Cedar Mesa Campground — Capitol Reef National Park

This campsite is the closest to Capitol Reef, and although small, it was perfect. We visited in June 2020 and it was beautiful, especially at night due to minimal light pollution. There are only a handful of sites, but we managed to snag one on a weekday. I’m sure the sites are harder to get on weekends, so get there early. Will definitely be returning to this campground on our next trip to the Mighty Five.

This is a small remote campground that requires some dirt road driving to get to . There are picnic tables and fire grates but not much else.  A good location for exploring the various rock formations.

This campground really exceeded our expectations. Its a typical primitive site. No water, bring your own wood, and a pit toilet. The sites and toilet were in pretty good condition. We were there on Memorial Day.  2 of the 5 sites were occupied when we arrived at approx. 1130 am and the other 2 were taken by 1pm. They are doing some recovery work at the CG and have put areas and trail between sites off limits. If you stay here, take the time to do the red canyon trail. The trailhead is on the west side of the canyon and the hike is worth it. Exposed for the first mile or so but great views of the waterpocket fold. Once you get into the wash there are amazing rock features and colors up the canyon. This is also a great base to do the Upper and Lower Muley Twist trails, Halls Creek or the number of washes you can hike. All in all this CG was not a disappoint and its sits in some amazing country.

It's the only place to camp in the very scenic southern end of the Park. There are only five sites. All have a fire ring and picnic table. There's a vault toilet, but no water or firewood so you must bring your own. It's also the trailhead for the superb short Red Canyon Trail where I saw a Mountain Sheep.

A bit of a drive on a dirt road but worth it. Its first come first serve and has pit toilets, fire ring, and table. Beautiful scenery.

We spent one night at Cedar Mesa after finding the campground in Fruita to be full. We drove for about an hour on the Notom-Bullfrog road before finding the primitive campsite. We took the site farthest back on the north side of the road and had a gorgeous view of the sagebrush and red rocks. The night sky was unbelievable! Our only complaint, that really can't be improved upon, was we were constantly harassed by bees. There must have been a nest nearby. Our site included a fire pit and picnic table. We had a wonderful time!