South Temple Wash
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $15From, per site
- Sites
- 12All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there
In the agency’s own words
South Temple Wash is a fee campground in the San Rafael Swell Recreation Area. Keep reading
Recreation
South Temple Wash campground is located along the Temple Mountain Road on the east side of the Reef. A short distance back to the east of the campground is the turn to go to Goblin Valley State Park. Turning west before the entrance of the state park will lead to Little Wild Horse Canyon, a popular hike for many in a slot canyon. From the campground and driving west on the Temple Mountain Road will lead to the Temple Mountain Pictograph Panel, a short drive further is Temple Mountain Townsite. Here visitors can hike to reclaimed uranium mines. Opposite Temple Mountain Townsite is The Behind-the-Reef Road and it is accessible to most vehicles for six miles, accessing several trailheads for hikes into the San Rafael Reef Wilderness. Two of these (Chute Canyon and Wild Horse Canyon) are accessible for horseback riders. The road continues for another 14 miles requiring high clearance and four-wheel-drive as it follows the rugged base of the reef against a backdrop of 500-foot cliffs and jagged canyons. After about seven miles, the road narrows to a maximum vehicle width of 50 feet. More wilderness slot canyons hikes can be accessed from this road. Motorized vehicle use is not permitted in wilderness.
Facilities
South Temple Wash has two vault toilets and an information kiosk. All campsites have fire rings, flat gravel surfaces, and picnic tables.
Natural Features
The campground is at the Eastern mouth of a short, steep canyon (Temple Wash) which cuts through the San Rafael Reef. One of the most distinctive geologic features of central Utah, the Reef is a 75-mile-long rocky spine that reaches up to 1,000 feet high and forms the eastern edge of the San Rafael Swell. The Temple Mountain area provides acces to many scenic slot canyons, hills, and spires cut from red and white rock.
Nearby Attractions
Goblin Valley State Park (fee area), 2 miles east: The state park entrance is two miles up the Temple Wash Road going back towards Highway 24. The state park is famous for its unique landscape of sandstone hoodoos (goblins) and buttes. The park has hiking and mountain biking trails as well as a fee campground and yurt rentals. Little Wild Horse Canyon: The Little Wild Horse slot canyon is the most popular hike in the San Rafael Reef. Visitors can appreciate sculpted sandstone walls and narrows through the three-mile canyon. Paired with Bell Canyon via the Behind-the-Reef Road, this makes for an eight-mile moderate day hike with varied scenery. The canyon bottoms are gravel and there are some obstacles requiring straightforward scrambling. Temple Mountain Mining District: The townsite is in the heart of the historic Temple Mountain Mining District. Visitors can visit sites and learn about the history of Cold War-era uranium mining by foot or vehicle. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (435) 636-3600.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 12 · 2 group
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…Facilities South Temple Wash has two vault toilets and an information kiosk. All campsites have fire…”
Around the campground
- Backpacking
- Biking
- Climbing
- Hiking
- Historic site
- Off Road Vehicle Trails
- Scenic drives
- Wilderness access
- Wildlife viewing
Fully booked this Friday and Saturday, all 1 site-nights takenread 15:34 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
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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.
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 15:34 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
12 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 12 mapped sitesAll 12 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 12 of the 12 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. 12 of the 12 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| South Temple Wash | Site 01 (Group) | group standard nonelectric | 94 ft | 4.6 mi | 173 ft | $50 |
| South Temple Wash | Site 02 | standard nonelectric | 64 ft | 4.6 mi | 132 ft | $15 |
| South Temple Wash | Site 03 | standard nonelectric | 64 ft | 4.6 mi | 115 ft | $15 |
| South Temple Wash | Site 04 | standard nonelectric | 68 ft | 4.6 mi | 155 ft | $15 |
| South Temple Wash | Site 05 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 4.6 mi | 211 ft | $15 |
| South Temple Wash | Site 06 | standard nonelectric | 51 ft | 4.6 mi | 263 ft | $15 |
| South Temple Wash | Site 07 | standard nonelectric | 51 ft | 4.6 mi | 229 ft | $15 |
| South Temple Wash | Site 08 | standard nonelectric | 59 ft | 4.6 mi | 179 ft | $15 |
| South Temple Wash | Site 09 | standard nonelectric | 61 ft | 4.6 mi | 140 ft | $15 |
| South Temple Wash | Site 10 | standard nonelectric | 61 ft | 4.6 mi | 117 ft | $15 |
| South Temple Wash | Site 11 | standard nonelectric | 69 ft | 4.6 mi | 106 ft | $15 |
| South Temple Wash | Site 12 (Group) | group standard nonelectric | 135 ft | 4.6 mi | 162 ft | $50 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate
Where it is
Temple Mountain Townsite CampgroundPrice Field Office · 1.5 miWild Horse Butte Camping AreaPrice Field Office · 7.4 mi
Cottonwood Canyon CampgroundPrice Field Office · 28 mi
New Joe's CampgroundPrice Field Office · 28 miThe weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Hanksville, UT
Typical weather
Typical October night 37°F, day 65°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 14°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
Who answers for this land
South Temple Wash 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 →