Best Tent Camping near Salina, UT

Tent camping at site 23. $20 for a tent site ($40 for a double site). Cool area to explore. Fire pit and a faucet with a bucket. Bathrooms close by. $5 for a bundle of wood. Nice little spot!

Utah state recreation area, OHV recreation area along with beach side camping. Year round access. Campground is RV only (I think) beach tent camping along the whole lake, vault toilets around the lake, Occasionally there are trees but mostly not, can get dusty if people are driving thier off road toys. Only 1 vehicle per reservation extra car can be paid for. Nice beautiful, relaxing.

Sand Creek is 15 miles from Capitol Reef and 1,500’ higher - much cooler. Good wi-fi, showers, bathrooms and laundry. Firewood and ice are available for purchase. The grounds have not been maintained like they were two years ago in 2019, but that may be due to the drought. Sand Creek has simple reasonable cabins along with 6 tent sites and maybe 8 or 9 RV sites.

Capitol Reef has a great campground but it often fills up. This is a great alternative for $22 a night for a tent site.

Got to stay in a rad tipi site for only $30! They had firewood available by the bundle for $5/armload. Tent sites are $15 and extra cars are $10. It's about a mile from the Fremont Indian State Park and the surrounding area is pure magic.

Beautiful spot to stop on our route. The day we arrived was very windy. The view is serene and it’s very quiet. There are showers and bathrooms. Most campsites have water and electric and there are tent sites with great views of the lake. They have a couple cabins and on site kayak rentals.

We planned to tent camp here, but our friends rented the cabin next to our site and couldn’t make it last minute. So we got the cabin! Great spot. Lake is cool and an easy walk down from the sites. Shade is at a premium, so we were very happy to get the cabin because it was crazy hot. Clean bathrooms with nice showers for rinsing off after splashing in the lake all day.

Awesome campground at about 8,600’ elevation, has a couple small creeks running through, water and toilets on site as well. Each site has a metal fire ring (crucial for a campfire during burn bans), picnic table, grill, some sites had an extra fire ring and bench seats. It’s nestled on the mountainside surrounded by aspen forests and farm land. Plenty of wildlife in the area, watch for deer and cattle in the road. We had temps dip down into the teens overnight with a dusting of snow in late September, be sure to pack layers. Overall a perfect spot for tent camping, small campers max, no RV parking or hookups. Not too far from Capitol Reef National Park and Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. Highly recommend staying here and going to Grand Staircase for a hike in the slot canyons.

We just finished another stay at the Mackinaw Campground and it was the best one yet, even though our vehicle broke down on the last day of our stay. 

Thanks to the amazing camp host, Karen, we were able to contact local mechanics and get it quickly towed and fixed. She was so helpful, understanding, and flexible with assisting us. We couldn't have done it without her. 

The campsites have great picnic tables and firepits.  There are multiple small tent sites at each campsite and room for our longer travel trailer as well.

This is dry camping, but the bathrooms are clean and have flushing toilets. There are many drinking water stations around the camp.  

The park service has recently improved a dump station as the south end of the lake. It is a great place to fill your fresh water tank before pulling into camp and to empty black and grey tanks on the way home.

The lake shore trail is just across the street making it an easy walk to the marina.

Aspen trees cover the campground making it a great place to hang hammocks and relax.

We will be back again and again!

I camped here during Labor Day week on a Friday night. We were a walk up  reservation. The campsites themselves are small and some of the tent sites have the tent pad staggered down or up the hill from the main camp area. They all had a nice large picnic table and a FirePit with grate plus a separate BBQ. It was clean and well maintained. We were site 12 or something and had a great view of the lake in the mornings and a rough open sky for star gazing. Most of the other campers were respectful and quiet at night and in the morning. The bathrooms were easy to access and very basic. To access showers you need to go over to a different campground nearby or pay to use some at the holiday park nearby. Lots of water spigots everywhere for filling your containers. There was a tiny babbling brook next to my site which was nice to listen to at night. There was a trailhead to go up the mountain right in the campground or you could walk down to the lake and hike along the lakeside trail. Cattle seem to have free roaming access to the north of the holiday park but I didn’t smell them at all that day. It does get cold there at night since it’s at high elevation. I stumbled upon this campground by chance when our plans changed due to fires so I’d like to go back and spend some more time there on a properly planned vacation.

