Best Tent Camping near Ibapah, UT

We stayed at the Bonneville KOA on a road trip from Southern California out to Colorado. Our original goal had been to drive from the SF Bay Area to SLC, UT (US Highway 80 is a very easy, straight shot drive from CA to UT, even for a 650 mile drive), but got a really late start and changed our target to the NV/UT boarder.

The Wendover KOA is definitely a KOA designed for motorhomes and trailers - it’s BARREN - so not a place I would usually want to tent camp. All of the spaces are dirt lots, including the tent sites - no grass, no bushes, no (well, very few) trees, no privacy, no nothing. Again, this is not the environment I would normally want to camp in, but it worked just fine for a short stop between long stretches of driving when covering miles on a road trip.er

This KOA campground would be great for RV users who want to visit the Casinos on the Nevada side of the NV/UT boarder, and for those spending time at the Bonneville Salt Flats for races or recreational fun.

The facilities were clean - clean bathrooms, clean showers. There were fire pits and picnic benches in the camp sites, and WiFi was available on the campus.

KOAs can be really great and convenient (if not full), considering we did not have a reservation ahead of time, and arrived fairly late, but were able to register through an iron ranger near the front office. If you need to find a place to camp in this area, and do NOT have a 4WD vehicle, I️ would suggest camping at the Wendover KOA instead of the nearby dispersed BLM sites located ON the salt flats. When researching where to stop for the night, we considered staying at the BLM campsites as they were FREE and camping out on the salt flats seemed like a cool idea. We decided against it because we didn’t know how my 2WD Honda CRV would fair on the salt, and because KOAs always have nice clean facilities to use.

We got into a conversation with our neighbors about the salt flats (we had never seen them before). They seemed to think we made the correct choice by camping at the KOA rather than the on salt flats… they regularly take off-roading vehicles out to the salt flats, and have seen a dozen or so 2WD vehicles get stuck out on the flats. Apparently the long, vast salt flats are deceptive, and not always as flat as they appear. Also, they said that it can be very difficult to see pooled water while driving out on the salt, so a lot of people get stuck in deep puddles after rain.

CAMPSITE SPECS

Fees: $26/night

Plumbed Toilets: Yes

Water: Yes

Showers: Yes (no coins needed)

Picnic Table: Yes

Firepit: Yes

Cooking Grate: Yes

Shade: NO

Cell Service: Yes + WiFi

Trash: Yes

Animal Bins/Food Lockers: NO

Is pretty typical for a KOA except for the location!  This KOA has all the usual amenities: playground, showers, flush toilets, RV hookups, a pool, and wifi.  Some convenievces can also be bought at the main registration cabin.  In addition to the usual RV sites there are also camping cabins and "tent" sites (which I do not recommend).  There are a couple of unique things about this KOA in that it has shuttles to the nearby casinos and is also a 5 minutes drive from the world famous Bonneville Salt Flats where numerous world speed records have been set.

This road which, is the old Pony Express Trail, is surrounded by many varied activities to keep you entertained for weeks. To the north of the road past Boyd Station is the Dugway Geode beds where large soft ball sized geodes can be dug up! South of here at Topaz Mountain you can find, you guessed it, topaz! There is also aquamarine and obsidian near the Topaz Mountain area.

At the western end of the road is the Fish Springs bird preserve where numerous migratory birds take refuge from the desert heat. Dispersed camping can be found at both mineral collecting spots and on the many dirt roads. A 4wd high clearance vehicle isnt necessary but it opens up a lot more options!