Top 10+ Dispersed Free Camping near Willard, UT

Green Canyon is one of Logan Utahs underrated and overused gems. The canyon itself is open for recreation of various kinds year-round.

During the summer months when most of us like to go camping, there are between 15 and 25 sites available on a first-come first-serve basis. Some of these are groups sites that can accommodate large gatherings. Most sites have established fire rings, however the overall site condition as well as the condition of the fire ring is sometimes questionable. This is usually due to high volume. This Canyon is also notorious for high school Gatherings, so there is usually a lot of pallet wood burned. You will find on almost every trip Nails screws Staples and broken glass. Beer bottles beer cans and cigarette butts are also pretty common unfortunately. (Wear good shoes!) Aside from questionable condition of the campgrounds, it is easy to get to and free. And relatively close to Logan. So it's easy to see why I get so much use.

Green Canyon is better known and more happily known for its trail that runs alongside the road. Local residents love this Trail for trail runs, or mountain biking. There are Vault toilets in the parking lot at the bottom, as well as at the very top where Green Canyon meets water shed Canyon.

In the winter months the road is closed, and is groomed by a local group named Nordic United. They groom it for cross country skiing several times a week and after every good storm. Trail is also used during the winter for snowshoeing, as well as Fat Tire snow biking.

To top it off in the winter at the top Powder Ridge ski touring also has a yurt you can rent if you are willing to cross country ski or Snowshoe to it. (See separate review).

Overall Green Canyon only gets 3 out of 5 stars because of its high traffic and high litter volume. Remember to leave no trace and always leave it better than you found it!

This canyon is within the Cache National Forest. Just outside of Logan, UT. Super easy access to a neat little canyon. My Honda Civic was able to navigate the gravel road far back into the canyon. There are two restrooms - one at the trailhead and one down into the canyon a bit. Several spots with picnic tables. Many pullouts / camping spots with stone fire rings on either side of the road. There were tons of mountain bikers around, as there is a mountain bike / trail running / hiking trail that goes through the canyon as well. Kinda crowded on the weekend. Lots of trucks, razors, and ATVs. BUT the canyon itself is cool and pretty. There is even a cave up on the left coming in and we saw some people bouldering up there. Overall not bad for a free place to stay! Met some super kind folks in there.

Stopped in Logan on our way through Utah. Logan has STUNNING and charming views of mountains and an vast valley. Green Canyon was recommended by a friend. Plenty great dispersed sites for car camping. Tons of little spots along a gravel road. Fire rings and multiple clean bathrooms are available. The sites has a bit of leftover trash and the occasional shard of broken beer bottles. Nothing horrible, but certainly a place where people like to party. Seems to be a highly trafficked location. Cool rock visuals above a majority of the sites. Also tons of trails and mountain bikers. Met some climbers working on a sketch little project on one of the many many boulders. Sounds like there’s some legit stuff farther down the canyon.

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.

Absolutely beautiful location off highway 89. A popular place especially for ohv-ers. Lots of places to park but most of them seemed to be “claimed” (tents or trailers with no vehicles) for the upcoming weekend. That is the only reason for the loss of one star. We were there on a Thursday night just for and one night stop-and-go, so any of those claimed spots we could have used had they not been there.

There is a creek that flows back and forth around the area, we had that for our soundtrack as we slept.

At about mile 2 from the turn-off, there is a cattle guard and clear signs that the road is public but the land is not. It is possible that there is another cattle guard further up and more dispersed passed it as we saw more rvs head up and not turn around and come back, but we did not investigate that.

Well worth the trip in the search for a spot though. It was an amazing stay.

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.