Utah Trust Land Dispersed Camping — Grand County, UT (38.5893, -109.8793)
FREE dispersed camping on Utah STATE TRUST LAND (SITLA), Grand County. OpenStreetMap maps 1 camp spot in this immediate area; the pin is on one of them. This spot is unnamed on the map -- there is no sign and nothing to ask for by name. This is genuinely free: Utah charges no fee, permit, licence or pass to camp on trust land. State rule R850-12-500 lets anyone maintain a non-commercial campsite here without written authorization, and the state's own Trust Lands page confirms no permit is needed for short-term, low-impact camping. THE RULES YOU MUST FOLLOW (R850-12): 15 days maximum in one spot within any 30 days, and once you leave you may not re-camp within a 5-mile radius for 15 days; camp at least 100 feet from any water; keep vehicles within 100 feet of an established (authorized) route and do NOT drive cross-country; campfires only inside an EXISTING fire ring (building a new ring needs agency permission), burning only clean dry firewood or charcoal, and you may gather downed wood but not cut standing trees; pack out all trash; bury human waste at least 8 inches deep and 200 feet from any camp or water and pack out all toilet paper; no fireworks; leave no property unattended over 72 hours. WHAT TO EXPECT: nothing built. Utah runs NO developed campgrounds on trust land, so this is primitive dispersed camping -- no toilet, no water, no table, no fee station. Bring your own water and pack everything out. IMPORTANT -- CHECKERBOARD LAND: Utah trust land is scattered one-square-mile sections mixed in with BLM, Forest Service and PRIVATE land, and the boundaries are invisible on the ground. Before you camp, confirm you are actually on trust land using a SITLA plat or the Utah Trust Lands map, respect any adjacent private, leased or grazing land, and obey any closure the agency has posted at the site or on its website (it may close areas at any time). Some parcels in this part of the state are inholdings inside a national monument -- the state rules above govern the parcel itself, but follow federal rules on the surrounding land. CAVEATS, honestly: we have not visited, and no source describes this particular spot -- the legal right to camp free here is very well documented, but how usable or pleasant the site is, is not. Confirm current rules and closures with the Utah Trust Lands Administration (trustlands.utah.gov, 801-538-5100) before you go.
Everything you need — measured from Utah Trust Land Dispersed Camping — Grand County, UT (38.5893, -109.8793) · Utah Trust Lands Administration · UT
- WWater10 mi
- DDump10 mi
- FFuel12 mi
- GGrocery12 mi
- LLaundry12 mi
- ShShower12 mi
- EVEV fast charger16 mi
- HHardware18 mi
- OOutfitter18 mi
- AAir-up18 mi
- @Mail18 mi
- RxPharmacy18 mi
- MMechanic19 mi
- +Urgent care32 mi
The read: water's a short hop out, fuel & food sit about 12 mi out.
Not within 60 mi: Propane. Plan those before you head up.
One dot per need — the nearest of each kind, straight-line from camp. Places from OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors); the EV fast charger from the US DOE station locator. Open in Google Maps ↗
The site — Utah Trust Land Dispersed Camping — Grand County, UT (38.5893, -109.8793)
Nearby & resupply — around Utah Trust Land Dispersed Camping — Grand County, UT (38.5893, -109.8793) · Utah Trust Lands Administration · UT (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureNorth Fork Mineral Canyon (stream) · mapped within 1.6 mi
- USGS NHDno named surface water within 1 mi
- Nearest townMoab · ~18.0 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
- Drinking waterDrinking water · ~9.5 mi
- FuelFuel · ~27.8 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- Dump station~10.4 mi
- GroceriesMoonflower Community Cooperative · ~17.8 mi
- PharmacyPharmacy · ~17.9 mi
- Hospital / clinicMoab Regional Hospital · ~17.3 mi
- HardwareTurner Lumber · ~17.6 mi
EV charging — from Utah Trust Land Dispersed Camping — Grand County, UT (38.5893, -109.8793) · Utah Trust Lands Administration · UT — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger16.4 mi straight-line E — RMP Moab (Moab, UT) · Electrify America · CCS · 8 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reach3 within 25 mi · 8 within 50 · 40 within 100 · 107 within 150
- Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)17.4 mi — Moab, UT - North Main Street - Tesla Supercharger, Moab
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO57.6 mi — STATE OF UTAH WELCOME WEST 2, Monticello
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)16.7 mi — Element Moab · Blink Network · J1772 · 6 Level 2 ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily
- Pricing at the fast chargernot listed
- Power (kW)not listed by AFDC — “DC fast” spans roughly 24 to 350 kW, so ask the network.
