Joes Valley Reservoir
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $10–$18Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 6151 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 6 notices
In the agency’s own words
Joe's Valley Reservoir Campground is located in a high mountain valley next to its namesake, at an elevation of 7,000 feet. Visitors enjoy boating, fishing and exploring the surrounding off-road vehicle trails. A paved road winds around the lake but quickly turns to dirt once the elevation begins to increase. Keep reading
Recreation
The reservoir offers good fishing for cutthroat trout, rainbow trout, tiger muskie and trophy splake. Boating, water skiing and canoeing are popular on the lake. A boat ramp is located nearby on the eastern shoreline. Horseback riding, bouldering, hiking and mountain biking are popular in the area as well.
Facilities
The campground contains several single and double-family campsites, all of which are accessible. Many sites have lake views and some sites are shaded. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided. Roads and parking spurs are paved. Boat ramps can be found nearby for easy lake access.
Natural Features
Joe's Valley is situated on the Wasatch Plateau in Central Utah. Juniper, pinyon pine and sagebrush cover the area, and aspens and pines dot the surrounding hillsides. Located on a reservoir, there is nearby access to Seely Creek, Littles Creek, North Dragon Creek, and Lowry Water.
Nearby Attractions
Renowned bouldering opportunities are located in nearby Straight and Cottonwood Canyons. Popular mountain fisheries at Grassy Lake, Pete's Hole, and Potters Ponds are all within 10 miles of the group site. The 370-mile Arapeen Off-Highway Vehicle Trail System can be accessed directly from the Reeder Trailhead, which includes 66 and 55-inch OHV trails. Attractions at Joe's Valley Reservoir include the Orange Olsen Guard Station cabin rentals, and Joe's Valley Group Pavilion.
What the agency tells you
Click here to reserve the group pavilion for overnight use
Horses are not allowed in the campground
Off-road vehicle use is limited within the campground. Riders are permitted to leave/return from the campground to access trails but recreational riding inside the campground is not permitted.
Everything else this campground posts · 3
Click here for information on the Arapeen OHV Trail System
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
- 61
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 40 ft
- Paved pads
- 51 of 61
- Accessible sites
- 1
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- VAULT TOILETS on 8 of 62 campsite records
- Drinking water
- Yes
- DRINKING WATER on 8 of 62 campsite records
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, Lake, Creek, Beach
- Biking
- Boating
- Fishing
- Swimming
- Water sports
- Night sky · 208th darkest of 458 in UT
- Bortle 2
- Fall color · reported 14 days ago, 17 km away
- Peak color
Nothing on the booking system for the next 30 nightsread 15:57 UTC
recreation.gov lists 51 of the 61 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 rates for this season, $10–$18 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
62 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 50 mapped sitesAll 62 records
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 58 of the 62 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. 61 of the 62 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.
| JOES | 001 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 125 ft | 882 ftSeely Creek | 132 ft | $10–$18 | |
| JOES | 002 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 78 ft | 964 ftSeely Creek | 232 ft | $10–$18 | |
| JOES | 003 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 78 ft | 1,041 ftSeely Creek | 307 ft | $10–$18 | |
| JOES | 004 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 85 ft | 1,123 ftSeely Creek | 382 ft | $10–$18 | |
| JOES | 005 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 150 ft | 1,112 ftSeely Creek | 367 ft | $10–$18 | |
| JOES | 006 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 150 ft | 979 ftSeely Creek | 302 ft | $10–$18 | |
| JOES | 007 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 152 ft | 835 ftSeely Creek | 188 ft | $10–$18 | |
| JOES | 008 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 116 ft | 537 ftSeely Creek | 257 ft | $10–$18 | |
| JOES | 009 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 73 ft | 488 ftSeely Creek | 262 ft | $10–$18 | |
| JOES | 010 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | Vault Toilets listed | $10–$18 | |||
| JOES | 011 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 73 ft | 526 ftSeely Creek | 231 ft | $10–$18 | |
| JOES | 012 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 119 ft | 564 ftSeely Creek | 278 ft | $10–$18 | |
| JOES | 013 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 85 ft | 663 ftSeely Creek | 186 ft | $10–$18 | |
| JOES | 014 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 85 ft | 635 ftSeely Creek | 154 ft | $10–$18 | |
| JOES | 015 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 294 ft | 657 ftSeely Creek | 298 ft | $10–$18 | |
| JOES | 016 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 187 ft | 625 ft | 451 ft | $10–$18 | |
| JOES | 017 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 138 ft | 644 ft | 323 ft | $10–$18 | |
| JOES | 018 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 138 ft | 706 ft | 324 ft | $10–$18 | |
