Red Cliffs 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 15:46 UTC
- A night
- $15From, per site
- Sites
- 11All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 1 notices
In the agency’s own words
Red Cliffs Recreation Area includes a campground, day use areas, a non-motorized trail system, and interpreted public use sites. Dinosaurs left their footprints, now visible in the sandstone. Ancestral Puebloans lived here in the 10th century, growing corn, beans, and squash along Quail and Leeds Creek. Mid-19th century pioneers farmed here, supplying the area’s silver miners with food. Located within the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area, the Recreation Area is managed to conserve and protect the natural and cultural resources of the public lands. Keep reading
Recreation
The Red Reef Trail follows Quail Creek into the Cottonwood Canyon Wilderness and is a very popular hike in the spring when seasonal runoff fills water pockets and plunge pools in the stream channel. There are many other trails in the Recreation Area that are scenic and enjoyable for hikers and mountain bikers, for shorter, moderately difficult rides. The White Reef Trailhead accommodates both large and small horse trailers, making it an ideal place for equestrians to start a longer distance ride on the Prospector Trial which connects to the equally popular Church Rocks Trail for extended riding.
Facilities
The Red Cliffs Recreation Area ‘s campground is open year round and includes 11 campsites with shade shelters (Campsite 4 has no shade structure), picnic tables, potable water, and grills. Sites 8 and 11 are accessible for visitors with disabilities, while sites 6,7, and 10 have pull-through parking. Only two vehicles are allowed per campsite. Accessible vault toilets are located between sites 5 and 7. Pets must be on a leash and under control at all times. Quiet hours are from 9 pm to 7 am. Reservations are required for campsites and can be made at www.recreation.gov, or by calling 1-877-444-6777. First come first serve camping is not permitted and camping payment cannot be made on site. Fees Camping fees are $15 per night, plus a reservation fee and are paid only on recreation.gov or by calling 1-877-444-6777. Interagency Annual, Access, Senior and Military Passes are honored for day use fees. Interagency Access and Senior passes recive half off the camping use fees. All fees collected at this site are used to fund operations, improvements, and repairs to the recreation area. Camping Restrictions Stays are limited to 14 days. To protect the area’s natural resources and to minimize impacts to private property, camping is prohibited on BLM managed lands within one mile of the recreation area. Vehicles over 11' 9" cannot acesss the Red Cliff's Recreation Area including the campground.
Natural Features
The campground and day use areas of the Recreation Area are located at the base of towering red cliffs of Navajo Sandstone. Quail Creek flows through the campground and supports mature cottonwood trees and willows that provide shade for many of the campsites and the day use areas. You may see a flock of Gambel’s quail or hear canyon wrens as you hike the trails the follow Quail and Leeds Creeks. If you’re lucky, you might spot a Mojave desert tortoise or a Gila monster, whose beaded skin and bold color patterns make it a standout among desert reptiles. To protect all of these native species and their habitats, please stay on designated trails.
Nearby Attractions
Quail Creek State Park, Dixie National Forest, Zion National Park.
Charges & Cancellations
Cancellations: When reservation is cancelled a $10.00 cancelation fee is charged. This cancellation fee is in addition to the non-refundable reservation service fee. Late Cancellations: When a reservation is cancelled on the day before or the day of arrival the $10.00 cancellation fee will be charged and the first night use fee will be forfeited (not to exceed the total paid for the orginal reservation). No Shows: If a customer does not arrive and/or does not cancel reservation by check out time (11 :00am) the day after the scheduled arrival date a $20.00 service fee charged and will forfeit the first night's user fee.
What the agency tells you
· This is desert environment that is extremly hot in the summer, temperatures can exceed 100F (38C) from May-Oct. It is not uncommon for tempertures to reach 115F (46C). Plan accordingly, refunds are not issued for heat. · Reservations are required and can be made at www.recreation.gov, or by calling 1-877-444-6777. First come first serve camping is not permitted and camping payment cannot be made on site. · Camp only in designated campsites within the campsite boundaries. Occupancy limit is 14 days. Check out time is 11:00 am. · Quiet Hours—Quiet hours are 9 pm to 7 am. Generator hours are 9 am to 9 pm. Voices, audio devices, motorized equipment, or other noise producing devices shall not make unreasonable noise that disturbs others. · Campfires—Firewood collecting is prohibited, bring your own firewood. Campfires are permitted in designated fire rings only. Do not leave fire unattended. Extinguish fire completely before leaving. · Vehicles—Vechicles over 11 ft 9 inches cannot access campground. Park only in designated parking areas with four wheels on pavement. Any vehicle that impedes traffic is subject to citation or towing. Parking in campsites for day use is prohibited. · Day Use—The picnic areas close at sunset. · Cleaning—Cleaning of food, pots, pans, clothing, or household items at water faucets is prohibited. · Weapons—Discharge or use of firearms or other weapons is prohibited. · Pets—Pets must be on leash no longer than six feet and secured to a fixed object or under the control of a person, or is otherwise physically restrained at all times. Do not leave pets unattended.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 11 · 11 cabin
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 18 ft
- Paved pads
- 8 of 11
- Accessible sites
- 2
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…are allowed per campsite. Accessible vault toilets are located between sites 5 and 7. Pets must be on…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…has no shade structure), picnic tables, potable water, and grills. Sites 8 and 11 are accessible for…”
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Creek
- Biking
- Birding
- Hiking
- Picnicking
- Night sky · 430th darkest of 458 in UT
- Bortle 4
Full this Saturdayread 15:46 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
3 campgrounds have sites open within 30 miles, read 15:57 UTC. See them
OpenBooked
Every one of the 11 sites on offer is taken this Saturday. 2 are free on Mon, Oct 19. read 15:46 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 · 17
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the lowest per-night amount the agency’s fee record states ($15), 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.
