The Utah Redemption Tour: BLM Camping in Moab
Catch up on our series here.
After our week at Arches, we kept 2 nights open, with hopes we could park ourselves closer to US191. Devils Garden was beautiful and we have no regrets camping deep in the park, but getting to downtown Moab was a trek. We didn't want to leave the area without doing at least one activity closer to civilization. Plus, we still had another national park to visit: Canyonlands. Moab has a lot of free and inexpensive public land camping, but it's all first come, first served (FCFS) and can fill up quickly. We have the added challenge of finding spots that fit our RV. As with many recreational paradises, the larger your rig, the less availability you have to camp.
We are not friends with dispersed camping, but we're also aware that we can't form a full conclusion after just 2 experiences. The first time was our introduction to Utah. We hoped to find a dispersed camping spot after we crossed over from Nevada, but everything was full. Even though we did a lot right, like going on a weekday and scouting spots without our rig, we made a lot of mistakes, too. We chose a very popular dispersed camping area during a very popular time of year. We arrived mid-afternoon after a few hours' drive, leaving little time and energy to scout out sites.
We ended up calling the nearby KOA shortly before their office closed, and we squeezed into one of our least favorite KOA spots ever. Hey, beggars can't be choosers.
Our second dispersed camping experience was also in a popular area during a busy time of year, but we came prepared. We were camping in Grand Teton National Park and moved over to Bridger-Teton National Forest. We were close enough to the forest that we scouted sites without our rig first. We found a lovely site at Toppings Lake Dispersed Camping area, up the road from the famous Upper Teton View. Our spot gave us a lot more seclusion than Upper Teton, but we still had a little view of the peaks of the mountains.
We were happy...until we weren't. Cue relentless bugs and neighbors blatantly ignoring the rules. We decided to leave early, and on our way out had one of the most aggravating interactions with fellow campers (who weren't actually campers) in the history of our RV life.
After that, we stopped dispersed camping for a while. We thought that Moab might be the place to try again. We'd be coming from a nearby campground, so we'd have plenty of time to scout spots early in the day. Moab is also full of parking areas near OHV trails, so while the camping might be loud during the day, we knew our toyhauler would fit right in. I dove into research to try and figure out our options.
Yes, there are dispersed camping areas in town, and the camping is free. However, I found a lot more designated FCFS sites. Word is that, over time, Moab took over more of the public lands and began creating designated sites. On par with the designated camping still owned by the federal government, the town began charging a modest fee for camping. Most of the fees are $15-20, but campers who have America the Beautiful Senior or Access passes can get discounts.
We might not be friends with dispersed camping, but we've had surprisingly good luck with designated FCFS sites.
We had an overnight at the lovely Amistad National Recreation Area on our way to Big Bend two years ago.
We snagged this amazing site at Lewis and Clark Caverns State Park in Montana.
And recently, we spent a few nights at Sunset Reef Campground, owned by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) but straddling the line between designated sites and almost-dispersed camping.
Some campers complain that they don't want to pay for a no hookup site, but we find that paying a little bit usually means people respect the campgrounds more and don't try to weasel their way into places they aren't supposed to be. Emphasis on the word "usually." The more of these campgrounds I found in my research, the more I realized that we probably weren't going to try dispersed camping this time.
But, we would still have our work cut out for us. It was now April, the beginning of busy season in Moab. I listed out all of the possible places we could scout out, both designated and dispersed. Then I ordered them by priority. Our first choices were all designated, not surprisingly. First on the list was Courthouse Rock Campground, a 10-site BLM campground just north of downtown. Equally intriguing was slew of recreation sites along the Colorado River. A few of the CO River campsites could fit us, if we were lucky, and the campgrounds have a heck of a view of the river and canyon walls. We saw all of these options as top contenders, but we figured heading up the street to Courthouse Rock would be an easier first stop. If the campground was full, we'd head up to the river. If we had no luck there, we'd continue down our list.
Check-out from Devils Garden was at 10am, but we decided to leave a little after 9am to give ourselves plenty of time to roam around Moab looking for a site. We drove the 17 minutes up US191 and turned onto Mill Canyon Road, a well-maintained dirt road that was easy to maneuver with the rig. We passed a few ATV trails, and soon a little campground appeared in the distance. All but 2 sites were empty. We chose site 4, the last site on the righthand row, so we wouldn't have anyone parking on our pleasure side. We checked the site post tag to make sure no one was returning that day. The last campers had checked out the day before. We were good to go. We backed ourselves in, and at 10am, we had our site for the next couple of days. (Check-in and out are both technically at 12pm, but since the campground was mostly empty, there was a lot of wiggle room with our arrival).
Payments can be made at the entrance to the campground using cash or through the scan-to-pay feature on the rev.gov app, which is what we used. $20/night plus a small transaction fee that may have been waived if we had just paid cash in-person. Of the 10 sites, 2 are reservable on rec.gov, but these are equestrian sites with horse trailer parking and pens. People without horses still reserve them, but we don't think this is fair to those who actually need those sites. When I checked the day prior, both of the sites were reserved, and two Cruise America RVs came in that night, clearly without any need for the equestrian facilities.
So yes, despite being a self-proclaimed "major optimizer," we grabbed our campsite and looked no further. Could we have potentially gotten a site along the CO River? Maybe. Could we have found somewhere cheaper or even free? Probably. But we didn't care. The biggest downside was that I spent so much time researching the various spots we could try, but we ended up not needing any of it! It's like the scene in Friends when Chandler is trying to figure out what he wants to do for a career, and Monica creates a vocational binder for him, with all his options in alphabetical order. First on the list was "advertising," to which Chandler's ears perked up, and the rest of the binder wasn't even needed. The silver lining in all of this, though, is that we will have our options for next time we're in Moab, and even better, we get to share it with you!
Turns out there was no need to worry about availability because the campground didn't even fill up the entire time we were there. This could be because we strategically camped from Tuesday-Thursday, or because the weather was not exactly what people want for their camping experience. A cold front had moved in, and we had several days of highs in the 40s with on-and-off rain, snow, and sleet. Whenever a storm system moved through, the winds picked up. Nothing that bothered us much, though. We're used to all kinds of weather in our RV life.
The campground
We even braved the weather for a couple of adventures, one of which was right at the campground. A short walk led us to Dinosaur Tracks, an impressive display of fossilized dino footprints and a prehistoric crocodile footprint. Back in the early Cretaceous Period, the land here was made up of lime mud and algae, a prime combination for dinosaurs to leave clear imprints. Over time, these tracks were buried and preserved as more water flowed through and sediment was deposited. Now, the area is a dry wash. With no more water covering the tracks with sediment, they were eventually exposed. This area of Utah is a mecca for paleontology, as researchers uncover evidence of various eras of prehistoric life.
We took Tanner on the short boardwalk that loops around some of the prominent footprints, and there are signs explaining which dinosaur species the prints belonged to.
The campground also had views of cows and the namesake Courthouse Rock. Nearby are the aforementioned ATV trails and more walking trails to fossils.
Now that we were settled into our campsite, we had easy access to adventures in downtown Moab. We had one heck of a time trying to figure out what activity to do. Anthony asked, "What are my choices?" To which I responded, "You name it, they have it." It was essentially true. We could have explored by land, water, or air with 4x4 tours, boat tours, and airplane or helicopter tours, respectively. We could have gone ziplining. We could have gone canyoneering!
We narrowed our options down to something not too strenuous, as we had done a lot of physical activity the previous days. We also needed to find something that fit with our schedule, ideally an evening activity. We ended up choosing the Sound and Light Jet Boat Tour offered by Canyonlands by Night & Day. We chose this for the simple reason that it was in the evening and included a combination of a few different activities. First, we opted into the cowboy-style Dutch oven dinner that's offered along with several of the tours. Then we had our jet boat tour along the Colorado River. This isn't a highspeed splish-splashy jet boat (though they have those, too!), but instead a calm glide up the river. On the way out, we were treated to a guided tour of the canyon. We traveled all the way up to an area called Big Bend, where we then watched as 40,000 watts of light illuminated the canyon walls. A truck follows along from the road, shining the lights along with an audio narration of the history of the area. Lastly, we listened to light music while we stargazed on our way back to the headquarters. It's a lot packed into 3 hours, and we hoped it would give us enough variety to not get bored. Soon, we realized that choosing this kind of adventure was smart, because if we didn't like one part, we'd hopefully like the next.
The cowboy-style dinner is either before or after your tour, depending on which tour you take. Ours was before, which turned out to be good. The food is served buffet-style, and we were two of the first to grab some, but it was already getting cold. The flavor was decent, though. The Dutch oven dinners are mostly a bunch of different barbecue meats and sides such as cheesy potatoes, corn, salad, and rolls. We also had apple crisp for dessert. Hot and cold non-alcoholic beverages came with our meal, and there was a cash bar. We sat at long communal tables and got to know our dinner companions. There was certainly no shortage of food, but I felt bad for the tours that came in and had dinner afterwards, because I knew their food would be cold. Even though it wasn't the best dinner in the world, it's only $10 extra, and it was a nice way for us to arrive and relax for a bit before our boat departed.
