Gooseberry Creek Campground
- Right now
- Shut for nowOutside the published season, our reading
- A night
- $10From, per site
- Sites
- 209 on recreation.gov
- Season
- – September 30Closes September 30. No opening date published.
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 5 notices
In the agency’s own words
Gooseberry Group Campground is located on an aspen-covered hillside above Gooseberry Reservoir, at an elevation of 8,500 feet. Visitors enjoy fishing and canoeing on the small reservoir and exploring area trails. Keep reading
Recreation
Gooseberry Reservoir, which is visible from several sites, offers good cutthroat and rainbow trout fishing, as well as canoeing. The Great Western Trail runs near the campground, offering excellent opportunities for hiking, biking and off-road vehicle riding.
Facilities
The campground offers group campsites equipped with picnic tables and fire rings. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided. Garbage collection facilities are not available, requiring visitors to pack out all trash. A well-maintained dirt road leads to the campground, providing relatively easy access for cars and RVs alike.
Natural Features
The campground lies within a grove of aspens that is dotted with mature fir trees, in a valley high on the Wasatch Plateau. Some campsites are sunny with little tree cover, while some have ample shade. Sagebrush, grasses and summer wildflowers fill the scenic valley. Nearby Attractions
What the agency tells you
Horses are not allowed in the campground
Off-road vehicle use is prohibited within the campground
Additional campsites may be available on a first-come, first-served basis
Everything else this campground posts · 2
Click here for more information on the Manti-La Sal 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.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 20 · 1 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 30 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed at 8 of 10 sites
- Campfires
- 8 of 10 sites
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- VAULT TOILETS on 9 of 21 campsite records
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…tables and fire rings. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided. Garbage collection facilities are not…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir
- Biking
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Night sky · 294th darkest of 458 in UT
- Bortle 3
- Fall color · reported 14 days ago, 29 km away
- Peak color
Nothing on the booking system for the next 30 nightsread 15:57 UTC
recreation.gov lists 9 of the 20 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
Every one of the next thirty nights is in recreation.gov’s record and not one site is being offered on any of them. That’s a campground closed or not yet released for booking, not a sold-out one.
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, $10 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
recreation.gov availability, read 15:57 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
21 records · the site map
All 21 records
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 10 of the 21 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. 20 of the 21 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.
| GOOS | 01 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | Vault Toilets listed | $10 | |
| GOOS | 02 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | Vault Toilets listed | $10 | |
| GOOS | 03 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | Vault Toilets listed | $10 | |
| GOOS | 05 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | Vault Toilets listed | $10 | |
| GOOS | 06 | standard nonelectric | Vault Toilets listed | $10 | ||
| GOOS | 07 | standard nonelectric | Vault Toilets listed | $10 | ||
| GOOS | 08 | standard nonelectric | Vault Toilets listed | $10 | ||
| GOOS | 09 | standard nonelectric | Vault Toilets listed | $10 | ||
| GOOS | GS4 | group standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 555 ft | 106 ft | $40 |
| MANAGEMENT SITES | 001 | type not stated | 593 ft | 279 ft | $10–$20 | |
| MANAGEMENT SITES | 0010 | type not stated | 433 ft | 234 ft | $10–$20 | |
| MANAGEMENT SITES | 002 | type not stated | 561 ft | 163 ft | $10–$20 | |
| MANAGEMENT SITES | 003 | type not stated | 562 ft | 129 ft | $10–$20 | |
| MANAGEMENT SITES | 005 | type not stated | 563 ft | 89 ft | $10–$20 | |
| MANAGEMENT SITES | 006 | type not stated | 630 ft | 171 ft | $10–$20 | |
| MANAGEMENT SITES | 007 | type not stated | 611 ft | 219 ft | $10–$20 | |
| MANAGEMENT SITES | 008 | type not stated | 566 ft | 258 ft | $10–$20 | |
| MANAGEMENT SITES | 009 | type not stated | 434 ft | 261 ft | $10–$20 | |
| MANAGEMENT SITES | XXX | unnamed record | 30 ft | $10–$20 | ||
| Scan and Pay | ScanPay 1 | type not stated | $10–$20 | |||
| Scan and Pay | ScanPay 2 | type not stated | $10–$20 |
The agency files 1 more record here that isn’t a site for the night. It types it MANAGEMENT rather than a campsite. It’s in the table above, marked for what it is, and it isn’t counted as a site.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Mammoth CabinManti-La Sal National Forest · 0.8 mi
Gooseberry ReservoirManti-La Sal National Forest · 1.6 mi
Flat CanyonManti-La Sal National Forest · 3.5 mi
Lake Canyon Rec AreaManti-La Sal National Forest · 7.7 mi
Fish Creek CampgroundManti-La Sal National Forest · 7.9 miLake Canyon CampgroundManti-La Sal National Forest · 7.9 miFrom Fairview, Utah, travel north about a mile on Highway 89, to the junction with Highway 31. Travel east on Highway 31 for about nine miles, to the junction with Forest Development Road 124. Go north on Forest Development Road 124 for one mile 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 Scofield, UT
Typical weather
Typical September night 39°F, day 63°F.
Coldest night of the open season: typical September night 39°F. Bring the bag rated for it.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or moreOutside the published season
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
Gooseberry Creek Campground is in Utah’s 4th congressional district. Its representative, Burgess Owens (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →