Buckboard
- Right now
- Closed for the seasonOut of the season the agency publishes
- A night
- $20From, per site
- Sites
- 12All of them booked ahead
- Season
- May 1 – September 30Open May 1 through September 30
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 2 notices
In the agency’s own words
Buckboard Campground sits in the Manti-LaSal National Forest in southeast Utah at the foot of the Abajo Mountains. Visitors enjoy fishing and exploring local trails. Keep reading
Recreation
Popular activities include fishing, hiking and off-road vehicle riding. Several trailheads are nearby, including Robertson's Pasture Trail and Spring Creek Trail. The Abajo Loop State Scenic Backway passes by the campground. It leads from the desert floor and red rock canyons to steep mountains over 10,000 feet high, with overlooks and panoramic views. The byway is suitable for passenger vehicles from late spring through fall but is not recommended for large RVs.
Facilities
The campground offers several single-family sites, as well as two group sites than can each accommodate up to 50 guests. Firewood may be collected in and around the campground. Forest Road 105 to the campground is paved, while parking spurs and the road within the campground are graveled. There are two vault toilets and the campground has water available (seasonally.) There is a 14 day stay limit at this campground.
Natural Features
Aspens and Gambel oaks surround the site, offering partial shade. The campground sits at an elevation of 8,900 feet, and summer temperatures range from 75-85 degrees during the day and 50-60 degrees at night. Mule deer, wild turkeys and black bears frequent the area.
Nearby Attractions
Other attractions in the area include Canyonlands, Arches and Mesa Verde National Parks, Natural Bridges National Monument, Dark Canyon Wilderness, Edge of the Cedars State Park, Lake Powell and numerous archaeological sites.
What the agency tells you
There are no water, electrical or sewer hookups at this site however there are water spigots for campground use.
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.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 12 · 2 tent-only, 2 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 43 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…campground are graveled. There are two vault toilets and the campground has water available…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…two vault toilets and the campground has water available (seasonally.) There is a 14 day stay limit at this…”
- Firewood
- Mentioned
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek
- Auto Touring
- Biking
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Mountain biking
- Off Highway Vehicle Trails
- Picnicking
- Scenic drives
- Stargazing
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 103rd darkest of 458 in UT
- Bortle 2
- Fall color · reported 6 days ago, 6.2 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 · 13
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $20 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 Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
12 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 12 mapped sitesAll 12 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 12 of the 12 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. 12 of the 12 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.
| North | 1 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 110 ft | 1,965 ft | 62 ft | $20 |
| North | 10 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 69 ft | 1,759 ft | 131 ft | $20 |
| North | 2 | standard nonelectric | 27 ft | 110 ft | 1,861 ft | 114 ft | $20 |
| North | 3 | standard nonelectric | 29 ft | 147 ft | 1,721 ft | 248 ft | $20 |
| North | 4 | standard nonelectric | 39 ft | 105 ft | 1,556 ft | 265 ft | $20 |
| North | 9 | standard nonelectric | 31 ft | 69 ft | 1,693 ft | 62 ft | $20 |
| North | North Group | group tent only area nonelectric | 30 ft | 160 ft | 1,884 ft | 98 ft | $50 |
| North | South Group | group tent only area nonelectric | 30 ft | 127 ft | 1,649 ft | 97 ft | $50 |
| South | 5 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 105 ft | 1,460 ft | 339 ft | $20 |
| South | 6 | standard nonelectric | 43 ft | 70 ft | 1,354 ft | 425 ft | $20 |
| South | 7 | standard nonelectric | 37 ft | 70 ft | 1,299 ft | 429 ft | $20 |
| South | 8 | standard nonelectric | 28 ft | 122 ft | 1,395 ft | 297 ft | $20 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
NizhoniManti-La Sal National Forest · 8.4 mi
Devils CanyonManti-La Sal National Forest · 10 miWindwhistle CampgroundMoab Field Office · 20 mi
Windwhistle Group SiteMoab Field Office · 21 miLocated in Southeast Utah, six miles west of Monticello on paved Forest Road 105.
The weather
the next four days
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Monticello, 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
Buckboard 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 →