Albion Basin
- Right now
- Listed not openA database flag with no reason and no date
- A night
- $29–$87Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 26All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 15 notices
In the agency’s own words
Albion Basin Campground, just 15 miles from Sandy, Utah, is set among shady white pines and aspens in its beautiful namesake basin in Little Cottonwood Canyon at an elevation of 9,500 feet. Keep reading
Recreation
Hiking and mountain biking are very popular activities. Hikers enjoy the path to Cecret Lake, which begins at the campground, as well as the Catherine Pass/Sunset Peak Trail just down the road. Mountain bikers often ride the Albion Basin Road and the trail to Germania Pass. Other trails include the Albion Meadows Trail and Cardiff Pass/Twin Lake Pass.
Facilities
The campground contains 24 "reservation" sites (22 single sites, one double and one triple site). All come with picnic tables and campfire rings. Vault toilets are provided. Roads and parking spurs are dirt. One single site is available on a First Come, First Served basis, site #2.
Natural Features
Albion Basin is renowned for its vivid summer wildflowers. The basin hosts the Wasatch Wildflower Festival annually in late July or early August, complete with guided nature walks. Moose and deer frequent the basin and mountain goats can often be seen on the precipitous face of Devils Castle, just south of the campground. A small stream runs through the basin.
Nearby Attractions
Little Cottonwood Canyon is a beautiful area known for its soaring peaks, unique geology, pristine hidden lakes and cascading streams. Numerous additional hiking and mountain biking trails are found throughout the canyon. Rock climbing and fly-fishing are popular activities as well. Snowbird Resort is just a few miles down-canyon, offering scenic tram rides, hiking, mountain biking, restaurants, groceries, an Alpine Slide, zip line rides, concerts and various festivals.
What the agency tells you
There are no electrical, water, or sewer hookups available at this location.
This is a watershed area. Visitors will be fined for bringing domestic pets or livestock into the area.
No amplified music is allowed in USDA Forest Service campgrounds and facilities. People come to the campgrounds for peace and quiet.
Everything else this campground posts · 12
There is limited spring water at Albion Basin. Visitors should bring their own water just in case.
Campground opening date is subject to weather and snow melt conditions.
Please carpool if possible. Most sites accommodate two passenger vehicles only. No overflow parking is available.
Gates are locked from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m.
Weather can change suddenly and thunderstorms should be expected.
A per-day, per-vehicle fee of $10 will be collected on site for each extra vehicle. Single sites get only one car free, double site gets two cars, triple site three cars.
Off-road vehicles or ATVs are not permitted.
There is one First Come, First Served site during the reservation period. Site #2.
Click here for more info about the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest
Don't Move Firewood: Help prevent the spread of tree-killing pests in our national forests by obtaining firewood near your destination and burning it on-site. For more information visit dontmovefirewood.org.
Firewood is available for purchase from the camp hosts at $10 a bundle.
The maximum number of persons allowed on a single camping site is 8, on a double 16, and on a triple 24.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 26
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 25 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Shade
- 24 of 26 sites
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…with picnic tables and campfire rings. Vault toilets are provided. Roads and parking spurs are dirt. One…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek, Meadow
- Biking
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 444th darkest of 458 in UT
- Bortle 5
- Fall color · reported 7 days ago, 2.8 km away
- Peak color
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
No availability snapshot inside the last 36 hours, so this page draws nothing rather than ageing a reading into fiction.
Watch for a cancellation
Full? Watch it.
