Cedar Mesa Campground — Capitol Reef National Park

This campsite is the closest to Capitol Reef, and although small, it was perfect. We visited in June 2020 and it was beautiful, especially at night due to minimal light pollution. There are only a handful of sites, but we managed to snag one on a weekday. I’m sure the sites are harder to get on weekends, so get there early. Will definitely be returning to this campground on our next trip to the Mighty Five.

This is a small remote campground that requires some dirt road driving to get to . There are picnic tables and fire grates but not much else.  A good location for exploring the various rock formations.

This campground really exceeded our expectations. Its a typical primitive site. No water, bring your own wood, and a pit toilet. The sites and toilet were in pretty good condition. We were there on Memorial Day.  2 of the 5 sites were occupied when we arrived at approx. 1130 am and the other 2 were taken by 1pm. They are doing some recovery work at the CG and have put areas and trail between sites off limits. If you stay here, take the time to do the red canyon trail. The trailhead is on the west side of the canyon and the hike is worth it. Exposed for the first mile or so but great views of the waterpocket fold. Once you get into the wash there are amazing rock features and colors up the canyon. This is also a great base to do the Upper and Lower Muley Twist trails, Halls Creek or the number of washes you can hike. All in all this CG was not a disappoint and its sits in some amazing country.