Camping Utah: A Comprehensive Guide to Public Tent and RV Campgrounds (State Camping Series)

329 Pages·2021·22.31 MB·English

by  Donna Ikenberry

Help Us Keep This Guide Up to Date
Every effort has been made by the author and editors to make this guide as accurate
and useful as possible. However, many things can change after a guide is published—
campgrounds open and close, grow and contract; amenities and regulations change;
facilities come under new management; and so on.
We would appreciate hearing from you concerning your experiences with this
guide and how you feel it could be improved and kept up to date. While we may not
be able to resCpCond aato ammll commppentsii annnd suggggest ionUUs, we’ttll taaake thhhem to heart, and
we’ll also make certain to share them with the author. Please send your comments
and suggestions to the following address:
GPP
Reader Response/Editorial Department
P.O. Box 480
Guilford, CT 06437
A Comprehensive Guide to Public Tent and RV Campgrounds
Or you may e- mail us at:
editorial@globepequot .com
Thanks for your input, and happy camping!
Third Edition
Donna Ikenberry
Introduction i
FFAALLCCOONNGGUUIIDDEESS®®
An imprint of Globe Pequot, the trade division of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706
rowman .com
Falcon and FalconGuides are registered trademarks and Make Adventure Your Story is a trademark of The
Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
Distributed by NATIONAL BOOK NETWORK
Copyright © 2021 The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
Photos by Donna Lynn Ikenberry
Maps by Rowman & Littlefield
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical
means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher,
except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information available
Library of Congress Cataloging-i n-P ublication Data
Name: Ikenberry, Donna Lynn, author.
Title: Camping Utah : a comprehensive guide to public tent and RV campgrounds / Donna Ikenberry.
Description: Third edition. | Guilford, Connecticut : Falcon Guides, 2021. | Includes index. | Summary: “From
the stirring beauty of Utah’s mountains, deserts, plateaus, canyons, and rivers, discover a campsite amid
some of the world’s most spectacular landscapes”—Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021013643 (print) | LCCN 2021013644 (ebook) | ISBN 9781493043163 (paperback)
| ISBN 9781493043170 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Camping—Utah—Guidebooks. | Recreational vehicle camping—Utah—Guidebooks. |
Camp sites, facilities, etc.—Utah—Guidebooks. | Utah—Guidebooks.
Classification: LCC GV191.42.U8 I54 2021 (print) | LCC GV191.42.U8 (ebook) | DDC 796.5409792—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021013643
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021013644
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard
for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
The authors and The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc., assume no
liability for accidents happening to, or injuries sustained by, readers who engage in
the activities described in this book.
For my husband, Mike Vining,
my brother, Don Ikenberry, and my sister- in- law, Yolie Gutierrez
(L to R) Don Ikenberry, Yolie Gutierrez, Donna Ikenberry, and Mike Vining

