Skull Creek
- Right now
- Shut for nowOutside the published season, our reading
- Sites
- 1716 on recreation.gov
- Season
- – September 30Closes September 30. No opening date published.
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 12 notices
In the agency’s own words
Skull Creek Campground is located about 35 miles north of Vernal, Utah near Flaming Gorge Reservoir. Visitors enjoy hiking and biking on local trails and boating, fishing and swimming on the reservoir. Keep reading
Recreation
Red Canyon and Greens Lake are nearby. Canoeing and fishing for rainbow and brook trout are popular activities at Greens Lake. The Red Canyon Rim Trail is a great place for hiking, biking and wildlife watching. The Red Canyon Visitor Center offers interpretive displays and area information. Red Canyon Lodge is situated on the shore of Greens Lake. Canoe and bike rentals, horseback riding, a restaurant and gift shop are available.
Facilities
The campground contains 17 single-family sites, each equipped with a picnic table and campfire ring. Vault toilets are provided. There is no drinking water available.
Natural Features
Skull Creek lies in a hillside forested with ponderosa pines and aspens near Flaming Gorge Reservoir at an elevation of 7,400 feet. The campground is partially shaded. Summer wildflowers dot the landscape.
Nearby Attractions
Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area is known not only for its beautiful red cliffs, but also for its world-class fishing for lake, brown and rainbow trout. Boating, water skiing, jet skiing, canoeing, kayaking, swimming and scuba diving are popular activities on the reservoir. Flaming Gorge Dam offers guided tours of the working hydroelectric plant and the dam itself; The adjacent visitor center contains area history exhibits. The Green River below the dam provides spectacular rafting opportunities. A trip down the river offers unique geology, outlaw history and Native American rock art. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (801) 226-3564.
What the agency tells you
CHECK IN: Begins at 2 PM. CHECK OUT: By 11 AM.
The single site fee covers the cost of 1 vehicle. Each single site's maximum capacity is 2 vehicles. There will be an extra vehicle fee for the second vehicle collected on site. 2 vehicles = 1 sleeping unit (trailer, pop-up, pickup camper, RV, etc) + 1 passenger vehicle or 2 passenger vehicles. There is not room for 2 sleeping units.
This campground has first come, first served sites. There is no guarantee a site of this type will be available.
Everything else this campground posts · 9
Water is NOT available on site. Please bring your own water. The nearest water sources are at Greendale and Lodgepole Campgrounds.
Firewood available at Greens Lake Campground. No hookups available.
Dump stations are located at Antelope Flat, Deer Run, Firefighters, and Lodgepole. A fee is charged.
Showers are located at Deer Run and Mustang Ridge for campers with proof of camping registration.
Any accepted senior passes must be entered for the discount at the time of booking for single sites only.
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.
Extra Vehicle will be charged $10 per vehicle per day. Cash or personal check.
Click here to learn more about the Ashley National Forest
Customer Service Please Contact 801-226-3564 or Help.Ashley.DutchJohn@AmericanLL.com
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 17
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 80 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…with a picnic table and campfire ring. Vault toilets are provided. There is no drinking water available.…”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…ring. Vault toilets are provided. There is no drinking water available. Natural Features Skull Creek lies in a…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, Lake, River, Creek
- Biking
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 133rd darkest of 458 in UT
- Bortle 2
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
recreation.gov lists 16 of the 17 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
No availability snapshot inside the last 36 hours, so this page draws nothing rather than ageing a reading into fiction.
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.
Tell me when the season opens
Watch for the season to open
One email when the season goes on sale, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time the agency has that season on sale.
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 · 11
What you actually pay
“Extra Vehicle will be charged $10 per vehicle per day.” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own agency notice
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
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
17 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 16 mapped sitesAll 17 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 17 of the 17 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
| SKULL CREEK | 001 | standard nonelectric | 37 ft | 111 ft | 4,096 ft | 561 ft |
| SKULL CREEK | 002 | standard nonelectric | 37 ft | 111 ft | 3,998 ft | 568 ft |
| SKULL CREEK | 003 | standard nonelectric | 39 ft | 130 ft | 3,963 ft | 365 ft |
| SKULL CREEK | 004 | standard nonelectric | 37 ft | 130 ft | 3,834 ft | 327 ft |
| SKULL CREEK | 005 | standard nonelectric | 37 ft | 115 ft | 3,911 ft | 99 ft |
| SKULL CREEK | 006 | standard nonelectric | 39 ft | 52 ft | 3,799 ft | 132 ft |
| SKULL CREEK | 007 | type not stated | 69 ft | 3,818 ft | 45 ft | |
| SKULL CREEK | 008 | standard nonelectric | 37 ft | 52 ft | 3,772 ft | 115 ft |
| SKULL CREEK | 009 | standard nonelectric | 80 ft | 163 ft | 3,770 ft | 136 ft |
| SKULL CREEK | 010 | standard nonelectric | 37 ft | 49 ft | 3,616 ft | 178 ft |
| SKULL CREEK | 011 | standard nonelectric | 37 ft | 49 ft | 3,576 ft | 140 ft |
| SKULL CREEK | 012 | standard nonelectric | 37 ft | 219 ft | 3,621 ft | 208 ft |
| SKULL CREEK | 013 | standard nonelectric | 37 ft | 106 ft | 3,453 ft | 348 ft |
| SKULL CREEK | 014 | standard nonelectric | 39 ft | 100 ft | 3,359 ft | 340 ft |
| SKULL CREEK | 015 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 100 ft | 3,326 ft | 291 ft |
| SKULL CREEK | 016 | standard nonelectric | 37 ft | 101 ft | 3,324 ft | 240 ft |
| SKULL CREEK | 017 | standard nonelectric | 37 ft | 101 ft | 3,381 ft | 177 ft |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Greens LakeFlaming Gorge National Recreation Area · 0.9 mi
Canyon RimFlaming Gorge National Recreation Area · 1.8 mi
Red Canyon (Ashley National Forest)Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area · 2.5 mi
Red Canyon CampgroundFlaming Gorge National Recreation Area · 2.7 mi
GreendaleFlaming Gorge National Recreation Area · 3.9 mi
Firefighters CampgroundFlaming Gorge National Recreation Area · 4.3 miLocated off Highway 44, just west of the junction of Highways 44 and 191 in the Flaming Gorge area, about 35 miles north of Vernal, Utah.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Flaming Gorge, UT
Typical weather
Typical September night 44°F, day 71°F.
Coldest night of the open season: typical September night 44°F. Bring the bag rated for it.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or moreOutside the published season
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
Skull Creek 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 →