Kolob Reservoir Campground

Gorgeous drive through the backside of Zion to reach campsite. The water itself and the landscape is really pretty. Lots of spots - we found one nestled in some trees. The road appears to wrap around the whole lake, but we were driving a sedan so weren’t able to pass all areas of the dirt road. Winds were high while we were there (pretty much everywhere in Utah at that point). The big drawback was all the mosquitos. The humans used bug spray and we were mostly unharmed, but before we could spray the dog she was covered in bites - ended up having to stay in the car for the evening then straight to the tent. Maybe during other times of year we might return, but the mosquitos really ruined this spot for us :( really pretty drive and scenery though!

The one hour drive from Zion was frequently steep but paved until you get to the reservoir. You approach from the south & there is a road that circles the reservoir. We drove counterclockwise on the dusty, bumpy but very passable road about 3/4 of the way around the lake until we got to a point (at the second vault toilet) where the road was largely rutted & sandy so we turned around for fear of getting stuck.

We passed probably 20 fire rings & decent sites for everything from tents to larger RVs. It was pretty windy & chilly so we chose a site set back from the water. It was a bit trashy- seems like this would be a popular weekend hang out spot for locals. Monday night in late September there were a few other people camping (especially noticeable was the guy that ran his generator all night grrr).

All-in-all, cool spot to spend the night. The night sky was spectacular & the drive in had some great views of the backside of the park. No cell service AT&T.

We took our pop up camper up here with our Jeep Patriot. 1st things first we barely made it up there because we have a tiny engine but it did make it most of it was in 1st or 2nd gear. The climb is steep and takes about an hour to get up there but the weather is worth it. It drops down to like the 40 or 50 every night. They just refilled the Reservoir with new trout and I got a okay one good enough to eat. We loved it we stayed from Monday to Friday before Memorial Day and on Friday it got busy. You’re about an hour and half from Zion. We loved it

To start off if you have a large trailer or RV this is not for the faint of heart. The water level was low so we were able to camp on what normally would be an island which also gave us plenty of room to maneuver. If the reservoir was full we probably would have been unable to camp here.

Their are no assigned camp sites so this is open dry camping. Areas to camp are around the shore of the lake and are not very large. The other disadvantage is you’re right on the road which people are offen driving on stirring up dust.

The fishing here wasn’t as good as I expected out of 5 days of fishing I only caught 1 fish. A boy scout troop was camping next to us and out of 4 days of camping and fishing they also only cought one fish.

The road driving to Kolob is also extremely steep going up the steep hills was extremely demanding on my truck. The trip down was also extremely challenging thankfully my truck is equipped with an exhaust break which assisted in keeping speeds slow going down the mountain. Let me add I’m experienced in hauling heavy loads through steep mountain grades so I know how to utilize gearing and proper breaking tactics. If you are not skilled in driving steep grades with trailers DO NOT go here even vehicles with no trailers I could smell their breaks burning and our vehicle also experienced some hot breaks at times.

As far as cell service goes we have Verizon and had service only in one small spot on the shore of the lake which was 1x one bar which allowed us to make phone calls only. A family Member with AT&T never had service. Additionally there was absolutely no cell service while driving up or down the mountain on either Verizon or AT&T.

This area is truly best for tent camping but we saw several small trailers that were probably much easier then our massive 44ft trailer.