| JOES | 019 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 81 ft | 853 ft | 395 ft | $10–$18 | |
| JOES | 020 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 81 ft | 866 ft | 351 ft | $10–$18 | |
| JOES | 021 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 132 ft | 956 ft | 272 ft | $10–$18 | |
| JOES | 022 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 64 ft | 910 ft | 151 ft | $10–$18 | |
| JOES | 023 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 64 ft | 849 ft | 140 ft | $10–$18 | |
| JOES | 024 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 87 ft | 949 ft | 88 ft | $10–$18 | |
| JOES | 025 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 119 ft | 813 ft | 88 ft | $10–$18 | |
| JOES | 026 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 111 ft | 914 ft | 101 ft | $10–$18 | |
| JOES | 027 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 130 ft | 807 ft | 191 ft | $10–$18 | |
| JOES | 028 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 111 ft | 961 ft | 212 ft | $10–$18 | |
| JOES | 029 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 146 ft | 889 ft | 352 ft | $10–$18 | |
| JOES | 030 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 157 ft | 835 ft | 396 ft | $10–$18 | |
| JOES | 031 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 117 ft | 973 ft | 234 ft | $10–$18 | |
| JOES | 032 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 117 ft | 892 ft | 324 ft | $10–$18 | |
| JOES | 033 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 95 ft | 1,008 ft | 262 ft | $10–$18 | |
| JOES | 034 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 95 ft | 1,064 ft | 170 ft | $10–$18 | |
| JOES | 035 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 75 ft | 1,170 ft | 161 ft | $10–$18 | |
| JOES | 036 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 75 ft | 1,165 ft | 91 ft | $10–$18 | |
| JOES | 037 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 110 ft | 1,103 ft | 205 ft | $10–$18 | |
| JOES | 038 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 79 ft | 1,124 ft | 294 ft | $10–$18 | |
| JOES | 039 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 79 ft | 1,201 ft | 271 ft | $10–$18 | |
| JOES | 040 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 65 ft | 1,066 ft | 244 ft | $10–$18 | |
| JOES | 041 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 65 ft | 1,131 ft | 277 ft | $10–$18 | |
| JOES | 042 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 82 ft | 1,060 ft | 92 ft | $10–$18 | |
| JOES | 043 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 112 ft | 962 ft | 76 ft | $10–$18 | |
| JOES | 044 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 82 ft | 1,012 ft | 53 ft | $10–$18 | |
| JOES | 045 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 74 ft | 921 ft | 88 ft | $10–$18 | |
| JOES | 046 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 74 ft | 955 ft | 144 ft | $10–$18 | |
| JOES | 047 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 187 ft | 811 ft | 347 ft | $10–$18 | |
| JOES | 048 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | yes | 80 ft | 1,011 ftSeely Creek | 223 ft | $10–$18 |
| JOES | 049 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 80 ft | 931 ftSeely Creek | 146 ft | $10–$18 | |
| JOES | 050 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 87 ft | 942 ftSeely Creek | 192 ft | $10–$18 | |
| JOES | 051 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 140 ft | 801 ftSeely Creek | 128 ft | $10–$18 | |
| JOES | XXX | unnamed record | 99 ft | $10–$18 | ||||
| MANAGEMENT SITES | 01 | type not stated | 882 ftSeely Creek | 132 ft | $10–$18 | |||
| MANAGEMENT SITES | 02 | type not stated | 964 ftSeely Creek | 232 ft | $10–$18 | |||
| MANAGEMENT SITES | 03 | type not stated | 1,041 ftSeely Creek | 307 ft | $10–$18 | |||
| MANAGEMENT SITES | 04 | type not stated | 1,123 ftSeely Creek | 382 ft | $10–$18 | |||
| MANAGEMENT SITES | 05 | type not stated | 1,112 ftSeely Creek | 367 ft | $10–$18 | |||
| MANAGEMENT SITES | 06 | type not stated | 979 ftSeely Creek | 302 ft | $10–$18 | |||
| MANAGEMENT SITES | 07 | type not stated | 835 ftSeely Creek | 188 ft | $10–$18 | |||
| MANAGEMENT SITES | 10 | type not stated | 623 ftSeely Creek | 145 ft | $10–$18 | |||
| Scan and Pay | ScanPay 1 | type not stated | $10–$18 | |||||
| Scan and Pay | ScanPay 2 | type not stated | $10–$18 |
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.
25 of 62 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Orange OlsenManti-La Sal National Forest · 0.5 mi
Joes Valley Pavilion Group Site AManti-La Sal National Forest · 0.8 miUpper Joes Valley Dispersed SiteManti-La Sal National Forest · 3.8 miCottonwood Canyon CampgroundPrice Field Office · 6.2 mi
Seely Creek Guard StationManti-La Sal National Forest · 7.4 miNew Joes CampgroundPrice Field Office · 9.6 miFrom Price, Utah, travel 45 miles south on State Road 10, to the junction of State Roads 10 and 29. Turn west on State Road 29 and continue through Orangeville, approximately 12 miles. Turn north at the stop sign and follow State Road 29 approximately 18 miles 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 Orangeville, UT
Typical weather
Typical October night 33°F, day 55°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 15°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
Joes Valley Reservoir 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 →