Free camping near Zion National Park

The park’s campgrounds are booked up most of the year. The closest free campsites are about 40 minutes away.

Published October 2026

It’s a Friday in May. You drive into Springdale, the town at Zion’s main gate, with no booking. The plan is to find a campsite and sort out the rest in the morning.

That plan won’t work inside the park. Every campground in Zion takes reservations only. Watchman opens its dates six months ahead. South and Lava Point open theirs two weeks ahead. From mid-March to late November, they’re full almost every night.

So you turn around. Nineteen miles back down the road, near the town of Hurricane, there are 56 campsites that cost nothing. You can’t book them. You can’t be sure of one either.

Here is how to give yourself the best chance.

1. Sleep only where there’s a number

The free land west of Zion is run by the Bureau of Land Management. Near the park, it doesn’t let you camp wherever you like.

At Hurricane Cliffs, you may camp only at the 56 marked sites. Each one has a numbered post and a metal fire ring. Sleeping anywhere else in the area is against the rules.

The rules around Zion are changing too. In March 2026 the Bureau decided that, along the main road into the park, camping will be limited to marked places. It plans two new campgrounds there, but the money to build them isn’t in place yet.

So a flat patch of dirt that people camped on last year may be off limits now. If a spot has no number, don’t sleep there. If a sign says no camping, do what the sign says.

2. Get there early, and have a second choice

The sites at Hurricane Cliffs go first come, first served. You can’t save one for a friend. Campers often find them all taken, and Friday afternoons are the worst.

Arrive in the morning if you can, or on a weekday. Have a second place in mind before you set off:

• Lambs Knoll has eight tent sites, a short walk from the car. It’s 24 miles from Springdale.
• Quail Creek Reservoir has eight sites by the water, 30 miles away. You can stay one night only, so it works for the first night while you look.
• Sand Mountain Pipeline has eight more numbered sites, 38 miles away, near St. George.

Not every site at Hurricane Cliffs will take an RV or a trailer. If you tow, a plan B matters even more.

3. Pick your height for the season

Hurricane Cliffs sits at about 3,800 feet. Quail Creek and Sand Mountain are lower still. In summer the low desert is very hot, by day and well into the evening.

Higher up is cooler. Lambs Knoll is at about 5,900 feet. Uinta Flat and Lava Flat, in the forest near Duck Creek, are over 8,000 feet up, among aspen trees. They’re about an hour and forty minutes from Springdale, so you trade a longer drive for a cooler night.

In winter it’s the other way round. The low sites are the mild ones. Kolob Terrace Road, the way up to Lambs Knoll, stays open most of the year, but snow and storms can make it dangerous.

4. Check the drive and the road

A campsite that looks close on the map can take longer than you think. The list at the bottom gives the miles and the time by road from Springdale.

Birch Hollow is only 23 miles away, but the last part is a clay road. When it’s wet, even a four-wheel drive can’t get through. Don’t take an ordinary car. Before you go, read how to check a dirt road.

Driving something big? Since June 2026, the road from Zion Canyon out through the park’s east entrance is closed to any vehicle over 11 feet 4 inches tall, 7 feet 10 inches wide or 35 feet 9 inches long. The old paid escort through the tunnel has gone. If you’re over any of those, you drive the long way round. That matters for the campsites east of the park: Birch Hollow, Coral Pink Sand Dunes and the forest near Duck Creek.

5. Plan your day in the park

Camping outside Zion is free. Getting into Zion is not. A private car costs $35, and the pass lasts seven days.

For most of the year, from spring until late autumn, you can’t drive your own car up the main canyon road. You ride the park shuttle. The parking lots in the park often fill early in the day.

If they’re full, park in Springdale. That parking costs money. A free town shuttle then takes you to the park entrance.

Kolob Terrace Road is different. You can drive it in your own car even when the shuttle is running, and it goes right past Lambs Knoll.

6. Leave the site the way you found it

• Light a fire only in the metal ring at your site. Fire rules change through the year, so check the current ones before you strike a match.
• Park, pitch and walk on hard ground. The dark crust on the desert soil is alive, and it doesn’t recover quickly once it’s crushed.
• Most of these sites have no toilet. At Hurricane Cliffs, there are restrooms at the trailheads nearby. Carry out your trash.
• On Bureau of Land Management land you can stay 14 days in any 28. In the forest near Duck Creek, the limit is 16 days.

Free camping close to Zion only stays open while people look after it. Damage near the park is one of the reasons the rules are getting tighter.

Free campsites in this guide near Zion

Distances are by road from Springdale. Times on dirt roads are rough guesses.

• Hurricane Cliffs: 19 miles, about 38 minutes. 56 numbered sites, first come, first served. Often full at weekends.
• Birch Hollow: 23 miles, about 55 minutes. A few rough spots near a canyoneering trailhead. Not for an ordinary car.
• Lambs Knoll: 24 miles, about 47 minutes. Eight walk-in tent sites beside a climbing area, about 5,900 feet up.
• Quail Creek Reservoir: 30 miles, about 49 minutes. Eight sites by the water. One night only.
• Coral Pink Sand Dunes: 37 miles, about 1 hr 10 min. Free on Bureau of Land Management land along Hancock Road. The state park charges.
• Sand Mountain Pipeline: 38 miles, about 1 hr 6 min. Eight numbered sites next to an off-road riding area.
• Uinta Flat: 56 miles, about 1 hr 38 min. Aspen and pine near Duck Creek, about 8,100 feet up. Cool in summer.
• Lava Flat: 58 miles, about 1 hr 38 min. A handful of spots in the aspens, about 8,300 feet up. No toilets.

Important: the rules near Zion changed in 2026 and may change again. Before you go, check with the Bureau of Land Management office in St. George, or with the park.