Dispersed Camping Outside of Moab - Sovereign Lands is a rugged spot that offers a taste of the wild for those looking to escape the hustle and bustle. This area is perfect for campers who appreciate the freedom of choosing their own site among the stunning desert landscape.

Visitors have noted the convenience of its location, making it easy to access nearby Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. While the area lacks natural shade, which can lead to some hot afternoons, the views of the mountains are a definite highlight. As one camper mentioned, “There are loads of spaces and beautiful views,” making it a great choice for those who enjoy a bit of solitude.

The roads leading in can be a bit rough, so a vehicle with higher clearance is recommended, especially if you venture further back. Some campers have shared that a 4x4 is helpful for navigating the sandy stretches. Porta-potties are available near the entrance, and trash disposal is provided, which helps keep the area clean.

While the area has become busier over the summer months, many still find hidden spots that offer privacy and tranquility. With no reservations needed and the freedom to set up camp wherever you like, this location is ideal for those who want to immerse themselves in nature without the frills. Whether you're here for a night or a week, the open skies and rugged terrain promise a memorable experience.

The Moab Exchange lands were acquired by the State of Utah in 1965 in an exchange for sovereign lands within the newly-designated Canyonlands National Park. The Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands is responsible for the management of 829-acre Prairie Dog Haven Unit and the 4,350 Dalton Wells Unit in Grand County, Utah.

In 2015, the Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands completed the Moab Exchange Lands Comprehensive Management Plan (CMP). The CMP was designed to facilitate the management of the exchange lands under multiple-use, sustained yield principles and accommodating public and private uses to the extent that the uses do not substantially impair the public trust resources.

Dispersed Camping Outside of Moab - Sovereign Lands

Nestled in the sandstone of eastern Utah is the small town of Moab. This outdoor-lover’s paradise is the gateway to Arches National Park, with Canyonlands just a short drive away. Camping near Moab means unfettered access to BLM lands with rock climbing, hiking, mountain biking, ATVing, horseback riding, rafting, and more.

Whether you’re heading in for a day-hike, scenic drive, or staking your tent at a campground, a visit to Arches is a must. Tent and RV camping near Moab provide easy access to one of Utah’s most iconic landmarks: Delicate Arch. (It’s even on their license plate!)

Downtown Moab is certainly worth a visit too. Grab an al fresco lunch at the Food Truck Park, visit the galleries and boutiques, or stock up on gear rentals for all your outdoor adventures. The area is also known for its petroglyphs and petrographs, which were created by Paleo-Indian, ancestral Puebloan, and Ute artists.

Moab

Searching for the best camping near Moab, UT? Moab is filled with the activities, sights, and experiences to make everyone in your crew a happy camper. Discover great camping spots near Moab, reviewed by campers like you.

The Best Moab Camping | Utah Campgrounds

high clearance vehicle recommended. Low clearance vehicles can access sights closer to highway. Lots of camping spots tucked away if you continue down the road. Cattle around but bothersome. gorgeous red rock! 

Finally a BLM road that I can actually camp on!  I haven’t had the best luck with them from this app. But this road has so many camp spots.
No shade, gravel road, lots of dust but wide open spaces and amazing star gazing! 
Decent T-Mobile reception.

So close to Arches National park

Look for Willow Sprjngs Rd off the 191. Massive spots with vault toilets and port o johns (nasty) lol. Bring water. Great little spot for our little trip. 

Decent with huge spots 

The road driving in is gravel and rocky but I have a 25 ft van with water tanks on the underside and I was totally fine (I always worry about bottoming out and I was fine). High clearance would be good if you want to go deep down into spots that are more rocky and sandy but if not you can find spots right along the road. 

It is free, there are no designated spots for your rv. It’s kind of a free for all so if you don’t want someone to park next to you, set it up so you can have the most privacy. You can clearly see pull offs that are used 

It was pretty quiet but very busy. If you come after 3pm a lot of the good spots are taken and then you have to squeeze in so get there early to grab a spot!!

Def will come back as it is completely free

Carry in carry out!!

Free camping, busy sep-oct!