- Read this honestlyStraight-line miles, like every distance on this site. Roads run longer than this, and you have to get back. We know where a charger is listed. We don’t know if it works today, how fast it is, or the road miles. Check the network before you commit.
Snapshot 2026-09-16 · AFDC record 348135 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Utah Trust Land Dispersed Camping — Grand County, UT (38.5893, -109.8793) · Utah Trust Lands Administration · UT — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Vault / pit toiletHorsethief Campground Vault Toilet (Group Loop West)(Double) · ~3.4 mi E · BLM
- Vault / pit toiletHorsethief Campground Vault Toilet (Group Loop East)(Double) · ~3.4 mi E · BLM
- RestroomHorsethief Toilet (Appaloosa Loop -By Site 47) · ~3.4 mi E · BLM
- RestroomHorsethief Toilet (Appaloosa Loop - By Site 37) · ~3.5 mi E · BLM
Coming out here — Utah Trust Land Dispersed Camping — Grand County, UT (38.5893, -109.8793) · Utah Trust Lands Administration · UT
- Surface water mapped nearby: North Fork Mineral Canyon (stream). That is wash water at best, and nobody has checked it for you — a creek can be dry and a tank can be mud. Filter or boil anything you drink. USGS maps no named surface water within 1 mi of the pin (National Hydrography Dataset, data refreshed October 2022).
- Ground slope around the pin: about 5.3% — gentle. Measured on USGS's 3DEP elevation model (1 m data here), sampled every 10 metres around the point. That is the hillside, not the ground under your wheels — a graded pullout or a bench a few metres across is too small to show up at that spacing, and nobody has checked this one for you.
- No rail line and no interstate or US route is mapped within 10 mi of the pin. Checked against the FRA/BTS North American Rail Network (data updated Jul 21, 2026) and the Census's TIGER/Line primary roads (TIGER/Line 2025, released Oct 2025). Both are national files and both are maps of what is built, not counts of what moves on it.
- Assume no services at all. Most dispersed camping in a national forest has none: no tap, no power, no dump, often no toilet. Everything you need, you bring.
- Power: Dave carries his own — batteries or solar. A generator will run your rig and it is also the thing everybody camped near you can hear.
- Getting online: Dave recommends Starlink. He has had it since SpaceX introduced it, used it for four years living on the road, and it delivers as promised — several hundred nights out, and he can count on one hand the places he could not connect. The cable on his unit runs 150 feet, which is usually all it takes to find enough sky. Starlink → Referral link — Starlink pays Dave $100 in cash if you sign up through it, and that money funds this site and the next trip. It costs you nothing and does not change the recommendation.
Open Utah Trust Land Dispersed Camping — Grand County, UT (38.5893, -109.8793) elsewhere
Other camps near Utah Trust Land Dispersed Camping — Grand County, UT (38.5893, -109.8793)
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Utah Trust Land Dispersed Camping — Grand County, UT (38.5913, -109.8389)~2.2 mi
- Horsethief Campground Group Sites~3.4 mi · fee
- Horsethief Campground~3.6 mi · fee
- Horsethief Campground Tent Sites~3.6 mi
Who holds the land at Utah Trust Land Dispersed Camping — Grand County, UT (38.5893, -109.8793)
USGS’s Protected Areas Database (PAD-US 4.1, queried 2026-09-23) lists the ground at this pin as State Trust Lands, manager on record: The State of Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration (state). That names who holds the land — it is not a statement that camping is permitted here.
How we know this — Utah Trust Land Dispersed Camping — Grand County, UT (38.5893, -109.8793)
What we don’t know about Utah Trust Land Dispersed Camping — Grand County, UT (38.5893, -109.8793)
A land record can put you within a few meters of a spot. It cannot tell you any of this — so check it yourself, and treat anything below as the open question it is.
- Road surface & last-mile access
- How many rigs actually fit
- Cell coverage by carrier
- Seasonal & winter access
- Current fire restrictions
- Whether any water here is drinkable
- Shade & wind exposure
- Noise and who else shows up
- Whether a listed EV charger works today, or the road miles to it