Desolation Gray Canyons Screen Cabins
1Heads up1 fire 32 mi away
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 30 of the next 30 nights read 16:43 UTC
- Sites
- 4All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 6 notices
In the agency’s own words
The Green River splits the 10,000 foot high Tavaputs Plateau to form the rugged canyons of Desolation Gray Canyons. Access to the canyons is the Sand Wash Ranger Station, a remote primative boat ramp and campground. While the canyons and river can be remote, rugged and beautiful during the hot summer months, Sand Wash can be overrun by mosquitos. Weather can run the gamet from hot 100 degree days with no wind, to wind, rain, or snow. Screen cabins are provided to allow the boater an escape from the bugs and weather. Keep reading
Recreation
Sand Wash is a destination for those that have a permit to float the Desolation and Gray Canyons of the Green River. Remote and primative, the area prepares the river runners for a relaxed river trip where solitude and nature abound. Historic and archaeogical sites are numerous on the river. River runners must be prepared to be self supported on the river.
Facilities
There is a primitive boat ramp at Sand Wash, a primitive eight-site campground, a contact/information station, staffed ranger station and vault toilets. This remote site does not provide trash receptacles or water. Due to the remoteness of the area, many groups camp the night here before their launch on the river. Due to frequent mosquito plagues, Sand Wash offers four campsites with screened cabins. Cabins are 12 feet by 16 feet, screen on all four sides with a door and roof. There is a small table and bench inside. Cabins are limited to one (1) per river party. Please allow others the ability to escape the bugs.
Natural Features
The Sand Wash boat ramp lies at the end of Sand Wash where a dirt road leads to a natural boat ramp for launching on the Green River. Cottonwood trees, cliffs, sage brush, and greasewood dot the area. Cottonwood trees do provide some shade.
Nearby Attractions
Launch point for the Green River through Desolation and Gray Canyons, 84 river miles before taking out at Swaseys Rapid. Nine Mile Canyon is within driving distance and is rich with rock art and historic sites.
What the agency tells you
Screen Cabins are limited. Each river party should reserve no more than one Screen Cabin. Thank you for being courteous to your fellow boaters and letting every river party have a place to escape the bugs.
Intended as a place to gather, prepare meals and escape the bugs. Not as a substitute for a tent.
Area is 'pack it in-pack it out', offers picnic tables, fire rings, vault toilets.
Everything else this campground posts · 3
Visitors must be self sufficient.
There are no amenities. No water, electricity, cell phone coverage or garbage disposal exists.
Road is graded gravel. Good tires and a spare tire(s) are a must.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 4 · 4 cabin
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- 4
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…station, staffed ranger station and vault toilets. This remote site does not provide trash…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
Around the campground
- On the water
- River
- Historic site
2 of 6 site-nights open this Friday and Saturdayread 16:43 UTC
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
OpenBooked
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.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 12
What you actually pay
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 16:43 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
4 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 4 mapped sitesAll 4 sites
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 4 of the 4 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| CABINS | Beaman | cabin nonelectric | yes | 133 ft | 449 ftGreen River | $20 |
| CABINS | Bradley | cabin nonelectric | yes | 214 ft | 212 ftGreen River | $20 |
| CABINS | Howland Brothers | cabin nonelectric | yes | 133 ft | 558 ftGreen River | $20 |
| CABINS | Sumner | cabin nonelectric | yes | 214 ft | 181 ftGreen River | $20 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions
Where it is
Pelican Lake CampgroundVernal Field Office · 27 mi
McCoy Flats Campground30 miParadise Park Campground44 mi
Avintaquin CampgroundAshley National Forest · 45 mi
Uinta River Group47 miSwasey Rapid Recreation SiteMoab Field Office · 50 miFrom Vernal, Utah: Head some 40 miles southwest to the town of Myton. Just west of Myton, turn south off US 40 on the first paved road and follow the signs to Sand Wash Boat Ramp. Boaters must slow down and begin to enjoy the trip. Roads are graded gravel, good tires and spare tires are a must. Cell phone coverage is limited if help is needed.
From Duchesne, Utah: Head 17 miles east towards Myton. Turn south off US 40 onto Sand Wash road and follow the signs to Sand Wash Boat Ramp. Boaters must slow down and begin to enjoy the trip. Roads are graded gravel, good tires and spare tires are a must. Cell phone coverage is limited if help is needed.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Myton, UT
Typical weather
Typical October night 34°F, day 65°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 7°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
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Desolation Gray Canyons Screen Cabins 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 →