Best Tent Camping: Utah: Your Car-Camping Guide to Scenic Beauty, the Sounds of Nature, and an Escape from Civilization

by Jeffrey Steadman

Overview

Camping Guide to Utah Highlights Best Spots to Sleep Under the Stars Snowcapped mountains, forested wilderness, red-rock canyons, and hidden backcountry—Utah offers some of the most diverse and breathtaking campground settings in the world.
Best Tent Camping: Utah, by Jeffrey Steadman, provides a guide to the 50 best places in the state to pitch a tent and spend the night—without being bothered by the noise of loud portable stereos, large recreational vehicles, and crowds. Jeffrey zigzagged the state to create this in-depth look at Utah’s best tent camping locations, including alternatives to the busy campgrounds in Utah’s five national parks. In addition to providing campers with essential information about each campground (including season, rates, facilities, and how to reserve a site), the guide identifies the best sites at the best campgrounds, offers information on exciting day trips, suggests hikes and activities accessible from the campgrounds, and describes the flora and fauna that campers might encounter on a trip.
Whether campers are seeking a quiet site beside a peaceful stream or a cliffside camp overlooking beautiful canyons, Best Tent Camping: Utah is an indispensable guide for the person who likes to sleep in a tent not far from the convenience of the car.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781634040730
Publisher:	Menasha Ridge Press
Publication date:	08/08/2017
Series:	Best Tent Camping
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	192
File size:	18 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Jeffrey Steadman was born and raised in Utah, where he began exploring theoutdoors shortly after leaving the womb. As a child he spent his summers exploring the canyons of the Wasatch Front on family hikes. These days he explores all that Utah has to offer in every season. He’s slept in snowcaves, been in a lightning and hailstorm about 12,000 feet, and has been known to catch fish out of local streams with his bare hands on more than one occasion. Jeffrey is an accomplished writer and enjoys introducing new campers to theoutdoors through youth volunteer programs, classroom instruction, or planning giant camping trips with new friends. When he’s not in the backcountry, he enjoys cooking, gardening, photography, andspending time with family. He currently lives near Salt Lake City with his dog Mountain Jane, a Wirehaired Pointing Griffon who just can’t get enough camping.

Read an Excerpt

The pockmarked cobble walls of Maple Canyon plunge down and meet the ground as if they had thrown down the gauntlet and challenged you to climb them. Rock climbers from all over the state—and even the country—are answering that challenge and confirming that this is one of the best places in the world to climb cobblestone. By day they conquer cliffs, but by night they sleep at Maple Canyon Campground.

There are 13 sites in a string, just inside the Manti-La Sal National Forest boundary west of the farming town of Moroni. Only one small sign indicates the campground’s presence, a brown blur on UT 132 near Fountain Green. The first of these sites in Maple Canyon is designed to hold groups of up to 40 people. Sites 2 through 4 are individual sites strung along a spur off the main campground road and are probably the best sites in camp, privacy-wise. Because of the high canyon walls, sunshine is at a premium. Sites 5 through 9 give you the most minutes of sunshine each day, which is probably worth considering if you stay here during spring or fall. Sites 10 through 13 are located at the top of the campground, far away from the nine below them.

All of the sites at Maple Canyon can be reserved. If the group site isn’t being occupied, it is offered on a first-come, first-served basis at $15 per night. The other sites are also up for grabs when they’re not already spoken for, but it only takes a moment to make a reservation, so why risk it? The restrooms have recently been renovated, which is a welcome improvement from the old ones. They’re still vault toilets, but they’re sturdy and neat. Water isn’t available at camp, but there’s a small trickle of a stream that runs adjacent to the road where you can pump and purify. Bring plenty of your own water in case the stream is dry.

What’s not cobbled cliff walls or sandy light brown earth is probably a maple tree. There are a few evergreens to dot the landscape here and there, but most of the green comes from maple trees of every size. For being so close to the Sanpete Valley floor, the canyon is much greener than you’d expect. Maple Canyon makes rock climbers feel like kids in a candy store. The sheer number and variety of routes available are enough to earn this canyon a reputation as one of the world’s best places to climb. An entire book has been written about just this canyon, detailing the different areas to climb, but any gear shop around should be able to point the uninitiated in the right direction.

Difficulty levels range from beginner to hard-core routes for the most insane climbers. Among the most climbed are Engagement Alcove and the Schoolroom, although there are countless climbs known by many names in the area.

Ice climbing is also quite popular in Maple Canyon, but the conditions aren’t always favorable. Your best bet would be to hop online and find other climbers in the area who may have a recent report. The campground closes in the wintertime, but ice climbers spend the precious daylight hours tied to the sheer ice walls that form.

Rock climbing isn’t the only game in town. Take one of the trails that connect to the side canyons—one to the north and one to the south. They’re only short trails that take off right near the campground, but they will give you a hint of the real personality of the canyons of the San Pitch Mountains.

The San Pitch Mountains mark the border between Sanpete and Juab counties. Although they’re not too terribly tall, they do rise above the Sanpete Valley and offer convenient camping to residents on both sides. Trails and rough roads snake throughout the range. In fact, it’s possible to drive from Wales to Levan on Forest Service Road 101. Find the road by going back out to Westside Road and going south 4 miles to Wales, then turning right. Wales Canyon will lift you up over the ridge of the San Pitch Range, then the road will funnel you back down along Chicken Creek. I’m not much of a rock climber myself, but I still found Maple Canyon fascinating. Every texture, every color, and every little side canyon are so different, yet they somehow blend together to make it work.

Table of Contents

OVERVIEW
MAP
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
PREFACE
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
INTRODUCTION

NORTHERN UTAH
1. Antelope Island State Park
2. Pioneer Campground
3. Tony Grove Campground
4. Hideout Campground
5. Lodge Campground
6. High Creek Campground
7. Monte Cristo Campground
8. Botts Campground
9. Bountiful Peak Campground
10. Redman Campground
11. Tanners Flat Campground
12. Albion Basin Campground
13. Mill Hollow Campground
14. Jordanelle State Park – Rock Cliff Campground
15. Timpooneke Campground
16. Hope Campground
17. Butterfly Lake Campground
18. Yellowpine Campground
19. Balsam Campground
20. Aspen Grove Campground
21. Dry Canyon Campground
22. Ponderosa Campground
23. Forks of Huntington Campground
24. Maple Canyon Campground
25. Bowery Creek Campground
26. Maple Grove Campground
27. Deep Creek Campground

WESTERN UTAH
28. Clear Creek Campground
29. Simpson Springs Campground
30. Loop Campground
31. Clover Springs Campground

SOUTHERN UTAH
32. Natural Bridges National Monument
33. Cedar Canyon Campground
34. Oak Grove Campground
35. Snow Canyon State Park
36. Red Cliffs Campground
37. Zion National Park – Lava Point Campground
38. Arches National Park – Hittle Bottom Campground
39. Bryce Canyon National Park – Pine Lake Campground
40. Capitol Reef National Park – Fruita Campground
41. Canyonlands National Park – Hamburger Rock Campground
42. Cowboy Campground
43. Lonesome Beaver Campground
44. Starr Springs Campground
45. Pleasant Creek Campground
46. Elkhorn Campground
47. Dalton Springs Campground
48. Moonflower Campground
49. Oowah Lake Campground
50. Goblin Valley State Park

APPENDIXES AND INDEX
Appendix A: Camping Equipment Checklist
Appendix B: Sources of Information
Index
Map Legend