Nine Mile Canyon
National Backcountry Byway
Camping
This page presents information on camping along the Nine Mile Canyon National Backcountry Byway in Utah.
Public lands in Nine Mile Canyon are closed to camping. The Nine Mile Ranch provides the only campground in the canyon. The Ranch can be reached at 435-637-2572.
Dispersed camping, with no facilities, is permitted on the flat benches above the Canyon in an area known as the West Tavaputs Plateau and the Bad Lands Cliffs, including "The Shelf," a flat area in Gate Canyon, 3.5 miles north of the junction of Nine Mile and Gate Canyons.
Permission must be obtained from private land owners, prior to your arrival, if you camp on their land.
Carbon County maintains a day use picnic area at Cottonwood Glen. This site has toilets, a pavilion, and tables. Public toilets are also located at Daddy Canyon, near the mouth of Dry Canyon. Neither of these sites has drinking water.
- See our Camping Tips.
Fires and Firewood
Open fires in the proposed National Historic District (most of the Canyon bottom and near all cultural sites) are prohibited. Within the Canyon, firewood is almost nonexistent. Visitors should use camp stoves or fire pans with wood or charcoal carried into the area, and must haul out charcoal and ashes. On the benches above the Canyon, in the pinyon-juniper areas, and in the northern part of the Byway, dead and downed wood can be collected.
