What a great find! We stayed at William’s Bottom Campground last September 2017, when we were visiting Arches National Park on a road trip. There were some major construction projects underway at Arches at the time that we visited, and because the park was only open from 7am - 7pm, the Devil's Garden campground within the park was closed.

When researching where to stay, we saw that there was a private campground in Moab that seemed to cater more to motorhomes and trailers - we are tent campers who would prefer to be out in nature. Besides the private trailer campground, the only other camping options in the Moab area are small first-come, first-served campgrounds provided by the Bureau of Land Management. There are quite a few of these BLM campgrounds scattered along the Colorado River, and during peak seasons, these campgrounds can fill up quickly. We were concerned that all the campgrounds would be full and that we would be without a campsite for the evening, but decided to chance it since it was a Wednesday evening after the Labor Day weekend.

The first small BLM campground on highway 297 that we came across was full, but the next one - William’s Bottom - only had a few campers in its 12 sites, so we stopped and set up camp for the night. The campground is primitive and unmanned, and the $15 nightly fee can be left in an iron ranger at the front of the campground.

The William's Bottom campground is and easy drive from the Moab area, under some beautiful red cliffs, and the Colorado River is right across the highway. Because it is so close to the Colorado River, the campground has some trees and shade - hard to come by in this area of Utah. Even so, an easy up or canopy would come in handy if you were to hang around camp in the afternoon heat. The campsite was quite sandy, and there were a lot of fire ants about; I would suggest knocking your shoes and checking for insects if you leave your shoes out at night.

Each site has a fire ring and tables, but there are no trash cans, so you have to pack your trash out. There is NO WATER available, so bring plenty of water! Arches does have water spigots outside its visitors center, if you need to refill water bladders for a day of hiking in the park. I believe there were pit toilets…but we were in and out of camp relatively quickly, and never needed to investigate. It is right off the to the side of a fairly busy highway, so there is some noise pollution. There is a small road running through the campground, so you are not directly on the highway.

There are petroglyphs very close by on the cliffs along highway 297 and are worth seeing. Looking at maps, Williams Bottom is also close to hiking trails and popular climbing spots.

We had never camped in a BLM campground before, and were happy with the experience. Williams Bottom Campground is the perfect base camp for visiting Arches and Canyonlands NPs.

CAMPSITE SPECS

Fees: $15/night

Plumbed Toilets: NO - pit

Drinking Water: NO

Showers: NO

Picnic Table: Yes

Firepit: Yes

Cooking Grates: Yes

Shade: Yes - limited

Cell Service: NO

Animal Bins/Food Lockers: NO

Trash: NO