Sand Island Group Sites
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 27 of the next 30 nights read 15:30 UTC
- Sites
- 2All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 6 notices
In the agency’s own words
Sand Island Campground’s two group campsites are ideal for groups wishing to be close to the town of Bluff and the San Juan River. The area offers outdoor enthusiasts many options for river floating, scenic driving and rock art viewing. Keep reading
Recreation
Sand Island is the main put-in for the 102-mile section of the San Juan River between Montezuma Creek and Clay Hills Crossing that provides boaters with access to spectacular canyons rich in scenery, geology, archeology, history and wildlife. Within the campground there are numerous petroglyphs and pictographs on the ledges above and it is a popular destination for both sightseeing and bird watching.
Facilities
Group Site A is located near the boat ramp and features picnic tables, a fire grate, a shade structure and has water nearby. The site may be reserved in advance for groups of 10 to 20 people for a maximum of fourteen days. Group Site B can accommodate group sizes from 15 to 40 people and is located in Loop B of the campground and features picnic tables, a large fire grate, a shade structure, water on site and a single vault toilet. The group sites do not have dump stations or electric hook ups. There are dumpsters located at the campground entrance.
Natural Features
Sand Island Campground is beside the San Juan River.
Nearby Attractions
Sand Island is close to Goosenecks State Park, Bears Ears National Monument (Shash Jaa Unit), and Cedar Mesa.
What the agency tells you
A permit is required for floating on the San Juan River
Gusty winds are possible so always secure your tents and camping gear.
Wildlife frequent the sites; never leave food out.
Everything else this campground posts · 3
Summer thunderstorms can cause flash flooding and gusty winds; stay aware of current weather.
Annual, Senior and Access passes do not apply to group site fees.
Water is seasonal and is typically unavailable November through February.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 2 · 2 group, 2 cabin
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- 1
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Little
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- VAULT TOILETS on 2 of 2 campsite records
- Drinking water
- Yes
- WATER (SEASONAL) on 2 of 2 campsite records
- Dump station
- Yes
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- River, Creek
- Historic site
- Paddling
- Picnicking
- Water access
- Whitewater rafting
Full this Saturdayread 15:30 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBookedClosedNot reservable
The one site on offer is taken this Saturday. 1 is free on Tue, Oct 20. read 15:30 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 · 13
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 · 5
recreation.gov availability, read 15:30 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
2 sites
All 2 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. 2 of the 2 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Sand Island Group Sites | Group Site A | group shelter nonelectric | $65 | |
| Sand Island Group Sites | Group Site B | group shelter nonelectric | yes | $65 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Sand Island Recreation AreaBears Ears National Monument · 0.1 miComb Wash Dispersed CampgroundBears Ears National Monument · 17 miNatural Bridges Overflow CampBears Ears National Monument · 26 mi
Hovenweep CampgroundHovenweep National Monument · 31 mi
Natural Bridges Campground31 mi
Devils CanyonManti-La Sal National Forest · 35 miSand Island Campground is located on the north bank of the San Juan River about 3 miles west of Bluff, Utah, on the south side of Highway 191.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Bluff, UT
Typical weather
Typical October night 38°F, day 70°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
Sand Island Group Sites 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 · 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 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 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 Sand Island Group Sites, Bears Ears National Monument, Utah
Dear Mike Kennedy, I’m a constituent in Utah’s 3rd district. I tried to camp at Sand Island Group Sites, Bears Ears National Monument, Utah, and couldn’t. All 2 sites at Sand Island Group Sites 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. Sand Island Group Sites keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Sand Island Group Sites. 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 Sand Island Group Sites (Bears Ears 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 Sand Island Group Sites, Bears Ears National Monument, Utah
Dear John R. Curtis, I’m a constituent in Utah. I tried to camp at Sand Island Group Sites, Bears Ears National Monument, Utah, and couldn’t. All 2 sites at Sand Island Group Sites 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. Sand Island Group Sites keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Sand Island Group Sites. 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 Sand Island Group Sites (Bears Ears 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 Sand Island Group Sites, Bears Ears National Monument, Utah
Dear Mike Lee, I’m a constituent in Utah. I tried to camp at Sand Island Group Sites, Bears Ears National Monument, Utah, and couldn’t. All 2 sites at Sand Island Group Sites 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. Sand Island Group Sites keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Sand Island Group Sites. 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 Sand Island Group Sites (Bears Ears National Monument, Utah) via campanac.com