I stayed at the Indian Cove campground recently and fell in love. We visited on a Sunday in April, and we pretty much had the whole place to ourselves. The rock formations are beautiful, and the site is within walking distance to some awesome climbing walls. We took a quick hike to Pixie Rock and enjoyed an afternoon top roping a couple of routes. Even non technical climbers will enjoy this area. There are plenty of boulders to explore and the restrooms are conveniently located.

We stayed two nights in Indian Cove Campgrounds. Our campsite was #33. I think it was one of the nicer campsites. Plenty of room for our two room tent & semi-private. I would definitely reserve this spot again! The night time sky was awesome-lots of planets rising, & a nearly full moon!
The bathrooms are chemical so don't expect anything fancy. Bring plenty of water to drink & wash up with if you are here longer than two days. There is a water refill station at the ranger station.

We camped at site #89, which was on the very end and next to the road....but still isolated and right next to some beautiful rock formations and close to hiking trails. The non flushing clean bathroom nearby. Site included a picnic bench and fire pit with grill attached.

We scaled the rocks, hiked around and enjoyed the beautiful scenery. The night sky is stunning, with a clear view of the Milky. When we went (10/1), it was not too windy.

The only drawback is that those beautiful rocks can amplify the sound of your campsite neighbors. It was not a problem with us.

As a quick reprieve from Orange County, this one day trip was really nice and easy. I highly recommend.

We camped for two nights, Sunday and Monday, during spring break at Indian Cove. I reserved the campsite after looking at pictures online and we were not disappointed. The rocks in Indian Cove are beautiful and hard to describe. We scrambled all over them, non-technical bouldering in hiking boots and sometimes climbing shoes. We rented a crash pad and a climbing guide book from Joshua Tree Outfitters and the kids (ages 14 and 16 and on a climbing team) did a bit of bouldering right in our campsite.

There are lots of technical climbs in campsites, and we learned that there is a rule that you cannot climb a route in an occupied campsite without permission from the campers. We were having lunch when some climbers with gear walked by and we invited them to climb our wall and give us a show, but they continued on.

There is no running water in the campground, you have to drive (or hike) to the ranger station to fill your water containers for cooking and cleaning. The restrooms were just composting toilets, which if you've never used one yet they are really much nicer than old fashioned holes in the ground. They do not smell.

The highlight of our trip was a hike into Rattlesnake Canyon, starting at the day use picnic grounds in the same Indian Cove campground. We saw Gambel's Quail, a Roadrunner, Chuckwallas and other smaller lizards, and many other birds. We met up with some fellow campers for some rock climbing, and then cooled off at a beautiful carved stone waterfall with lots of small pools for wading.

The lowlight of the trip was the wind, especially at night. The fellow campers, who were there for two weeks, said that the wind was very unusual. It nearly flattened our tent for hours on Monday night, but subsided by 11:30pm fortunately. But we were unable to have a campfire on Monday night because of the wind - it would have been unpleasant and scary dangerous to light a fire.