Contents
Acknowledgments ............................................................................................vii
Introduction .....................................................................................................ix
How to Use This Guide .....................................................................................xiii
Playing Outdoors ...........................................................................................xviii
Map Legend .................................................................................................xxxiv
Bridgerland ....................................................................................1
Golden Spike Empire ....................................................................18
Great Salt Lake Country ................................................................38
Mountainland ...............................................................................51
Dinosaurland .............................................................................100
Panoramaland ............................................................................144
Castle Country ...........................................................................180
Color Country ...........................................................................198
Canyonlands ..............................................................................257
Appendix .......................................................................................................295
Index .............................................................................................................298
About the Author ............................................................................................304
Introduction v
0 Kilometers 150
Overview
0 Miles 150Riverton
89
86
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491
COLOR
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George
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ARIZONA 89
191
Acknowledgments
One of the best things about writing a book is being able to dedicate it to someone
special. In this case, I’m dedicating my book to the two awesome men in my life, my
husband, Mike Vining, and my brother, Don Ikenberry, and to my sister-i n- law, Yolie
Gutierrez.
Both Mike and Don are amazing men. Mike is my soul mate, my best friend,
my favorite traveling companion. Mike was with me as I checked out every Utah
campground. He not only joined me on every occasion, but he also chauffeured me
around, driving thousands of miles, while I took notes, planned our routes, and put
this book together.
Though Don wasn’t there checking out campgrounds with me, he has always
been the most supportive, loving brother. He and I have always been close, but we
attained a new closeness when we took care of our dad during his final days on earth.
We both miss him so very much. Don’s wife, Yolie, is the “sister” I never had. Don
and Yolie are an amazing couple. We laugh a lot as they are always fun to be around.
I couldn’t love them more.
When I wrote the first edition of Camping Utah, my parents, Donald and Beverly
Ikenberry, were alive and well, and I talked to them daily. I always felt blessed by their
endless love and support. My parents passed away in recent years, and I miss them
daily.
My family has gotten a lot bigger since I met and married Mike in 1999. Mike’s
mom, Arlene Vining, passed away more than a decade ago, but not before I got to
know and love her. I also adored Mike’s dad, Roger Vining, who was always positive
and happy before he passed away in 2020. I am grateful for my two stepdaughters, my
six grandchildren, and the newest addition, my great- grandson, Spencer.
Additional thanks go to the folks at the USDA Forest Service, the Bureau of Land
Management, the Bureau of Reclamation, the Utah State Parks Department, and the
National Park Service, who so patiently answered my questions. I also want to thank
the State of Utah for granting us free day-u se entry to all of its state parks.
And of course, I am also indebted to Mason Gadd at Falcon for his help and
support.
vii
A nice hike leads to Morning Glory Bridge, located near Moab.
Introduction
When I originally said yes to writing a guide to Utah’s public campgrounds in 1999,
both disappointment and elation welled up inside me at the same time. Why? I was
disappointed because I had told myself I’d take a break from writing books. I had
spent every summer since 1986 working on either a new book or a book revision,
and I felt as though I needed a break.
At the same time, I was thrilled at the prospect of spending time in Utah, because
it was a state I’d left pretty much unexplored. For years I had wanted to see the
region, to get to know it intimately. I wanted to say I’d actually lived in the state for
a few months.
I signed the contract knowing I would be driving thousands of miles over the
period of a few months, but I also knew I’d spend time exploring the region both on
foot and by bicycle. Utah is an outdoor enthusiast’s paradise, and I knew I’d have to
get off the beaten path on a regular basis. What I didn’t know was that I would enter
the state with my very own chauffeur and personal rock- climbing guide.
A couple months before arriving in Utah, Mike Vining and I got married on
top of Mauna Kea, the highest point in Hawaii. We like to say we are on a fifty- year
honeymoon, so I suppose you could say we spent the first part of that honeymoon
in Utah, climbing magnificent rock, hiking many a trail, riding our bicycles both off
and on the road, and observing wildlife. We checked out all of Utah’s campgrounds
together, with Mike doing more than just the driving—he checked out many a toilet
for me, too.
Am I glad I made the decision to go ahead and write this book? I am. In fact, I
wouldn’t have missed it for anything.
Utah was all I had imagined and a whole lot more. A potpourri of landscapes, the
Beehive State affords everything from world-f amous red-r ock canyons to heaven-
bound mountains, elaborate river systems, lonely desert, fertile valleys, and a maze of
rock spires and pinnacles just waiting to be explored.
When my book came up for revision in 2013, Mike and I headed back to Utah,
spending a total of two and a half months in this lovely state. We rechecked camp-
grounds, added some new ones to the list, deleted some that had closed, and took
all new photographs. In addition to camping we spent time hiking and mountain
biking, as well as kayaking, and while exploring we learned about the state all over
again. When asked to do a light revision in 2019, I said yes, and spent time making
sure that my book reflects any campground changes. We even headed back to Utah
to check out some new campgrounds. And once again, we camped in our RV and
hiked some trails. (We had to skip mountain biking and kayaking because I was heal-
ing from back surgery.)
Several thousand years ago the place we today know as Utah was inhabited by
nomadic desert peoples. About AD 1300 the Ancestral Puebloan Culture reached its
ix