About this place
Read this before you plan a night here. The toilets and picnic tables at the reservoir are for day use, and we could not confirm that overnight camping is allowed. People do stay, though. Campers report spending the night on the shore for free, and some of them say they were not sure it was allowed either. If you find a sign saying no camping, believe the sign.
Koosharem Reservoir sits at 6,995 feet. It is a small, shallow lake, made by damming Otter Creek above Grass Valley.
It sits at one end of the Paiute ATV trail. That trail is justly popular.
The shoreline is partly private and partly public. The Bureau of Land Management and the Koosharem Irrigation Company run it between them, and the public has access.
The water level rises and falls with the season. The surface area is 310 acres and the deepest point is 20 feet.
You can fish here all year. The reservoir is stocked with trout, and past surveys found cutthroat and rainbow growing better than they had in earlier years.
Tackle should imitate chubs, so rapalas, lures and large streamers. Cut bait or frozen minnows are worth a try as well.
There is trail access into the Fishlake National Forest.
Riders on the Paiute trail can cover almost 3000 miles of it, over mountain tops and through rugged canyons.
Facilities are day use only. There are accessible toilets, picnic tables and a picnic grill.
The facts
- Cost
- Camping fee not confirmed
- Toilet
- Yes, accessible toilets
- Type
- Specific campsite
- Managed by
- Bureau of Land Management
Getting there
Head 20 miles south of Vermillion on UT 24.
Coordinates 38.59995, -111.84697
Open in Google Maps Agency page
What is near here
There is another spot of ours within reach, and some better-known places further out.
- Fish Lake Directions
- Big Rocks Special Recreation Management Area Directions
- Thousand Lake Mountain Directions
- Hilgard Mountain Directions
- Capitol Reef National Park Directions
Every distance on this page is the driving distance. A short distance can still take a long time. The road may be closed for the season, covered in snow, or washed out. Many of these roads are dirt. Plan your route before you leave home. Out here there is often no phone signal to look it up on the way.
Nearest town and supplies
- Koosharem, UT Directions
- Monroe, UT Directions
Monroe is big enough that you’d normally expect fuel and somewhere to buy food. Nobody from here has been to check, so don’t count on it if you’re running low.
Why the drive to town is usually twice what the map says — what we found measuring every campsite in this guide.
When it’s time to move on
On most public land you can camp for 14 days before you have to move on. Check this site’s own limit before you plan a long stay. When you move on, the Bureau of Land Management usually wants you at least 25 to 30 miles away. So the free campsites closest to you are the ones you cannot use.
Ten in this guide sit inside that 25 miles. The nearest one you could move to is Great Western Trail, Utah — 27 miles in a straight line, but a 42 mile drive.
This guide covers five states and does not list every free campsite, so there may be something closer that we do not hold. Check this site’s own rule before you rely on it.
Have you been here?
Fees and access change, and the records do not always keep up. If you have been, tell us what you found.
Thank you, that is recorded. It helps the next person.
Add road notes for this site
The thing we cannot get from any government record is what the drive in is actually like. If you have done it, this is the most useful thing you can leave behind. We read everything before it appears, and we print a first name with it if you give one.
Thank you. A person will read it before it goes on the page.
Where this information comes from
The description on this page is ours. The facts in it, and the fee and facility details below it, come from the Bureau of Land Management’s own records, read in August 2026.