Temps dropped to 40°F and the boat was open air. We brought extra layers and hoped for the best. The company provided us a bunch of blankets from their gift shop to help keep us warm, which was a generous touch. Turns out they were very much needed. Those boat seats get cold! We laughed at the fact that our boat was only about 1/3 filled, and I guessed that all of us were from cold climates because we'd be the only ones brave enough to withstand 90 minutes in this weather. Funnily enough, our tour guide asked us all where we're from, and sure enough, all but one group was from a colder climate. The outliers were from Southern California. Bless their hearts. We did have a family from North Carolina as well, but trust us, they know the cold, too.
Bundled up on a mostly empty boat
The boat tour was awesome. Our guide Tasha was knowledgeable, entertaining, and funnier than most stand-up comedians. Canyonlands by Night & Day is a family-run business, and as the sister of our boat captain Ron, they had a lot of witty sibling banter. She said that she hopes for the duration of our tour that we, too, feel like part of the family, and we did. Along the ride, Tasha pointed out various formations on the canyon walls and talked about the sediment-filled waters of the river. Typically, the river stays shallow. Where we rode was just a few feet deep. However, Tasha pointed out how high the waters got during the snowmelt-induced highwaters of two years ago. Glad to know that vengeful spring has now made her narrative. It's certainly made ours!
We also passed one of the recreation campgrounds that would have been our second choice FCFS site, had we not lucked out at Courthouse Rock. It was hard to tell from the water, but it looked like all the campsites were taken. As we floated by, we wondered if we would have gotten a site there, and how funny it would have been to then take a boat ride right past our RV, or even funnier, being in our RV the next night and seeing the floodlight truck pass by.
The sun finished setting as we approached the Big Bend, at which point we segued into the Sound and Light portion of the evening. The floodlight truck met us on the side of the river and lit up the canyon walls. The tour description makes very clear that this isn't a "Disney level" demonstration. There are no colored lights or lasers (except for Tasha's laser pointer). This was one of the draws for us. We've done the "modern" light show on historic features before, and it's just plain cringe.
Seeing the lights on the canyon is nice, but we felt the historic narration was a little too historic. Some parts haven't kept up with the times, and I couldn't help but wonder how they think some of it is appropriate for small children. We get that murder and violence was part of the times, but the graphic telling of an Indian Renegade shooting a young Mormon pioneer execution-style to "make sure he was definitely dead" was a bit much. The pioneer survived anyway though, so does that make the story okay?
Also, would the narration have been different if we were on a Native American-owned tour? Oh, we think so. But as with so many other parts of this state, all we could do is sigh and say, "Ah, Utah."
We had clouds at the beginning of the tour, but they cleared enough for us to have some incredible stargazing for the trip back. It would have been wonderfully peaceful except for two things: The frigid temperatures and the family behind us who didn't get the memo that we weren't talking at that point in time. In fact, that family kept talking throughout the whole tour, and one of them was sniffling and coughing up a lung right into the back of my head. I suppose we could have moved to one of the 50 empty seats in the back of the boat, but why should we give up our good view at the front?
When all was said and done, we gave the whole experience a solid B. The dinner was decent. We loved the guided tour part of the boat ride, and the downfalls of the stargazing portion weren't the company's fault. The historic narration wasn't our cup of tea, but considering this tour was less expensive than the sunset jet boat tour, we still think we made a good choice. In total, we paid $99 each for the extravaganza. With the overwhelming number of activities we could have chosen in Moab, we're sure some would have blown us out of the water, but we were mostly satisfied just gliding along the water instead.
We will, however, recommend Canyonlands by Night & Day wholeheartedly. We think they run a wonderful business. Everything was organized, the staff were extremely nice, and they seemed to truly enjoy making us all feel welcome. Tourism is the number one economic industry in Moab, so we were happy to put some of our tourist dollars towards a family-owned business that has been sharing their love of the area for over 70 years.
We learned quickly that we could have spent many more days in Moab, but our Utah Redemption Tour was keeping us moving. We had just one more day in the area, and one must-see destination. Time to go from the bottom of the canyon, to the canyon rim! Our visit to Canyonlands National Park is coming up in the next blog post.
