Orange Olsen
- Right now
- Closedrecreation.gov lists every site closed this weekend, read 16:38 UTC
- Sites
- 2In the agency’s record
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 8 notices
In the agency’s own words
Orange Olsen is located at 7,000 feet with a panoramic view of Joes Valley. The dwelling and cabin offer amenities including solar powered lighting, LP range and heated shower. The dwelling can accommodate six visitors while the cabin sleeps four. These cabins do not have electricity. Keep reading
Recreation
Joes Valley Reservoir offers boating and fishing opportunities just minutes away. A boat ramp is available on the east and west shorelines. Joes Valley Campground is located immediately south of Orange Olsen, with Joes Valley Group Pavilion only a mile away.
Facilities
The Orange Olsen Dwelling and Cabin come equipped with flush restrooms, showers, and solar powered lights. The kitchens are equipped with sinks, stove and simple cookware (pots/pans, silverware, utensils). These facilities are not equipped with refrigerators so visitors will need to plan on cooling their perishables in other ways. The Orange Olsen Dwelling has two bedrooms. One bedroom has two single twin sized beds with mattresses and the second bedroom has two sets of bunk beds with mattresses. You are allowed to have a boat trailer or utility trailer on site, however, it may be a tight fit if other vehicles are present. No RV/Motorhomes/Travel Trailers are permitted at this site. The Orange Olsen Cabin has one bedroom including two sets of bunk beds with mattresses. You are allowed to have a boat trailer or utility trailer on sites. No RV/Motorhomes/Travel Trailers are permitted at this site.
Natural Features
The dwelling and cabin are set in an open sagebrush meadow interspersed with pinyon-juniper and ponderosa pine trees. There is no shade available.
Nearby Attractions
Renowned bouldering opportunities abound in nearby Straight and Cottonwood Canyons. Popular mountain fisheries at Grassy Lake, Pete's Hole, and Potters Ponds are all within 10 miles of Orange Olsen. The 370-mile Arapeen Off-Highway Vehicle Trail System can be accessed directly from the dwelling and cabin.
What the agency tells you
A combination key code is required to open the lock on the cabin and dwelling doors. Prior to arrival, it is recommended that occupants call either the the Ferron Ranger District office at (435) 384-2372, Sanpete Ranger District at (435) 283-4151, or the Manti-La Sal National Forest Supervisor Office at (435) 637-2817 Monday through Friday, between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. MST, to confirm the code.
If not reserved, the dwelling and cabin are available on a first-come, first-served basis through Forest Service offices in Ephraim, Ferron or Price.
Walk-in reservations may only be made for two nights at a time in order to maintain a priority for reservations.
Everything else this campground posts · 5
Cell service is limited in Joes Valley, so please plan accordingly.
Garbage services are not available at this site and guests are expected to pack out all trash upon departure.
Be Water Wise! The running water in the Orange Olsen structures comes from a nearby natural spring and, therefore, can be limited. Conserving water while visiting Joes Valley helps ensure that the resource stays available for you and future occupants.
This guard station is solar powered, please use wisely. Turn off lights that aren't in use. Power is for lights and phone charging only.
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
- 2 · 2 cabin
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 20 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- FLUSH TOILETS on 2 of 2 campsite records
- Showers
- Yes, the record doesn’t say what kind
- SHOWERS on 2 of 2 campsite records, Shower/Bath Type states a shower on all 2 of this campground's campsite records
- Drinking water
- Yes
- DRINKING WATER on 1 of 2 campsite records
- Boat ramp
- Yes
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, Lake, Meadow
- Boating
- Fishing
- Night sky · 209th darkest of 458 in UT
- Bortle 2
- Fall color · reported 14 days ago, 17 km away
- Peak color
Nothing to book until it reopensread 16:38 UTC
recreation.gov lists every site closed this weekend
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.
Tell me when it reopens
Watch for it to come back
One email when the agency reopens it, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check the agency’s own record once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time it stops saying closed.
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.
Every line of the receipt · 10
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 · 3
Why this page can’t say why
recreation.gov lists every site at Orange Olsen closed this Friday and Saturday night. The U.S. Forest Service has published no closure notice we hold, so this page can’t say why, and it won’t fill the gap with a guess. A closed night isn’t a sold-out one: the reservations its record still carries were taken before the sites were closed.
There’s no notice to quote and no reason to argue with, so this page offers you the watch and the list below, and no letter.
Open within 60 miles · 3
The agency’s own word that these are open, not our reading of a season.
- Upper Six Mile Ponds CampgroundManti-La Sal National Forest · 15 mi · walk-up
- Maple CanyonUinta National Forest · 27 mi · 19 sites
- Gooseberry CampgroundFishlake National Forest · 40 mi · walk-up
recreation.gov availability, read 16:38 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
2 sites · the site map
All 2 sites
| Cabin | Orange Olsen Cabin | cabin nonelectric | 20 ft | 903 ft |
| Dwelling | Orange Olsen Dwelling | cabin nonelectric | 20 ft | 1,009 ft |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Joes Valley ReservoirManti-La Sal National Forest · 0.5 mi
Joes Valley Pavilion Group Site AManti-La Sal National Forest · 0.6 miUpper Joes Valley Dispersed SiteManti-La Sal National Forest · 3.5 miCottonwood Canyon CampgroundPrice Field Office · 6.5 mi
Seely Creek Guard StationManti-La Sal National Forest · 7.1 miNew Joes CampgroundPrice Field Office · 9.8 miFrom Orangeville, Utah, proceed west on Utah Highway 29 for approximately 10 miles to Joes Valley Reservoir. Continue on Hwy 29 around the north end of the reservoir to Forest Road 0144 where a sign directs you to Orange Olsen Administrative Site. Turn right (north) on this gravel road for 200 feet. The Orange Olsen dwelling is to your left, Orange Olsen cabin is straight ahead.
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
Orange Olsen 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 →