Campground Review: Burraston Ponds Wildlife Management Area Mona, UT

Mona, UT is a tiny little town along I-15 about 60 miles south of Salt Lake City.  Just to the southwest of the city limits lay the Burraston Ponds Wildlife Management Area that is administered by the Utah DNR.

Someone really banged the side of this metal sign hard!

I traveled to the Burraston Ponds shortly before the Memorial Day weekend after spending my first night in Utah at an indifferent RV campground in Price, Utah that at least allowed me to dump tanks and replenish the Tank's fresh water.  Getting to the Ponds a little ahead of the Memorial Day crowd allowed me to snag one of the best spots in the whole Area.

I had to "stretch" the 3-day stay limit a tad after seeing this site.

The three large spring-fed ponds that make up Burraston Ponds were discovered in 1776 by the Escalante Expedition out of Sante Fe.  Father Escalante mapped the area and named the ponds Ojo de San Pablo or Eye of Saint Paul.  The Burraston family settled the area in 1865 giving the ponds their current name.  The family donated the Area to the state of Utah in 1901 to celebrate Utah's new statehood.

Just past the entrance there's this plaque that tells the history of the ponds.

Here's the site data for Burraston Ponds:

Hookups:                                None (bring the fresh water you’ll require)

Fire ring:                                  Yes

Water Access:                         Yes

Dump station:                          No (there ARE trash dumpsters)

WiFi:                                       No

Level sites:                              Yes

Laundry:                                 No

Store:                                      No

Pool:                                       No

Shade:                                    Yes

Verizon reception:                   4G, 2 out of 4 bars

Millenicom reception:              2 out of 4 bars

Cost:                                      Free, 3 day limit (relaxed enforcement)

 

View from the Tank's back door.

I really regretted having left the kayak in storage back in Houston as the ponds would have been perfect to kayak in....oh well!  Being spring-fed the water is very clear and well stocked with fish judging by all the feeding ripples on the pond at morning and sunset.  Also the ponds teem in dozens of different species of birds, so much so that at times it seemed like air traffic control would be required to avoid mid-air collisions.

Mt. Nebo....still snow capped in late May.

The one ding to the outstanding camping experience at Burraston Ponds is that there is a fairly active rail line that skirts it's eastern edge with trains sometimes as early as 6 am but they seemed to stop after about 10 at night.

I took this after the 6am train woke me up...sunrise over Mt. Nebo.

The Burraston Ponds Wildlife Management Area, with it's three ponds, is a tremendous free camping experience and I can't give it enough stars!  It DOES get understandably crowded on holidays like Memorial Day so I wouldn't plan on rolling in Friday after work and finding a great camp site but after the holiday it wasn't at all crowded.  Bring a float or a kayak!

Thanks for reading!

Campground Review: Rabbit Valley Recreation Area Fruita, CO

If you drove a half hour west from Grand Junction on I-70 and exited on Exit 2 right before the Utah border, two miles south you'd come across the McInnis Canyon National Conservation Area that the BLM administers.  In the upper northwest corner of this gigantic 123,000 acre preserve is the Rabbit Valley Recreation Area where the BLM allows 14 day camping in 3 "official" campgrounds that have campsites with tables and fire rings and also designated dispersed camping areas.

I didn't see one rabbit my whole stay here.

About a quarter mile past the first campsite area along side an increasingly rough road I came across this sign:

I was actually glad the Tank DOESN'T have 4WD so I wasn't tempted.

So I took this "somewhat" scenic site back at the first campground.

No "Beware of Falling Rocks" signs anywhere.

I got into Rabbit Valley on a Wednesday and there were only two other of the 30 sites occupied but that all changed Friday when the whole place filled up with mountain bikers, dirt bikers and ATV owners eager to ride the miles of trails through the area. 

This was about a half mile past the sign warning about high clearance.

Here's the Rabbit Valley data sheet:

Hookups:                                 None

Fire ring:                                  Yes

Water Access:                         None (No water available, bring in what you’ll need!)

Dump station:                          No

WiFi:                                       No

Level sites:                              Mostly

Laundry:                                 No

Store:                                      No

Pool:                                       No

Shade:                                    No (Rabbit Valley is semi-desert, summer months are hot.)

Verizon reception:                   4G, 4 out of 4 bars

Millenicom reception:              4 out of 4 bars

Cost:                                      14 days free camping

Like you I wondered how in the Heck could there be 4G cell reception out there 35 miles away from Grand Junction?  And 4 out of 4 bars?

I guess Verizon had an extra cell tower so they stuck it here?

The mid-May weather at Rabbit Valley was days in the mid-80's and nights in the mid-50's, humidity was very low so it didn't seem that hot although I was warned by fellow campers the place gets too hot in June-July-August.  A couple days it got really windy in the afternoon with my camp chair going for a "walk" until I was able to chase it down.

This canyon was about a mile hike from my campsite.

I was running low on food after a week so I wasn't able to take the BLM up on their 14 day free offer.  I need to work out putting my first few days meals on ice in the Tank's cooler and have the later days food be stored in the frig and freezer, that would extend my "stay ability", I guess.  Anyway Rabbit Valley is a great camping experience and if you have a dirt bike or ATV it's even more fun.  Mountain biking and hiking was a blast for me!

Thanks for reading!

Trail Head Park Montrose, CO

After fleeing the snow storm I stayed a night in Curecanti National Recreation Area just west of Gunnison where there's a RV loop with electric hookups.  I didn't do a campground review of the area because of my short stay and the fact that it was so cold (19 degrees in the morning) I didn't get out of the Tank long enough to do the area justice.  Traveling further west on Highway 50 I came to Montrose, CO which is a town of about 19,000 on the West Slope of Colorado and, more importantly, below 5000 feet of elevation so temperatures there were in the mid-70's.  The city of Montrose has a small park called Trail Head Park that allows RV'ers to stay overnight free one night every 14 days.  I took advantage of their hospitality and enjoyed hiking through Cerise Park which sprawls along the bank of the quick Uncomphagre River.  Uncomphagre is a Ute Indian word that roughly translates to "dirty water" although the river seemed pristine to me.

The sign warns that bear and mountain lion have been sighted in the park.

Trail Head Park is basically a parking lot with some trees and plants landscaped in but the overnight price is right!

Cerise Park has several miles of sidewalk/paths through it.

The town has several guide companies that outfit rafters and kayak enthusiasts for sampling the white water along the Uncomphagre.

Rapids right in Cerise Park.

More white water.

I enjoyed the park in Montrose and left the next morning for some BLM boondocking outside of Grand Junction after I restocked the Tank with food and water.

Thanks for reading!