RV camping in Rifle - advice needed

Hi everyone, I will be visiting Rifle for a couple of days with my family. We are driving a 30 foot motorhome. I have 3 questions:

1) any advice regarding where can we camp for a night with such a large RV that will be convenient for climbing?
2) Will we have trouble navigating a large RV in the park?

3) Any advice regarding a particular crag with a spacious parking and nice variety  of11’s and 12’s?

Thank you for taking the time to answer!!!

Uri

Uri Shapira wrote:

Hi everyone, I will be visiting Rifle for a couple of days with my family. We are driving a 30 foot motorhome. I have 3 questions:

1) any advice regarding where can we camp for a night with such a large RV that will be convenient for climbing?

Try Rifle Falls State Park (closest), Rifle Reservoir State park, or Harvey Gap State Park.   I believe you need reservations for all of those these days.

It's not clear whether your motor home will fit up the one-lane road to the Rifle Mountain Park camping area.  I've seen a number of people smash the *top* of their big motor homes on the overhanging rock. And even it you get there, there's only a few spots you'd fit in ( at Huffman Gulch) and it's first-come-first-served.

2) Will we have trouble navigating a large RV in the park?

Yes. It's too big.  

3) Any advice regarding a particular crag with a spacious parking and nice variety  of11’s and 12’s?

You *might* be able to park at the Wasteland or Feline lots.  Those are the only places I can think of where you *might* be able to turn that beast around.

If you don't have a smaller vehicle to enter the Park, you might leave the motor home at the State Fish Hatchery lot and bicycle/walk/hitchhike into RMP. Throw your rope over your shoulder and you'll likely be picked up.  A 30-foot motor home can't be parked "straight-in" at most of the parking areas: it would block the road with its rear-end.  So you'd have to parallel park and monopolize an entire parking area.  That's if no one is there before you.  And people won't like you blocking 5 or 6 spots (parking is a big issue).

Thank you John!

What you think is a large RV might be different than what americans consider a large RV.

Based on your post, people are probably thinking you're going to be driving https://www.fleetwoodrv.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/WEB_34_Fortis_MY24_34MB_Fortress_0222.png which would definitely be a bad idea to bring into rifle.

something like this which I would imagine europeans and israelis would call an RV https://blog.campersinn.com/hubfs/winnebago%20ekko%20class%20c%20motorhome%20exterior-1.jpg#keepProtocol might be ok in rifle(although will be hard to fit in a lot of parking spaces at the crag.)

Thanks Dsauerburn, that’s reassuring. But I think John was not far from the truth. My rv is 30 foot so it’s somewhere in between the two pics your links lead to.

We will go up there tomorrow morning and check it out.

Best

Uri

Uri Shapira wrote:

Thanks Dsauerburn, that’s reassuring. But I think John was not far from the truth. My rv is 30 foot so it’s somewhere in between the two pics your links lead to.

Last year we drove our full-size pickup truck in Rifle, and it's only 21 feet long.  A total pain in the ass.  I felt bad about how much space it took.

We will go up there tomorrow morning and check it out.

Great idea.