Pine Valley Guard Station
- Right now
- Closedrecreation.gov lists every site closed this weekend, read 16:38 UTC
- Sites
- 1In the agency’s record
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 14 notices
In the agency’s own words
Pine Valley Guard Station is located in scenic Pine Valley Recreation Area, about 45 minutes from St. George, Utah. Built in 1935 by the Civilian Conservation Corps, the station was used to house a recreation guard during the summer months to assist the visiting public. The cabin is open year-round and is accessible by vehicle during good road conditions. Winter use of the cabin may require snowshoeing, hiking or cross-country skiing about 1.5 miles from the trailhead at the entrance to the Pine Valley Recreation Area. Many modern amenities are offered, including electricity. Guests only need to bring a few of their own supplies to have a truly comfortable stay in this charming retreat within the Dixie National Forest. Keep reading
Recreation
The cabin is centrally located within the Pine Valley Recreation Area, in close proximity to fishing at Pine Valley Reservoir. This small, quiet reservoir offers a scenic location to fish for rainbow trout. Numerous non-motorized trails provide access into the Pine Valley Mountain Wilderness. The winter landscape provides opportunities for snowshoeing and cross-country skiing.
Facilities
The cabin retains historic qualities of the original building, with the added feature of electricity. Six people can sleep comfortably on one futon and one set of double/twin bunk beds with mattresses. An electric fireplace heater is available in place of the old wood burning stove. The kitchen is equipped with an electric range, refrigerator, lights, cookware, dishes and utensils. Indoor plumbing is available in the summer months, offering guests access to a shower and flush toilet. During winter months (Nov-Apr) guests should be prepared to hike, snowshoe, or cross country ski into the cabin roughly 1.5 miles with all of their items due to seasonal gate closures. Guests can enjoy outdoor cooking on the campfire ring with grill. An outhouse is provided for year-round use. Water is only available during the summer months. Guests will need to bring their own supply of water for drinking, cooking and washing during the winter. Guests should pack sleeping bags, pillows, blankets, flashlights, matches, toilet paper, a first aid kit and garbage bags. All food and trash must be packed out, and guests are expected to use the provided cleaning supplies to clean the cabin before leaving.
Natural Features
The cabin is surrounded by ponderosa pine trees and offers scenic views of the Pine Valley Mountains. At an elevation of 6,800 feet, summer days are warm and nights are cool. The nearby Pine Valley Mountain Wilderness, described as a mountain island surrounded by desert, preserves numerous lush meadows and a beautiful forest of Engelmann spruce in the south, and spruce mixed with fir, pine and large stands of aspen in the north. The Pine Valley Mountains rise through the entire center of the Pine Valley Wilderness, providing habitat for chipmunks, marmots, red squirrels, blue grouse and a large herd of deer in summer. Elevations rise to a high point at 10,365 feet on Signal Peak in the southern portion.
Nearby Attractions
Pine Valley Reservoir Hiking trails Pine Valley Heritage Center (open seasonally)
What the agency tells you
Please be advised, the guard station is not cleaned between guests. Guests are requested to clean up after themselves at the end of their stay and ready the cabin for the next guest. Please bring garbage bags and clean the facility before leaving as this is a 'pack it in, pack it out' site. Limited cleaning supplies are provided. Visitors must clean up after their stay. Thank you for working together to make sure we can keep this cabin open for enjoyment during the off-season!
During the months of October through April guests may need to hike, snowshoe, or cross country ski 1.5 miles into the Pine Valley Guard Station due to seasonal gate closures.
Running potable water is available Memorial Day through Labor Day. The hot water is not currently working, but potable cold water is still operational.
Everything else this campground posts · 11
Entry to the cabin is by combination lock. Please review confirmation email for this combination.
All Forest Service cabin rentals are non-smoking facilities.
No pets are allowed in the cabin.
No saddle, pack or draft animals allowed on premisis.
Please do not use tents, motorhomes, or RVs on the guard station site.
Please be careful with the screen doors, they are old and fragile.
You may contact the Pine Valley Ranger District prior to arriving at the cabin to check on any new restrictions or conditions, such as fire or road closures, weather, storms, etc., that may affect the your visit.
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.
Check out is 11:00 AM and check in is 2:00 PM.
Firewood is stocked for use in the outdoor fire ring.
Click here for more information about Dixie National Forest.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- 1 electric
- Paved pads
- All
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Not allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- “…offering guests access to a shower and flush toilet. During winter months (Nov-Apr) guests should be…”
- Stay limit
- 7 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, Meadow
- Amphitheater
- Biking
- Birding
- Cross Country Skiing
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Picnicking
- Snowshoeing
- Stargazing
- Wildlife viewing
- Winter sports
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 · 11
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 · 4
Why this page can’t say why
recreation.gov lists every site at Pine Valley Guard Station 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 · 1
The agency’s own word that these are open, not our reading of a season.
- Watchman CampgroundZion National Park · 29 mi · 190 sites
recreation.gov availability, read 16:38 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 sites · the site map
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.
| Pine Valley | Cabin | cabin electric | 50 amp | 192 ftPine Valley Reservoir | $75 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Pine Valley Recreation AreaDixie National Forest · 0.2 miEffie Beckstrom East Group CampgroundDixie National Forest · 0.3 miEffie Beckstrom West Group CampgroundDixie National Forest · 0.3 miDean Gardner CampgroundDixie National Forest · 0.4 miMitt Moody CampgroundDixie National Forest · 0.7 miEbenezer Bryce CampgroundDixie National Forest · 1.0 miFrom Exit 6 in St. George, Utah, turn north onto Bluff Street, which turns into Utah Highway 18 North; continue to follow for 27 miles. Turn east onto Pine Valley Highway and travel 6.9 miles into Pine Valley. From the Pine Valley stop sign, turn east onto Main Street and follow 2 miles to the Pine Valley Recreation Area. The Guard Station is located a quarter mile past the reservoir parking lot on the north side of the road.
During winter months, there is a 1.5 mile cross-country ski, snowshoe or walk into the cabin from the winter trailhead at the entrance to the Pine Valley Recreation Area.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Pine Valley, UT
Typical weather
Typical October night 39°F, day 65°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 21°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
Pine Valley 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 →