Top 10+ Dog-Friendly Campgrounds near Garrison, UT

This place is giant! There are tons of RV spots as well as a tent area and some cabins. We stayed here to visit Great Basin National Park because the weather was going to be too cold to camp in the park safely without hookups for us. We also used this KOA as our midway point to dump and refill our water between campsites without water. It had what we expected of a KOA - friendly staff, full hookups, easy level pull through sites, a playground, store, etc. The surprises for us: no pool (not that we wanted one), adorable neighbor goats, and two dog parks areas (one with grass). Our dog loved the dirt dog park. It was great giving him a chance to run around off leash for a bit on our trip since everywhere we went he had to be on-leash. The goats were a fun surprise, too, since we love watching goats.

Located outside of Ely, but close enough if you need to run into town.

Staff was great, informed us about facilities and also map listed restaurants that deliver.

Hometown Pizza delivers to your site, good pizza.

They do inform you that by state law they have to have water pressure regulators on the water hookups so no need to add yours. (in Las Vegas at the KOA they had no idea what I was talking about but since we were within the city limits may not be needed).

Great view of the night sky after dark, dog parks are decent size, but by the time we got their our dog had found a spot on the roads.

Site pretty level, site and roads are gravel. Appears to be quite a few long term campers.

We were only there one night, but with everything if offers appears to be a place to stay for a week if so inclined.
Gets chilly at night, high altitude (close to 7,000 ft in elevation).

TL:DR: $5 tent sites available, 24/7 gas station store w. Bathroom, fairly clean. Serves hot food until 9:30ish, close to Great Basin NP. 88 miles to next services to the east.

We were on our way to Great Basin after leaving Yellowstone early this morning. We filled up gas in Nephi, Utah and then cut west on a dark desert highway. We went (according to the sign) 88 miles feeling the cool wind in our hair between "services" before seeing the shimmering light up ahead in the distance. Our heads grew heavy and our sight grew dim, so we had to stop for the night. We pulled in at about 9pm local time and saw, much to our surprise, that the gas station store was advertising being open 24/7! Our tired and hungry selves walked inside where several very nice locals were manning the store. We thought to ourselves "this could be heaven or this could be hell." Turned out to be heaven, as they had hot food and plenty of room for us to pitch a tent. $5 fee for a guaranteed spot "behind the trees next to the spools." Most of the land nearby is BLM, so $5 for access to a store and bathroom is not too bad, though you can technically sleep across the street for free. No apparent need to stab any beasts with steely knives, and come morning we were able to check out and leave.

Despite the name, there is are no caves that one can see at the lake. This lake is a very small hidden desert treasure. There is a lakeside campground with few campsites that fill up very quickly. There is also BLM land 20 minutes from the lake where you camp disperse camp for free.

There are toilets, and showers available at the campsite. Dogs, fishing, and boats are allowed. Along the backside of the lake are the best spots if your looking to let your dog off of the leash to play in the water, or be secluded in the soft grass and shade of the bushes.

This is a nice family spot to spend the weekend. It gets very crowded very fast so be sure to leave early if you want to stay at one of the lakeside campgrounds. All roads are paved.

First off I'll start by saying the "Get directions" location on this app is incorrect AND the GPS will take you down a private, gated, dirt road to get there. Also, there is only ONE campsite on this road.

When you set your GPS for this location the GPS will take you down Lehman Caves Road which is also highway 488 into the national park. About halfway down this road from the small town of Baker, you will be told turn left on Rowland Ranch Road. IGNORE THIS. Rowland Ranch Road is a gated dirt road on private property. Instead continue down Lehman Caves Road until you get to a left on Baker Creek Road. I have attached a picture of detailed instructions of this ^ in my review.

