Dalton Wash Road Dispersed Camping

We arrived the day after a large storm January 26th. I have 4x4 on my truck so it wasn’t too bad getting in. My friend with a 2WD sprinter van made it up the hill in the mud as well. Not recommended, but it would totally be doable with a 2WD with chains the day of or after a storm.

Weather was sunny and 60 degrees during the day. Right below freezing at night. No bugs.

So many cool things to do like hike the small volcanic butte nearby, or bike “the whole guacamole” trail. Would stay here again.

Not-so-good stuff: As the previous reviewer notes, the bugs (mostly gnats and mosquitoes for us) were terrible in early June. We sat inside our car until about 9pm when they finally calmed down enough to be outside to set up tent and cook dinner. The road in is pretty long, gravel, with some dropoffs but nothing too bad until the very end, which was still pretty easily passable in an SUV with decent clearance in dry weather. Some sites had lots of ants, some had tons of flies (emerging from what looked like anthills...), and some were full sun.

The good stuff: Super close to Zion (literally on the edge of the park property, took about 25-30 min to get back to the main visitors center) and we had a spot with an amazing view. Stars were great, and the sites were well-laid-out, spread out from one another, and pretty quiet. Rock fire rings in most sites (we didn't use it but they're there), and sites were flat, soft dirt/sand which was great for tenting.

Overall, super great place and would've loved it if the bugs weren't so awful!

Drive slow on the way in to respect the farmer dude that lives there.

The road leading to this dispersed camping site is fairly long, but the last 2 miles are beautiful.

The spot itself is beautiful and has shade, but we were there in early June and the amount of flies was just unbearable. Small ones, big ones. Staying outside for 2 minutes reading meant you had at least a 100 flies on you, in your nose, in your ears, everywhere.

If it wasn’t for that, we would love the place, but in a tent, it was simply unbearable. Maybe in a small RV this wouldn’t be as bad, or another time of the year.

Drove my van with a group of guys out to dalton wash road for a trip to Zion. It was about a 20min drive to the main entrance. Pulled up and there were a few other folks with small campers and truck campers. Beautiful spot! There was a little creek running through the site and firepits as well. The ground was red sand/dust. We had enough room to park the van and set up 5 tents around the fire. Downside: some of the campsites are too close to each other, and some had massive ant nests. We were able to find one that wasn't too close to anyone and had no ants.

I'll come back here on my next trip to zion.

No big rigs. Vans, truck campers, and small travel trailers only.

This site is easily accessible during dry stretches. It is a popular mountain biking locale accessed by many daytrippers, some in low clearance 2WD. The areas available for camping vary from slickrock to enclaves nestled between evergreens - see photo of campsite with our friends right as you alight to the top of the mesa. Nestled between the two Zion NP rectangles, this site is a true gem with tons of petrified wood and despite the pervasive broken glass. Our location gave us super spotty ATT service, which varied between SOS and 1 bar. It was just enough to get texts but not enough to access/search websites reliably. Oh, and the stars? I haven’t seen the Milky Way in that much detail, EVER.

There were probably a dozen campers at this site, mostly cars / tenters. The area is large, room for more. Beautiful evening views. The road.

The road going up and back down was extremely washboard in some areas. I passed a Cruise America rental pounding away at some of the worst washboard and I never did see that vehicle at the top. The road is bad.

I did pass a couple locations on my way down that I didn’t see going up. This would be a good option if available just to avoid much of the road.

The roads heading in are gravel in places and dirt in other places. There are some ruts that you'll want to navigate carefully. It is pretty steep towards the end of the drive in, but once you get up on top the views are worth it. :)

I'd recommend heading towards the backside of the camping area.

The main negatives are the long gravel/dirt road in that isn't the nicest and the steep part right at the end, probably something to be extra careful about if its wet or snowing.

We loved this site. It was incredibly secluded and had an amazing view. The road wasn’t too bad getting up, but fairly narrow and steep towards the last quarter mile. There’s existing spots off to the right, though there’s bigger ruts in the road that way.

A few other downsides; having been there in the summer we were CONSTANTLY swarmed with knats. Even with bug spray it was unbearable at times. It cleared up as the sun went down.
Next, there’s no shade coverage in certain areas. So during the day it’s incredibly hot. The ground is also difficult for getting pegs into if you’re tent camping. (That being said, there were a few trees off the road when you first pull up where you could camp if you wanted more shade, or possibly easier grounds to get some pegs in, but the block a lot of the views that make this site so nice)

The second night we were planning to stay again but a big lightning and thunderstorm was rolling in from the distance and immediately the wind picked up and turned our stuff inside out. A ranger had come by earlier and told us about the dead trees having been struck by lightening, and we worried about our lack of coverage and roads being difficult after rains, so we packed up and got out of there.

Otherwise, it was a great campsite!