Best Campgrounds near Blanding, UT

The Lower Butler Wash Road is home to many fantastic car and van camping options. The dirt road is well-maintained and suitable for most vehicles.

Better options for dispersed camping exist nearby, and with less effort. The number of sites and diversity of possibilities along Lower Butler Wash Road is far superior to this area.

Beautiful spot that gets quite a bit of traffic--we had a lot of people on a Wednesday pulling up next to our site to enjoy the view or have an evening picnic. Consider yourself really lucky if you get privacy!

Not quite dispersed camping, due to the $10 fee, but the cost was well worth the views.  Spacing was good enough to allow for peace and quiet.

Another good stay here. Road is a bit rough coming in at either entrance--just take it slow. At the moment, there's porto-potties near each entry. Views are great all around. Most sites are out in the open and are not private, but just a small handful are near some of the buttes and fallen rock that can offer some privacy. Surprisingly decent cell service here.

The views were great, and the night sky was amazing. For only $10. I got a ring side seat, amazingly, clean, restrooms, and very quiet. Highly recommend.

We drove our Thor Axis and roads and site were fine for off-road- slow on the last mile plus of dirt. Pretty and quiet but took a few minutes to level our spot.

Crazy and scary drive coming from Mexican Hat to the south climbing up Moki Dugway to get here. It is not for the feint of heart. 11% grade, 15mph limit and gravel with some washboards. You have to go down the way you came up unless you are going north to Blanding. There are road restrictions for vehicle size. I would not attempt when road is wet. We did our homework and were able to make it in a 22’ 2wd camper van. Huge payoff at the end with views of Valley of the Gods, Goosenecks State Park and Monument Valley. Sites are FCFS. We found a pretty level spot that was easy to back into. So quiet. It could get very windy as you are at 6300ft and no cover. But when it is calm, words don’t describe. Perfect dark sky area.

Best place I’ve camped on my extended trip out west. Plenty of sites and private.

Arrived at East Gate about 3:30 pm, 10% of sites filled. Camped between Sitting Hen and Rooster Buttes, and saw nobody until dawn. No cell phone service where I camped and sporadic on road which was just as well. Easy road with few must-slow-down-below-3-mph-because-of-rocks areas. For me, rubbernecking with a camera out the window is the most dangerous driving hazard and it is plentiful along this drive 😜.

It's a breathtakingly beautiful spot with a fair amount of simple pull offs for camping.  Unless it's raining or just finished there won't be any water.  There is precious little vegetation as well, but a fair amount of rock outcroppings to block the wind, which howls come spring and is far more common than precipitation.

Speaking of which, don't push your luck if it has rained recently, as the clay softens and becomes slick, packing around tires, and everything else.  Plus even if your vehicle can handle the soft soils you'll wreck the road for everyone once the deep ruts dry out and harden.

Some sites have fire rings but that's the extent of facilities, although there might be a port-a-potty by the western entrance to the road, closer to the Moki Dugway.   Summers get hot, and I'd head up to Cedar Mesa if so. 

There ample dispersed camping on Cedar Mesa, as well as plenty of scraps to get a fire going.  This is one of the greatest concentrations of smaller Ancestral Puebloan (formerly Anasazi, which is controversial and regarded as insulting by today's Pueblo tribes) villages, so there are a life time of ruins to explore.  

Researching ahead of time will pay off, but both the BLM station by the Kane Gulch trailhead and the Natural Bridges National Monument visitor center have maps, guidebooks, and advice.  Please follow the regulations, as this is a sacred ancestral site for numerous indigenous peoples. 

The Recapture Lodge at the east end of Bluff has decades worth of old maps to hidden sites for those who want a hotel (I recommend them highly, having visited off and on since the 1990s).  They'll give great advice if asked. 

Both Natural Bridges and Hovenweap offer something precious in short supply across southern Utah, amazing and beautiful hiking, abundant ruins, and few visitors (this is the rare part).  Both are far more enjoyable than Arches or Zion, which are now overrun by tourists. 

Valley of the Gods, Cedar Mesa, and the nearby national monuments (also Canyonlands, which isn't as packed as the other famous national parks) offer a chance to experience Utah's red rock country without standing shoulder to shoulder with other visitors.  That's getting increasingly difficult to find as the beauty of the region is well known by now. 

p.s. Those wanting even more solitude should ask about the off site ruins managed by Hovenweap: you'll often have these to yourself.

We arrived late but the host took good care of us We got a nice spot with full hook up and after we built up we went into the bathroom I can tell if I could take this with me home I would definitely do that Nice meat bathroom on our trip and we had much more expensive RV parks on the trip with poor bathrooms

10/10 would recommend. Road is a little rocky once you get off the gravel road but totally worth it. Plenty of camp spots right on the edge with an incredible view. Up there with one of the coolest spots I’ve ever stayed at.

This campsite was easy to access. Had an amazing view and clean facilities. We would stay there again if we’re in the area.

We stayed here during hunting season, noticeable amount of noise in the very early hours of the morning due to this. On a clear night you can see an amazing amount of stars!

River views in the morning are so pretty. Roads a bit rocky comin in, we didnt have any problems in our subaru crosstreck but could be tough if the geound gets muddy.