Lava Point Campground
5Heads uppark alerts
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $25From, per site
- Sites
- 6All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 11 notices
In the agency’s own words
Lava Point is a primitive campground, typically open May through September, as weather allows. Situated at 7890 feet (2405 m) above sea level, it is off the Kolob Terrace Road, 25 miles (40 km) or 45 minutes north of the town of Virgin. It takes approximately 1 hour 20 minutes to drive to the campground from the South Entrance of Zion Canyon. Keep reading
Recreation
Barney's Trail leaves from the campground and provides access to Lava Point Overlook and the West Rim Trail. The campground is also excellent for wildlife watching and stargazing.
Facilities
Lava Point is a primitive and dry campground. There is no potable water on site so campers must bring their own. There are no electrical hookups or outlets on site. Each campsite has a trash receptacle, picnic table, and fire ring. Restroom facilities consist of pit toilets.
Natural Features
Lava Point Campground is situated at 7,890 ft. (2405 m) above sea level providing cooler temperatures for campers during southern Utah's hot summers. Pine and Aspen trees create shade and protect campsites from wind on gustier days. A short distance from the campground entrance is Lava Point Overlook where campers can take in breathtaking panoramic views to the South towards Zion Canyon.
Nearby Attractions
Lava Point Campground is approximately a 1 hour and 20 minute drive from the South Entrance of Zion National Park in Springdale, UT. In between the campground and the South Entrance there are several trailheads providing access to Zion Wilderness. Lava Point Campground is also just a few miles South of Kolob Reservoir which provides fishing and water recreation opportunities.
Charges & Cancellations
Due to the remote nature of the campground reservation modifications are the responsibility of the camper. Please manage your reservation by logging into your Recreation.gov account or calling the Recreation.gov reservation line at 1-877-444-6777. Recreation.gov Rules and Reservation Policies will apply.
What the agency tells you
Reservations must be made in advance through Recreation.gov or their reservation line at 1-877-444-6777. Cell coverage is limited and there is no opportunity to secure a reservation or make payment onsite.
Lava Point has pit toilets and trash cans, but no potable water.
Feeding wildlife is strictly prohibited. Food must be stored in a vehicle or a hard-sided lockable container any time it is not directly supervised. Store trash in the same way or dispose of in receptacles provided at each site. Do not leave trash unattended.
Everything else this campground posts · 8
Checkout time is 11:00 a.m. MT.
Check-in is 12:00 noon MT.
Quiet hours are from 10:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m.
Generator use is limited to the hours of 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m to 8:00 p.m.
The campsite occupancy maximum is 6 occupants per site including children 24 months and older.
Campfires are only allowed in designated fire rings. If it is especially dry or windy, Zion may not allow campfires in these rings either. The park will post any fire restrictions on the Current Conditions page. Campers are responsible for understanding current fire restrictions. Do not leave fires unattended. Extinguish them with water until they are cool to the touch. Wood gathering is prohibited in the park.
Pets are allowed in developed campgrounds, picnic areas, and roadways within the park. Pets must be properly restrained at all times within the park. Excrement must be picked up and properly disposed of in all areas of the park. Pets are not permitted on park trails other than the Pa'rus trail in Zion Canyon.
Vehicles longer than 19 feet are not permitted on the road to the campground.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 6
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 19 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Little
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets - seasonal
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir
- Night sky · 249th darkest of 458 in UT
- Bortle 3
- Cell signal · Cell signal · Park Service says
- Spotty
- Fall color · reported 13 days ago, 34 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.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 15
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $25 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.
“Due to the remote nature of the campground reservation modifications are the responsibility of the camper. Please manage your reservation by logging into your Recreation.gov account or calling the Recreation.gov reservation line at 1-877-444-6777. Recreation.gov Rules and Reservation Policies will apply.” · this campground’s own terms
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 · 6
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
6 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 6 mapped sitesAll 6 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 6 of the 6 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. 6 of the 6 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
South Campground (UT)Zion National Park · 13 mi
Watchman CampgroundZion National Park · 13 mi
Deer HavenDixie National Forest · 15 mi
TE-AHDixie National Forest · 16 mi
Cedar CanyonDixie National Forest · 16 mi
Pyramid Ridge CampgroundCedar City Field Office · 16 miLava Point Campground can be reached by taking the Kolob Terrace Rd. for 25 miles (40 km) north of the town of Virgin, UT. Turn right on Lava Point Rd. and follow for a short distance to the signed campground entrance.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Springdale, UT
Typical weather
Typical October night 34°F, day 64°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 18°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
who answers for it
Who answers for this land
Lava Point Campground is in Utah’s 2nd congressional district. Its representative, Celeste Maloy (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →
How we know
every fact on this page, and where it came from
“…or their reservation line at 1-877-444-6777. Cell coverage is limited and there will be no opportunity to secure a reservation or…”