Canyonlands National Park Needles District GROUP Campsites
We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 30 of the next 30 nights read 15:22 UTC
- Sites
- 3All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 7 notices
In the agency’s own words
The Needles is a remote district located within the southern portion of Canyonlands National Park in southeastern Utah. The Needles District is 1.25 hours driving time from Monticello, Utah, and 1.5 hours from Moab, Utah, and sits at an elevation of approximately 4,900 feet. Group sites have limited services and are best suited to tents and small, self-contained campers and RVs. If you are looking for individual campsites, visit the Canyonlands Needles District Campground page. You may book group campsites up to six months in advance throughout the peak season – March 15 – November 15. Please, also read “ Facilities ” below and the “ Need to Know ” tab for important information. Keep reading
Recreation
The Needles District's extensive Hiking trail system provides many opportunities for both short and long day hikes as well as overnight backpacking trips. Foot trails and four-wheel-drive/mountain biking roads lead to such features as Confluence Overlook, Druid Arch, the Joint Trail, and Chesler Park.
Facilities
The Needles is a remote district with limited services and no cell coverage. Group sites offer groups of 11 or more an opportunity to stay in a remote setting in a unique national park. RVs and trailers over 25 feet (7.5 m) will have difficulty accessing these sites. The Dutch Oven site has access to potable water, flush toilets, picnic tables and fire rings. The other two group sites, Wooden Shoe and Split Top have access to potable water, non-flush tiolets, picnic tables, and fire rings. You may reserve individual campsites at the Canyonlands Needles District Campground page.
Natural Features
The Needles District group sites lie within the slick rock and sand that give this region its character. The dominant forest type consist of stands of Utah Juniper and Pinyon Pine. Flowering prickly pear cacti, yucca, and other desert wildflowers dot the landscape in the spring, adding to the vivid colors of the surrounding red rock desert. The Needles District forms the southeast corner of Canyonlands National Park and was named for the colorful spires of Cedar Mesa Sandstone that dominate the area. The park is within an arid, high desert environment with hot summers and cold winters.
Nearby Attractions
Southeastern Utah offers breathtaking scenery, hiking, road and mountain biking opportunities, rafting and scenic driving routes. Arches and Mesa Verde National Parks, the Island in the Sky district of Canyonlands National Park, Hovenweep and Natural Bridges National Monuments and Dead Horse Point and Edge of the Cedars State Parks are all within three hours drive of the Needles Campground. Moab, Utah, (1.5 hours away) offers numerous restaurants, shops, and museums.
Charges & Cancellations
Changes or Cancellations once the reservation has started: Once a reservation date has begun, customers cannot change a reservation using the online system or through the Call Center (see below for early departures). If the location is staffed, on-site personnel may or may not be able to assist with changes or cancellations (check with local staff). Camping no-show: Customers who do not arrive at the campground or group facility by check-out time (10:00 a.m.) the day after the scheduled arrival date or does not cancel the reservation by check out time on the day after the scheduled arrival date will be assessed a $20.00 service fee and forfeit the first night use fee. If the no-show service fee is greater than the reservation amount, the customer will not be charged any additional service fees. In addition, the campsite will become available to other customers at this point. Make sure to plan accordingly to avoid any unexpected changes to your travel plans. Early Departures: An early departure occurs when a customer spends at least one night of their reservation at the facility but leaves the facility prior to the reservation departure date. If a customer departs prior to the scheduled check-out date, they may be eligible for a partial refund. Early departures are treated as a cancellation of the remaining days. There will be no refunds for days used prior to the departure date, regardless of whether the customer was present for all those days, i.e., the customer arrived a day late. Campers must notify the facility that they are leaving early, as required by local policy. If a customer requests a refund for an early departure after the facility check-out time has passed, the customer will not be refunded for that night and is eligible for a refund on any additional nights that will not be used. Field location procedures may vary depending on agency policy.
What the agency tells you
The Wooden Shoe and Split Top group sites are outside of the main campground, isolated from other campsites. Be sure to read the directions on how to get to these two secluded group sites under the "Getting There" section found above.
You may book Needles District Group campsites up to six months in advance for dates within the peak season.
Needles District group sites are available to groups of eleven or more.
Everything else this campground posts · 4
There is no electricity in the Needles Campground.
The Needles Campground and group sites are best suited to tents and small, self-contained campers and RVs: • There is a 25 foot (7.5 m) length limit • There are no hookups • There is no dump station
Don't Move Firewood: Help protect our forests! Prevent the spread of tree-killing pests by obtaining firewood at or near your destination and burning it on-site. Moving firewood is illegal in some states. Visit dontmovefirewood.org to learn more.
