Ponderosa Grove Campground
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 30 of the next 30 nights read 16:49 UTC
- A night
- $12From, per site
- Sites
- 35All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 1 notices
In the agency’s own words
The Ponderosa Grove campground is situated approximately eight miles to the northwest of Kanab, Utah, at 6,300 feet in elevation and is named for the small canopy of ponderosa pine trees that shade its campsites. The climate in the area ranges from extremely cold in the winter to temperatures over 100 degrees Fahrenheit during the summer months. Keep reading
Recreation
Ponderosa Grove campground was designed and constructed in the 1970’s. As the adjacent sand dunes became a popular off-highway-vehicle (OHV) destination, OHV enthusiasts became frequent users of the campground. The campground is located on approximately sixteen acres of public lands managed by the BLM.
Facilities
Amenities at Ponderosa Grove campground include the addition of 26 car-camping sites (including gravel tent platform, parking barrier, fire ring and compacted gravel parking area), 6 RV sites, 2 walk-in campsites (including parking area and gravel tent platform), compacted gravel loop road, cattle guard, dumpster with enclosure, and a reservable group camping area for up to 40 people (including 2 car/RV sites, locking gate, group fire pit, shade pavilion w/ barbeque grill, double vault restroom and parking stalls for 13 vehicles). The Field Manager may approve larger group sizes for special events or other purposes on a case-by-case basis. Standard car-camping sites were designed to accommodate parking for 2 vehicles and 1-2 tents. Construction is scheduled to be completed in the summer of 2021, following installation of the group site shade pavilion, barbeque grill and fire pit.
Natural Features
The campground sits amid rolling sagebrush and scrub hills which form the top of the Vermilion Cliffs and a short distance to the north of the Coral Pink Sand Dunes. Views of the surrounding landscape include the White Cliffs and colorful pink cliffs of the Bryce geologic formation. The area contains a variety of wildlife including mule deer, raptors, coyotes, rabbits, quail, etc. Tourism and recreation are a growing and important component of the local economy.
Nearby Attractions
Ponderosa Grove campground primarily serves recreators visiting the Grand Staircase—Escalante National Monument, Coral Pink Sand Dunes, Zion National Park, Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, and the Kanab Field Office. Recreation activities that visitors utilize in the area include sightseeing, riding ATV/UTV’s, hiking, photography, horseback riding, hunting, and climbing/rappelling. The average length of stay at Ponderosa Grove campground is estimated at 2 – 3 nights
What the agency tells you
Ponderosa Grove has 35 Individual campsites are available on a first-come, first-served basis; they cannot be reserved. pick an open site and reserve campsite here and fill out camping slip at the information board and clip to your campsite post with a Limit of 10 people per site, $12 per night fee 1 reservable (group site) up to 40 people, with a $50 per night Fee ( after reservation is made and paid you will receive an email with the Gate lock Combination.) Pets are allowed, but they must be leashed, and waste must be disposed of properly. Please practice responsible outdoor ethics, more commonly referred to as 'Leave No Trace Principles', for more information on outdoor ethics, visit BLM.gov/outdoor ethics. A trash dumpster is provided for campground visitors, at the entrance. No dumping of grey water or black water from RV units. No fires outside of designated campsite fire grates. No digging of holes or pits. No gathering firewood or damaging vegetation. One vehicle per campsite, additional parking is available in trailhead parking lot. Quiet hours are from 10 pm to 7:30 Am Checkout is by 2 PM. Check in is after 3 PM. Stay limit 14 days
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 35 · 2 walk-in, 1 group
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…shade pavilion w/ barbeque grill, double vault restroom and parking stalls for 13 vehicles). The Field…”
Full this Saturdayread 16:49 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
1 campground has sites open within 30 miles, read 15:57 UTC. See them
OpenBooked
The one site on offer is taken this Saturday. 1 is free on Thu, Oct 22. read 16:49 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 · 15
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $12 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
Open within 30 miles this weekend · 1
