Ken's Lake Campground

Great price and lots of space between the sites made us happy for a week. There's also some great hikes on site, one to a beautiful waterfall.

We got great cell/data here, though I don't remember how many bars of what. (We have both AT&T and Verizon)

I can't wait until we can visit this place again! Beautiful views, well-spaced campsites, a great price -- awesome!

There are some hikes right out of the campground, in addition to the ability to wander down to the lake itself. We found this spot to be peaceful and quiet and one of our favorites. In fact, we started out by planning to stay 3 days, then 5 days, and in the end we were there for 7 days and we used it as our jumping off point for Canyonlands, Arches, and the other Moab-area activities.

We came into Moab late, looking for a place to stay. All the BLM campsites we checked were full, including this one, but we really liked the look and feel of this place. Early the next morning we were here, waiting for someone to pull out so we could grab their spot. The strategy worked and we got a nice site in the lower campground. Beautiful view, very quiet.

The camp host came by to give use the rules and make sure we understood them. Generators from 8am to 8pm only. Curfew at 10. (Not sure what that means, but by 10 the place was SILENT).

Checkin process was simple. The full rate is $15 per night, but we have a Parks Senior Pass, so it was only $7.50. Didn't use the bathrooms, so can't comment there. Picnic table and fire pit at the site.

All the sites are very large (some would easily fit two RVs or trailers). Ours was almost perfectly level, although some of the others appear to be just slightly not-level.

The campground is reasonably close to town (5 miles), on mostly all paved road. Just the short access road to the campground is gravel.

We've been in Moab for two weeks now and have stayed at five different BLM campgrounds on all four sides of town. This is the best— no road noise, plenty of room, lots of sunshine (compared to the narrow canyons northeast of town).

When we visit Moab next time, we'll be putting down roots in this amazing location.

Would stay again, the only complaint would be that the dog leash rule wasn't enforced. While talking to the HOST, his dog ran up to our dogs. Our dogs do not do really well with other dogs. I told the HOST at least three times to get his dog and he did nothing. Mean while our dogs were freaking out and excited with this off leach dog in their face so one of my dogs ended up getting hurt and ended up at the vets with a $142.00 vet bill. Then the dog across from him came up to our dogs without a leash so I called to those people to come get him which they did.

We arrived late morning on a Saturday in June so we were happy to not only find an open spot but we had plenty to choose from. We picked a spot in the first loop with a nice view of the lake, La Sal mountains and surrounding area. Also was a short walk from the site to the lake. Close enough to Moab to run for water and supplies and far enough away from Moab for peace and quiet. Upon arrival we did not see a campsite host and never did see one for our stay, but a ranger did drive by a few times on Sunday. The campsite was fairly empty with only 5 spots taken on our side of the loop for Saturday night and around 3 spots occupied on Sunday night. The site itself was clean and nice, but the bathrooms were awful. This could be due to us coming in on a Saturday but the toilet and trash bins were very full. We were several sites away from the bathroom and could still smell it early in the morning. Lack of a host allowed other campers to ignore the quiet times. It's a campground so we don't expect kids to not be loud and playing or to hear noise from other campers, but by 3am you don't want to hear music coming from the other loop or wake up to kids yelling at 6am. Due to the mess that was the bathroom and no host to remind campers of quiet time rules I'm giving this site 4 stars instead of 5. We would for sure come back again because of how beautiful the view was, the location and size of the sites. The sites are very large and open. Some have shade, mostly on the 2nd loop, there's a nice short hike to a falls area not far from the 1st loop and just outside the 2nd loop. We have a 12 man tent and the pad area could easily fit the tent, car and canopy along with the fire ring w/ attached grill plus picnic table.

The lake is a nice sized, non motor boats allowed, has a large, clean swim beach with easy to get to fishing spots along the other edges. Make sure you bring water in with you, the closest place to get water is all the way back through Moab. While having access is nice it's still a decent drive of around 20 minutes to get back into town and then to the other side of town. We had pretty reliable cell phone service with ATT at this spot as well. Also it shows on a lot of online sites the hike to the falls is a short one after going down a primitive road. That road has been closed and the parking area for the falls to hike to it is now at the end of the 2nd loop of campsites. According to my phone it was close to 2 miles round trip. The path is not well marked so someone with knowledge of the area may take a more direct route there than we did. Every once in awhile you'd run across a sign with arrows pointing in different directions but nothing about where they were going. I noticed this is common in Utah and not specific to this area. Also getting to the actual bottom part of the falls was not easily navigated and we decided to skip the last part of the hike.

Ken's Lake campground is a nice BLM campground 20 minutes south of Moab in Spanish Valley.

There are 31 well spaced sites. There are tables and nice fire pits. The bathrooms are vault type and were well maintained each day. There weren't enough bathrooms so lines did form in the mornings. TP did run out at one point so bring some.

The road and campsites are made of packed dirt. There was a lot of dust as folks drove in and out and as folks hunted for sites. We were here around March 20th on a beautiful weekend. We arrived on a Thursday and there were four sites left. Later that evening the place was full. Folks were driving around making dust, desperately searching for a camp site.

There is a really beautiful man made falls (Faux Falls) that is within walking distance of the campground.

There is a lake just adjacent to the campground. It's mainly a fishing lake. I think you can put non-motorized boats on the lake (check for rules).

We had a great time here hiking around and exploring the area. We hiked up to Faux Falls and over the ridge to Mill Creek. It's a beautiful area. We will return here at some point.

Moab is a short drive away and just north of Moab is Arches National Park. Canyon Lands National Park is nearby also.

You can read more in our attached blog post with photos and videos.
http://sockmonkeytrekkers.blogspot.com/2017/03/moab-area-kens-lake-campground-faux.html

ATVers use the campground so there is some noise and a lot of dust. I believe our cell phones worked fine.

We camped at Ken's Lake Campground from March 31st until April 2nd. We arrived in Moab to heavy traffic on Friday morning. Driving through town all the commercial campgrounds appeared very full so we were concerned we wouldn't get a spot at Ken's Lake. The campground is about 10 minutes outside of downtown.

Google maps took us right to the campground without issue. The campground was almost completely full. The spots are well separated and the bathrooms were clean. Some smelled better than others, but even with the campground full for the weekend we never had to wait for a bathroom.

The view from the campground of the La Sal mountains and the red rock cliffs is perfect. The campground is close to the mountains and seemed to sit under clouds more than downtown Moab did. That could just be the time of the year or the weather during our visit though.

The location just outside of town meant it was quiet and dark at night even during the busy weekend.

We will be back.

Stopped here on my way to CO. I was surprised by how nice it was. Good views! In the middle of the night there were some dune buggy racing happening which was pretty obnoxious but hopefully that isn't a regular occurance.

Despite being a sanctioned campground, Ken's Lake was pretty quiet. There are people cruising around with ATVs and dirt bikes, but less so than other spots in the area. The lake is nice, and people were friendly.