Mt Terrill Guard Station
We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 14 of the next 14 nights read 15:33 UTC
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 9 notices
In the agency’s own words
Mt Terrill Guard Station is located on the Fishlake National Forest in Central Utah about 30 miles southeast of Salina. The cabin sits at near the top of the paved Seven Mile-Gooseberry road #640 between Salina and Fish Lake. The guard station provides a great base camp for recreation activities such as relaxing, OHV riding, wildlife viewing, hunting, hiking, wildflower viewing, and fishing. Keep reading
Recreation
Johnson Reservoir is 7 miles with Fish Lake being 15 miles south of Mt Terrill. Fishing, food services, boat rentals, and supplies are available at Fish Lake. North of Mt Terrill are small fishing ponds such as Gates Lake, Salina Reservoir, Farnsworth Reservoir, and Cold Springs. Wildflower and wildlife viewing are fun activities. OHV riding, equestrian, biking, and hiking opportunities are available in the area. Big game hunting for elk and deer is also a popular activity.
Facilities
The rustic Mt. Terrill Guard Station is a two room cabin with a kitchen and bedroom. The site can accommodate a maximum of 50 people, but there is only one queen bed and two sets of bunk beds for a capacity of 6 people sleeping inside the building. No linins, bedding, or pillows are provided. RV’s and tents are allowed outside. The cabin is equipped with a kitchen table and chairs, a wood stove, a propane range, propane heater, countertop, couch and chair. There is no water available on site. Guests are encouraged to bring dishes, utensils, cooking pans, towels, water and soap. No key or combination is required for entry. A vault toilet is located adjacent to the cabin, plus a fire circle, benches, and a picnic table. Some battery operated lighting may be available in the cabin. Bring your own battery operated lights. No pets are allowed in the Guard Station. No smoking allowed in the Guard Station No garbage service is available; pack-out all you pack-in. No shooting within 150 yards of the facility. Guests are required to keep the facility clean during their stay. Maid service is not available. Leave the facility cleaner than you found it. Reservation ends at 11:00 AM and the facility needs to be clean and ready for the next group. Yor reservation begins at 2:00 PM, please do not arrive early. Mt Terrill is located about 30 miles southeast of Salina Utah. From Salina travel about 7 miles east on Interstate 70 to the Gooseberry exit #63. Go south on the two-lane paved Gooseberry road #640 for about 22 miles to the Mt Terrill Guard Station on the right. From Fish Lake travel 8 miles on SR25 to Johnson reservoir, then turn left onto the paved Gooseberry road #640 for about 7 miles to the Mt Terrill Guard Station.
Natural Features
Mt Terrill Guard Station is located on a high elevation meadow near a grove of conifer trees at an elevation of 9,800 feet. Wildflowers fill the meadow in July and wildlife such as deer and elk are often seen. Summer days are warm and nights are quite cool. Mt Terrill rises to an elevation of 11,547 feet and can be seen to the east of the guard station. Lost Creek reservoir is west of the building and does not have fish. Due to the guard station’s high elevation, guests should be prepared for all types of weather. Contact Info This location is unstaffed. To speak with our main office for general information, please call: (435) 896-9233.
What the agency tells you
The site is not available for walk-up; use is by reservation only. The site does not honor America the Beautiful passes.
A maximum of 50 people are allowed within the guard station site per reservation. Only 6 people are able to sleep inside the building.
Check-out time is 11:00 AM and check-in time is 2:00 PM. No key or combination is needed for entry. A coin will open the doors if locked. Gates are not locked.
Everything else this campground posts · 6
Parking is available for RVs in front of the guard station and east of the restroom. No RV hookups; the nearest dump station is at Fish Lake or in Salina.
No pets are allowed in the Guard Station. No smoking in Guard Station. No electricity. No water. No refrigerator.
This is a pack it in, pack it out facility; bring trash bags and remove all trash upon departure. Leave site cleaner than you found it.
Firewood for the campfire ring and wood stove may not be available, please plan accordingly.
Limited cleaning supplies are provided and guests must clean up after their stay. No maid service available.
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
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…or combination is required for entry. A vault toilet is located adjacent to the cabin, plus a fire…”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…heater, countertop, couch and chair. There is no water available on site. Guests are encouraged to bring…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, Lake, Creek, Meadow
- Biking
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Horseback riding
- Hunting
- Off Highway Vehicle Trails
- Wildlife viewing
- Fall color · reported 14 days ago, 21 km away
- Patchy color
Full this Saturdayread 15:33 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBooked
The one site on offer is taken this Saturday. 1 is free on Tue, Oct 20. read 15:33 UTC Why the weekend fills and the week doesn’t
Watch for a cancellation
Watch this campground
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 15:33 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 sites
All 1 sites
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.
| Mt Terrill Guard Station | Mt Terrill Guard Station | cabin nonelectric | $50 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Tasha EquestrianFishlake National Forest · 6.0 mi
Gooseberry Admin Site CabinsFishlake National Forest · 6.3 mi
Gooseberry CampgroundFishlake National Forest · 6.5 mi
Paiute CampgroundFishlake National Forest · 6.6 mi
Frying PanFishlake National Forest · 6.9 mi
Bowery CreekFishlake National Forest · 9.9 miFrom Salina Utah travel 7 miles east on Interstate 70 to the Gooseberry Exit #63. Go south on the two-lane paved Gooseberry road #640 for about 22 miles to the Mt Terrill Guard Station. The gravel access road is west of the paved road and is about a quarter mile to the cabin.
From Fish Lake travel 8 miles on SR25 to Johnson reservoir, then turn left onto the paved Gooseberry road #640 for about 7 miles to the Mt Terrill Guard Station.
The weather
the next four days
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Koosharem, UT
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it · a letter you can send
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
Mt Terrill Guard Station 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 →
Who can change it · 3
Two offices, two different asks. The draft to the agency asks it to set aside a published share of the sites here for whoever drives up. The draft to Congress asks why that share is zero and presses for a published minimum at the campgrounds it funds.
- The member who votes the moneyCeleste MaloyU.S. Representative · Utah’s 2nd district
- Your senator, on the same appropriationJohn R. CurtisU.S. Senator · Utah
- Your senator, on the same appropriationMike LeeU.S. Senator · Utah
Read the draft, or change the wording
For the camper who turned up, or tried to book, and couldn’t get in. Every draft is written from this campground’s own record (its agency, its unit, its site count and its own weekend) and the buttons above copy whichever wording is selected here.
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Mt Terrill Guard Station, Fishlake National Forest, Utah
Dear Celeste Maloy, I’m a constituent in Utah’s 2nd district. I tried to camp at Mt Terrill Guard Station, Fishlake National Forest, Utah, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Mt Terrill Guard Station are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Mt Terrill Guard Station keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Mt Terrill Guard Station. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Mt Terrill Guard Station (Fishlake National Forest, Utah) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Mt Terrill Guard Station, Fishlake National Forest, Utah
Dear John R. Curtis, I’m a constituent in Utah. I tried to camp at Mt Terrill Guard Station, Fishlake National Forest, Utah, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Mt Terrill Guard Station are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Mt Terrill Guard Station keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Mt Terrill Guard Station. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Mt Terrill Guard Station (Fishlake National Forest, Utah) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Mt Terrill Guard Station, Fishlake National Forest, Utah
Dear Mike Lee, I’m a constituent in Utah. I tried to camp at Mt Terrill Guard Station, Fishlake National Forest, Utah, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Mt Terrill Guard Station are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Mt Terrill Guard Station keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Mt Terrill Guard Station. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Mt Terrill Guard Station (Fishlake National Forest, Utah) via campanac.com