Sites the agency is offering this Friday and Saturday that nobody has taken, nearest first. read 15:57 UTC
- Watchman CampgroundZion National Park · 19 mi · 2 of 368 site-nights open
recreation.gov availability, read 16:49 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
35 sites
All 35 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. 34 of the 35 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Ponderosa | 001 | standard nonelectric | $12 |
| Ponderosa | 002 | standard nonelectric | $12 |
| Ponderosa | 003 | standard nonelectric | $12 |
| Ponderosa | 004 | standard nonelectric | $12 |
| Ponderosa | 005 | standard nonelectric | $12 |
| Ponderosa | 006 | standard nonelectric | $12 |
| Ponderosa | 007 | standard nonelectric | $12 |
| Ponderosa | 008 | standard nonelectric | $12 |
| Ponderosa | 009 | standard nonelectric | $12 |
| Ponderosa | 010 | standard nonelectric | $12 |
| Ponderosa | 011 | standard nonelectric | $12 |
| Ponderosa | 012 | standard nonelectric | $12 |
| Ponderosa | 013 | standard nonelectric | $12 |
| Ponderosa | 014 | standard nonelectric | $12 |
| Ponderosa | 015 | standard nonelectric | $12 |
| Ponderosa | 016 | standard nonelectric | $12 |
| Ponderosa | 017 | standard nonelectric | $12 |
| Ponderosa | 018 | standard nonelectric | $12 |
| Ponderosa | 019 | walk to | $12 |
| Ponderosa | 020 | walk to | $12 |
| Ponderosa | 021 | standard nonelectric | $12 |
| Ponderosa | 022 | standard nonelectric | $12 |
| Ponderosa | 023 | standard nonelectric | $12 |
| Ponderosa | 024 | standard nonelectric | $12 |
| Ponderosa | 025 | standard nonelectric | $12 |
| Ponderosa | 026 | standard nonelectric | $12 |
| Ponderosa | 027 | standard nonelectric | $12 |
| Ponderosa | 028 | standard nonelectric | $12 |
| Ponderosa | 029 | rv nonelectric | $12 |
| Ponderosa | 030 | rv nonelectric | $12 |
| Ponderosa | 031 | rv nonelectric | $12 |
| Ponderosa | 032 | rv nonelectric | $12 |
| Ponderosa | 033 | rv nonelectric | $12 |
| Ponderosa | 034 | rv nonelectric | $12 |
| Ponderosa | Group Site | group standard area nonelectric |
25 of 35 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the phone number
Where it is
Watchman CampgroundZion National Park · 19 mi
South Campground (UT)Zion National Park · 19 mi
Lava Point CampgroundZion National Park · 28 mi
Duck CreekDixie National Forest · 30 miDuck Creek CampgroundDixie National Forest · 30 mi
Spruces Campground (Dixie NF)Dixie National Forest · 30 miThe weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Kanab, 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 · a letter you can send
Who answers for this land
Ponderosa Grove 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 →
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 Ponderosa Grove Campground, Kanab Field Office, Utah
Dear Celeste Maloy, I’m a constituent in Utah’s 2nd district. I tried to camp at Ponderosa Grove Campground, Kanab Field Office, Utah, and couldn’t. All 35 sites at Ponderosa Grove Campground 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 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Ponderosa Grove Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Ponderosa Grove Campground. I’m asking you to put it to the Bureau of Land Management 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 Ponderosa Grove Campground (Kanab Field Office, 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 Ponderosa Grove Campground, Kanab Field Office, Utah
Dear John R. Curtis, I’m a constituent in Utah. I tried to camp at Ponderosa Grove Campground, Kanab Field Office, Utah, and couldn’t. All 35 sites at Ponderosa Grove Campground 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 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Ponderosa Grove Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Ponderosa Grove Campground. I’m asking you to put it to the Bureau of Land Management 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 Ponderosa Grove Campground (Kanab Field Office, 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 Ponderosa Grove Campground, Kanab Field Office, Utah
Dear Mike Lee, I’m a constituent in Utah. I tried to camp at Ponderosa Grove Campground, Kanab Field Office, Utah, and couldn’t. All 35 sites at Ponderosa Grove Campground 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 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Ponderosa Grove Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Ponderosa Grove Campground. I’m asking you to put it to the Bureau of Land Management 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 Ponderosa Grove Campground (Kanab Field Office, Utah) via campanac.com