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If you’ve never camped on BLM land, read this post where we provide more background information about the perks of BLM camping and share an easily accessible camping area outside of Moab, Utah.
Traveling during COVID
A few weeks ago we took our annual road trip to CA. There’s no question that COVID has upended life this year, but all-in-all, we didn’t feel like it had too much of an impact on our travel.
We wore masks when going into any public buildings (gas stations, rest areas, grocery stores). We washed our hands, or used hand sanitizer if a sink wasn’t available. There was definitely a mix of different precaution levels among other travelers and in different regions. For example, some gas stations had signs noting “masks NOT required”.
Fremont River BLM Camping
During last year’s road trip, we relied on FreeCampsites.net when searching for sites. Since then we’ve found a variety of apps that are handing when you’re searching for campsites while on the road. This year I relied on Campendium’s app for a lot of my searches. That’s a screenshot of the area where we camped. It’s really easy to go to a location on the map and then search for all available campsites, and they have a number of different filters that you can use to target your search.
Whenever we’re looking to camp near the entrance of a national park (this particular site was just 12 or so miles from the entrance to Capital Reef), I always worry that all of the sites will be taken, especially if we’re pulling in late at night, which we often are. This year our timing was no different. We arrived around 9 at night (that’s the full moon in the pics above), but fortunately there were plenty of sites open at this location. I’m sure it may have been due in part to COVID, but also because Capital Reef is generally a less crowded park than the other Utah gems.
We saw two other campers with tents, and then another van in a different section of the site, but generally this was a really quite and low-density BLM experience.
The area was dry, and as you can see, our site was pretty sandy. Some of the roads in the camping area had very deep ruts. There were a couple of sites tucked even farther into the trees, but we felt good about playing it safe and staying out of the ruts and deeper sand.
The site isn’t far off the main road heading into the park, so you do get some road noise. We had no trouble ignoring it, but I could see it being a disappointment for someone who really wants to get away.
BUT if you take just a short walk away from the road, you’ll past the most magical tree. As you can see, there are a tire-tracks in the sand near the tree. This is definitely a spot that’s accessible by the right vehicle during certain times of the year. There is a fire-ring and a nice flat sandy area on the other side of the tree that would make a fantastic tent-camping spot.
And just a little bit beyond the tree is the Fremont River. The water was shallow and the flow was slow enough that we could easily wade into the river.
One of the reviews that we read about this camping area said that the best sites were on the other side of the river. We didn’t explore that area, but based upon what we found on this side of the river, I’m sure there are more great sites to be found!
We only spent a night at our site, and then headed into Capital Reef the next morning before continuing on our trip. But this was such a great area that I’m sure we’ll be back on future trips. Fingers crossed that it’s just as easy to score a spot!