Wild Horse Road Dispersed Camping

Forget camping within the park - this BLM land is just 5 minute drive away from the entrance, and allows you to camp right up close and personal to some truly unique rock structures (goblins!).

As you drive in from Horse Creek Rd, you begin to see other campers tucked away in the crevices at the base of the hill. You'll only need to drive on a short section of a "real" dirt road, one that any sedan should be able to handle. Find an open cove and set up camp! The rock formations block noise effectively, but also offer a nice protection from wind. We found a little spot with a stone-lined firepit ready to go. Once settled, if you have the same luck as we did, you’re in for quite a sunset.

Be sure to walk out to the dirt road and turn around, taking in the scene and looking at the “faces” of the goblins visible in the rock formations. They seem to change as the sun goes down!

This is indeed a wonderful spot, and for the life of me I can't understand why anyone would opt for the nearby Goblin Valley State Park campground over boondocking here. This is also known as Wild Horse Butte, which you're camping along the north side of, potentially giving you a slightly shaded spot if you orient yourself correctly. There are a good 15+ sites along Wild Horse Road, which in recent years has been paved between the State Park and the nearby Little Wild Horse Canyon. The only dirt stretch you'll encounter leads from the paved road to each boondocking site, which you can preview from the road with a set of binoculars before driving in.

The popular hike into Little Wild Horse Canyon is a non-technical slot canyon easily negotiated by children or dogs, and is a must-see while in the area. Those wanting something a bit more technical can drive another quarter to half mile to are Ding and Dang Canyons, which are a bit more technical and not passable by children or dogs. They are typically done as a loop, up Ding and down Dang. I've included photos of these canyons and of nearby Goblin Valley, in addition to a couple of the boondocking sites.

This was by far my favorite boondock spot to date. It was like staying within a massive sand drip castle. Very private, spacious, level spots. Definitely hike the slot canyon a few miles up the road (Wild Horse Canyon) and the state park is worth a visit to see the Goblin Valley. We towed our airstream in with ease and were very happy, will definitely be back!

We stayed here in the late fall in order to do the Wild Horse Canyon/Bell Canyon hike with our dog as well as explore Goblin Valley. We were there over a long weekend and were able to tuck in to a small canyon away from the rest of the folks staying on the road. There seem to be enough small spots to tuck in to that you can feel secluded even though there were a decent amount of people in the area. It's also pretty easy to drive the main road and see where there are spots to camp before you turn off onto the dirt road, so scouting a site is really easy and fast. Easy enough dirt road as well (we have a 4x4 truck but pull a pop up camper that's definitely not lifted). For cell phone service we had to head back toward the intersection of Goblin Valley Road and Temple Mountain Road, where we got 3+ bars. There was boondocking there if you need to stay somewhere with cell service.

We'd stay here again, for sure.

Very awesome campsite. Close to Goblin Valley. Super open sites with awesome rock formations surrounding the area!! 10/10 stay!!! Highly recommended.

It is gorgeous through here- there are a ton of spots and you can easily scout from the paved road what’s taken before the short dirt road drives towards the rocks.

There are some pretty cool ones were the rocks form a semi circle that gives you natural protection from the wind as well as a little more privacy.

Make sure to hike the little wild horse canyon trail that’s on this road- great spot canyon hike! Also goblin valley state park nearby is also worth checking out.

About 15 minutes away near the main road before turning towards the state park we had enough service for calls and text but really no data service anywhere near here

We were sad to have cloudy skies so missed out on epic sunsets and Milky Way viewing

The GPS coordinates listed take you a wash area, we went a bit further down the road and there were lots of camping spots by the rock walls. The road in to the camping areas are not horrible, but some are better than others. The road coming in before turning to the camping areas is paved. We chose a road and went down to see what we could find. There are several spots that any size rig could fit and there are even more for tents and small RVs. There was a road before the GPS coordinates that led to another area across the valley near another rock wall. There was a bulldozer and a truck doing so work so we decided to move on. Later we noticed there were several large RVs in that area so there are other options if you cannot find a good spot here. If you have solar, make sure you plan accordingly as the rocks block quite a bit of sun depending on your position. Leveling was a bit of a challenge and we skipped one decent spot simply because leveling would have been a problem. We saw several spots that seemed quite level that others had already snagged so they are out there. The spots are decently separated, and you will not hear noise from any of your neighbors. Goblin Valley State Park has a dump and water, but you have to pay the day use fee ($15) to access. I read that the visitor center at the park has potable water which you can access without paying the fee, but we did not confirm this information. We dumped and filled up at the Sinclair/Pilot Travel Center in Green River, UT on our way down. This area is very remote so make sure you have what you need before you get here. About 30 minutes SE is Hanksville which has fuel and a small grocery store. We did not go into the grocery store but based on the town size I wouldn’t expect much from it. The scenery at the site is beautiful. We stayed here for a few nights in mid-May 2018 and the weather was perfect, but every afternoon the winds became heavy and dust was an issue. The biggest negative here is you will have no cell reception whatsoever. We didn’t have enough to make a call or text or anything. This was AT&T. We tried the Verizon hotspot too and it had nothing as well. Hanksville had a small signal when we drove down there, but the state park didn’t have a signal. If you stay here, we would recommend heading further up the Wildhorse road to the trailhead and hiking the Little Wildhorse Canyon trail. It can be turned into a 6-mile loop, but we went up and back for about 3 miles total and saw the awesomeness of the slot canyon. Overall, it was good place to stopover for a few nights. If it had cell service, we would have stayed a few more days.

We found an amazing sight about three or 400 yards off of the main road. As we drove down the dirt road to go to our site, we decided to take off our tow vehicle, so we could scout it out before driving down the somewhat rutted road.

We found a easy route that our 32 foot RV could drive down, so I drove the RV to the site and my wife followed in the tow vehicle. The site we found was somewhat level and right near a beautiful location.

We drove 10 minutes to Goblin Valley and enjoyed the day there. When we came back we still had more energy, so we went on a 5 mile hike around our campsite.

We would recommend this site to anyone.

We will be uploading videos to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheAdventureTravelers

Stayed one night over Easter Weekend 2019. Very busy in the area due to the holiday, but we got lucky when we spotted a couple packing up their tent late in the afternoon.

Not all sites are very level, it would have been difficult to get our 25' rig level in some spots. Also, not all roads into the boondocking spots along the rocks are passable. We had to turn our rig around once because the road was just too steep and uneven.

You'll be rewarded with a quiet night's sleep and amazing views. It can get windy here -- the night we stayed, it was dead silent and then out of nowhere 10 minute rain and windstorm blew through, coating our rig with some of that fine red sand. Still worth it, though!

We stayed at 38.57745, -110.77643. Next door (38.57762, -110.77666) has an amazing fire ring that's surrounded on three sides by the unique rock formations in the area.

The road leading up to the spots are fairly rutty. We were able to maneuver around the wet muddy areas with our 30 ft RV slowly, but it'd be a different story if it had rained. It took us about 15 minutes to find a site when we arrived and 7pm on a Fridat.

Our spot had a fire ring as well, which was nice. No cell reception. The sites are all fairly secluded and you get your own little alcove.