Basin Campground

Stayed two nights in May. Beautiful area on the edge of the Grand Escalante. Many spots are bulb outs on the side of the road with a concrete pad, picnic table and fire ring a short distance away. Your vehicle blocks the view of your site and they are well separated with excellent views. Minimal drive byes as no one is here but other campers. Pick one on the perimeter for private site facing the Koadchrome cliffs surrounding the park. Bathrooms very clean and showers were hot. Bring your bike and ride down Little Cottonwood road and get out in the red rock country. This was our favorite place on our recent trip to southern Utah. No cell service.

I stayed here while visiting Bryce Canyon and the western part of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. The location is about 30 minutes from Bryce and about 15 minutes from the main road (UT12.) The rate was $28/night and an $8 reservation fee (what a ripoff.)

This is a very nice campground, featuring levlel, paved sites, full hook up sites, very clean bathrooms, beautiful scenery and amazing night skies. I don't recall having cell service, at all, here on Verizon. It was in and out on Cottonwood Canyon Rd.

An odd note: driving from UT12 to the campground after dark until sunrise is quite an experience. I felt like I was playing a cruel video game with rabbits insisting on running under my tires, even though I was driving terribly slow. They seemed to be there by the hundreds - literally! I have been to this park before but never encountered this situation. I am not sure if it is new, due to a recent lack of predators or if it is unique to this time of the year, but now you've been warned. It might be upsetting for little kids.

This is a really convenient location to tour Bryce and the Cottonwood Canyon area of the Grand Staircase. You are relatively close to Grosvenor Arch. You can easily spend an afternoon driving down Cottonwood Canyon, exploring the old Paria Town site, just off of US89, and then heading back up the canyon.

What I liked:
Location - close to Bryce and Grand Staircase
Sites are very nice
Full hook-ups
Modern, clean bathrooms
Night skies
Rock formations

What could have been better
Nothing

This is a very beautiful park that's well-managed and well-maintained. We made our reservations online for a full hook-up site since it's warm there in the summer. $30 a night plus an $8 reservation fee. Check-in was a breeze.

Our site was a back-in with plenty of room. Big rigs can fit very easily here, so we had all kinds of space behind the trailer, in front of the truck, and on both sides. The driveways are paved, and there's a gravel pad for the picnic table and fire ring. No problem with the hook-ups at all. The campground was extremely quiet the whole time we were there.

Restrooms were very clean. Showers were free and super hot.

Lots of bunnies and chipmunks around (but don't leave out your Camelbak because they chew threw them for energy chews). Oops. Also, don't leave your headlamp on the shelf in the middle of the night because when you come out of the stall it might be gone. A bunny didn't take that! Who steals a person's headlamp? Meanie.

There are plenty of trails to entertain campers. My son and I hiked the 3-mile loop of the Panorama Trail while my husband and daughter mountain biked the 6-mile loop. The landscape is beautiful, but the trail is quite sandy and hard to bike on. Washes were sandy, but there were even times when it felt like you were climbing a sand dune at the beach. The Grand Parade Trail is better for biking, though it's very short. Angel's Palace is really the most adventurous and exciting trail there. Loved it! Even the nature trail has many cool rock formations to enjoy and photograph.

The park is out there, though; it isn't close to a thing. That's good in some ways, but if you need anything it's 15 minutes to the tiny town of Cannonville. It's about 35 minutes to Bryce Canyon, and that's where we spend two of our five days on this trip. Grosvenor's Arch is about 30 minutes down the dirt road. We visited the arch and wanted to do the Cottonwood Narrows hike about 5 miles further down the road, but rain was in the forecast later that day and we didn't want to get stuck on the clay-based, unimproved road that is unpassable when wet. We did drive Scenic Byway 12 to Boulder, and that is one gorgeous ride.

It's a nice place, but we probably won't be back only because our stay was long and we feel we've seen all of the park. Lovely area to visit!

Neat trails, interesting rock formations that shaded the park, nice sites. Nice, clean bathrooms and shower! Nice laundry mat.

Beautiful park with gorgeous views. Great base for exploring Bryce Canyon NP. Full hookups in the Basin campground. Horseback riding available. Only downside- no cell service (ATT) and only one dumpster in the loop. Would definitely stay again.

This is a great campground with beautiful scenery and the dark night sky is phenomenal. The back in sites are more desirable, but some of the pull thru’s aren’t bad. The bathrooms and showers are nice and clean. Just be ready for the sand to be everywhere in your rig, but it’s the desert and it’s to be expected.

Stunningly beautiful state park set way off the main road, but conveniently located only 30 min away from Bryce Canyon. Park is spotlessly clean and all roads and facilities well maintained. Camp sites are spaced nicely apart and include a few cedar trees for more privacy. Solid metal picnic tables and firepits at each site. Restroom bldg nearby and even firewood for sale on the honor system provided by a local Boy Scout troop. Laundry and hot showers! We were lucky to score an empty site, but suggest making advance reservations at this popular park.

Kodachrome was a magical surprise! The campsites were nicely appointed and spacious! The night skies were indescribable - the stars and the Milky Way!! As an additional bonus - the NICEST showers we have EVER seen in any state or national campground!! They were spa quality!! We have a shower in our Airstream and we used theirs - crazy nice!!! The location has beautiful hikes in Kodachrome and is also a short drive from Bryce. As a bonus - zero cell phone coverage - complete relaxation. Total win all around!!

Stayed here in our rented Escape Campervan at the end of September. What a gem of a park! Helpful ranger at the entrance station, sites are nicely spaced, clean, and well maintained. Hot showers included - and these showers? I was tempted to take photos as inspiration for a bathroom remodel at home! Laundromat also incredibly nice, clean and well maintained - I only wish we could have accessed power outlets while waiting :)

We only had time to do one hike, but it was lovely. We stayed after a visit to Bryce and before heading to Moab. Would absolutely stay here again for a longer period.

This is just an update to say that AT&T service is available just 3 miles outside the park in one lone spot. Just before you reach the left-hand turn off to the park by the "Kodachrome" park sign, there is a gravel pull-out on the right hand side. I got 3 bars of AT&T service here with my vintage Wilson Sleek booster. It's only 3 miles from the campground. I asked the Park Ranger about this, since it is widely noted in their collateral material that the nearest cell service is 15 miles away in Tropic. He confirmed that it is just this one small spot, and "AT&T only."

And BTW, everything they say about the showers here is true. And they are spring fed, therefore "guilt free."