Basin Campground

We had a great stay with 4 kids ages 7 - 14. No cell service, which was really nice in order to completely disconnect. We did the Angel's Palace hike. My kids loved walking out onto the narrow parts of the plateau we were hiking around. The Nature Trail by the group camp, next to this campground, was a nice easy trail to learn about the plants in the area.

We used a pull-through site with full hookups and everything worked great. The sites have a picnic table and fire ring with grill. There are trees or bushes between the sites so even though you're close to others, it feels private. We didn't use any of the services like bathrooms, etc. The ranger was nice and helpful. Check-in was a breeze.

The night sky is AMAZING! The Milky Way was beautiful. We walked a short distance away from the campsites in order to get away from fires and people's RV lights and had a lot of fun watching for shooting stars.

We also did part of the disc golf course, which I can't recommend. The course is fine but, if you're familiar with the desert ecosystem or just pay attention to all the signs talking about it in the park, you know you don't step on cryptobiotic soil. The course takes you all over the undeveloped part of the park with no trails anywhere so you end up stepping all over the place. We tried stepping on rocks and plants to avoid the soil but, if you're going to play, there's no way to avoid stepping on some. I don't know why they would put a course out there. We stopped after the first two holes.

Escalante Petrified Forest and Bryce Canyon are both nearby and we really enjoyed visiting both of them. I highly recommend Trail of Sleeping Rainbows in Petrified Forest. It's quite steep but it's short and there are plenty of places to take a break on the way back up. We went a part of the way down Navajo Loop in Bryce and we're tempted to head back when the whole trail is open.

Stayed here in mid-October for only one night, but wished we could have stayed longer. We got the last site available online, a pull-through without any hookups. The site details said 25' max length, and our trailer is actually 27' when you count the tongue. We fit, but barely. Our slide-out was just pass the yellow line that distinguished the campsite from the road. I also got into the junipers a little bit getting tucked back into the pull through. There were better sites to be sure, but none available.

But even being on the road we felt like we had plenty of privacy as we looked out from our doorway into the wild blue yonder, not seeing any other campsites. Great views of some of the hoodoos in the campground.

The visitor center was interesting, with books, t-shirts, interpretive displays, and an ice cream freezer! Very nice staff on site.

The dump site gets 5 stars in my book. Everything works, and there is flush out water available.

There are plenty of trails and roads within the park to explore. I think you could easily spend a week here by taking your time.

Utah gets it right when it comes to State Parks. I wished Idaho did.

Kodachrome Basin State Park has been on our list to visit for a couple years and we finally checked it off the list. Spectacular views are everywhere and the showers are the best I've ever encountered at a State Park with really nice tile and rain shower heads! Staff was friendly, sites were clean, all campground users were quiet, the night sky was amazing and the hiking trails were well maintained. Dump station & potable water are available at the campground entry and firewood is available. Not all sites are level, so be prepared with some blocks or levelers. We did not have any hookups at site 10, but had plenty of sun available for solar charging our batteries each day.

Do not plan on any cell service while at the park and you won't be disappointed when you arrive.

Great park, Second time here, and we think we still have just scratched the surface. It is amazing. Clean , spacious, the rangers are SOOOO nice. Love this park.
Arrival was great. DO NOT EXPECT ANY CELL SERVICE OR ANY DATA. You will have to drive at least 5 miles to get a couple bars. Or 14 miles for full access. But we loved it !

Look for the honey bees next in the tower on the walking trail near the rest rooms. Stayed one nite in the tent area, which was difficult to get my home leveled, then moved to the rv site with full hook ups. Beautiful sun sets. Quiet neighbors. Super clean facility. Lots of hiking within walking distance of camp ground. No cell service but who cares. Long way to the store but who cares. We're camping.
Look for animal tracks in the sand, lots of wildlife here.

This hidden gem is a wonderful place to stay. There are some excellent hiking trails. The scenery is fantastic. We camped in the Basin Campground in our 23' motor home. The roads are all paved. Some sites offer full hookups, while others offer only 30/50 amp electric. There are a couple of potable water spigots in the campground as well as a dump station. Not all sites are level. There is a coin-op laundromat near the campground as well as a small store at the visitor center/check-in building. The basin is just beautiful, and you can see some of it from pretty much every campsite in the campground. We have found that we prefer to camp in state campgrounds as opposed to national park campgrounds. This place was no exception. The rest rooms were clean, but the showers were to die for! What a wonderful find!

