Sand Flats Campground- Moab UT

written by Amanda April 24, 2013

This past Monday marked our fourteen-day limit at the Goose Island Campground. Since we’re still enjoying ourselves in Moab, instead of heading on down the road we packed it up and moved a just few miles to another BLM campground. We chose Sand Flats for its proximity to town, excellent cell service (full bars of Verizon 3G & 2-3 bars of AT&T 4G), and a large number of sites. We arrived to find the sites tucked among a spectacular array of sandstone formations.

A few miles = a whole different setting

Sand Flats has 120 sites arranged in nine different loops, or clusters as they call them. Only a fraction of the sites are RV friendly, and very few would fits rigs much bigger than us. We found a nice spot in cluster E that backs up to a wide outcropping of slickrock.

Dusk settles over our little cluster of campsites with the La Sal Mountains in the background

Sand Flats is far more than a campground. This 7,200-acre recreational paradise is known for its mountain biking and 4 x 4 trails. One of the 4 x 4 trails, named Fins and Things, starts in cluster E. After settling into our site, we took our own Phin out for a small hike on this trail.

Phin on the fin trail

The “fins” are long, rounded lengths of sandstone often seen in a parallel arrangement. I guess the “things” must be all the other sandstone formations.

Those bumps of sandstone you see are called fins

We only saw one jeep on the trail.

Cresting the hill

Will he make? Oh pheww!

Yesterday afternoon we took another hike behind the campground. This time we went off trail in search of the Mill Creek Canyon. After a mile of scampering up and down the sandstone, we found it.

Mill Creek way down below

We could just make out the path that winds along the bottom of the canyon. Phineas was eyeing the river below, so I think we’ll have to check out the Mill Creek trail sometime this week. Here are a few more photos of the area.