Moonflower Canyon Group Site

This is a group site on one side of the (sometimes dry) creek, and a hiking trail on the other side. It is reservable in advance, and only used as walk-in if it hasn’t been previously reserved. It’s a popular spot, so reserved online. The group site is between the creek bed and the curved rock wall.

There are two parking areas. The campsite is closest to the smaller, parking area, however, campers are supposed to use the larger one by the pit toilet to save the smaller one for day visitors checking out the petroglyphs.

All gear will need to be walked in from the parking area. This is a minimum walk of 30 feet, but likely between 30-60 feet (but know that I am not a good judge of distance). You won’t be able to drive up to the tent spot, so just be aware. You will find about four picnic tables, one large grill, and a fire pit.

Also, the entire area is deep sand. It’s a great soft surface for sleeping on, but will add some challenges too. You will have sand in and throughout everything you own. Find a way to cover it if that’s not appealing to you. It was windy while we there, and sand blew in through the mesh of our tent, from under the rain fly. It’s just sand though, so a tumble dry of our gear at home changed things up nicely.

There is only the one group site on this side of the road and as such it is wonderfully private-ish at night. During the day, there is a steady flow of visitors hiking down the canyon. If camping here during Jeep season, and especially during the Easter Safari week, expect a lot of road noise during the day as well. The weekend may also have random visitors playing music during the night (while remaining active in their vehicle), or using the parking lot to camp-in-vehicle, etc., so consider earplugs.

The site is wonderfully close to Moab, Arches NP, Colorado River access (check out Mild to Wild Rafting). No water and no showers at the site. However, water can be found at nearby Lion’s park. And several other RV parks and centers offer pay-for-showers. A quick Google search will reveal all, but note that you will not do any googling at the campsite. It’s in a canyon and therefore you will get no signal at all. You find much of Moab to be this way.

All in all, a great site, and a great experience. I highly recommend it for groups. You will feel like you are in the heart of Moab red rock when you camp here. Also, if you get hungry, check out Milt’s!

We spent four days and three nights at the Moonflower Canyon campsite this year right after the Easter Jeep Safari. The weather at that time was perfect for our own Jeeping experience (not too hot) and we avoided the huge, and possibly unruly crowds.

The campsite was rimmed with towering sandstone cliffs of the Moab Rim trail. The floor was a fine, soft sand that made playing a joy. The canyon itself featured a 1/10 mile hike to a large amphitheater where centuries of erosion have deposited a large pile of rocks, forming a small pond. Near the mouth of the canyon, early Native Americans carved petroglyphs into the sandstone walls. These ancient writings add beauty and diversity to the impressive sandstone basin of the Colorado River. For those feeling adventurous, there is an ancient Indian ladder hidden in a crack in the sandstone wall. This ladder ascends about 40 feet to the top of the precipice.

For those wishing to travel to this paradisaical camping location, keep in mind that as of May 2017, there is only one group site in the canyon. Previously, there were eight (8) smaller sites, but these have been eliminated for habitat restoration. Numerous signs have been posted warning potential campers that camping is not allowed anywhere but the single group site. We witnessed a few violations of those new policies, but generally, people are willing to obey the regulations.

We experienced very few difficulties while camping at Moonflower Canyon. Campers should keep in mind that this area is fairly highly-trafficked and so they should expect passing visitors throughout the day. We did have a group of raucous teenagers in cars and side-by-sides stop by late one night for a get-together. They made some noise for a while, but were not crass and not threatening to those of us in the campsite. One thing that could be better about the site is that the parking area is across a small ravine from the camping area, meaning that you have to carry camping equipment through the ravine when arriving and leaving. This may prove somewhat challenging for folks with disabilities. We worked around it by parking temporarily in a different parking area until all the equipment was into or out of the vehicles.