Moab in mid-April... do you dare try to boondock or reserve??????

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

tanglemoose

Well-known member
Joined
May 14, 2013
Posts
697
Thanks everyone for your comments as we make our way over Utah in Feb-April 2018. Most of our trip is semi-planned out, few reservations made... and now Moab area.  Never been...

Staying at Escalante Petrified State Park for 6 nights, then heading towards Moab. Trying to decide if Capitol Reef is in our "camping" plan or just a day drive over OR if we will stay a night and then stop at Goblin Valley State Park. We are avid hikers but have a dog, so plan our trip around her... Escalante will be easy, with Dixie Forest close by, closed roads, etc! and lots of advice for trips to go out of there...

But MOAB scares me! Do we even think finding a site at one of the 24 BLM campgrounds is possible on a Thursday thru Sunday night????? We love the look of Goose Island, of course, we are only 26' long, but don't want to boon-dock off the road too far...  Looking at Dead Horse Point State Park and know it is hard to get in there...  ;D

So, your wonderful experiences on boon-docking, dispersed camping around Moab. We don't do RV parks.. like wider open spaces and places to hike out our RV...

Thanks, everyone!!!

Donna and crew
 
Make sure you check when the Moab Jeep Week is next year. There won?t be anything available within 30 miles the week of the rally, and there isn?t much available the week before or after. As long as you can work around that, you will probably be ok. Note that April is very popular for Goblin Valley so you will have to get reservations. Spring is my favorite time in southern Utah, and I am not alone in that preference.
 
Lou Schneider said:
Do you mean the Easter Jeep Safari, March 24-April 1?

Moab 2018 Calendar of Events
Yup, that one! Stay far away unless you reserve early. We took a multi-day river trip in early April a few years ago just after the Jeep week, and we barely got a hotel room in Moab the night before the trip. The campgrounds were full for a long way away.
 
I did check spring break and the jeep activity... and nor arriving that early for that reason..... but do hear that all of April is busy busy... probably our only trip to Moab, as we hear it is getting crazy, like all NP across US!!
 
As I'm sure you have noted there are 6 more BLM CG's other than Goose Island in the first 8 miles of SR-128 east of Moab.  If you were to be able to arrive before noon, you should not have a problem finding an open campsite.  That would not put you too far from the main attractions in the area. 
 
There are lots and lots of sites in the many BLM campgrounds east of town along the Colorado River. While it's busy at that time of year, I'd imagine that outside of Easter Jeep Safari you'll be able to score something.

Be aware that outside of these campgrounds, camping on BLM land is restricted in the immediate area of Moab: https://www.blm.gov/download/file/fid/10937

That said, you'll find numerous legal boondocking sites on Campendium.com. We've had good results at Klondike Bluffs (photo attached).
 

Attachments

  • 20170902_091052.jpg
    20170902_091052.jpg
    344.8 KB · Views: 28
Back
Top Bottom