Pandora's Box Dispersed Camping

Stayed here for 4 nights. Stayed here once before ~5 years ago. Both times the experience was the same, a nice pullout area where you can camp fairly close to Capitol Reef NP with minimal road noise. The road in/out is the trickiest part, it is not maintained & is filled with ruts, so if you have a low-clearance vehicle our advice is to take it slow & be careful getting in/out. There are fairly level spots to camp, others are more…uneven. Great views to the west, north and south with good views to the east. Some minor light pollution to the west from a resort. For the price it’s hard to beat :-).

Quite a few spots. It’s close to the road.

We had planned for Beas Lewis Flat 2 mi further west but the Ranger at Capitol didn’t know where it was and mentioned mile marker 73, which is Pandora’s box. We looked here and then found Beas Lewis flat road as well. We decided on Pandora’s Box. View about the same but this place is easier to navigate and seemed to have more level spots. Both are fairly rough roads.

We drove by here as our first choice of spots for a visit to Capitol Reef but it was being used to park large road construction vehicles. There was also a huge mound of dirt next to the entrance being used for construction.

You could likely skirt by the vehicles but you'd still be dealing with the giant mound and construction traffic. Wait until the NPS road project is done for this one