Sand Island Recreation Area
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $15From, per site
- Sites
- 23All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 2 notices
In the agency’s own words
Sand Island Recreation Area is a good camping option for visitors launching San Juan River float trips , or wishing to camp close to the town of Bluff or the Cedar Mesa area of Bears Ears National Monument. The campground provides 21 campsites that each feature a tent/trailer space, a picnic table, a fire ring, and vault toilets. Drinking water is available seasonally (typically March through October). Each campsite can hold 8 people and 2 vehicles. Reservations are not available for camping at this location. Individual campsites are available on a first come, first served basis upon arrival at the self-register kiosk at the site. The Sand Island Group Sites are available for larger groups, and may be reserved here . Keep reading
Recreation
Sand Island is the primary launch point for multi-day San Juan River float trips. San Juan River trips provide boaters with access to spectacular canyons rich in scenery, geology, archeology, history and wildlife. A river permit is required in advance. The Sand Island Petroglyph Panel site is located on the sandstone walls on the north side of the recreation area. There are many nearby hiking and scenic driving opportuites in the Cedar Mesa area of Bears Ears National Monument.
Natural Features
Sand Island is located along the San Juan River. Cottonwood trees line the banks of the river and are scattered throughout the campground, providing shade at many of the sites. The north side of the campground is lined with red sandstone walls. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (435) 587-1500.
Nearby Attractions
Bears Ears National Monument San Juan River Cedar Mesa Valley of the Gods Goosenecks State Park Charges & Cancellations No refunds are available.
What the agency tells you
A permit is required in advance for floating on the San Juan River.
Drinking water is seasonal and is typically available March through October.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 23
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…space, a picnic table, a fire ring, and vault toilets. Drinking water is available seasonally (typically…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- River
- Hiking
- Historic site
- River Trips
- Scenic drives
Nothing on the booking system for the next 30 nightsread 15:33 UTC
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
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.
Watch for a cancellation
Full? Watch it.
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, $15 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.
“No refunds are available.” · this campground’s own 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
recreation.gov availability, read 15:33 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
23 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 23 mapped sitesAll 23 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 23 of the 23 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 23 of the 23 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Loop B | 23 | standard nonelectric | 59 ft | 154 ft | 1,559 ft | $15 |
| 1 | standard nonelectric | 67 ft | 61 ft | 1,390 ft | $15 | |
| 10 | standard nonelectric | 91 ft | 499 ftBuck Creek | 368 ft | $15 | |
| 11 | standard nonelectric | 91 ft | 494 ftBuck Creek | 294 ft | $15 | |
| 12 | standard nonelectric | 130 ft | 463 ftBuck Creek | 147 ft | $15 | |
| 13 | standard nonelectric | 80 ft | 414 ft | 71 ft | $15 | |
| 14 | standard nonelectric | 80 ft | 336 ft | 86 ft | $15 | |
| 15 | standard nonelectric | 96 ft | 252 ft | 127 ft | $15 | |
| 16 | standard nonelectric | 105 ft | 172 ftBuck Creek | 195 ft | $15 | |
| 17 | standard nonelectric | 111 ft | 67 ftBuck Creek | 284 ft | $15 | |
| 18 | standard nonelectric | 141 ft | 16 ftBuck Creek | 354 ft | $15 | |
| 19 | standard nonelectric | 98 ft | 167 ftBuck Creek | 193 ft | $15 | |
| 2 | standard nonelectric | 59 ft | 120 ft | 1,354 ft | $15 | |
| 2 | standard nonelectric | 59 ft | 159 ft | 1,503 ft | $15 | |
| 20 | standard nonelectric | 98 ft | 228 ftBuck Creek | 190 ft | $15 | |
| 21 | standard nonelectric | 140 ft | 221 ftBuck Creek | 322 ft | $15 | |
| 3 | standard nonelectric | 59 ft | 116 ft | 1,295 ft | $15 | |
| 4 | standard nonelectric | 111 ft | 146 ft | 1,186 ft | $15 | |
| 5 | standard nonelectric | 105 ft | 30 ft | 1,174 ft | $15 | |
| 6 | standard nonelectric | 105 ft | 47 ft | 1,073 ft | $15 | |
| 7 | standard nonelectric | 134 ft | 245 ftBuck Creek | 629 ft | $15 | |
| 8 | standard nonelectric | 122 ft | 281 ftBuck Creek | 672 ft | $15 | |
| 9 | standard nonelectric | 122 ft | 284 ftBuck Creek | 554 ft | $15 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions
Where it is
Sand Island Group SitesBears 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 Campground32 mi
Devils CanyonManti-La Sal National Forest · 35 miThe recreation area is located off U.S. Route 191 approximately three miles west of Bluff, UT and approximately one mile east of the junction of U.S. Routes 163 and 191. It is accessible by all passenger vehicles.
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
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 Recreation Area 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 →