Sunglow Campground
- Right now
- OpenInside the published season, our reading
- A night
- $20From, per site
- Sites
- 8All of them booked ahead
- Season
- May 1Opens May 1. No closing date published.
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 8 notices
In the agency’s own words
Sunglow Campground is located in a scenic red rock box canyon just 2 miles from Bicknell, Utah. Visitors enjoy exploring local trails and day-tripping to Capitol Reef National Park. View Sunglow Campground Map Recreation Many miles of trails for hiking, biking and off-road vehicles are in the area. The Great Western Trail passes nearby. Keep reading
Facilities
The campground contains two group sites that can accommodate up to 20 people each. Flush toilets and drinking water are provided. A large parking area can accommodate trailers. The road to the campground is paved, but the road and parking spurs within are gravel.
Natural Features
The canyon sits at an elevation of 7,200 feet. Cottonwoods and junipers provide very limited shade. Sagebrush and summer wildflowers dot the landscape.
Nearby Attractions
The Ke Bullock Waterfowl Management Area is nearby, just south of Bicknell, with wildlife viewing and fishing opportunities. Capitol Reef National Park is approximately 20 miles away, offering excellent hiking trails, historic sites, scenic driving and breathtaking scenery. Sightseeing along Utah Highway 12, a National Scenic Byway, is very popular. Travelers visit from every corner of the world to gaze upon stunning red rock canyons and desert landscapes. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (877) 444-6777.
What the agency tells you
Single sites are available on a first come, first serve basis
There are no electricity, water or sewer hookups at the campground.
This is a 'pack it in-pack it out' facility. No garbage services are available. Please bring your own garbage bags.
Everything else this campground posts · 5
Camping is limited to 16 days.
Any vehicles or trailers that can not fit in the designated site must be relocated to another site purchased at full site price. Check area map for available free parking
Street legal and non-street legal vehicles are allowed for access and egress 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.
Discharging a firearm of any kind is prohibited: this includes BB guns, slingshots, paintball guns etc. Take these activities outside of the campground please.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 8 · 2 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 75 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- “…can accommodate up to 20 people each. Flush toilets and drinking water are provided. A large parking…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…up to 20 people each. Flush toilets and drinking water are provided. A large parking area can accommodate…”
Around the campground
- Hiking
- Night sky · 118th darkest of 458 in UT
- Bortle 2
- Fall color · reported 10 days ago, 25 km away
- Patchy color
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
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 · 13
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $20 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
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
8 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 8 mapped sitesAll 8 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 8 of the 8 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. 8 of the 8 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| SUCA | 001 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 182 ft | 69 ft | 526 ft | $20 |
| SUCA | 002 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 146 ft | 114 ft | 347 ft | $20 |
| SUCA | 003 | standard nonelectric | 27 ft | 74 ft | 50 ft | 177 ft | $20 |
| SUCA | 004 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 86 ft | 127 ft | 204 ft | $20 |
| SUCA | 005 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 74 ft | 97 ft | 110 ft | $20 |
| SUCA | 006 | standard nonelectric | 42 ft | 68 ft | 98 ft | 126 ft | $20 |
| SUCA | GROUPA | group standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 320 ft | 89 ft | 502 ft | $55 |
| SUCA | GROUPB | group standard nonelectric | 75 ft | 68 ft | 74 ft | 192 ft | $55 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Elkhorn CampgroundFishlake National Forest · 9.1 mi
Aquarius Ranger StationDixie National Forest · 11 mi
Primitive campsites at Cathedral CampgroundCapitol Reef National Park · 12 mi
Capitol Reef Group CampgroundCapitol Reef National Park · 15 mi
Group CampsiteCapitol Reef National Park · 15 miBackcountry CampingCapitol Reef National Park · 15 miTravel a half-mile south of Bicknell, Utah, on Highway 24, then turn east on Forest Road 143 and travel 1.5 miles to the campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Bicknell, UT
Typical weather
Typical May night 35°F, day 67°F.
Coldest night of the open season: typical May night 35°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
Sunglow 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 →