Kodachrome was a last minute addition to a grand Utah National parks road trip in 2017. I choose it for its proximity to Bryce Canyon; planning only to use Kodachrome as a base camp for my Bryce adventures. Once I arrived in Kodachrome after several hours driving I was blown away by how beautiful the area was. I ended up spending a whole day exploring Kodachrome.
Basin campground was so clean and quiet. Being a tent camper I loved that generators were only allowed from noon to 4pm. And the sites were so clean - the park staff comes through and washes the picnic tables, sweeps the concrete pad under the table and vacuums out any debris from the fire ring after a guest checks out. The bathrooms and showers were a welcome sight, again spotlessly clean. There was a dishwashing station near the bathrooms as well. Firewood was available in camp for a donation (honor system, cash only drop box for payment) but supply may be limited so call and ask ahead. Ice was available at the visitor center. The laundromat was new and very clean during my visit, again a welcome sight after several days on the road. Very little traffic in the camp and park in general so quiet all day and night. Great views and moderate privacy at nearly every site.
The signage along Highway 12 for the park can be easy to miss (I did) so pay close attention as you pass through Cannonville.

This is one of the nicest parks we’ve stayed at, and literally our only criticism is the lack of cell service within miles of the park. We stayed in the Basin Campground in a full hookup site, which we thought was a bargain at $30/night. The entire campground has great views of the surrounding rocks, and all sites have some amount of foliage for privacy, but of the full hook-up sites we thought the backins were much nicer than the pull-throughs. Our site in particular had outstanding views and privacy, as well as very easy access thanks to the angle of the loop road.

The highlight of the campground is certainly the bathhouse. Those dark-tiled spa showers with generous rain shower heads were a true highlight of our stay. The only problem was that everyone loved them and there could be long lines in the mornings! We found that there was no line when we returned from our hikes around 2 pm. The laundromat was small but extremely clean, well-designed, and fairly priced – my husband even took photos of the bathrooms in the laundromat because they were so nice!

Most of the main park trailheads are very close to the campground. While the Panorama Trail gets the most attention, we thought the Angel’s Palace trail across from the campground was the most fun because of its outstanding views of the campground and the basin, and the free-form scrambling around on top of the slickrock. The Sentinel Trail is also not to be missed, even though the trailhead involves a drive down a dirt road. The trail was fairly easy, but the views of the surrounding Grand Staircase Escalante NM were absolutely spectacular.

We used this campground as a base for visiting Kodachrome, Bryce Canyon, and GSENM, and it was perfect for this purpose. Getting to Bryce involved an easy drive, and several of the main access points into the western side of GSENM were right along the road from Kodachrome Basin to Cannonville. The GSENM visitor center in Cannonville was also interesting and a great source of information about the monument.

There is a gas station in Cannonville at the intersection with Utah 12, but otherwise there is not much out here in the way of services. The general store in Tropic has only a small selection of food, so I was happy we arrived with a fully stocked fridge. If you’re here for the internet or the shopping, you’ve come to the wrong place.

This is just an update to say that AT&T service is available just 3 miles outside the park in one lone spot. Just before you reach the left-hand turn off to the park by the "Kodachrome" park sign, there is a gravel pull-out on the right hand side. I got 3 bars of AT&T service here with my vintage Wilson Sleek booster. It's only 3 miles from the campground. I asked the Park Ranger about this, since it is widely noted in their collateral material that the nearest cell service is 15 miles away in Tropic. He confirmed that it is just this one small spot, and "AT&T only."

And BTW, everything they say about the showers here is true. And they are spring fed, therefore "guilt free."

Stayed here in our rented Escape Campervan at the end of September. What a gem of a park! Helpful ranger at the entrance station, sites are nicely spaced, clean, and well maintained. Hot showers included - and these showers? I was tempted to take photos as inspiration for a bathroom remodel at home! Laundromat also incredibly nice, clean and well maintained - I only wish we could have accessed power outlets while waiting :)

We only had time to do one hike, but it was lovely. We stayed after a visit to Bryce and before heading to Moab. Would absolutely stay here again for a longer period.