Lava Flat Designated Dispersed Campsites

TLDR: a beautiful location significantly marred by too many OHVs. If you can tolerate the increase in noise and dust on the weekends, it’s a great area to boondock.

We camped on the west side of highway 14, on the south side of the meadow on road 4. Cell reception was better on this side of the meadow, and the closest campsite is about 100 yards away across the meadow on the dead-end road.

Positives: The road is wide and smooth, easy to get large RV’s in, and there is room for multiple RVs at this site, as well as most of the sites around this meadow. The scenery’s gorgeous, and most of the time it’s quiet, and most of the OHV traffic passing us on the road is courteous enough to slow down and try to be less noisy. There are lots of things to do in this area: hiking, biking, fishing, boating, caving, etc. Less than an hour from both Zion, Bryce, Cedar Breaks, and Brianhead.

Negatives: this national forest has prioritized OHV access over most other activities, which is a positive for OHV enthusiasts but a negative for those of us who are not, and a negative for wildlife. Every weekend, thousands of OHVs fill the entire forest in this area with noise and dust. The mule deer and the pronghorn seem to tolerate it to some degree, but we saw no elk or raptors during our visit. Many OHV enthusiasts are courteous to others sharing their space, but a significant percentage are not. During one weekend of our stay, a campsite across the meadow from us had two small boys riding their 2-stroke mini bikes up and down the road for hours on end. It was miserable for us, and we were glad we hadn’t camped on their side of the meadow or we would have been forced to leave. I fully support OHVs having places to recreate responsibly, but having them roaring up and down the road next to campsites is too much.

Additionally, locals appear to be in the habit of saving campsites by parking their trailers in them. I can see doing that on a Wednesday to have it for the weekend, but we saw vacant trailers occupying sites the entire time we were there, but no one ever used them. This takes the first-come-first-served concept to a selfish level that should not be tolerated in any national forest. It’s clear that Dixie National Forest managers do not enforce the 16 day camping limit if people are allowed to leave their unoccupied trailers in sites for literally weeks on end.

This would be a 5 star location if the OHVs weren’t so unpleasant on the weekends.

We stayed in July a few days after the 4th. We were the only campers the first night.

This area accommodates 5-6 sites, but due to the holiday weekend there were 9 camp vehicles making it too crowded. After the 4th of July weekend only 2-3 campers were beside us.

The internet wasn't great, especially during the monsoon storms we had. The campsites were dirty with garbage & old chairs left behind. One of our SUV's got a flat tire, due to nails & stakes left from previous campers.

Near an ATV / OHV trail, which stirred up dust & is noisy. Dumpsters 1.5 miles away was a plus. We picked up the surrounding garbage filling one large trash bag improving the site.

I wouldn't recommend staying in this exact area, but would go on one of the many other gravel roads nearby.

We loved our stay at Lava Flats. While the GPS points you to the location we stayed there are dozens (probably more) dispersed camping spots along Mammoth Road. Spots are flat and surrounded by amazing aspen trees. There are free dumpsters just down the street next to the "Post Office" (which is an official unmanned USPS location in a shipping container). If you are looking for water (potable) or dump you can do that at the Duck Creek Campground (National Forest Campground) about 10 miles away for just a $6 fee. The closest "major city" is Cedar City which is about 45 min away but be advised that there is 10 miles of 6-8% grade thru the mountains. The elevation really is a game changer when it gets very hot in Utah.

Internet is hit or miss on the weekend as the sites get filled up. During the week we got 15mbs down but only 1mbs up on verizon. Our sprint/tmobile hotspot got nothing at the location but did pick up some signal if you drive closer to Duck Creek Village.

This area is very popular location for off road vehicles so there is some noise from those but overnight no issues.

We ended up driving down the highway past where my gps said the dispersed camping was and found that there were a handful of side roads you could turn down to camp. There were fire restrictions in place, which is always a little rough when trying to keep the bugs at bay, but we were far away from other people camping which was great! My biggest upset was that we couldn’t have a campfire, even though I know it was for good reason.
We were somewhat close to the road (not the main highway, but the side road we turned down) so there were a lot of atv’s and cars driving by during the day. At night it was extremely peaceful and you could see a ton of stars. This is dispersed camping so bring your own water, a stovetop to cook on in case of fire restrictions and prepare to go to the restroom in the great outdoors! This location was close to (30 min drive) a couple of little lakes which was nice and a few other attractions.

It appears that people with big class A’s and toyhaulers camp on west side of the road, we went east. Our trailer came with an off road package so we can get in places that are rough... wasn’t necessary here, the road is not bad at all unless you’re in a big coach with low ground clearance. We found a great spot away from everyone that has good Verizon LTE (a must on this trip..working remotely) and set up right at dark. The sky was amazing last night, it is sooo dark here... there is no light pollution which made for some of the best stargazing I’ve witnessed. We exclusively boon dock so again thanks Campendium friends, this app is so helpful when in unfamiliar territory.

We camped here the Tuesday after Labor Day. There were a few RVs near the entrance, but we drove far in and took the right fork in the road. The road was very rocky. We were ok with a 24 ft class C but I had to get out and walk and guide the driver as he drove around the rock outcrops in the road. We camped at a level spot with a fire ring in the middle of a forest. There was nobody within sight or earshot. The weather was clear and windy, high of 47 low of 22.

We spent 1 night here in our group of 2 x 25' RV's. There are about 6-7 sites that are easy to get to. There are more sites further in where we saw some trucks, but it looked like it might need a 4x4 so we didn't attempt it. We stopped at the last area that was easy to reach. It was a great site setup that could fit 4-5 RV's around a center opening that had a huge fire pit area. It has lots of shade and the elevation made for a cool night in June.

Overall quiet and peaceful! We’ve stayed in other areas nearby that had a lot more atv traffic and loose/blowing dust. The grassy meadows in this area seemed to control the dust and dirt pretty well. Easy access to Mammoth Creek, Panguitch Lake, Duck Creek and Navajo Lake! Cell service was a little spotty with Verizon, between 1-2 bars but it worked for us.