Steinaker State Park

We were on our way from SW CO to the Tetons & stayed here on the way. Nice sites with power hookups. The reservoir was still empty, otherwise the water would have been up to our site. Pull through sites made for an easy in & out. I suppose there is hiking, but with the lake closed recreation looked a little limited in the direct area, but the campground was nice and restrooms clean.

This was our first time visiting Dinosaur National Monument and finding a campground with water and electric took some research. Steinaker is perfect. It is about 45 minutes from the Quarry and close enough to the town of Vernal that buying supplies is not that big a deal.

The campground is simple but the scenery far from that. Our site is on top of a ridge and we can watch the sunrise by just opening the shades. The geology of this place is amazing and apparent from our perch here at the reservoir.

Our site had FULL hook-ups for the amazing price of $28. This alone makes the park worth a visit. Caution: no showers and a bit tired in the bathroom department but hey, we are living in a trailer so all considered, the views from the Airstream are pretty spectacular.

This state park is in a convenient location, only about 5 miles from town, and a half-hour drive from Dinosaur National Monument or Flaming Gorge. The campground is very small, and looks a bit old and tired compared to many other state park campgrounds we've stayed in. Our site was pretty large with plenty of privacy which was nice. There are 7 or so full hookup sites which is a nice surprise for a state park, and they're reasonably priced. Unfortunately most of them are on a steep hill so most of those sites are not level. Our 37' motorhome and tow car had no problem fitting in our pull-through site, but we had to drive our back tires up onto about 5 inches of stacked boards for leveling. The rest of the sites are electric-only or no hookups, and we did hear a few generators running from rigs in the no hookup sites. There's a vault toilet near site #8 which was pretty stinky. AT&T and Verizon were almost unusable until we put up our booster... then they were decent but definitely not fast. The state park was pretty quiet during the week but during the weekend it was packed with boaters, jet skiers, paddle boarders, and others having fun out on the lake. We found a nice secluded beach near the campground where our dog loved going in for a swim every day, but otherwise there's not much in the way of trails for longer hikes out of the campground. When exiting the campground we ran into some major low-hanging branches near site 28. We had high winds every day, so we could never use our awning for shade. Not sure if this was unusual or normal for the area. The gate to the state park closes at 10pm but we never had reason to be out that late. Overall this is a nice scenic campground, but site selection should be done carefully depending on your rig size, and you should have a cell booster if you want connectivity.

This state park is within 10 minutes of Vernal and about 30 minutes of Flaming Gorge. The campground sits right on the reservoir which was quite low when we visited. When full the water comes right up to the sites. It is somewhat easy to navigate the campground but I would recommend unhooking your towed vehicle to get to the site as there are some sharp turns, inclines and one area where we scraped the back end of the RV. The dump station is right as you pull into the campground area and can be accessed from either direction. It is on an incline which may affect how easy it is to completely dump your tanks.

The reservation system for this campground states that the max vehicle is 35 feet but that is not at all the case. We are in a 40 foot motorhome and had many sites to choose from. We stayed in both sites 16 and 18 and each easily fit our rig. Site 16 had very nice shade and 18 had some. Some sites are fully exposed but offer covered picnic areas. There are sites that offer full hookup, electric only or no hookups. Water is available throughout the campground and we were able to fill our tank from the spigot directly across from our site.

Cell service required using our booster. It would not work reliably without a booster.

There is only one trail in this campground so it is more of a place to stay while you explore the surrounding area. Vernal offers many services and they have a local brewery where we found some good food. Flaming Gorge to the north is amazing and must not be missed. We kayaked on the reservoir and it is one of the best kayaking experiences I've had.

PROS:
Central location
Nice sites with amenities
50 amp electric and some full hookups
Easy access to the reservoir from both sites and launch ramp

CONS:
Tight campground to navigate
No trails to hike
Weak cell service without booster
Online reservations are not accurate about vehicle length