Top 10+ Dispersed Free Camping near Nephi, UT

    This BLM campground now has designated campsites, a picnic table, large deep fire rings, pit toilets and no trash service. Also no water.  The actual site now in October is 

somewhat overgrown with tumble weeds. Ground is very rocky but there are quite a few tents pitched.  

     Views are 7 on a 10 scale.

     Camp fee is now $15 per night. We used a senior pass and paid $7.50

      There also appears to be true dispersed camping on BLM land just to the NE of this organized camp and more about a quarter mile south on a dirt road.  There don’t appear to be any picnic tables, fire rings or toilets.

How to get there: From Springville, Utah, go about 10-12 miles up East Canyon Road, and keep to the right up Hobble Creek Road. We passed a golf course, a couple paid forest service campgrounds, and a shooting range. The road will narrow and as you go over a bridge, the road turns to gravel and that’s where the dispersed camping starts. We went about 2-3 miles up Hobble Road from the bridge to find our spot.

Pros: Free camping! The view is amazing and we found a few sites toward the top with fire pits. Road was in good condition all the way. Lots of great hiking.

Cons: No cell service with Verizon, lots of dirt bikers and campsites are close to the road. Very crowded on weekends. Also the road is very narrow and people don’t take the road slowly. Proceed with caution.

Overall, beautiful view and very peaceful at night.

Really enjoy staying here. Free camping and plenty of activities to do in the area. 

Climbing (Bouldering) 

Site seeing (Not far from The Wedge)

Beautiful area

Easy to get to dispersed camping site.

This spot is just into the Fishlake National Forest. There is nothing fancy about this location. It is just a grassy spot along the road as you start following the road into the national forest. There may very well be cattle in the area and that will depend on the time of the year. But, it would make a great base camp from which to ATV or ride horses.

We are full-timers and have a 36 ft Class A with a Cherokee Trailhawk tow. We stayed here for 3 days in early June over the weekend. The dispersed camping area pretty much fills up overnight, with 7 or 8 of us staying longer. There were a few day users as well. The entire area was clean and free of trash. The sites are a little wonky, but we were able to get level. While the CG is far enough from US 6 to not be bothered with road noise, Sheep Creek Rd sees a lot of traffic and hence a fair bit of road noise. AT&T coverage was quite good, with 3 bars of 5G and speeds up to 16 MB/s.

There is the dispersed camping right when you turn in, however if you keep going up the mountain there is a super small turn off to the right then brings you up a little hill and there’s a few more sites I would have missed if I want so nosey. The view is amazing but the sites up here have so much trash. It’s not hard to clean up after yourself!

First time disperse camping, originally from Illinois so very impressed with the view. Easy to get to. I have a Ford Fusion and was able To easily access lot.

We set up at the first site on the left as you enter and it is a nice one for a short term visit. The only draw-back is that it is close to a dirt parking lot that OHV owners use. It is the fourth of July weekend though, so probably heavier than usual traffic. We drove our towed vehicle further down the road and discovered that you enter the Manti-Lasal National Forest in about a mile. If you continue for another 3 or 4 miles you will climb up into some absolutely gorgeous groves of Aspen trees. Although we did not see any Motorhomes up there, there were multiple campsites and several were taken by folks that had towed their 35-45 foot fifth wheels up there. I believe my 29 foot Four Winds could have made the drive without issues, although we did not try it.

We camped at this trailhead while attempting to hike to the Fifth Water Hot Springs. Due to fire activity, the original trailhead was closed so we camped at the "back way" trailhead. There were signs indicating that dispersed camping was allowed in areas designated by a fire ring. Found one near the trailhead parking. Not many flat places for a tent and there was cow manure all over the ground, so not many options for places to put our tent. The "fire-pit" was also filled in with rocks, thinking this may have been related to the nearby forest fires. May have better luck at the other trailhead in the future.

This site is located on the northerly side of the road. A number of fire pits exist in this area. It is readily apparent that others have stayed here in the past and it is a popular spot. Good only one other camper has been here in the 5 days that I have been here so far. There are any number of spots along this road that could be used for dispersed camping. The farther you go along the road the rougher it gets. I was able to find a lot of small sticks that had fallen off the trees to be able to use in my wood stove in a wall tent. It is about 5 and a 1/2 miles to the end of the road up the Canyon.

This is a great spot just a about 2 miles off the main highway. It’s paved until you get to the campground turn off which is a good dirt road. Wide open space with tons of options to tent or RV. There’s a huge sign that says Sheep Creek Campground so you can’t miss it. Drove here with my front wheel drive sedan and tent camped. Train goes by occasionally but not loud enough to disturb. Access to hiking trails all around because it’s national forest land. You can stay 14 days. No permit required. No amenities.

I found a spot on Eight Mile road, just off i-15, near the east side of the national forest. I drove up the dirt road for a while until I found a nice flat spot for the night. 

I could hear some road noise, but had 3+ bars of T-mobile 5g service. Not another person in sight except for maybe 2 cars that drove by during the night. Plenty of cows and cow patties around though!

Bonus: Eight mile road was a shortcut to westbound highway 50 and a nice way to start the drive in the morning.

This hike has many camping spots on the second half of the trail right along the creek, some small some larger for group sites. To make it all worth the while, there’s a huge waterfall at the end of the 2 mile hike along with awesome natural hot springs!

Just off of willow creek rd. Turn left at the map coordinates. You are at almost 8000 ft so not a winter camping spot. There is some ATV traffic but respectfully slow. Good roads in but we got there on a Sunday night and quite a bit of traffic heading out. I imagine the weekends are busy. Lots of spots to camp along the road but this one seemed the most private.

Great dispersed place to stay. Was there on a thursday and saw 2 other people. Campsite I stayed at/the drive up is amazing during sunset

This was the only camping spot we could find on the weekend. It was pretty packed here as many people like to fish Strawberry Reservoir. We found a decent spot to unload and set up camp about a mile in to Mud Creek Road.

There is a store down by the lake but you have to pay a fee to get in. We came prepared for our visit so we never went down there.

If you’re used to lower elevation camping, come prepared with extra warm sleeping bags or blankets. It was pretty cool at night (like down to 29 degrees at night). Check the weather beforehand!

We fished for trout and crawfish on the lake. The crawfish were easier to catch than the trout. We caught one trout (cutthroat) that we threw back and 4 crawfish. We caught the crawfish as we walked back to the truck along the shoreline. Our favorite spot to fish was ladders on the opposite side on the lake.

This is a beautiful lakeside camp site ruined by people who dump their trash on the side of camp and throw glass bottles everywhere. It might not be bad if you're secluded inside a plush RV, but it's definitely not a place you walk around with kids.

There are plenty of camp sites here so it's best to have an off-road capable vehicle that will take you away from most of the mess. The trails look like hard and rocky, but it's soft dirt so be careful of getting stuck in places with deep muddy ruts.

On a Tuesday night in October, it was nice and quiet. No bugs or high winds, although I'd recommend checking the weather forecast beforehand. There's nothing to protect you from the wind here.