Baker Creek Road is a maintained road within the national park boundaries but is hard pack gravel with some washboards along it. Just a little ways down Baker Creek Road, you will come to NF-589. This road starts as a Y split. Your first left is a foot path only with no camping signs in it. Directly behind it is the vehicle accessible entrance. Enter at your own risk! This OHV road is narrow and rough with decent sized rocks. There are very little opportunities to turn around and I would strongly recommend AGAINST entering with a two-wheel drive vehicle or a trailer. With that being said, I managed to squeeze down this road with my stock 2015 Toyota Tacoma towing a 12x6 enclosed trailer. My truck made it no problem without 4wd but I was at the limit of capability with my trailers ground clearance, width, and length. I also pre-scouted the singular campsite on this road with my off-road motorcycle to make sure nobody was there first. The only way for me to turn around with my trailer on NF-589 was to use the campsite I stayed in. Just into the entrance of the road you'll come across a downed tree across the road. Don't worry, somebody remade the road to the left going around it so continue on. About halfway towards the campsite you'll come across a small picket sign on the left side of the road that marks the national park boundaries. The campsite is on your left roughly another 500ft after that, just barely outside the national park boundary. There are some good wash outs almost a foot deep and 6-8in stones in the road. My 6-ft wide trailer, which is slightly wider than my truck, was touching trees on both sides for most of the way down.

I'll say it again, there is only one campsite here. The GPS coordinates do not bring you to a campsite so follow my instructions instead. This campsite is tight as you first turn in but opens up in the middle about 20ft into it. It also has some flat open areas for tents just a few feet away from main area. The site is not level and on the slope of a hill. There are also some large rocks similar in size to the ones in the trail on the way in all through the site. My 4in levelers for my rooftop tent were not tall enough to counter this slope. I ended up having to use large boulders and back over them to level my truck so I could sleep. There's nothing here but a fire ring, that includes bathrooms of any kind. You are just in the middle of the woods.

I would love it if people would stop having glass bottle parties around campfires. When did ruining fragile campsites become the new cool? I always try to leave a free campsite better than I found it. I spend time cleaning up other people's trash, rebuilding fallen fireplaces, and sweeping off cement patios when present. I would greatly appreciate it if you would do the same for others.

Anyways, I was here for 2 nights. The views are slightly blocked by the trees but the trees are fairly short. If you can get above the trees like I could by sitting on the roof of my trailer when the sun went down, the views are actually stunning at this campsite. This campsite is almost walking distance to the Lehman Caves and just a few minutes drive to most other attractions here like the scenic drive to the Alpine Lakes at the base of Wheeler Peak. The campsite is completely silent but there is a home about a half mile through the woods to the North towards Lehman Caves Road so please be respectful with music volume even though it may feel as though you are in the middle of nowhere.

We stayed on August 2nd. We took a chance and drove up on a Saturday. Needless to say we were afraid that we wouldn’t find a spot. We drove around for a while and finally found this spot. The group sites were closed due to the pandemic but they did have individual first come first serve sites - you had to drive in to see it.

The site worked for us as we have a rooftop tent so we always gain space and have no worries about setting up tents in the ground. Each site has a fire ring and a table. The vault toilet was a bit of a walk from our location but we were happy to have a spot, so it didn’t matter.

The views were nice and the night sky is amazing at Great Basin. Very little to no light pollution. Unfortunately we didn’t get any hiking in as we had the dog with us. Dogs are allowed at the campsite but not on a majority of the trails at Great Basin.

Though extremely unlevel, the positive atmosphere here makes up for it in every way. It's a small campground with only eleven sites, but it's nearly impossible to see a neighbor. The trees and bushes are thick and high, and you feel like you're in your own private corner of the world.

We arrived around 11:30 on a Wednesday morning. Only three sites were taken, so we had a pretty good pick. If Site #4 was level, it could arguably be the world's greatest campsite. It's located right by the creek and is surrounded by trees and shrubs. There was a picnic table and a fire ring, too. The creek kind of splits upstream right before the site, so we had a little wading pool to cool off in after hikes. We foraged for wood, and it burned and smelled awesome. This campsite was a dream.

The dump station at the visitors center was down when we arrived, but they said there were places in Baker you could fill up. We had just come from there and were not excited to do more driving, so my husband filled up the tank manually with a six-gallon jug. He's my hero. :) It was doable and not that bad because there are spigots throughout the campground. When we left, we dumped at the gas station in Baker (which was oddly out of gas). Come prepared! Luckily we had enough to make it to Milford, Utah.

Lower Lehman is located at the base of the mountain, so be aware that it's about 10-15 degrees warmer here than it is at the top of the mountain. It was about 85 degrees in the middle of the day, but the shade and the creek helped. Plus, we stayed up on the mountain for as long as possible, and if you do a cave tour (which you should!) it's always 50 degrees in there.

Great Basin was a wonderful surprise. We loved the caves, the hike to the glacier, the alpine lakes, and the bristlecone pines. The scenery is breathtaking!