Indian Creek (UT)
- Right now
- Shut for nowOutside the published season, our reading
- Sites
- 87 on recreation.gov
- Season
- – October 1Closes October 1. No opening date published.
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 6 notices
In the agency’s own words
Indian Creek Campground is located in a high mountain valley surrounded by beautiful peaks, at an elevation of 8,000 feet. Visitors enjoy exploring the area trails on foot, and by horse and on off-road vehicles. Keep reading
Recreation
Horseback riding, hiking and mountain biking are popular activities in the Indian Creek area. Many trails crisscross the surrounding valley and mountainsides.
Facilities
The campground contains seven large, group-sized campsites that can accommodate from 30 to 70 people. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided, but no electricity or garbage service are available within the campground. Roads and spurs within the campground are dirt. It can be reached via the well-maintained dirt and gravel Cottonwood Creek Road, which providing relatively easy access for cars and RVs.
Natural Features
Indian Creek is situated in Upper Joe's Valley, on the Wasatch Plateau in Central Utah. A grove of aspens forests the site, offering only limited shade, but bright autumn color. Sagebrush and pines dot the landscape.
Nearby Attractions
Potters Pond is nearby, offering great canoeing and rainbow trout fishing. The expansive Arapeen OHV Trail System can be accessed close by and has more than 350 miles of designated, well-maintained trails for off-road vehicles. Trails there are suitable for all riding levels.
What the agency tells you
All sites except #1 and #2 are accessible
Horses are not allowed in the campground
Off-road vehicle use is prohibited within the campground
Everything else this campground posts · 3
Campsites are available on a first-come, first-served basis for $3 per vehicle when the group site is not reserved
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
- 8 · 7 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 40 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed at 7 of 8 sites
- Campfires
- 7 of 8 sites
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- VAULT TOILETS on 7 of 8 campsite records
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…from 30 to 70 people. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided, but no electricity or garbage service…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Creek
- Biking
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Night sky · 235th darkest of 458 in UT
- Bortle 3
- Fall color · reported 14 days ago, 13 km away
- Peak color
Nothing on the booking system for the next 30 nightsread 16:01 UTC
recreation.gov lists 7 of the 8 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 · 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 16:01 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
8 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 7 mapped sitesAll 8 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 7 of the 8 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. 8 of the 8 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| MAIN | 01 | group standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 138 ft | 339 ft | 105 ft | $30–$50 |
| MAIN | 02 | group standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 138 ft | 202 ft | 222 ft | $30–$50 |
| MAIN | 03 | group standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 199 ft | 91 ft | 263 ft | $30–$50 |
| MAIN | 04 | group standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 378 ft | 258 ft | 337 ft | $30–$50 |
| MAIN | 05 | group standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 185 ft | 241 ft | 109 ft | $30–$50 |
| MAIN | 06 | group standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 185 ft | 426 ft | 113 ft | $30–$50 |
| MAIN | 07 | group standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 235 ft | 549 ft | 343 ft | $30–$50 |
| Scan and Pay | ScanPay1 | type not stated | $20 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Potters PondManti-La Sal National Forest · 1.9 mi
Little Bear GroupManti-La Sal National Forest · 5.1 mi
Lower Little Bear CampgroundManti-La Sal National Forest · 5.4 mi
Miller Flat Reservoir CampgroundManti-La Sal National Forest · 5.5 miRiver Bend CampgroundManti-La Sal National Forest · 5.7 mi
Forks of HuntingtonManti-La Sal National Forest · 5.8 miFrom Orangeville, Utah, travel northwest on State Route 29 for approximately seven miles. Turn onto Cottonwood Creek Road 040 and travel north for 12 miles, to Upper Joe's Valley. Continue 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 Mount Pleasant, UT
Typical weather
Typical October night 22°F, day 48°F.
Coldest night of the open season: typical October night 22°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 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
Indian Creek (UT) 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 →