Virgin River Canyon Campground

We really enjoyed our stay here, perhaps due to perfect weather and a great campsite. This large campground is signed from the highway and has easy on/off access in both directions. Some highway noise, more so in the lower loop. Most campers stayed just one night.

There are mostly FCFS campsites, however the better sites with views and ramadas had yellow markers saying rec.gov only. The cell service is little to none here. We ended up driving back towards Littlefield to get service so that we could pay for our site online for 2 nights (and the $8 reservation fee!). We really wanted this site, obviously! We are pretty sure people just paid at the kiosk, but someone could have already reserved that site without them knowing it. That would have been awkward.

The campground is paved and tiered. Most sites, but no all, had tables, fire pits and an area for tents. Some sites had cement pads with tables covered with ramadas. Most back in sites were short, some with no room for a tent or table. All the pull outs were large and can accommodate big rigs. Marked handicapped sites were totally paved and located near the restrooms.

Campsites had little to no litter, restrooms with flush toilets were clean and well supplied, all without a camphost on duty on our visit in mid April. There was a large dumpster in both loops. We noticed a water spigot at the vacant camphost spot near site 53.


There are trails down to the river and a trail connecting the upper and lower loops. We took a trail leaving from the campground near site 47. This lead us down to the river, under the highway and over to the access road to Cedar Pocket Pass, thankfully it was marked here and there with cairns.

There were a lot of day users who came in and parked at campsites to access the river.

Nice, clean campground. $8. Clean restrooms. Most campsites have plenty of space in between. We stayed in site 45. Pull-thru level site, spectacular views. Privacy. Close to restrooms. We stopped for an overnighter on our way to Utah. Highly recommend. Oh, Verizon service is basically zero. So it forces you to unplug and relax! Light traffic noise from freeway.

Gorgeous views of the Virgin River Canyon! And only $4 with our America the Beautiful senior pass! We stayed in the upper loop where all of the reservable sites were already reserved, but there were many non-reservable spots open when we arrived on a Thursday afternoon. Weather was perfect when we arrived, but it heated up quite abruptly on our last full day. Stayed here while we explored the many parks and preserves around St. George.

We only paid $4.00 w senior pass. We used this site as home base while hiking Zion (1.25 hr drive) and around St. George (15 minutes). Very peaceful and views are AMAZING! there is some highway traffic from hwy15. Online reservation start in May with some FF. We were there late April 2022 and campground was near empty. Also access to Virgin River to get your feet wet after hiking. Sorry I cell service, read a book!

We loved this site. The views are unbeatable and there’s a great trail that goes down to the river and around the area.

The vibe at the campground was a bit odd. Some people had taken over a handicap space and made it into a kind of permanent camp with tarps. And a few other sites gave off a weird, possibly druggy vibe. Our neighbors showed up at 6 AM saying how they’d had to move spaces as soon as the sun came up because a bunch of people had randomly come and set up camp in their site in the middle of the night. Additionally, the bathrooms were pretty terrible with 50% of the women’s toilets out of order.

All this being said, I’m still glad we camped here because it was beautiful and the weird vibe was not the dominant vibe. There were signs at the bathrooms that they’re closing down the grounds for a while to renovate, so hopefully the bathrooms will get better.

Overall would recommend.

This is by far one of the most picturesque campgrounds we have ever encountered. Even though it is directly off I-15, because of the way it is situated, the only road noise we heard was semi-truck engine braking.
There is a large picnic area with access to the Virgin River.
The park is closing next Monday for a complete renovation. I can’t wait to return next year!