We really loved this spot! Super busy but each site has more than enough room for actual privacy. Large enough for big rigs or small tents, and the roads in are very well kept considering the traffic it gets. A few dispersed porta potties if need be. Beautiful scenery and a quick drive to either of the parks or Moab 

Perfect spot for arches and canyonlands

Right outside arches and close to canyon lands. Great place if you don’t have a reservation or get in late. Very dusty/sandy and windy! Idk if I’d stay here by choice unless I was just passing thru. Overall, a good place to stay!

Convenient 

Plenty of open space and spots to choose from. Tons of access to mountain bike trails in the area as well. Fire bans were in place at the time through summer to Nov 1st. Make sure to only camp in designated spots, otherwise a busy place like this will be dust before you know it. Trash must be packed out, a few portable bathrooms throughout if you need it. Very close access to Arches and Moab, Dead Horse and Canyonlands not far either. A great free base camp. 

Lots of space

Typical dispersed camping at a popular, busy location. Camped here when Arches NM was closed due to COVID. Lots of sites to choose from, many private, with trees or other shade. No amenities. OK cell service. Close to Moab and Arches and much more. 

Great location but crowded 

Can't wait to go back. It was active, but we just grabbed the first spot we found. Perfect place to set up shop for the night. Close to Canyonlands Park where we were heading. Loved it.

OMG the stars

This is the best place to camp for Moab without paying because it’s more fun in the desert! Anything goes, just pack out what you bring in! 
I ride an adventure motorcycle so I can hit all the trails from here! 

Better Moab experience

Nice dispersed site. Easy access to great mtb trails. 

Gemini Bridges Road

We love Willow Springs BLM camping. There are scattered porta potties on the western portion of the road and further back a couple of vault toilets. No water or electricity - this is free BLM camping. We tend to stay further west to maintain cell service and to avoid wear &amp; tear on the RV. The further back you get the more rugged the road. At times it's wide open and other times it's packed full. Check online for a list of activities happening during your stay. There are lots of rallies, races, club get togethers, etc that affect how packed the BLM area is as well as town. We come for the mountain biking, hiking and proximity to Arches &amp; Canyonlamds. 

Willow Springs BLM is where it's at! 

This was an awesome place to camp. There are tons of spots to make your own little home for the night. Most spots have fire rings that have been made out of rocks by other campers or legit fire rings. 

There are even port-a-potty’s that are clean. 

We tent camped here in mid December and it was cold at night, but nothing too terrible if you have the right sleeping bags. 

Bring your own firewood, because all that is around the area are juniper trees. Junipers take extremely long to grow, so please don’t use the branches to burn. 

We loved this spot. It was quiet and great for us and our pup! 

Great place with plenty of spaces to camp

Our group was large and we found the perfect spot, outside of Canyonlands. 
We had an amazing time isolated from anyone else. 
We were about 25 min from downtown Moab and 15 min from the entrance to Canyonlands. 

Off the grid, free camping. 

Got here a little past dusk on the Sunday before Thanksgiving. As has been the case for much of our cross-country trip, arriving in the dark (provided you can find a spot) lends itself to some incredible surprise views when waking up in the morning. This place was no different!

Even though it was late November, there were still tons of people out occupying camps throughout the dispersed camping areas. I’d definitely recommend arriving early in the afternoon to nail down prime real estate. 

Super convenient to Arches and Canyonlands NP’s.! There’s also a convenience store just a couple miles south of the pull off for this place. 

Camel Trek - Night 13

Stayed here for three nights and it was amazing. Nothing to complain about other than one pretty windy night but that’s Mother Nature for you. 

Perfect spot outside of Moab

Great free camping area with plenty of room for everyone, not a “Hey neighbor” spot. Got there in the dark and woke up to an amazing view and sunrise. Short drive to Moab, Arches, and Canyonlands. 

Excellent spot for home base 

This is a free spot to camp with good space btwn you and the next people.  The view of the stars since this is a dark sky reserve is unbeatable bc its in the middle of the desert.  Its really close to the entrance for arches National park.  The only con is lack of cover from wind and sun 

The perfect free spot by arches

Large dispersed campsites and appears to be several along the access road. The are primitive and some are a bit close to the highway but traffic does die down later in the night. Appears to go on for a ways so distancing from the road is possible. Road is a bit rough but saw several standard cars (think Camry) making it along if you take it slow. The sites will fit lots of vehicles if you are with a large party. Probably 20-30 yard circle of cleared area at the one I was at. It’s not much, and it doesn’t have services.
It does however have decent service for Verizon so that was a plus. All in all it’s free and 10 minutes from the turn off to Canyon Lands NP so it met our needs.

