Indian Creek Guard Station
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 11 notices
In the agency’s own words
Indian Creek Guard Station is located next to Ferron Reservoir, just below the Wasatch Plateau on the Manti-La Sal National Forest in central Utah. The cabin was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s and was used by generations of forest rangers serving in the back country. Guests enjoy year-round recreational activities, including fishing, hiking, off-roading, snowmobiling and skiing. Keep reading
Recreation
Ferron Reservoir is adjacent, providing canoeing, boating (small craft only) and fishing for rainbow and cutthroat trout. Skyline Drive passes above the campground on top of the plateau. The expansive Arapeen ATV Trail System can be accessed close by, and offers more than 350 miles of designated, maintained trails suitable for all riding levels. In the winter, the surrounding area becomes a playground for snowmobile enthusiasts. Cross-country skiing, back country skiing and snowshoeing are also popular activities.
Facilities
The guard station complex can accommodate a maximum of 10 people, with six inside and four camped in tents outside of the facility. RVs are not allowed. The guard station contains single bunks with mattresses for four people. Guests must bring their own linens, bedding and pillows. The kitchen is equipped with a table and chairs, sink, wood stove, propane lighting and propane appliances, including a stove and oven and hot water heater. Limited utensils and cookware are available but guests are encouraged to bring their own supplies and matches. Drinking water and an indoor flush toilet and shower are available from July through mid-September. A vault toilet is available 50 feet from the cabin during the winter months.
Natural Features
The guard station is situated facing Ferron Reservoir and the front porch offers partial lake views through the trees. Stands of Englemann spruce, fir and aspens cover the area. Skyline Drive runs along the top of the Wasatch Plateau for more than 60 miles, rewarding visitors with beautiful mountain scenery, glacial cirques, spruce-fir and aspen forests, numerous lakes and reservoirs. Wildlife and summer wildflowers are plentiful, and autumn leaves put on quite a show. Due to the guard station's high elevation of 9,400 feet, guests should be prepared for all types of weather including snow or hail, especially after September.
Nearby Attractions
Ferron Campground is located less than a half-mile away from the guard station. Rush Pond and Willow Lake are a short drive east, both with additional fishing and scenic views.
What the agency tells you
A combination key code is required to open the lock on the cabin door(s); at least three days prior to arrival, call the Ferron Ranger District office at (435) 384-2372, Sanpete Ranger District at (435) 283-4151, or the Price Ranger District at (435) 637-2817 on Monday through Friday, between 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. MST, to obtain the code.
Anytime after September, snow may make the cabin inaccessible by wheeled vehicles; snowmobile access is necessary after significant snow accumulation; call the Ferron Ranger District at (435) 384-2372 for current conditions
Indoor plumbing will not be available from approximately mid-September through March; guests must bring their own water and use the vault toilet outside (bring a snow shovel to access toilet in the winter)
Everything else this campground posts · 8
Firewood is supplied from December through March only; bring your own matches year-round
This is a 'pack it in, pack it out' facility; please bring garbage bags and haul all trash out upon departure
No pets or livestock allowed
Basic cleaning supplies are provided; guests must clean the cabin before departure
All Utah State OHV rules are enforced on the forest; call the OHV hotline, at (801) 538-7433; maps of the road and trail system may be obtained from the Ranger District
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.
This guard station is solar powered, please use wisely. Turn off lights that aren't in use. Power is for lights and phone charging only.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 28 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- FLUSH TOILETS on 1 of 1 campsite records
- Showers
- Seasonal Showers
- “Drinking water and an indoor flush toilet and shower are available from July through mid-September.”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…to bring their own supplies and matches. Drinking water and an indoor flush toilet and shower are available…”
- Playground
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, Lake, Creek
- Biking
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Swimming
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 174th darkest of 458 in UT
- Bortle 2
- Fall color · reported 14 days ago, 33 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 · 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
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 sites · the site map
All 1 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 1 of the 1 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. 1 of the 1 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| INDIAN CREEK GUARD STATION | 001 | cabin nonelectric | 28 ft | 604 ft | 597 ft | $50 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Ferron ReservoirManti-La Sal National Forest · 0.4 mi
Twelve Mile FlatManti-La Sal National Forest · 2.0 mi
Willow LakeManti-La Sal National Forest · 4.2 miUpper Six Mile Ponds CampgroundManti-La Sal National Forest · 5.5 mi
Twin Lake CampgroundManti-La Sal National Forest · 7.8 miFrom Ferron, head west on West Canyon Road. Heading out of town, you will pass the golf course and Millsite Park. The pavement ends near the forest boundary. Stay on this road till you get to Ferron Reservoir, about 27 miles. Go to the left around the reservoir and you will see a sign for the guard station.
From Mayfield, head east through Twelve Mile Canyon, on Forest Development Road 022. Near the top of the plateau, you'll see Twelve Mile Flat Campground on the right. Across from the campground, make a left and continue on Forest Development Road 022, over the plateau and down the other side, about 3 miles. You'll see the guard station on the left before you pass the reservoir.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Manti, UT
Typical weather
Typical October night 29°F, day 50°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 12°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
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
Indian Creek Guard Station 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 →