We stayed here twice this summer and really liked it both times. All the tenting campsites are on the Millsite Reservoir but if you go higher than site number 17 you are a bit further from the water. The campground is open, so not totally private, but it was so quiet it didn't really matter. We went for a couple of hikes in the Ferron Canyon which you can walk to, and they have paddle boarding on the reservoir which we didn't have time to do. They don't have typical fire rings on the ground - they are up off the ground. See photo.

We spent a single night in one of the tent sites, which are immediately behind the office/owner's residence. Sites have a parking space, fire ring with grill attachment, a picnic table and a gravel tent pad. They are small, and not separated from one another, so if you're looking for any level of privacy you won't find it here. On the other hand, if you like sharing space with other campers you may enjoy it. You also may experience those staying in the RV section walking through your site in order to get to the restrooms/showers.

The campground has both firewood and ice available for purchase. The remainder of the campground store is currently closed due to Covid regulations.

If you have any concerns about Covid (this is being written in September 2020), SC is not a site I would recommend. While the owners have placed signs suggesting social distancing guidelines, including masks while in the restrooms/shower area, compliance among the campers in a nearly full campground was minimal. One unmasked female camper was loudly discussing all the airports she had passed through on her way to the area, including Chicago and Denver. 

Even little details were missed, like the soap in the restrooms being organic and not antibacterial.

Sand Creek is located on Hwy 24, and the road noise didn't quiet down until around 11 PM. Probably not a good choice any time for a light sleeper.

If you have a self-contained RV and are just looking for a place to park for the night, Sand Creek is likely to fit your needs. For a tent camper, its main recommendation is the ability to reserve a site in advance, as most of the other campgrounds in the area are first come, first serve.

Awesome first camp of the year. Booked as soon as the state parks opened back up. Place really gave that “middle of nowhere feel”, lake and surrounding area were beautiful. Campsites were simple and bathrooms were nice. Only issue we had was we accidentally booked a site without electric. Could’ve been more clear on website, but also likely a rookie mistake being our first camp in Utah

Traveling east along US-50 "The Loneliest Road in America," we were seeking somewhere to camp after leaving Great Basin National Park. We stumbled upon Oak Creek Recreation Area quite by accident, but such a rewarding accident it turned out to be. It must be the best kept secret in western Utah for camping.

Oak Creek campground is located four miles east of Oak City, Utah. It is nestled in a canyon in the Fishlake National Forest. We arrived at the campground late afternoon June 5, 2023 and had our choice of ANY campsite - we were the only occupants. We selected site 19, a back-in site at the end of the loop that runs through the campground. The site is less than 100 feet or so from Oak Creek which runs parallel to the campground. The site is level and easily accommodated our 18-foot travel trailer. Using our Senior America the Beautiful pass, the cost per night was $8.00 and worth every penny. In addition to this campsite, there is additional camping further up Oak Creek Canyon Road for tents, RVs, and trailers - access is via a well-maintained dirt road beyond the campground we stayed in.

Highly recommend this campground for peace and quiet!

This is one of the nicest camp spots around. Close to town but close to the boulder mountains. Full hook ups for trailers. Cabins you can rent, and tent spots. Best views in Utah. If you like red dirt this is the place to be. Close to Capital Reef or the Boulder Mountains. The owners are on site and are very friendly. Lots of stuff to do in Torrey. They have a store on site plus it is close to gas station if you forgot anything.

Make sure you reserve a spot of Apple Days in July it is a fun time to be in Torrey. Lots of stuff going on. This place is busy all summer long so it is best to call ahead. Spring and Fall is amazing in Torrey and is not as hot as the summer months.

Castle Rock campground in Fishlake National forest is one of two campgrounds that serve Utah's Fremont Indian State Park, with both administration and reservations handled through the Utah State Park system. When I visited it was both very clean and very well maintained. Despite being close to the interstate, it is far enough up a side canyon that you do not hear the traffic on the road. It feels like being much further from civilization.

There are 44 camp sites available, many alongside the creek that flows through the campground. About 2/3 are reservable, the rest are available daily as FCFS. Two have teepees for those lacking a tent. Several are double sites for larger groups, and there are a variety of pull through vs in/out options.

There is available potable water at several locations around the campground, and two restroom facilities - a full flush unit near the center of the grounds, and a double pit at the south end of the loop.

Every site has a fire pit, an elevated grill, and a picnic table.

There is an access road from the campground to the Paiute ATV trail. For hikers, the south end of the campground is the north origin of the Joe Lott Trail that heads into the Fishlake National Forest. The facilities of Fremont Indian State Park are about 1/2 mile away, on the opposite side of I-70, and include a small museum of Fremont life, and a variety of improved and unimproved trails leading to many rock art sites.