At low water, campsites on Labyrinth Canyon are plentiful — simply find any suitably dry sandbar and you are good to go!
Things get significantly more challenging at high water, when almost all sandbars are washed out. You’ll need to keep your eyes open and be ready to jump out and explore.
There are also sections of the canyon that have very few campsites. This is particularly true in the final section leading to the take out at Mineral Bottom.
Tamarisk trees are also problematic. An introduced species intended to stabilize stream banks, tamarisk trees have been successful far beyond their original intent. In fact, they’ve taken over huge sections of Labyrinth canyon, creating steep banks that can be almost dead vertical and 6-10 ft high! Getting out of the river in such areas is, understandably, difficult, let alone schlepping gear. Open campsites can be entirely overgrown with tamarisks.
Some effort has been made to control the tamarisk infestation, particularly through the use of a beetle that feasts exclusively on these trees. It has been several years now since the beetles were introduced. You’ll see huge stands of disgusting scratchy dead tamarisks everywhere. At high water, you’ll also likely hear stands of dead tamarisks calving into the river.
The following is a list of campsites that we’ve individually visited. We try to keep this list up-to-date but things change. The only constant in the desert is change. Check the Google Map for photos of campsites.
| River Mile | Name | Side | Access | Condition | Tent Spots | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 120.0 | Green River State Park | L | Excellent | Great | 100 | Car camping |
| 115.4 | Crystal Geyser | L | Good | Poor | 100 | First camp option if you have put-in at Green River State Park. There is vehicle access to this camp. Expect vehicles. |
| 114.4 | Auger | R | Okay | Good | 2 | Small beach; expect tamarisk bushwacking at high water |
| 112.9 | Tiny Tot | R | Okay | Good | 2 | A small camp that works at most water levels. |
| 109.9 | L | Okay | Good | 4 | Small camp for small groups. Another camp that works at all water levels. | |
| 109.7 | Beach Blanket | R | Good | Good | 5 | Small camp for small groups. Camp is on river right and mooring is at a small rock outcropping. |
| 109.4 | Tamarisk Town | R | Poor | Poor | 3 | Overrun by tamarisks in 2016 and 2017. |
| 102.7 | L | Okay | Good | 10 | A relatively large camp for this stretch. | |
| 102.2 | Busted Jetboil | L | Good | Good | 2 | An island campsite that holds up except at extremely high flows. Camp is on the downstream side of the island. |
| 101.9 | R | Okay | Okay | 3 | Expect Tamarisks | |
| 101.7 | Anvil Bottom | L | Good | Good | 10+ | Small beach for access at high water |
| 95.7 | Red Wash | R | Good | Good | 10+ | Possibly overgrown |
| 94.4 | Shady Grove | L | Good | Good | 4 | There are small tent sites on the upstream side of this bench tucked behind the boulder, or if the water is high enough, accessible by floating back up the small side canyon. |
| 91.5 | R | Okay | Okay | 2 | A ridiculously tiny camp that works at high water but is only suitable for a small group in small craft. | |
| 90.0 | Trin Alcove | R | Good | Good | 3 | Muliple campsites each of which is still fairly private. Expect to be sharing this popular campsite with other parties. |
| 87.6 | L | Okay | Good | 3 | Small brushy high water camp with arduous landing, but with a great short side hike. | |
| 87.4 | L | Okay | Good | 2 | Small camp with a short but cool alcove. | |
| 86.5 | Frodo’s Folly | L | Okay | Good | 2 | Small camp with several private tent sites tucked among some cottonwoods. Short but interesting side hike. |
| 86.4 | Necco Wafers | L | Okay | Good | 5 | Ledges; Necco Wafers, the breakfast of champions. Good ledge camp with small tent spots and places for hanging out. |
| 84.1 | Bull Hollow | L | Okay | Good | 3 | A small camped tucked in the tamarisks on the very upstream side of a large bench. Named for all the hoodoos perched on the bench up above the campsite. |
| 80.9 | L | Okay | Good | 4 | If you can break through the tamarisks here, there are some nice campsites underneath the cottonwoods. | |
| 80.5 | Ten Mile Bottom | L | Okay | Okay | 8 | Road present |
| 79.3 | Keg Spring Bottom | L | Okay | Good | 6 | Steep bank that has carved steps and places to tie boats, one of the best camps in Labyrinth. |
| 78.5 | Keg Spring Canyon | R | Good | Good | 3 | A high water camp tucked back up the Keg Spring Canyon. |
| 77.5 | River Register | L | Okay | Good | 4 | A big camp with lots of gear schlepping involved. Beautiful camp with a huge Navajo sandstone cliff just upstream. |
| 75.9 | Hey Joe Canyon | L | Okay | Good | 8 | Impacted but good camp, exposed. Camping here allows for time to explore the Hey Joe side canyon and mining debris. |
| 73.0 | L | Okay | Poor | 3 | Camping on the road, but works in a high water pinch. | |
| 71.5 | Tammy Town | R | Poor | Poor | 2 | An awesome camp if you like bushwacking through tamarisks. |
| 71.5 | R | Okay | Okay | 4 | Possible camp dor staging to Bowknot bend. Access difficult at very high flows. | |
| 71.4 | R | Okay | Okay | 3 | Another small camp just upstream of the main Bowknot bend campsite. | |
| 69.5 | Bowknot Bend (upper) | R | Good | Good | 5+ | Stay in right hand channel, access up very steep bank |
| 69.3 | Bowknot Bend (upper 2) | R | Okay | Good | 4 | Last chance if you want to camp on the upstream side of Bowknot Bend |
| 66.8 | U-235 | R | Good | Good | 5 | Steep bank that has carved steps and places to tie boats. Some side hike possibilities. This camp is about halfway around Bowknot bend and is a good place to stop if the wind is picking up. |
| 63.4 | Bowknot Bend (lower) | R | Okay | Okay | 3 | A small camp that also marks the end of the Bownknot Bend loop hike There are some real and fake petroglyphs in this camp. |
| 62.7 | Upper Oak Bottom | R | Okay | Okay | 3 | Exposed. Some ancient and some modern petroglyphs |
| 61.5 | Oak Bottom | R | Good | Good | 10 | Sheltered and ledgy |
| 58.3 | L | Okay | Good | 3 | Small camp on the upstream side of a rocky landing. | |
| 56.2 | Upper Cottonwood Bottom | R | Good | Good | 5 | Exposed |
| 55.5 | Hell Roaring | L | Good | Okay | 3 | Camps both on the bench and back in the tributary |
| 52.2 | Mineral Bottom | L | Good | Okay | 1000s | Vehicle traffic of sightseers, White Rim travellers and river shuttles. BLM pit toilet. No water or trash. |