McCoy Flat Road Dispersed Camping

There are lots of options in this area. I spent the first night further down the road in an open area. Cows came by in the morning. The next day I moved back to the first parking area. Drive past it on a dirt road and past a second pit toilet. There are lots of spots in the pinon / juniper area.

Lots of walking along dirt roads or bike trails. Verizon was good with my booster on but when turned off it flipped between 1 bar and no service.

I stayed off the 3rd road on the left instead of going to the official BLM sites. I did check them out and they were very small and cramped for even my 13ft trailer and truck. But the place I found was tucked back behind a little hill so I was invisible from the road. I had great Verizon and Tmobile signals. I walked around looking at all of the chert, chalcedony and agates, observing nice sunsets and just relaxing. I wanted to stay 2 weeks, but after the 3rd day I noticed something was coming down to my camper every night and poking around my setup. It sounded like something that was dragging a plastic bucket on the hard soil. I assumed it was a cow but whenever I got up to open the door and see, it was either under my camper or around the corner hiding, which told me it heard me getting up and hid from me. Not cow like behavior. I tried every night to catch it on video and all I could get was a blur and the sound it made as it scraped the ground and rubbed up against my camper. The 4th day I found an entire, in tact cow leg outside my camper. They 6th day I found the other three legs layed out as they would be in a cow was flat on it's stomach, in a circle, just outside my camper and the 7th day they were gone after hearing the scraping thing literally scraping on the back of my camper all night... I said NOPE and packed up and left a week sooner than planned. Except for being terrorized by some cow or antelope or person it was an absolutely amazing place to camp!

This was our first time boondocking in our 40’ fifth wheel and it was a good experience! We took other travelers’ advice and parked at the front, unhitched, and drove the truck in to find a spot. That was a good idea. We went about a mile down and parked in a big open spot by the vault toilets. It was quiet and peaceful and we were able to keep the windows open and get a breeze all night. Would stay here again!

We stayed here a night on our way towards Salt Lake City. We wanted to visit the Utah Field House of Natural History in Vernal, Utah, and the National Dinosaur Monument, which is also close by. This was the closest dispersed camping area to where we wanted to be.

We only travelled about a mile off the highway to the trailhead, and turned around and came back about halfway to a small pond.

The importance of scouting ahead and walking the road: this area is red clay, and it looked like it might have rained a few days prior, but the ground seemed dry. I wanted to drive down a small decline and park by the pond, but after walking on it, and my shoes getting inches of red clay stuck to them, I decided camping up on the road was a much better idea. The top of the clay looked dry, but right under the surface it was sloppy.

The general area was beautiful, however, this particular site was probably used by locals. There was some trash laying around, lots of spent brass from people shooting there, lots of tire tracks, and even the legs of some deer which a hunter had left there.

Overall we enjoyed this site, and if we stay again will go back further and find a spot a greater distance from the highway. We did have a little cell reception which was nice.

BLM land very near Vernal UT. A couple places where vault toilets are available, but many roads off the main to set up away from people. I just picked a side road where I noticed a campsite partway up a hill. Nice site for the most part. Great scenery, but made a rookie mistake. While yes, people camped at this spot before; a week in it rained and, did I mention? the site was on what appears to be clay. When wet it just caked onto my shoes. Still a good site for the views if you don't get rain. Whole place is a mountain bike area, so be prepared for that.Oh, yes, while I did not see it when I set up; the site I was in had a hill on 2 sides. While climbing there was broken glass all around. If it was just a little I would have picked it up, but there was enough to last the whole stay. I did end up picking up a few cans. Shame people do this. One of the reasons some areas are closing off the free camping. As I said though, you don't notice it just sitting there.
Not sure about the rest of sites, but there are miles of space to camp in.

Just 3 miles from walmart, 1 mile from the road, lots of sites further down the road.
So spread out that you don't see other campers.
Beautiful scenery just had to cope with a few (fruit flies?) I don't know what they were, nothing to worry about.
The road is paved and there are some sites you could access by using the dirt roads to the sides.
5 bars of T-mobile
Surrounded by beautiful rock formations and next to many trails.
There is even one pit toilet about 3 miles in.
I accessed one dirt site through a dirty side road that my minivan handled easily. Loved this place, thank you Utah!

Access was very easy, even though there are plenty of potholes in the paved road coming in. Then there are lots of dirt roads that lead to open areas to for camping. We didn't go too far from the paved road, since there wasn't that much traffic anyway. It was incredibly quiet for the week we stayed, including memorial day weekend. There is so much room to spread out and if you want a great view and can drive up the mountains, you can find some incredible spots. The only downside was the wind and dust, which sometimes made it impossible to be outside. Check the wind forecast before you come and be prepared. We had a full 5 bars of 5G ATT, making for blazing fast internet speeds for whatever you need.

It was only 30 minutes to the Dinasour NM visitor center and quarry, which was fantastic. It's a bit further from the Colorado side, but both are worth the trip. There are also some great state parks to explore in the area. Also, if you continue on McCoy Flat Road all the way to the end, it becomes a dirt road (high clearance recommended) which leads to an incredible overlook over a bend of the Green River. The sunset there was spectacular!

The town of Vernal was great for anything you need - Walmart, hardware stores, shopping, restaurants, etc. We dumped and filled for free at the Maverik there, although it was a little tight for big rigs.

This place is a gem.

Great internet coverage with towers visible in the distance. Great proximity to Vernal with all the amenities you could want. No trash! Like, zero , which is a rarity on public lands. Very quiet! It was busy with mountain bikers, but they were all very respectful and very quiet. Lots of stuff to do in the area including the cute town of Vernal and it's murals, Fantasy Canyon, and the Quarry at Dinosaur National Monument. Dump and water right in town at the Maverik (very tight!).