Best Tent Camping near Evanston, WY

Absolutely awesome spot. Hosts were really friendly. Stayed in my pop up camper for a night and there was tons of space for pop up and our site (A1) was the best in the campground, I think. It was secluded with tons of trees. Not all sites had a lot of tree cover. It wasn’t right off the river but it was still only a 30 second walk to the river. There were fire bans in Utah but because of the type of fire set up on concrete and built in fire places, we were able to have a fire all night which was awesome. Also my buddy is a professional singer and brought his guitar so I’m impartial. We had such a great time!!

We were road tripping through with no reservations. The whole South Fork area has many campgrounds. Magpie is the first and one of the smaller of the campgrounds as you drive up the canyon. We drove through all the campgrounds and didn’t find any hosts to talk with to find out if we could occupy a spot. We thought it would be ok but weren’t sure if we could stay in a spot that had a weekend reservation posted. Plus there was simultaneously not very much shade and lots of overgrown vegetation that made tent camping not very feasible. All the sites with actual river frontage were occupied and most folks had campers. This was especially true at South Fork, Lower Meadows, Upper Meadows & Perception Park campgrounds. We finally found a host at Willows campground who explained the process but we didn’t see any sites we liked there. Magpie actually had some shaded sites so we headed back down there. We grabbed a spot that had no obvious river access but good shade right next to the host site. It was pretty overgrown but had enough of a flat spot to set up our tent and a big concrete pad for the picnic table and huge fire ring. Midweek it was only half full. Campground is literally mere feet from the road. Lots of road noise. Bathrooms were good enough. The host when he finally came around was very nice. The adjacent site was vacant (a double site that cost more $$) and we were able to get to the river there. We stayed two nights mid week and it never filled up but all the sites had weekend reservations. There isn’t a lot of hiking but if you like river recreation or we saw lots of paddle boarders headed up to the reservoir. We drove up Monte Cristo which was still closed for the season but probably would have been more our style. Birding was good around the campground probably due to the river. Again, road noise was annoying but expected. Also note that the forest service’s website was out of date as far as all the campgrounds in this area being open.

This campground much like the others in this canyon is situated along the banks of the South Fork of the Ogden River.  Before you get to Causey Reservoir and Weber Memorial Park, this is the biggest campground you'll encounter.  There are 35 single sites @23$ and 8 double sites @46$.  Some campsites are reservable and some are walk in sites.  A picnic table and metal fire ring is at each site along with vault toilets and drinking water scattered throughout the campground.  The campsites in the teens seemed to be the closest to the creek

As for activities to do in the area, there are plenty of options!  Right by most of the campsites you can fly fish or set off on a tubing adventure down the Ogden River!  It is required that you have a life jacket before setting off.  If you're looking for bigger accumulations of water you can either head back down canyon to the huge Pineview Reservoir or head up canyon to the steep walled Causey Reservoir!

Location- 39 miles south of Evanston, Wy in the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest of Utah. It is on the east side of Hwy 150 and sits at 9,100'.  There are 15 single site and 6 dbls sites. Reservable with water, sometimes (had it when we were there) and vault toilets.

Some sites aren't level and some sites can become lakes in heavy rain (our friends were in #3 and we almost had to get out the boats!).

Hosts were nice and kept the facilities clean.

Pretty area with the Hayden Fork of the Bear River on the east side of the Campground. Whiskey Creek Trailhead across the Hwy from the CG. Trail leads to Bourbon Lake (yes- this is Utah!).

Beautiful drive from Evanston. Ranger station is about 5 miles north of the CG. Just beyond that is a dump station. Don't remember if there is a sign but it's a hundred yards or so down a little forest road east of 150.

We tried fishing the river by the CG and below the confluence with the East Fork. Caught nothing and saw nothing. 

This is one of those places where you want to have everything you need with you.

 Evanston and Kamas are 40-ish miles away.

Overall, a very nice KOA. Picnic tables are all new and maintained, new fire rings. I stayed in tent camping, and it was grassy and level.

Lots of drive thru spots for electric and hookups.

The staff greeted me warmly. The office was clean and maintained.

Bathrooms were clean, but a tad dated. But they were servicable, smelled clean.

Pool was being repaired at the beginning of .e.orial Day weekend. A bit of a bummer. Also, there waa no firewood that I saw for sale.

The grounds were about half full.

The other slight downside was I-80 noise. I made a video so you can hear the noise. Its about 1 mile away.

I would stay here again!