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Backpacker Magazine – May 2012
America's Best Campsites
Park your tent in one of these 10 spots, and you'll be happy in the morning. Guaranteed.
Photo by BP0512CAMP_Lanza_Sahale_445x260.jpg
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- Utah |
Castleton Tower
Castle Valley, UT
Fact: Water weighs more than eight pounds per gallon. Fact: In the desert, that number drives nearly all backpackers to the lowlands in search of creeks and pools for overnights. Fiction: You must follow them. Buck up to haul a heavy pack, and this southern Utah aerie will be all yours. The 400-foot-tall monolith rising overhead (behind the photographer who took this image) is listed in Steve Roper’s iconic 50 Classic Climbs of North America, and this ridge-crest spot deserves equal recognition among backcountry campsites. From a sandstone ridge barely wider than your tent, you’ll gaze across Castle Valley’s unimaginably complex panorama of towers, buttes, hoodoos, and rivulets, with the 12,000-foot-high La Sal Mountains, the Fisher Towers, the Colorado River Canyon, and a universe of spires in the distance. The route up is short and steep: about 1.5 miles and 1,000 feet. From US 191 south of Arches National Park and north of Moab, follow UT 128 east for 15 miles. Turn south at the sign for Castle Valley, then continue about four miles to the campground and trailhead below Castleton Tower. Summer broils, and there is no shelter; target October to April.
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Contact (801) 463-6156, utahopenlands.org
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READERS COMMENTS
Just there this week - it is County Rd 7 and is easily accesible to 2wd cars and is reasonably well signposted. Yankee Boy Basin has nothing to do with it(unless and until you hike to Blue Lakes Pass that is). The trail to the pass is in poor condition in places and i was glad i did not have a full pack. Incredible place!! And if you do Sneffels consider the SW ridge route - more fun that the standard.
Heads up for all the eastcoasters thinking they can just drive to the trailhead. You will need a 4w drive vehicle to access the trail.
I cant believe theres not a top ten place for camping in california?????????????????
Not true about the Dallas Creek trailhead. I hiked up to the Blue Lakes from there in 2010. The road name and number may be incorrect, but the lakes are certainly accessible from the north. Just take Rt. 62 five miles west of Ridgway and turn left. Google Maps has it labeled as County Road 7.
That said, the Dallas Creek trail is wooded and, not counting some waterfalls, not as scenic as the Yankee Boy Basin approach (which starts about 2000' higher).
This is spectacular country. I was really happy to see it on this list.
Regarding Mt Sneffels. The phone number does not work and forest rd 851 (Dallas Creek Rd) does not exist. The trail is at the end of forest rd 853.1B (Yankee Boy Rd).
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