Please practice Leave No Trace Principles when visiting the Needles District Campground.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 3 · 1 tent-only, 3 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 25 ft
- Paved pads
- 1 of 3
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets · Vault Toilets
- FLUSH TOILETS (SEASONAL) on 1 of 3 campsite records / VAULT TOILETS on 2 of 3 campsite records
- Drinking water
- Yes
- DRINKING WATER on 1 of 3 campsite records, WATER (SEASONAL) on 2 of 3 campsite records
- Cell signal
- Little or none
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- Amphitheater
- Backpacking
- Biking
- Evening Programs
- Hiking
- Ranger programs
- Scenic drives
- Stargazing
- Visitor center
- Wilderness access
- Night sky · 26th darkest of 458 in UT
- Bortle 2
- Cell signal · Cell signal · Park Service says
- None
- Fall color · reported 7 days ago, 38 km away
- Peak color
Full this Saturdayread 15:22 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBooked
Every one of the 3 sites on offer is taken this Saturday, and on four midweek nights after it as well. read 15:22 UTC Why the weekend fills and the week doesn’t
Watch for a cancellation
Watch this campground
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 · 11
What you actually pay
“Camping no-show: Customers who do not arrive at the campground or group facility by check-out time (10:00 a.m.) the day after the scheduled arrival date or does not cancel the reservation by check out time on the day after the scheduled arrival date will be assessed a $20.00 service fee and forfeit the first night u…” · this campground’s own no-show terms
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
recreation.gov availability, read 15:22 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
3 sites · the site map
All 3 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 2 of the 3 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
| Loop A of Needles CG | Dutch Oven Group Campsite | group standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 4.9 mi | 293 ft |
| Not in campground. Located on paved access road near Wooden Shoe Overlook. | Wooden Shoe Group Campsite | group standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 5.4 mi | 56 ft |
| Not in campground. Located on unpaved access road near Cave Spring Trailhead. | Split Top Group Campsite | group tent only area nonelectric | 20 ft | 5.8 mi | Vault Toilets listed |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
The Needles CampgroundCanyonlands National Park · 1.1 miThe Needles District Group CampsitesCanyonlands National Park · 1.2 mi
Canyonlands National Park Needles District CampgroundCanyonlands National Park · 1.7 mi
Hamburger Rock CampgroundBears Ears National Monument · 6.7 mi
Indian Creek Falls Group SiteBears Ears National Monument · 7.0 mi
Creek Pasture Group SiteBears Ears National Monument · 8.1 miDriving Directions
On US Highway 191, drive 40 miles (60 km) south of Moab or 14 miles (22 km) north of Monticello, then take Utah Highway 211 roughly 35 miles (56 km) west. Highway 211 ends in the Needles, and is the only paved road leading in and out of the district.
Split Top
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for La Sal, UT
Typical weather
Typical October night 38°F, day 70°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 17°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 · a letter you can send
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Canyonlands National Park Needles District GROUP Campsites 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 →
Who can change it · 3
Two offices, two different asks. The draft to the agency asks it to set aside a published share of the sites here for whoever drives up. The draft to Congress asks why that share is zero and presses for a published minimum at the campgrounds it funds.
- The member who votes the moneyMike KennedyU.S. Representative · Utah’s 3rd district
- Your senator, on the same appropriationJohn R. CurtisU.S. Senator · Utah
- Your senator, on the same appropriationMike LeeU.S. Senator · Utah
Read the draft, or change the wording
For the camper who turned up, or tried to book, and couldn’t get in. Every draft is written from this campground’s own record (its agency, its unit, its site count and its own weekend) and the buttons above copy whichever wording is selected here.
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Canyonlands National Park Needles District GROUP Campsites, Canyonlands National Park, Utah
Dear Mike Kennedy, I’m a constituent in Utah’s 3rd district. I tried to camp at Canyonlands National Park Needles District GROUP Campsites, Canyonlands National Park, Utah, and couldn’t. All 3 sites at Canyonlands National Park Needles District GROUP Campsites are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 3 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Canyonlands National Park Needles District GROUP Campsites keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Canyonlands National Park Needles District GROUP Campsites. I’m asking you to put it to the National Park Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Canyonlands National Park Needles District GROUP Campsites (Canyonlands National Park, Utah) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Canyonlands National Park Needles District GROUP Campsites, Canyonlands National Park, Utah
Dear John R. Curtis, I’m a constituent in Utah. I tried to camp at Canyonlands National Park Needles District GROUP Campsites, Canyonlands National Park, Utah, and couldn’t. All 3 sites at Canyonlands National Park Needles District GROUP Campsites are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 3 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Canyonlands National Park Needles District GROUP Campsites keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Canyonlands National Park Needles District GROUP Campsites. I’m asking you to put it to the National Park Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Canyonlands National Park Needles District GROUP Campsites (Canyonlands National Park, Utah) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Canyonlands National Park Needles District GROUP Campsites, Canyonlands National Park, Utah
Dear Mike Lee, I’m a constituent in Utah. I tried to camp at Canyonlands National Park Needles District GROUP Campsites, Canyonlands National Park, Utah, and couldn’t. All 3 sites at Canyonlands National Park Needles District GROUP Campsites are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 3 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Canyonlands National Park Needles District GROUP Campsites keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Canyonlands National Park Needles District GROUP Campsites. I’m asking you to put it to the National Park Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Canyonlands National Park Needles District GROUP Campsites (Canyonlands National Park, Utah) via campanac.com
How we know this · 4
How we know
every fact on this page, and where it came from
“…is a remote district with limited services and no cell coverage. Group sites offer groups of 11 or more an opportunity to…”