Natural Bridges Campground
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- Right now
- Natural Bridges has gone cashlessInformation naming this campground · open
- A night
- $16From, per site
- Sites
- 1312 on recreation.gov
- Season
- Year-roundOpen year-round
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 11 notices
In the agency’s own words
The campground includes 13 sites total, each of which can accommodate tent campers or RVs. Due to the size of the campground, there is a length limit of 26 feet combined. The campground is open year-round and is typically busiest from mid-March to mid-June. Visitation also spikes in the late fall, between September and October. The campground tends to fill up quickly during these busy periods. The Natural Bridges National Monument Campground is located approximately 35 miles West of Blanding, UT, nestled in the heart of Bears Ears National Monument. Keep reading
Situated in a high-desert environment at 6,500 feet above sea level, the campground is surrounded by a sprawling pinon-juniper forest. The elevation can also be cause for dramatic temperature fluctuations. Temperatures can reach highs of 100 degrees Fahrenheit mid-Summer and can dip below freezing in the Winter. Length of stay is limited to seven (7) nights (consecutively or non-consecutively) in any 30-day period or a total of 14 nights per year.
Recreation
Natural Bridges National Monument is home to three of the largest natural bridges in the United States. The bridges can be viewed from three overlooks situated along the nine-mile loop drive through the park. The overlooks are each paved and located less than one-quarter mile from the parking areas. Hiking trails to the bridges themselves are also available. Descend into White or Armstrong canyons and wind along the wash to view the bridges from below. The hiking routes along the canyon bottom are unmaintained and may experience small changes depending on weather. Visitors may also encounter archeological sites in the area. When visiting archeological sites, structures, pictographs, petroglyphs, or delicate rock formations, please visit with respect. Stop by the visitor center and ask a ranger about the "Dos and Don'ts" of visiting these areas. Natural Bridges also boasts an incredible night sky as the world’s first International Dark Sky Park. Night-sky programming may be available in the spring and fall, dependent on staffing levels.
Facilities
Each campsite is complete with a picnic table, at least one tent pad, and a metal fire ring. There are two pit toilets situated in the campground as well. The campground does not provide water, showers, flushing toilets, RV hookups, or a dump station. Drinking water is available at the visitor center, with a limit of five gallons per person, per day. Due to the very tight campground loop, the maximum RV length permitted in this campground is 26 feet combined --anything larger will not able to navigate the campground loop road. There is also a maximum limit of eight people per campsite, two tents per site, and two vehicles per site (trailers count as a separate vehicle). Fires must stay in the provided metal fire ring. There is no cell service in the campground, but public Wi-Fi is available at the visitor center.
Natural Features
The Natural Bridges National Monument Campground is located just one-quarter mile from the Visitor Center, which can be accessed by car, bike, or by walking path. Visitors can connect the trail to the Visitor Center with another short path that leads to the park’s solar field, which provides all power for the monument. Please stay on the marked pathways and campsites, as an abundance of living biological soil crust surrounds the campground. Views of the Bears Ears, a natural formation of two buttes for which the surrounding area is named, can be seen from the campground. The campground is enclosed by beautiful pinon pine and juniper forest, which provides ample privacy between sites without obstructing the view of wide-open skies. These vast and unpolluted skies make Natural Bridges a wonderful place to stargaze.
Nearby Attractions
Natural Bridges National Monument is surrounded by a multitude of public Federal Lands, including the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), National Forest Service (NFS), and other National Park Service (NPS) sites, as well as state and tribal parks. Within a two-hour drive or less, visitors can access Bears Ears National Monument Hovenweep National Monument Recreation areas in the Manti-La Sal National Forest Goosenecks State Park, Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, Arches National Park Canyonlands National Park All of these locations have opportunities for hiking, scenic viewing, and other activities. There are also several museums in the area, including one at Edge of the Cedars State Park in Blanding, UT and Canyons of the Ancients National Monument in Delores, CO.
What the agency tells you
Due to the very tight campground loop, the maximum length including cars and towed trailers/RV's permitted at this campground is 26 feet combined. Larger vehicles will not be able to navigate the campground loop road.
Camping is only permitted in the designated campground. Each campsite is limited to 8 persons, 2 tents, and 2 vehicles (a trailer counts as one vehicle).
All motor vehicles must be parked on designated vehicle pads and must not extend into the roadway. Vehicle barriers may not be moved to enlarge the available parking space.
Everything else this campground posts · 8
Check in for your reservation is anytime after 11am. Check out is 10am at the latest.
Hammocks and other items must not be strung on tree branches or limbs.
If your plans change and you are unable to make it for your reservation. Please go online to Recreation.gov and cancel your reservation. That way the site can become available for other interested campers. Sites are very limited and we want our sites to be used.
