Campground · Canyonlands National Park
A remote overnight for a long, demanding White Rim trip.
Overview
Map
Plan your stop
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Canyonlands Tour Guide
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Canyonlands National Park. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.
See the Canyonlands audio tourMore stories near here in the app
“Fantastic app with many points of information… It’s great to just turn on while you’re driving and it gives you an audio tour of the national Park. We love it!!!!”
Guide
Potato Bottom is a backcountry camping area with three designated sites, A–C, on the 100-mile White Rim Road below the Island in the Sky mesa. Plan it into a multi-day loop, not as a quick detour: NPS lists the area 66 miles from the Island in the Sky Visitor Center, with an estimated drive time of 8.5 hours. A typical four-wheel-drive trip takes two to three days.
High-clearance 4WD with low range and a permit are required. Spring and fall overnight permits are often in short supply. NPS lists two toilets for the three-site area, but there is no potable water anywhere along White Rim Road, so bring all the water you will need. Each site can have up to 15 people and three vehicles. Campfires and dogs are prohibited; pets are not allowed even in vehicles.
Expect long rocky stretches, deep sand and little shade. Exposed sections call for caution in bad weather, and high water on the Green River can flood the western road and make a full loop impossible. In favorable weather, NPS describes the route as moderately difficult for high-clearance 4WD, but conditions can change that quickly.
Wildlife
48 sightingsBighorn SheepMost seen around 7 AMSighting map
47 sightingsMule DeerMost seen around 7 AMSighting map
12 sightingsCoyoteMost seen around 7 PMSighting map
30 sightingsWestern RattlesnakeMost seen around 7 PMSighting map
18 sightingsTurkey VultureMost seen around 11 AMSighting map
18 sightingsWild TurkeyMost seen around 7 AMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across Canyonlands. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
Keep exploring
ModerateFort Bottom Trail3.4 mi · 2 hr · 1.7 mi awayA narrow mesa walk to an ancient tower above the Green River.
ChallengingUpheaval Canyon Trail7 mi · 3.5 hr · 3.2 mi awaySeven miles round trip along a remote, sandy canyon wash.
ModerateUpheaval Dome Overlooks Trail1.2 mi · 1.5 hr · 4.2 mi awayA short, steep climb to colorful folded rock and canyon views.
ChallengingUpheaval Crater Trail9.2 mi · 7.5 hr · 4.3 mi awayA strenuous 9.2-mile out-and-back into Upheaval Dome's crater floor.
ChallengingSyncline Loop Trail8.1 mi · 6 hr · 4.3 mi awayA demanding loop of steep descents, sand and boulder scrambles.
ModerateWhale Rock Trail0.8 mi · 1 hr · 4.9 mi awayA short slickrock scramble to broad Island in the Sky views.
Campground · 2.2 mi awayHardscrabble Camping AreaTwo river campsites, deep on the demanding White Rim loop.
Sight · 2.7 mi awayFort Bottom RuinA stone tower above a sweeping bend of the Green River.
Campground · 3.7 mi awayLabyrinth Camping AreaTwo remote campsites on a rugged, permit-only White Rim trip.
Sight · 4.1 mi awayUpheaval DomeA three-mile-wide geologic mystery, seen from two steep overlooks.Sight · 4.7 mi awayWhale RockWhale-shaped slickrock, a short scramble, and a wide-open top.Parkwolf’s Canyonlands ranking
The audio tour guide for the drive, plus offline maps, trails, and wildlife heatmaps for when the signal drops.
