Bryce Canyon Campground Information

We are planning our '08 vacation, will be going to Zion, Bryce Canyon, Arches & Canyonland national parks. We have most of our campgrounds chosen for this trip. We chose Zion River Resort http://www.zionriverresort.com/ while at Zion NP, Portal RV Park http://www.portalrvresort.com/ while at Arches & Canyonlands NP. However, I'm still trying to decide about Bryce NP. Ruby's Inn has been suggested, but the reviews https://www.campgroundreviews.com/regions/Utah/Bryce_Canyon.html leave a little to be desired. It appears to be crowded and dirty. If I have to drive from the campground to the NP, I'm not real concerned. Just want a nice, clean campground.

 

This is about the only game in town so to speak. We found it a bid odd but not that bad. Roads have lots of dust, no pads to park on, sites are about level or close to it, hookup's were OK, staff at check in was not a lot of help, food in Ruby's Inn was very good, fuel stations and repair shops, and best part is Bryce Canyon is 1/2 mile or less away. Remember you do not plan to spend months here, this County is very small with no traffic lights. Tour the Canyon and move on. Campground inside Bryce was to small for our unit. I also found campground to be clean and not a big problem. We have founds others RV parks that will make this place look like a 5 star hotel.

The others places on your list will work very well for you. Have a great time in Utah, tons of stuff to see and do.

 

John, our vacation will be two weeks. We are staying 6 nights at Arches/Canyonlands in Moab, 4 nights at Bryce NP & 4 nights at Zion NP. With our allotted time, does this seem like enough time at each stop?

Thanks,
Denny Lease

 

Thanks for posting those, we are planning a trip to these parks in the late summer.

 

Denny,

I see no problems with your plan. All the places are beautiful to look at. Take the time to look and walk down and around inside the Canyons. Bryce is the most odd looking place on earth. No two rocks look the same. Bryce can be cold at times due to the 9500 foot elevation on south end. Look for the large Ravens that love to eat your food.

Do you plan to travel down Hwy. 89 from Bryce to Zion? If so remember the never used RxR tunnel on Hwy 9 east side of Zion. If RV unit is large, you pay to take your unit through. Great views on Hwy 9 as well.

Enjoy the trip!

 

It all depends on what you want.

If you prefer the antiseptic "RV Park" type then Zion River is the place for you. It's nice. Fairly close to Zion (15-20 min drive to the park).

If you want more of a "Camping" experience then Ruby's is the place. As mentioned, you can't get any closer to Bryce without being in the park.

Zion River is a parking lot, but a nice parking lot.

I take exception with people calling Ruby's "dirty". If by "dirty" they mean that it's a campground, in a forest, where there is dirt. Then yes, it's dirty.

 

QUOTE(John Blue @ Mar 30 2008, 08:43 AM) [snapback]10964[/snapback]

This is about the only game in town so to speak. We found it a bid odd but not that bad. Roads have lots of dust, no pads to park on, sites are about level or close to it, hookup's were OK, staff at check in was not a lot of help, food in Ruby's Inn was very good, fuel stations and repair shops, and best part is Bryce Canyon is 1/2 mile or less away. Remember you do not plan to spend months here, this County is very small with no traffic lights. Tour the Canyon and move on. Campground inside Bryce was to small for our unit. I also found campground to be clean and not a big problem. We have founds others RV parks that will make this place look like a 5 star hotel.

The others places on your list will work very well for you. Have a great time in Utah, tons of stuff to see and do.

 

Have many of you found campgrounds that have a "10 year rule"? This is about RV parks who will not take a reservation if your rig is more than 10 years old unless you send them pictures first.

Nancy

 

QUOTE(gwbischoff @ Mar 31 2008, 10:17 AM) [snapback]10984[/snapback]


If you prefer the antiseptic "RV Park" type then Zion River is the place for you. It's nice. Fairly close to Zion (15-20 min drive to the park).

If you want more of a "Camping" experience then Ruby's is the place. As mentioned, you can't get any closer to Bryce without being in the park.

I take exception with people calling Ruby's "dirty". If by "dirty" they mean that it's a campground, in a forest, where there is dirt. Then yes, it's dirty.



If I have to drive to the park, that isn't a concern. I'd rather stay at a nice campground and have to drive to the NP. From what I can see, there are only two campgrounds close to Bryce, and the other had worse reviews. As far as dirty, I don't want to be in a dust bowl, or track mud in my RV should it rain. Hopefully the sites are grassy to prevent it from being a mud pit. My other concern is all the ATV's running around. In my opinion, they should have a seperate area for the ATV sites so the poeple that don't have them aren't bothered with the noise, dust, and traffic.

 

QUOTE(Nancy Wardlow @ Mar 31 2008, 11:55 AM) [snapback]10986[/snapback]

Have many of you found campgrounds that have a "10 year rule"? This is about RV parks who will not take a reservation if your rig is more than 10 years old unless you send them pictures first.

Nancy



One time I stayed at an RV Park in Bend, OR, and it had a "5 year" rule. But I haven't heard of 10 year. I have only heard of "5 year."

JJ

 

QUOTE(dsaalease @ Apr 1 2008, 01:44 AM) [snapback]10994[/snapback]

If I have to drive to the park, that isn't a concern. I'd rather stay at a nice campground and have to drive to the NP. From what I can see, there are only two campgrounds close to Bryce, and the other had worse reviews. As far as dirty, I don't want to be in a dust bowl, or track mud in my RV should it rain. Hopefully the sites are grassy to prevent it from being a mud pit. My other concern is all the ATV's running around. In my opinion, they should have a seperate area for the ATV sites so the poeple that don't have them aren't bothered with the noise, dust, and traffic.