Campground ‘Quiet Hours’ are from 10:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m. Noise levels are to remain at a conversational level.
Fires are only permitted in fire grills. Gathering firewood is prohibited; you must bring your own.
Length of stay is limited to seven (7) nights (consecutively or non-consecutively) in any 30-day period or a total of 14 nights per year.
Campground ‘Generator Hours’ are from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. and from 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Please keep food stored in sealed containers where wildlife can't access
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 13
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 26 ft
- Accessible sites
- 1
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets - year round
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- Dump station
- Yes
- Cell signal
- Little or none
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- Birding
- Hiking
- Historic site
- Ranger programs
- Picnicking
- Scenic drives
- Stargazing
- Visitor center
- Wilderness access
- Night sky · 14th darkest of 458 in UT
- Bortle 1
- Cell signal · Cell signal · Park Service says
- None
Full this Saturdayread 17:03 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBooked
Every one of the 12 sites on offer is taken this Friday and Saturday. 2 are free on Tue, Oct 20. read 17:03 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.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 12
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $16 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 17:03 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
13 sites
All 13 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. 12 of the 13 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Natural Bridges | Site 1 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | $16 | |
| Natural Bridges | Site 10 | standard nonelectric | 19 ft | $16 | |
| Natural Bridges | Site 11 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | yes | $16 |
| Natural Bridges | Site 12 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | $16 | |
| Natural Bridges | Site 13 | type not stated | 26 ft | ||
| Natural Bridges | Site 2 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | $16 | |
| Natural Bridges | Site 3 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | $16 | |
| Natural Bridges | Site 4 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | $16 | |
| Natural Bridges | Site 5 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | $16 | |
| Natural Bridges | Site 6 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | $16 | |
| Natural Bridges | Site 7 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | $16 | |
| Natural Bridges | Site 8 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | $16 | |
| Natural Bridges | Site 9 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | $16 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Farley Canyon Primitive Camping AreaGlen Canyon National Recreation Area · 27 mi
NizhoniManti-La Sal National Forest · 27 mi
Dirty Devil Primitive Camping AreaGlen Canyon National Recreation Area · 30 miFrom Blanding, Utah, drive just south of town on US 191 to UT 95. Take UT 95 about 35 miles west to UT 275. The entrance to Natural Bridges is at the end of UT 275.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Blanding, UT
Typical weather
Typical October night 39°F, day 63°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 20°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 · a letter you can send
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Natural Bridges Campground 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 →
Who can change it · 4
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 office that runs itNatural Bridges National MonumentNational Park Service unit
- The member who votes the moneyMike KennedyU.S. Representative · Utah’s 3rd 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 the National Park Service to set aside a published share of the sites here for whoever drives up, and to post what that share is.
Subject Hold back a share of sites at Natural Bridges Campground for campers who drive up
To the National Park Service: I tried to camp at Natural Bridges Campground in Utah and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 12 of the 13 campsites the agency files at Natural Bridges Campground, and every one of them is booked ahead, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 12 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Natural Bridges Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m asking for one specific thing: set aside a published share of the sites at Natural Bridges Campground as first-come, first-served, and post what that share is so it can be checked. Somebody who drives up has no way in, and no way to find out whether they might have had one. Sent about Natural Bridges Campground (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 Natural Bridges Campground, Utah
Dear Mike Kennedy, I’m a constituent in Utah’s 3rd district. I tried to camp at Natural Bridges Campground, Utah, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 12 of the 13 campsites the agency files at Natural Bridges Campground, and every one of them is booked ahead, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 12 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Natural Bridges Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Natural Bridges Campground. I’m asking you to put it to the National Park 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 Natural Bridges Campground (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 Natural Bridges Campground, Utah
Dear John R. Curtis, I’m a constituent in Utah. I tried to camp at Natural Bridges Campground, Utah, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 12 of the 13 campsites the agency files at Natural Bridges Campground, and every one of them is booked ahead, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 12 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Natural Bridges Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Natural Bridges Campground. I’m asking you to put it to the National Park 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 Natural Bridges Campground (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 Natural Bridges Campground, Utah
Dear Mike Lee, I’m a constituent in Utah. I tried to camp at Natural Bridges Campground, Utah, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 12 of the 13 campsites the agency files at Natural Bridges Campground, and every one of them is booked ahead, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 12 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Natural Bridges Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Natural Bridges Campground. I’m asking you to put it to the National Park 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 Natural Bridges Campground (Utah) via campanac.com
How we know this · 4
How we know
every fact on this page, and where it came from
“…stay in the provided metal fire ring. There is no cell service in the campground, but public Wi-Fi is available at the…”