its much more likely to be green near Flagstaff, and many of the campgrounds have trees (large Ponderosa mostly).

As for showers, showers are not common in most campgrounds. They are found at some Utah State Parks, but I don't think most of the national park campgrounds have them. National Forest campgrounds usually don't either, though one campground up near Trout Lake/Lizard Head (about 2 hours from Mesa Verde ) was an exception last time I was there.

As for campgrounds without water, most of these are not in national parks, but are National Forest campgrounds. The advantage is that they don't usually fill up as fast, many times are more remote (and nicer) campgrounds, and in many cases actually free. Bringing your own water is easy, just get a couple of those collapsible 2.5 gallon containers and refill them at visitor centers or campgrounds that do have water.

Most established campgrounds in parks and monuments will have potable water available. Utah State Parks often have showers, as does the Grand canyon, but beyond that you'll have get the occasional hotel room.

As far as streams flowing nearby, not so many around the parks of the southwest (Zion NP is a major exception - nice river next to the campground, but it will be quite hot in July). In fact, if you're hung up on the notion that scenic beauty only comes in shades of green you'll be very dissapointed with the southwest. There is more green here than people realize, but its still not the defining color of nature's pallet is this region. get used to it.

That said, the areas around Cedar Breaks, Bryce, Grand Canyon North Rim are nicely forested and cool in summer. Mesa Verde less so, but still nice; same for Grand Canyon south rim. Most estalished campgrounds are designed with some shade trees even in more desert-like areas. most campgrounds, even in less forested areas, have a mixture of shady and sunny campsites. Choose accordingly. Some bleak exceptions are Chaco canyon and monument valley campgrounds. Zion is very hot in summer but there's a large river that flows right through the park and campground, and the campground is nicely shaded for the most part. There's large areas of semi-desert that I think are nice enough in summer (hot in the daytime but very comfortable evenings/mornings) - including Navajo National Monument and Canyon de Chelly.

Overall, the summer isn't the best time to camp out in this area, but for the casual camper its far from the worst - you'd be much more uncomfortable in winter, I promise. Pick shady campsites, camp out more in the higher, cooler, more forested regions and grab the occasional cheap motel room for a shower.

There are some of those idyllic campgrounds in the USA, but not in the southwest/4 corners area. Camping is quite a bit rougher in the USA than in Europe. If that is a significant concern, you should stay in motels.

Just because there is a lake or a stream, it does not mean that water is potable. All water derived from natural conditons should be treated or boiled prior to consumption.

We used hostels (where available) plus cheap motels, and park cabins (if available). There are some great camping areas available but (a) in July a lot of them will be very busy and you will spend a lot of time trying to nail a site, and (b) with just ten days, you will be spending just one night in each location, so that is a bit less fun when camping, particularly if it is a bit rougher. It is over 1100 km from Santa Fe to Zion NP via Cortez, so 2200 return. Travelling about 250 km per day average is okay on a brief road trip, so you can do it - just. See the North Rim of the GC obviously - it's closest to Zion and Lake Powell.<BR><BR>We were not too impressed by Great Sand Dunes NM to be honest, so I would recommend you miss that and concentrate on the Utah Parks, plus GCNP and Mesa Verde.

Thanks for all the advice. I'm worried about doing too much, also considering that getting to Santa Fe is already a 20 hour, 2 day drive before we even start the above itinerary. Will also have 3 children ages 5-10, but we drove 4500 miles last summer so we're broken in-- we all love it, actually. Maybe we should scrap Utah, although I've wanted to go for so long.... It makes the most sense to loop Santa Fe to Chaco and down to I-40 and over the the Grand Canyon, then up to Mesa Verde and maybe pick up Canyon de Chelly on the way back to Santa Fe. The Sand Dunes are on the way home, more or less, from Santa Fe.

Or another option: Sante Fe up to Mesa Verde, then over to the north rim, then up to Zion, then Cedar Breaks, then bail onto the interstates, up I-15 and west toward home on I-70, skipping Bryce. That allows camping at Cedar Breaks and the North Rim if available.

The second option sounds better to me - Mesa Verde &gt; (Monument Valley) &gt; Page &gt; North Rim &gt; Zion &gt; Bryce and back to the I-70 and Moab via Highway 12 (which is beautiful by the way). And then back home via Colorado. No need to skip Bryce Canyon - it's just up the road from Zion - via a very spectacular long tunnel. I'd do it.