The sites at Ruby's are gravel, I stayed at Ruby's in late August and the place was as quiet as a church, but I'm getting the sense that you'd rather like Zion River.

Ruby's is also at a higher altitute so the weather tends to be a little cooler.

It also depends on where you want to be? Do you want to be closer to Bryce or Zion, or does it matter? They are about 2 hours drive apart.

 

Nancy,

The only place we have been to that has the ten year rule is Outdoor Resorts of American. I can understand this rule. Most of the park systems will only take class A over 26 feet. You could understand in this high dollar park if you had a million dollar bus on a site and a pop up pulled in. This would not go over well. We have found no problems if your motorhome is clean and looks very nice. All we have every found in Outdoor Resorts were in great shape. All parks have rules and I have no problem with this. We have never been ask how old our unit is yet.

In other campgrounds you have a mixed bags of units and we have no problem with that as well.

 

QUOTE(gwbischoff @ Apr 1 2008, 11:30 AM) [snapback]10999[/snapback]

The sites at Ruby's are gravel, I stayed at Ruby's in late August and the place was as quiet as a church, but I'm getting the sense that you'd rather like Zion River.

Ruby's is also at a higher altitute so the weather tends to be a little cooler.

It also depends on where you want to be? Do you want to be closer to Bryce or Zion, or does it matter? They are about 2 hours drive apart.



We will stay at seperate campgrounds for Zion & Bryce, not one for both parks.

An addition to my last post. A couple years ago we stayed at Coulter Bay campground at Grand Teton NP. The roads are paved, sites are gravel, generally level, and not much grass. The conditions sound much like Ruby's, and we had a great time. If I were to go back, I would stay there again without doubt. The campground was well run as you could expect from a national park.

On a vacation before the Tetons, we stayed at a campground at Lake Rudolph campground in Santa Claus IN. The physical attributes were the same as Ruby's or Coulter Bay, however we couldn't get out of this campground soon enough. There were golf carts racing around the park, our daughter almost got ran over by a golf cart while walking to the playground. Below is a post from June 07 about the campground:

"I was disappointed in this campground. It seemed unkept to me, and very over-crowded. There were golf carts buzzing around the campground at all hours of the night and someone actually flipped one over close to our site. Too big and too busy for us to consider this a relaxing getaway. We camped here in a Motorhome. "

The difference between the two parks was management and how they disciplined their customers. Generally speaking, a campgrond such as Zion River Resort will accomodate their customers by setting rules to provide a positive atmosphere. I don't have anything against a campground that isn't antiseptic such as Zion River, and have stayed in many that are similar to Ruby's without problem. Just would rather not get into another bad situation such as Lake Rudolph. After reading some of the posts, I'm hoping that Ruby's management sets rules for the people with ATV's that are fair to all party's.

 

QUOTE(dsaalease @ Apr 2 2008, 01:50 AM) [snapback]11011[/snapback]

We will stay at seperate campgrounds for Zion & Bryce, not one for both parks.

An addition to my last post. A couple years ago we stayed at Coulter Bay campground at Grand Teton NP. The roads are paved, sites are gravel, generally level, and not much grass. The conditions sound much like Ruby's, and we had a great time. If I were to go back, I would stay there again without doubt. The campground was well run as you could expect from a national park.

On a vacation before the Tetons, we stayed at a campground at Lake Rudolph campground in Santa Claus IN. The physical attributes were the same as Ruby's or Coulter Bay, however we couldn't get out of this campground soon enough. There were golf carts racing around the park, our daughter almost got ran over by a golf cart while walking to the playground. Below is a post from June 07 about the campground:

"I was disappointed in this campground. It seemed unkept to me, and very over-crowded. There were golf carts buzzing around the campground at all hours of the night and someone actually flipped one over close to our site. Too big and too busy for us to consider this a relaxing getaway. We camped here in a Motorhome. "

The difference between the two parks was management and how they disciplined their customers. Generally speaking, a campgrond such as Zion River Resort will accomodate their customers by setting rules to provide a positive atmosphere. I don't have anything against a campground that isn't antiseptic such as Zion River, and have stayed in many that are similar to Ruby's without problem. Just would rather not get into another bad situation such as Lake Rudolph. After reading some of the posts, I'm hoping that Ruby's management sets rules for the people with ATV's that are fair to all party's.




Thanks for the info on the Tetons. That's on our short-list of places for our '09 vacations.

 

Jean & I Have spent 4 to5 month a year for the last three years in the area we stay north of Bryce at Circleville or Marysvale. There are several campgrounds in the area that are with in 10 miles of the park. Most a small. Rubys is a Mecca for atv riders. Some are curtious others are not.
The town of Panguitch is about 20 miles from the park and has 4 campgrounds. All cater to atvs. I'm surprise that Rubys gets as high of grades as they do. Personally I wouldn't give it more than a 5.

 

Big Ben, are there any campgrounds you could reccommend? Circleville RV Park or Panquitch KOA look like picks? Probably leaning toward the KOA since they have a pool.

 

We stay at Circleville RV but primarly because of the atv trails. Koa would be a good choice..

 

I think the KOA will be it, its closer to Bryce and as you can tell the ATV trails aren't important! Now I'm having second thoughts about Zion River Resort. After looking at a recent review, there is a campground in Springdale that seems like a candidate. Time for a new thread!

 

QUOTE(dsaalease @ Apr 4 2008, 01:38 AM) [snapback]11040[/snapback]

Big Ben, are there any campgrounds you could reccommend? Circleville RV Park or Panquitch KOA look like picks? Probably leaning toward the KOA since they have a pool.





Do you mean Big Bend in Texas?

 

Big Ben is the name of one of the previous posters. dsaalease was asking him a question about campgrounds near Bryce Canyon.