Klondike South

Free and open! It was a good place to rest our head. Nothing special. Lots of ATV’s and dirt bikers heading out pretty early so don’t expect to sleep in very long. Grateful for the land, thank you BLM! 

BLM Land, what else can ya ask for! 

Dispersed BLM camping in the desert. Hardly any shade. Mostly RVs and other land yachts seen here camping. Would not recommend for the tent camping. Lots of peeps camping here for the off-road experience and dirt bike/mountain biking trails. 

Dispersed camping right outside Arches

Super convenient for quick access to Arches National Park, with it being only 10 minutes away. Also close to Canyonlands National Park, as it is only 30 minutes away. Would highly recommend getting there no later than the mid afternoon so you can pick a good spot. The farther in you go, the better, as there will be people coming in all the way into the night. Set yourself up to where you restrict access for others to park right next to you, or you may have closer neighbors than you’d like.

Good option close to Moab

There was plenty of space for my short bus and it was close to a lot of OHV/mountain biking trails.  The BLM backs up to Arches NP.  I camped here for 2 weeks and met quite an assortment of people from all over with tons of different hobbies.  Would come here again in a heartbeat.  

It’s about 2 miles down from a convenient store and 12 minutes out from town (I’m sure if you drive a smaller rig, it’s under 10 minutes).  

Such convenient camping near Moab - sure to get a spot

Very populated camp area but there is a lot of land so it doesn't feel too crowded.  If you go far down enough you'll see some nice boulders that the kids like to climb on.  Everyone there was friendly.

Nice with neighbors

Take klondike bluff rd off of 191. Drive down the dirt road and there’s hundreds of sites along the road. 4wd recommended- there’s some rough spots especially after it rains. I did it in my front wheel drive SUV and was fine but the further down the road you go the worse it gets. Views are amazing&amp; you can find spots with no neighbors. No bathrooms or trash cans- pack in pack out. 

Great views- hard to get to

This was a last minute stay and it was packed! Took a few loops around to find a spot and was still surrounded by many neighbors. This is a great spot as there is such beautiful views and still got cell service with ATT

Busy but gorgeous

This Rd has a ton of free and open campsites. We got in pretty late around 930 on a Friday in May and we were still able to find a spot (just our car). There is no water, but there are port a pottys along the road every couple hundred feet. Pretty quiet except for off roaders getting rowdy. Definitely a great spot if you need one and have no other options

Willow Springs Rd off of 191

Close to arches, canyonlands and dead horse. Nice for a free campground to have portapotties spread out along the road. People tended to share camp spots when I was there. Perfect for car camping but you may have some loud neighbors. Great place to stay near Moab with pretty views as well. Cant get better than free.

Great free spot

Awesome views and so many options for campers! We saw RVs and camper and and cats and vans and ATVs. There’s paths for everyone and lots of availability 

Great views 

10 min drive to Arches. Very close to Canyonlands. Spent two nights here. Great views,  we were there Memorial day weekend so it was really full. Easy to find a spot when we pulled in around 6pm but many people were still pulling in after 9 so we had some new neighbors.  Great for a free spot. Vault toilet outhouses, T-Mobile service worked fine. No tables.

Tons of space but very packed 

Exactly what it is.  Off main road camping. Be careful some access roads are rough but depending on Rv very cool views and places to boondock

Great boondocks area

15 minutes from Arches and 30 minutes from Canyonlands. Portapotties were clean and tons of them. Decent amount of people but tons of room and didn’t even go far down the road 

Great spot right outside Arches

The main road is nicely grated for a while. The pull offs can be extremely uneven. 4 wheel drive or tent camping recommended. There are a few sites flat enough for a rig but it was pretty full and few were available. Nice views and good proximity to national and state parks. 

Rough for large rigs

A decent place to camp. Views are good but it was kind of tough to find a spot. No shade but there were very clean port-a-potties. Was able to get decent service on the mifi (Verizon) after driving around a bit, and it is a pretty quick drive to Arches.

