Lone Mesa Dispersed Camping

Located right between Arches and Canyonlands, this place is PERFECT. We parked right at the back of the campground, overlooking the bluff. It’s hot during the day, but there is pretty much a constant breeze as of sundown.

Amazing views, large space (so you don’t feel like you are right up close with the neighbours). We have a 17’ travel trailer and didn’t have too many problems driving the dirt road that leads to it. There were also a few mega busses that were parked there, so i take it they managed the unpaved roads as well!

We pulled in here on a mid-October Friday, and searched to find a "normal" dispersed site. After passing the turn-off to the Lone Mesa group site, there were several VERY large open areas with many, many, many big RV's, LOTS of people, and ATV's. We went a good way down Dubinky Well Road, which got worse the farther we went, so we backtracked and ended up on the edge of an RV "city" (probably 4-5 circles of 3-5 large camping units each). We were away during the days and tolerated the crowds when we came back as there didn't seem to be too many other camping options close to Canyonlands Island in the Sky District.

That said, the stars were incredible and the sunsets against the rocks were beautiful. October weather is delightful and makes it a very busy time in this area, so that explains the crowds.

These large areas are huge and if you don't mind a little "bumpy" in your drive, you can get any size RV in there, and there were tents along the edge as well as in some of the sites down the road.

We had weak coverage for both AT&T and T-Mobile.

There is a threaded water spigot at the lower level parking lot at Lyons Park. It's on the north side of the intersection of 128 and 191. There's a sign that says no trailer/camper parking on the lower level, but you can go down there to fill your water tank.

We camped here for four days in a 40' fifth-wheel in early October. The place was packed when we arrived on a Wednesday night and we found one spot left. A few OHVers near us, a few tents, some small and big rigs. Cell service is good, with our AT&T booster we got 10+ MBps. Verizon has two bars. The road out is OK, bumpy but doable for big rigs. Once in the campground you'll just need to be careful of some of the tighter turns.

You won't have much space here, at least we didn't. Most sites are pull off and folks go by on the road pretty frequently. Our neighbors had dogs that bark at everything, and a couple people are running generators at any hour of the day. This might be a remote spot, but you won't be alone.

There are also a few other dirt roads that lead to trails and who knows what else back here. I've seen tanker trucks, OHVs, mountain bikers, and plenty else go past this campsite and further into the wild. As such it gets a bit dusty; we had some wind today and didn't get our windows closed in time so we had some dust in the camper.

One plus of this spot is the location, the drive out to it on 313 is amazing and you're halfway between Arches and Canyonlands here. Overall a good spot but not the best if you are looking for peace and quiet.