Barker Recreation Area
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $18From, per site
- Sites
- 16All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 13 notices
In the agency’s own words
Barker Recreation Area is located high on the Colorado Plateau at an elevation of 9,300 feet. Visitors enjoy canoeing, fishing and exploring local trails. Keep reading
Recreation
Upper Barker Reservoir provides canoeing, kayaking and fishing for rainbow and brook trout. Numerous hiking, biking and horse trails can be accessed from both the Upper and Lower Barker Reservoir trailheads. Trails, including the non-motorized Great Western Trail, lead to nine backcountry fishing lakes and beautiful mountain views. The area also has excellent stream fishing and spectacular fall colors.
Facilities
This recreation area contains 13 single-family sites, three group campsites and a day-use area. Horses are permitted in the Porter group site. Drinking water is provided from Memorial Day through Labor Day. Amenities include accessible vault toilets and bear-proof food storage lockers. Fishing docks are located at Upper and Lower Barker Reservoirs. Roads and parking spurs are gravel.
Natural Features
A dense canopy of aspen and spruce trees forests Barker Recreation Area. Summer wildflowers are plentiful and a variety of wildlife frequents the area, including black bear, blue grouse, golden eagle, ducks and wild turkey. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (801) 226-3564.
Nearby Attractions
Both the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and Escalante Petrified Forest State Park are located approximately 45 minutes away. Sightseeing along Utah Highway 12, a National Scenic Byway, is very popular. Travelers visit from every corner of the world to see the stunning red rock canyons and desert landscapes. Bryce Canyon National Park, Kodachrome Basin State Park and Anasazi State Park are also located in the area.
What the agency tells you
CHECK IN: Begins at 2 PM. CHECK OUT: By 11 AM..
This is an American black bear habitat, be aware and keep a clean camp, use the provided food/garbage storage "bear boxes" as described in 36 CFR 261.58(cc) Forest Order 0407-21-18, violations are subject to citation.
Pack it in pack it out. No trash collection provided. Come prepared to stow and haul out your garbage. Leaving garbage behind is prohibited and a violation of 36 CFR 261.11 subject to a citation.
Everything else this campground posts · 10
No RV hookups available. Vault toilets and drinking water hydrants are available at this location.
Motorized boats are not permitted on lakes.
OFF HIGHWAY VEHICLE ROAD RESTRICTIONS WITHIN DEVELOPED CAMPGROUNDS FOREST ORDER 0407-21-13 - Street legal are permitted, non-street legal permitted in sites 1 and 13, Porter Group and Old Lady Young Group.
Extra-vehicle daily fee applies, payment on-site or paid at time of reservation. Please come prepared to pay onsite with check or cash.
Some sites are reservable at www.Recreation.gov . Both reservable and first come, first served sites are offered at this location.
Click here for more information on the Dixie 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.
Any accepted senior passes must be entered for the discount at the time of booking for single sites only.
For campground inquiries, please call: (800) 342-2267 or the Escalante Interagency Visitor Center 435-826-5499 .
Customer Service Please Contact 801-226-3564 or Help.Dixie.CedarCity@AmericanLL.com .
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 16 · 3 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 35 ft
- Accessible sites
- 14
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets · Pit Toilets
- VAULT TOILETS on 3 of 18 campsite records / ACCESSIBLE PIT TOILETS on 2 of 18 campsite records
- Drinking water
- Yes
- DRINKING WATER (PEAK SEASON) on 3 of 18 campsite records, ACCESSIBLE DRINKING WATER on 2 of 18 campsite records, WATER SPIGOT on 3 of 18 campsite records, WATER (SEASONAL) on 3 of 18 campsite records
- Bear boxes
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, Lake, Creek
- Biking
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Horseback riding
- Hunting
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 29th darkest of 458 in UT
- Bortle 2
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 · 13
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $18 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 · 5
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
18 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 16 mapped sitesAll 18 records
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 18 of the 18 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. 15 of the 18 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
Measured shade is NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC) read at the site’s own coordinate, 27% canopy or more, and only for the sites the agency gave no Shade value. It never changes the agency’s own shaded count beside it.
| BARKER RECREATION AREA | 001 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 65 ft | 1,615 ft | 103 ft | $18 | |
| BARKER RECREATION AREA | 002 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 65 ft | 1,555 ft | 121 ft | $18 | |
| BARKER RECREATION AREA | 003 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | yes | 206 ft | 1,690 ft | 103 ft | $18 |
| BARKER RECREATION AREA | 004 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | yes | 63 ft | 1,482 ft | 172 ft | $18 |
| BARKER RECREATION AREA | 005 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | yes | 153 ft | 1,466 ft | 248 ft | $18 |
| BARKER RECREATION AREA | 006 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | yes | 153 ft | 1,314 ft | 157 ft | $18 |
| BARKER RECREATION AREA | 007 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | yes | 83 ft | 1,417 ft | 131 ft | $18 |
| BARKER RECREATION AREA | 008 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | yes | 166 ft | 1,190 ft | 114 ft | $18 |
| BARKER RECREATION AREA | 009 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | yes | 166 ft | 1,294 ft | 193 ft | $18 |
| BARKER RECREATION AREA | 010 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | yes | 83 ft | 1,386 ft | 104 ft | $18 |
| BARKER RECREATION AREA | 011 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | yes | 63 ft | 1,439 ft | 183 ft | $18 |
| BARKER RECREATION AREA | 012 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | yes | 94 ft | 1,614 ft | 269 ft | $18 |
| BARKER RECREATION AREA | 013 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | yes | 94 ft | 1,684 ft | 210 ft | $18 |
| BARKER RECREATION AREA | D01 | day use | 35 ft | yes | 162 ft | 156 ft | ||
| BARKER RECREATION AREA | HOST | host pad | 35 ft | yes | 1,614 ft | 224 ft | ||
| Group | Gates | group standard nonelectric | 35 ft | yes | 293 ft | 1,423 ft | 84 ft | $75 |
| Group | Old Lady Young | group standard area nonelectric | 35 ft | yes | 1253 ft | 645 ftLower Barker Reservoir | 91 ft | |
| Group | Porter | group standard nonelectric | 35 ft | yes | 532 ft | 859 ft | 13 ft | $75 |
The agency files 2 more records here that aren’t sites for the night: 1 it files as day use and 1 it names a host pad. They’re in the table above, marked for what they are, and none of them is counted as a site.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Posey Lake CampgroundDixie National Forest · 6.8 miBlue Spruce CampgroundDixie National Forest · 9.6 mi
Cowpuncher Guard StationDixie National Forest · 10 miCoyote HollowDixie National Forest · 12 mi
Pine Lake CampgroundDixie National Forest · 14 miPine Lake Recreation AreaDixie National Forest · 15 miFrom Escalante, Utah, drive 2.5 miles west on Highway 12, then turn right at the North Creek Lakes sign and right again at the Barker Recreation Area sign, onto Forest Road 149. Drive approximately 16 miles on FR 149. The last 3.4 miles of FR 149 are steep and single-lane with switchbacks and turnouts.
The weather
the next four days
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Antimony, UT
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
Barker Recreation Area is in Utah’s 2nd congressional district. Its representative, Celeste Maloy (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →