Top 10+ Dog-Friendly Campgrounds near Canyonlands National Park

Centrally located off the main road. About ten minutes from Arches National Park and twenty minutes from Canyonland Nation Park/Dead Horse State Park. Level camping pads. Clean drinking water. The bathrooms are nice but there are only four so it can get congested. Slight noise pollution from the main strip but worth it for the central location. Nice pool. Moderately priced gas station and camp store on site. Friendly staff. If you plan to visit Arches NP don’t forget make the mandatory reservation online with the NPS.

I had a great experience at this campsite! Check out my blog post about my adventure here with my wife and daughter:

https://saltlakedad.weebly.com/blog/camping-in-canyonlands-national-park

Horsethief Campground is a BLM campground between Moab and the Island in the Sky District of Canyonlands National Park. Besides easy access to many mountain biking trails, Horsethief Campground makes a great base camp for exploring both Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park. 

Horsethief Campground Info

* Elevation: 5780 ft

* Fee per Night:$20

* Total Campsites: 57 sites in the main campground and 27 sites in the tent loop across the road

* Water- No water available in the campground

* Reservations Not Accepted, except for Group Site#39

* Cell Service: Little to No Service with AT&T or Verizon.

* Open Year Round(Weather Permitting)

Area Activities:

* Numerous mountain biking trails

* 4 wheel drive roads

* Canyonlands National Park

* Arches National Park

We love this park! Great hiking right from the campground. Beautiful scenery, friendly staff, clean bathrooms and close to Canyonlands National Park. We really enjoyed our stay here, hiking most of the trails and also visiting Canyonlands Island in the Sky area. Utah does state parks well!

Spectacular views, well kept campgrounds. Amazing rim hikes. Just outside Canyonlands National Park, if you can snag a spot...well worth making this your basecamp.

Spending the night on the rim of canyonlands national park— Definitely one of the most magical experiences of my life setting our tents up during sunset and waking up during sunrise overlooking the vast canyon!

These sites were on the way into Canyonlands National Park and still very close to Arches. Stayed here 3 nights in a row and I was the only one there. Very quiet and super close to the parks.

Located in the heart of Moab, Utah, this campground is a convenient base for exploring Arches National Park, Canyonlands National Park, and the surrounding area. The campground offers a variety of accommodations, including RV sites, tent camping, and cabins, all within walking distance of downtown Moab's shops and restaurants.

There are lots of cottonwood trees growing in the campground, which provide nice shade, which is especially important in Moab in the hot months! 

More details and review: https://youtu.be/k1UhWQUsKGI

Extremely close to canyonlands national park if you don’t get a site inside of the park. Each site has its own little hut and picnic table at it. They offer both electric and non electric sites. All in all a great experience. Would recommend to anyone heading out to canyonlands.

This is a private campground right outside of the Needles district of Canyonlands National Park. There are some really wonderful sites with a bit of privacy and great views. Access to fantastic hiking and climbing. Showers are available and flush toilets.  On the down side there is little shade. The only thing wrong with this campground is that it closes too early in the fall.

Great WiFi. Perfect hook-ups. The staff seems great.

We really enjoyed the crowd of campers here. Younger than a lot of places we’ve been. No kids though. Also, the rocky area is rough of your dog’s feet. There is a sandy dog park in Moab, that was pretty good.

This BLM campground is situated upon the plateau road near the Island in the Sky District of Canyonlands National Park and Dead Horse Point State Park. It offers a variety of simple individual and group sites with picnic tables, fire rings, and varying degrees of privacy. The bathrooms are all pit toilets, and kept very clean. Water can be found at the National Park visitor’s center, or in the State Park, or back in town at the town park or outdoor gear store.  If you run on solar like we do, you are guaranteed plenty of power.

These campsites are awesome because of their proximity to the hiking, cycling, slick rock mountain biking, rock climbing and paddling opportunities, that the Moab area is known for. The view from any campsite upon the plateau is a stunner and makes you think that $20 a night is a pretty good bargain, and with the cooler temperatures than the canyon below! Moab offers all the amenities of a small town that thrives on tourism without the sprawling consumerism of the suburbs. If you can’t get it there, you probably don’t need it. 

Arches National Park is about 30-40 minutes away. The entrance to the Islands in the Sky district of Canyonlands National Park, as well as Dead Horse State Park, are within 20 minutes.

We stayed here while visit Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. This setup is very nice with a great covered picnic table and grill, with a fire ring right next to it. Had a locker for supplies and a nice big pad for our tent. The bath facilities are extremely clean and the only thing missing is showers. The visitors center was great and staff was super friendly. The park itself is beautiful, and the sunsets and being out of Moab to see the Milkyway at night was amazing.

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.

So first of all it was difficult for me to accurately locate this campsite on the map. This campsite is actually located in Glen Canyon National recreation area but it is the southernmost campsite that is permitted from the Maze district of Canyonlands National Park. I drove into it from the south side roughly from the location of Hite Marina. The road was not too bad and fairly easy to drive. There is no water there is no cell phone service there is no trash pickup and there are no pit toilets.

While this was a bit more expensive ($43) than we are accustomed to paying for a campsite, we opted to stay here due to the close proximity to Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. That said, after spending a night in the campground and exploring the park the following day, we felt it was well-worth the cost. 

Our campsite was private and had its own picnic table and shelter, which included a light and lockable cupboard for food and other items. Each campsite has a fire pit and grill, though we used neither due to the burning ban. The bathrooms were very clean. Kayenta has some spectacular views, especially at sunset. Overall, five stars from us!

After our water getting turned on in our trailer by mistake while driving, this site came as a relief.  It was just plain EASY.  Clean site, full hook ups.  It gave us an opportunity to dry things out, have full power etc.  They had a dog park.  Store, Fuel and food.

A plane flew in 100 yards from our site, the freeway was adjacent, trucks rumbling AND a train track!  Ha ha!  But honestly, it was easy to get a good nights sleep, even so.