Best Dispersed Camping near Hooper, UT

Good dispersed campsite, especially if you’re on a road trip along I-80 (which we were, evacuating from a wildfire in CA). There are no hookups or services. This is really just a spot of BLM land that has some fairly level sites cleared. Some sites probably required 4WD. Looks like it would be really fun for OHV’s. We were car camping, so didn’t have to worry to much about space. From what we could tell there were probably only a couple good spots for an RV or tow-behind. There are no reservations, just find a place where your car fits and park it.

Rumor has it there’s a neat stream nearby, but we didn’t get a chance to check it out.

This was a great place to stay for one night on my journey traveling I-80. The coordinates have been updated (originally wrong when I tried to find it)- the map is correct now.

I arrived after dark on Jan 10th. Once I found the entrance (easy now that the location is correct) I couldn’t obviously see flat areas for parking. With some help from my mom who I was on the phone with, she was able to see from daytime satellite photos the easiest spots.

When you enter the camping area, stay to the left on the main road, continue staying left - you will pass 3-4 little ‘roads’. The first site- where I parked- is the first opening to the left. If you venture up to the right, you will end up some extremely steep drives. My Subaru Outback made it up and down one of those but it was a little scary for me.

It was COLD- when I woke up, temp was 19, felt like 12. But in my car I was cozy. There isn’t any privacy from the main road, but very few cars driving by.

Horseshoe Springs is across the street (turn left out of camping area, first turn off on the right- you can see the little pavilion from the road). Was nice to see even in the cold!

Solo woman traveling- it was a little freaky at first but I got used to the solitude there, and felt safe! Beautiful landscape upon waking up!

Especially if you get here before sunset, you can hike a little ways up the mountain and watch the sun go down, but once it does start to go down it gets real windy. All the breeze from the salt flats comes right your way. This location is also right in an outdoor shooting range with multiple spots so that’s a plus if you’re looking for entertainment. As a bonus for me at least, it’s close enough to the road that getting back to it won’t be a problem, and I don’t think the noise will be a factor because the wind takes the cake. Dirt road is also real rough, probably not for sedans.

Myself and 7 other friends just drove up this last weekend and camped for 2 days.

We dealt with rain and even snow on the last morning… But there was green grass and a spot for fires and the Sheriffs rolls through and are super helpful as well.

We found a spot that was more of a hill, which made it neat to get around, but the site was LITTERED with spent ammo, broken glass and broken pieces of clay pigeons. Another group camping near us told us they found the same at their site so be weary of where you step up here.

Great for dispersed camping, but watch out for bears and mountain lions as well and make sure you follow the food rules and lock your cars. We didn't see or hear anything, but the Sheriff that stopped by warned us.

Cell service is also spotty here. I have Xfinity Mobile and I had decent coverage here and there.... everyone else had T-Mobile and they were also spotty, but more so compared to mine, so AT&T (who I think XM uses) is slightly better.

1/3 of a mile up the Mt. Aire trail there are a few premade dispersed camping spots. 1 is good for groups of 3 tents with a nice big fire pit and the others are smaller for 1 or 2 people sharing a tent. They are right off the trail but the trail is somewhat busy, you won't be completely alone until after 10pm or before 5 (trail runners are crazy). 

It's hard to walk in as if you are 'car camping' worth it to backpack everything in one go, there is a creek and it's cool in the canyon, plus you really can't beat a camp spot that is only 20 minutes outside of town and that no one ever goes to. People don't seem to camp in Millcreek that often, I'm not sure why. 

I would recommend setting up at Mt. Aire, and then camping to the summit (45 minute uphill trek) for sunset or sunrise, both are beautiful.

We tried this place as a quick weekend Overlanding Trip to get the kids out of the house.

Took close to two hours from Salt Lake City, once you turn off I 15 you’ve still got close to an hour. The road wasn’t too bad, pretty Wash boarded but fairly certain most cars could do it if they are careful around a couple of spots.

There is a train museum along the way that looked pretty interesting.

Once you get there, there’s a parking lot right above the spiral jetty, you could park there and camp if you wanted.

If you have a bit more of an off-road vehicle there is a couple of camping areas down just above the Lakeshore that we camped in. You will need a 4 x 4 with decent clearance. We did it with a stock suburban just fine.

We couldn’t even see the water line, dry Lake bed is pretty much all you can see.

It was rather fascinating to look at and we did enjoy the time there. But I don’t feel like it would be a place I would want to camp more than one night because I think the kids would get restless.