One email when a night opens, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We read recreation.gov once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time a site in your window is free for the nights you asked for.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
Tell me when the season opens
Watch for the season to open
One email when the season goes on sale, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time the agency has that season on sale.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 16
What you actually pay
“Extra Vehicle Fee: $10.00/car per day.” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own fee record
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $29–$87 a night, plus one $8 recreation.gov reservation fee for the booking. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night, booked once. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
Who keeps the booking fee
The agency’s own policy text says the reservation fee and the cancellation processing fee are “retained by the reservation service contractor”, and that a campground concessionaire will decline to refund them because “they did not receive these fees”. Recreation.gov is run under contract by Booz Allen Hamilton. What share of your booking fee the contractor keeps isn’t published in any federal dataset we can read, so we print no number for it. Our reporting on the contract →
How we know this receipt · 6
rules read Oct 1, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
34 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 18 mapped sitesAll 34 records
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 18 of the 34 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 26 of the 34 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| ALBI | 001 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | $29–$87 | |||
| ALBI | 002 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 184 ft | 136 ft | 319 ft | $29–$87 |
| ALBI | 003 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 55 ft | 46 ft | 162 ft | $29–$87 |
| ALBI | 004 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 55 ft | 64 ft | 130 ft | $29–$87 |
| ALBI | 005 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | $29–$87 | |||
| ALBI | 006 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 62 ft | 250 ft | 69 ft | $29–$87 |
| ALBI | 007 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 62 ft | 236 ft | 54 ft | $29–$87 |
| ALBI | 008 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 117 ft | 292 ft | 171 ft | $29–$87 |
| ALBI | 009 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 126 ft | 290 ft | 294 ft | $29–$87 |
| ALBI | 010 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 167 ft | 52 ft | 88 ft | $29–$87 |
| ALBI | 011 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 134 ft | 203 ft | 100 ft | $29–$87 |
| ALBI | 012 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 172 ft | 39 ft | 122 ft | $29–$87 |
| ALBI | 013 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 108 ft | 277 ft | 234 ft | $29–$87 |
| ALBI | 014 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 108 ft | 181 ft | 218 ft | $29–$87 |
| ALBI | 015 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 166 ft | 347 ft | 385 ft | $29–$87 |
| ALBI | 016 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 71 ft | 432 ft | 533 ft | $29–$87 |
| ALBI | 017 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 88 ft | 305 ft | 442 ft | $29–$87 |
| ALBI | 018 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 88 ft | 252 ft | 354 ft | $29–$87 |
| ALBI | 019 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 71 ft | 393 ft | 465 ft | $29–$87 |
| ALBI | 022 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | $29–$87 | |||
| ALBI | 023 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | $29–$87 | |||
| ALBI | 024 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | $29–$87 | |||
| ALBI | 025 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | $29–$87 | |||
| ALBI | 026 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | $29–$87 | |||
| ALBI | 027 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | $29–$87 | |||
| ALBI | 2021 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 175 ft | 298 ft | 267 ft | $29–$87 |
| MANAGEMENT SITES | XXX1 | unnamed record | $29 | ||||
| MANAGEMENT SITES | XXX2 | unnamed record | $29 | ||||
| MANAGEMENT SITES | XXX3 | unnamed record | $29 | ||||
| MANAGEMENT SITES | XXX4 | unnamed record | $29 | ||||
| MANAGEMENT SITES | XXX5 | unnamed record | $29 | ||||
| MANAGEMENT SITES | XXX6 | unnamed record | $29 | ||||
| MANAGEMENT SITES | XXX7 | unnamed record | $29 | ||||
| MANAGEMENT SITES | XXX8 | unnamed record | $29 |
The agency files 8 more records here that aren’t sites for the night. It types every one of them MANAGEMENT rather than a campsite. They’re in the table above, marked for what they are, and none of them is counted as a site.
25 of 34 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Redman CampgroundWasatch National Forest · 2.9 mi
Tanners FlatWasatch National Forest · 4.6 mi
Spruces - Big CottonwoodWasatch National Forest · 4.6 miSpruces CampgroundWasatch National Forest · 4.8 mi
Jordan PinesWasatch National Forest · 5.1 mi
Granite Flat (Utah)Uinta National Forest · 6.5 miFrom I-215, take the 6200 South exit and travel a mile east to Wasatch Blvd. Take Wasatch Blvd 3 miles south to the junction with Little Cottonwood Canyon/Highway 210. Take a left at the junction and travel up Little Cottonwood Canyon 10.2 miles to the campground. The last 2.4 miles are on a maintained gravel road which has an information booth operated in partnership with the Ski Area; the hosts will direct you up the road to the campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Alta, UT
Typical weather
Typical October night 31°F, day 50°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 15°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or more
A normal is the 1991-2020 average for the month, not a forecast: about half of all Julys are colder than the July line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it
Roadless country, and what’s coming for it
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Albion Basin is in Utah’s 3rd congressional district. Its representative, Mike Kennedy (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →