Kayenta Campground

This is a tad late posting but worth sharing! Shhhhh, but this small Utah state campground is a gem and now one of my favorite campgrounds! As Geoff R.‘s review mentions, it is conveniently located in the vicinity of Arches and Canyonlands NPs. We stayed four nights in September of 2013 and encountered a bit of rain upon arrival, but had nice warm days and cool nights during most of our visit. The scenery is beautiful and the informational signs along the trails both at the visitor’s center and at Dead Horse Point share good information. Our small dogs enjoyed their hikes around the campground perimeter and on the trail between the campground and the visitor’s center (although not allowed inside). There are many trails good for mountain bicycles. We were able to see the Milky Way after dark! I’ll have to add pictures when I find the sd card in use at the time. Am looking forward to visiting again someday!

Kayenta gets 5 stars for its perfect location more than the camping itself. It’s a 40 minute drive from Moab to the park, but once you’re there it’s just a short drive down the road to Canyonlands National Park, as well as all of the dirt roads and off-​road trails that lead across the plateau and down to the river.
Camping only a quarter mile from the point itself is the best part, especially if you’re a photographer. Staying at the campground and only having a 5 minute travel time between your site and the point to catch the sunrise is a huge improvement over having to get up even earlier and drive in from town. Even for those who may not be toting around cameras, a sunrise from the point is a must-​see event, as east-​ward facing canyon just explodes with color.
Still, the camping is not to be overlooked. Every site has a paved driveway or pull-​through and a tent pad, and can easily accommodate either an RV or tent. There is electric outlets at every site, even standard 3 prong outlets, for those tent campers who want to bring along their computer and an extension cord. The site is clean and well-​maintained, and the sites are mostly separated by plenty of space and shrubbery. The best sites are 11 and 13, which are the most private and also have a nice view of the plateau, while the worst was site #2, as the tent pad was fully exposed to the surrounding campsites and road.
Since you’re at 6,000ft, the temperatures are a lot milder during the summer, 80 – 90 at day and 60 – 70 at night. It can snow in the winter, and the temperatures get to be significantly colder. There’s usually a breeze of some sort during the day, and there is enough shade in each campsite between the plants and the shade structures to make it more than bearable. Beware — you have to bring your own water and you have to plan accordingly if you’re staying at sites across the campground from the one bathroom, it can be a long walk at 2am!
Feel free to read more and see some pictures on my blog,

As said before, a really great site. We went with an RV and it made the afternoon with temperatures really bearable, since we had access to power outlets. the campsite is 2000 above Moab, so this is much cooler and we had a nice breeze especially in the afternoon.
Don’t let your self get fooled by the «campground is full» sign, we got a place still on a weekday in end of June at 5 pm.
Also don’t miss the «yoga with a ranger» on Tuesdays at 7 am outside the visitor center. My wife enjoyed it very much.
No disturbing insects what so ever. We loved it.

This campground totally deserves five stars; let me tell you why, and then I’ll explain why I only gave it four.
OK, first — why it deserves five stars:
It’s a really, really nice little campground, in a gorgeous little park: Dead Horse Point State Park. Don’t be put off by the rather morbid name… this park has breathtaking scenery! It’s also right in between two other amazing parks: Canyonlands National Park, and Arches National Park, both less than 45 minutes away. The campsites all have patio covers with two HUGE picnic tables, charcoal BBQs, lights, and wooden cupboards, and one (or two, depending on the site) nice tent pads, and are interspersed with junipers and other pretty plant life. My wife and I are avid tent campers (sorry, but RVing is NOT camping in my humble opinion), but if you are an RVer the sites also have those electrical outlet thingys to plug your rig into, if I remember correctly. The campsites are able to be reserved months in advance, and are «site specific» (in other words, not only can your reserve a site, but YOU get to choose WHICH site to reserve). We saw lots of cool critters here too, including a cute little kit fox that trotted right through our site! There is a cool visitor’s center/​museum right near the campground and there are several short hikes to viewpoints overlooking the amazing, photos-don’t-do-it-justice canyons.
OK, so why didn’t I give it five stars then?
Well, when we were there the massive squadrons (there is no other term for it, really) of mosquitos were absolutely vicious! However, everyone… and I mean, EVERYONE… I spoke to from camp hosts, to rangers, to Moab locals, to fellow campers who’d been to this campground before swore up and down that «we’ve NEVER seen it this bad» and «it’s the worst year for mosquitos we’ve ever experienced». Apparently, the nearby Colorado and/​or Green Rivers had flooded just a few weeks prior to our visit and left lots of pools of standing water, hence mosquitoes. I guess we just had bad luck in timing our visit. Still, the campground and nearby parks were so nice that I’m looking forward to giving this place another try (with lots of bug repellant in my pack, of course!) so I can change this rating to 5 stars.