Best Tent Camping near Cottonwood Heights, UT

Absolutely awesome spot. Hosts were really friendly. Stayed in my pop up camper for a night and there was tons of space for pop up and our site (A1) was the best in the campground, I think. It was secluded with tons of trees. Not all sites had a lot of tree cover. It wasn’t right off the river but it was still only a 30 second walk to the river. There were fire bans in Utah but because of the type of fire set up on concrete and built in fire places, we were able to have a fire all night which was awesome. Also my buddy is a professional singer and brought his guitar so I’m impartial. We had such a great time!!

I really loved this campground! And I really love Diamond Fork Hotsprings! I can’t wait to visit again! We camped the Thursday after Labor bad and had the entire campground almost all to ourselves! On Labor Day weekend there wasn’t an empty campsite. Cost is $22 for a single site, $44 for a double. We arrived to camp around 7:30 and pitched our tent then headed up the road a few more miles to the parking area for Diamond Fork (5th water) Hot Springs. I recommend visiting the Hotspring at night in the summer to escape the overwhelming crowds. There were only a handful of people at the springs during our evening visit. The trail to the springs is about 2.4 miles in. We returned to camp around 1 AM and slept soundly in the still, quiet nature. You can hear the stream babble nearby. We slept in and as we were breaking down camp, Marc, the camp host stopped by to se how our visit was and if we needed anything. What a wonderful man! We chatted for quite a while about the area and he offered to give us a tour of the campground in his golf cart. This is a pretty leather campground! 3 separate loops. There are some hike in tent sites but they are set up for dual tents and are priced as such so they are $44 which is quite speedy for a pack in tent site. There is a well maintained nature trail the passes through the campground. There are educational kiosks along the trail. There are multiple restrooms throughout the campground. The 2 I used were very clean considering it was post holiday weekend.
Each campsite had a fire ring, grill, and a picnic table. Tent sites all offered nice level areas for pitching your tent. You can purchase fire wood from the camp host. This is a great place and I can’t wait to return!

We were road tripping through with no reservations. The whole South Fork area has many campgrounds. Magpie is the first and one of the smaller of the campgrounds as you drive up the canyon. We drove through all the campgrounds and didn’t find any hosts to talk with to find out if we could occupy a spot. We thought it would be ok but weren’t sure if we could stay in a spot that had a weekend reservation posted. Plus there was simultaneously not very much shade and lots of overgrown vegetation that made tent camping not very feasible. All the sites with actual river frontage were occupied and most folks had campers. This was especially true at South Fork, Lower Meadows, Upper Meadows & Perception Park campgrounds. We finally found a host at Willows campground who explained the process but we didn’t see any sites we liked there. Magpie actually had some shaded sites so we headed back down there. We grabbed a spot that had no obvious river access but good shade right next to the host site. It was pretty overgrown but had enough of a flat spot to set up our tent and a big concrete pad for the picnic table and huge fire ring. Midweek it was only half full. Campground is literally mere feet from the road. Lots of road noise. Bathrooms were good enough. The host when he finally came around was very nice. The adjacent site was vacant (a double site that cost more $$) and we were able to get to the river there. We stayed two nights mid week and it never filled up but all the sites had weekend reservations. There isn’t a lot of hiking but if you like river recreation or we saw lots of paddle boarders headed up to the reservoir. We drove up Monte Cristo which was still closed for the season but probably would have been more our style. Birding was good around the campground probably due to the river. Again, road noise was annoying but expected. Also note that the forest service’s website was out of date as far as all the campgrounds in this area being open.

Let me start off by saying the other review for this CG is about 250 miles off target.  The Narrows CG the other person is talking about is located in Zion National Park near St. George/Springville in southern Utah.  There are no soaring sandstone walls here!  There are however amazing overhanging water sculpted limestone cliffs that contain some of the hardest climbing that the west desert of Utah has to offer!  There are a decent amount of routes on either side of the road with the majority of the routes being near the Upper Narrows CG. 

This CG is setup in much the same way as the Upper.  There are metal fire rings and picnic tables at each of the campsites with a vault toilet within a couple minutes walk from any of the sites.  There are only 3 sites and there are no water or trash facilities so bring all you need and then pack it all out!  The creek offers a nice respite from the heat in the summer and would probably be decent fishing as well.  I only saw a couple trout while wandering around but I'm sure there are more!