Leeds Canyon Designated Dispersed Camping

We researched this place pretty well before we came and we still took our tow car off to check it out before driving our 32' Sunseeker RV up the road. Check out their video (and ours) to get a good overview of what the roads look like. Pretty well maintained when we were there.

Anyways, we found site #5 to be available, so we went back quickly and drove our RV up the short hill. Since we had the tow dolly still attached, we opted for the pull-through, however, the site actually has a nice back in area that gets you even further away from the road and closer to the beautiful canyon.

If you go further up the road, there are many other sites and some others were incredible. Also, up the road is the Children's forest in the Kiln which is worth checking out.

Caution: When driving through the small residential area, go slow, they have a couple of big speed bumps and if you're not paying attention, it could cause havoc on your rig.

Nice stop en route from a trip throughout southern utah. It's very close to town, so when we arrived it was a well worn with trash (we picked it up and packed it out) so just be ready to clean up a bit. It was a decent size for tents and maybe vans, no rvs were seen but maybe a small trailer could make it to our site. There were rvs on the turn outs along the road but I can't imagine that's comfortable with vehicles driving by.

I got designated dispersed site 3. That us also next to a parking area for a trailhead. There is red rock wall behind sites 2 and 3 that university uses to teach repelling (on a Friday and Saturday morning). Interesting to watch. The sites are adjacent to the road, so expect dust in a area that only sees up to 2” rain per year. Note that even thought there are supposedly 13 dispersed sites only 9 are accessible because the forest service has road closed after site 9. The road leads up to the Oak Grove Campground (not suitable for trailers) which is deserted. From the road block location to the campground is 4.5 miles, up grade. I walked it which was pleasant because no traffic. Tiring, yes. But the view back into the mesa of the valley outstanding. And the 4.5 miles walk back down hill was not bad. Also, if you come back out and go through Leeds toward south you can turn into the Red Cliffs (BLM) Recreation Area. I did a number of miles hiking there which was very nice (for me as geoscientist). There is campground there which is nice for ery small trailers/RV and tents. BTW, I would normally only have stayed 2-3 nights in Leeds Canyon, but I had 10k service due on my Toyota truck and dealer is in St. George. Timing was such that it worked out better to stay 5 nights and drive 20 miles into St. George for service.

We camped one night as a stopover and I would definitely stay longer if we have another opportunity. The road in is well maintained, which made it easy for drivers to go pretty fast. We took it slow since it's really a ~1.5 lane road, and we were glad to be out of the way once camped. We got site 5, as the others were full. The fire pit was full of trash, but everything else looked clean. Fires weren't allowed anyway cause of the current fire conditions, so we just stayed in the RV. Unfortunately with a very hot night and little breeze through our windows, it wasn't the most comfortable sleep. Also, at some point during the night, my husband started hearing loud buzzing that kept him awake, and in the morning we realized that bees were swarming around the front of our RV - maybe eating the bugs on our windshield? So, we decided to move on rather than have a leisurely morning, but luckily site 4 was free by the time we were driving out. So we lost the bees in the brief drive and pulled into site 4 to make breakfast and enjoy the views for a little longer. Overall, a great free site.