Some folks seem to be living here for extended periods, so you'll see a good number of folks holding spots or around during the day.

Good views but pretty crowded

Great spot outside of Moab, rolled in later and found a space. Portapotties are clean, had some loud neighbors but other than that it was good. First site I’ve ever disperse camped at. 

Camping outside Moab 

Super easy to find, lots of spaces, but was pretty crowded nonetheless

Loved it!

Good not great views but lots of spots available. I recommend pulling off the main road and following some of the offshoots. Sometimes people block them unknowingly but they are lots of ways to get off the main artery and get some privacy.

Price is right! 

Lots of dispersed camping. Porta potties scattered throughout but no other amenities.  Very busy on weekends.

Lots of camping!

What a pleasant surprise for these Senior Adult life time campers to pull into this campsite just outside of Moab! Beautiful, huge campsites that have a stunning view of the snow topped mountain range. We had reserved two nights, but loved it so much we moved sites so we could stay a third. 

First BLM campsite

Quite busy when we arrived, finally finagled my way into a spot near the toilets. Really rough last couple hundred yards. Still got in with the 39' Cedar Creek.

Ruggedly beautiful.

Nothing special but plenty of places to camp. No amenities except for occasional porta potties.  Would stay again.

Great BLM camping 

Easy access north of Moab. Lots of options for just about any type of rig. Portable Toilets and garbage disposal. 

Lots of sites for different types of vehicles

Beautiful view of the mountains, only three other campers and I can only see one of them across the field. Porta potty at entrance to road in state park. 

Beautiful view of the mountains

Stayed here one night in December.  It was 14 degrees outside and this site was still pretty busy with other campers.  Can only imagine how busy it gets in the busy season.  Room for campers and RVs.  Primitive camping. 

Nice free disperses just outside Arches NP

Unfortunately it’s $15, but there are plenty of places to camp! We showed up on Saturday of MDW and had 10+ open spots to choose from. There aren’t any trees for privacy or wind protection, but at least the spaces are relatively spread out so we couldn’t hear our neighbors and didn’t have to worry about our dog running over to them. Great location, it’s only 15 minutes north of Arches.

Solid Dispersed camping

There’s a decent number of people here all summer. There’s always those that leave trash behind.

Busy

Coordinates take you to the entrance but the further you go back, the more private spots there are. We found a sweet cove near some green colored rocks and no one else was in sight. RVs could definitely get to the spots closer to the entrance but some decent ground clearance would be helpful for some spots further back

Amazing Free Campground Plenty of Hidden Spots

Great spot, only about a 20-25min drive to arches and Moab. I went in mid December and had no neighbors my entire visit. There are loads of spaces and beautiful views. Closer spots can still here the highway a bit  but the further back the less noise

Great soot

I didn't get to go through the campsite sadly, I'm sure it's beautiful but I just wanted to pop on &amp; let anyone driving in a car/possibly with their van know that you may need a 4x4 to pass. Sand got pretty deep at points &amp; I didn't want to risk it. Be safe everyone &amp; happy camping! 

Need a 4x4 to get through sand 

Super convenient location for visiting nearby Arches &amp; Canyonlands National Parks, as well as Moab. Little to no natural shade available, so it does get hot during the afternoons. There are a plethora of spots to choose from, easy to find a place on Memorial Day weekend. GPS coordinates take you to the entrance, there are many offshoot roads to drive down from there. There is a short stretch of fairly deep sand near the entrance that can be a little bit sketchy. Roads are rough dirt and rock, higher clearance is needed the farther back you go. Went a couple of miles in a small 2WD pickup, but wouldn't recommend taking a sedan too far back. Some cell service in the area, porta-potties are available near the entrance. Nice view of the mountains. Would come camp here again.

Great Spot

This is now part of the UtahRaptor park, so it’s $15/night. I didn’t stay here, but I wouldn’t pay 15 bucks a night for such a desolate looking spot. There are better ones in the area. ￼

No longer free

This is a part of a state park and it’s $15 per car. 

Photos of Dispersed Camping Outside of Moab - Sovereign Lands

Real photos from real campers