“Cancellations: When reservation is cancelled a $10.00 cancelation fee is charged. Late Cancellations: When a reservation is cancelled on the day before or the day of arrival the $10.00 cancellation fee will be charged and the first night use fee will be forfeited (not to exceed the total paid for the orginal reserva…” · this campground’s own no-show terms
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 · 6
Open within 30 miles this weekend · 3
Sites the agency is offering this Friday and Saturday that nobody has taken, nearest first. read 15:57 UTC
- Baker Dam CampgroundSt. George Field Office · 17 mi · 1 of 36 site-nights open
- Watchman CampgroundZion National Park · 23 mi · 2 of 368 site-nights open
- Virgin River Canyon Recreation AreaArizona Strip Field Office · 29 mi · 4 of 54 site-nights open
recreation.gov availability, read 15:46 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
11 sites
All 11 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. 11 of the 11 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Red Cliffs Campground | 1 | overnight shelter nonelectric | $15 | ||
| Red Cliffs Campground | 10 | overnight shelter nonelectric | $15 | ||
| Red Cliffs Campground | 11 | overnight shelter nonelectric | yes | $15 | |
| Red Cliffs Campground | 2 | overnight shelter nonelectric | 18 ft | $15 | |
| Red Cliffs Campground | 3 | overnight shelter nonelectric | $15 | ||
| Red Cliffs Campground | 4 | overnight shelter nonelectric | $15 | ||
| Red Cliffs Campground | 5 | overnight shelter nonelectric | $15 | ||
| Red Cliffs Campground | 6 | overnight shelter nonelectric | $15 | ||
| Red Cliffs Campground | 7 | overnight shelter nonelectric | $15 | ||
| Red Cliffs Campground | 8 | overnight shelter nonelectric | yes | $15 | |
| Red Cliffs Campground | 9 | overnight shelter nonelectric | $15 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Pine Valley Recreation AreaDixie National Forest · 11 mi
Pine Valley Guard StationDixie National Forest · 11 miDean Gardner CampgroundDixie National Forest · 12 miFrom St. George: Take Interstate 15 north to Exit 22/228 N-Leeds. At the end of the off-ramp, turn right onto Old Highway 91. Travel south 1.5 miles and turn right. Continue under two freeway tunnels (tunnels restrict vehicle size to less than 12 feet in height and width) turn left and follow the paved road for 1.3 miles into the campground.
From the north: take I-15 South and exit at Exit 23/228 S/Leeds and go left under highway. Turn right on S. Main Street for 3.2 miles. Take right and Continue under two freeway tunnels (tunnels restrict vehicle size to less than 12 feet in height and width) turn left and follow the paved road for 1.3 miles into the campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Hurricane, UT
Typical weather
Typical October night 47°F, day 76°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 28°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
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
Red Cliffs 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 Red Cliffs Campground, Red Cliffs National Monument, Utah
Dear Celeste Maloy, I’m a constituent in Utah’s 2nd district. I tried to camp at Red Cliffs Campground, Red Cliffs National Monument, Utah, and couldn’t. All 11 sites at Red Cliffs Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 11 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Red Cliffs Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Red Cliffs 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 Red Cliffs Campground (Red Cliffs National Monument, 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 Red Cliffs Campground, Red Cliffs National Monument, Utah
Dear John R. Curtis, I’m a constituent in Utah. I tried to camp at Red Cliffs Campground, Red Cliffs National Monument, Utah, and couldn’t. All 11 sites at Red Cliffs Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 11 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Red Cliffs Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Red Cliffs 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 Red Cliffs Campground (Red Cliffs National Monument, 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 Red Cliffs Campground, Red Cliffs National Monument, Utah
Dear Mike Lee, I’m a constituent in Utah. I tried to camp at Red Cliffs Campground, Red Cliffs National Monument, Utah, and couldn’t. All 11 sites at Red Cliffs Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 11 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Red Cliffs Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Red Cliffs 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 Red Cliffs Campground (Red Cliffs National Monument, Utah) via campanac.com