Whiting Campground, and the water you have to carry to it

In Maple Canyon east of Mapleton, Utah, about three miles up Maple Canyon Road, which 400 North becomes at the east edge of town, at roughly 5,400 feet. It is a federal site in the Spanish Fork Ranger District of the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest rather than a city campground, so Mapleton City is not the place to call about it. The usual approach is from Interstate 15 at the Springville exit, east to Main Street, south on US-89 to 400 North in Mapleton, then east onto Maple Canyon Road.

Twenty seven in total, and the mix matters more than the number. Most are standard nonelectric single family pitches. Two are group sites of very different sizes, one taking up to a hundred people and the other up to two hundred, so a single booking can change the character of the whole loop. Three are listed as equestrian sites. Recreation.gov rules bar horses from the campground loop, and horse trailers park in a lot about a mile below the campground. Facilities are vault toilets and, in season, tables and grills, and there is no drinking water anywhere on the loop.

No. Both the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest and the Recreation.gov listing for campground 232233 state that there is no water on site and that campers must bring everything they will need for the stay. There is no spigot, no standpipe and no treated supply anywhere on the loop. Older third party campground directories still list drinking water here and they should not be relied on. The stream in the canyon is untreated surface water in a drainage used by horses and off highway vehicles.

Through Recreation.gov, under campground number 232233. The reservation window opens four months ahead, and reservable sites have to be booked at least four days in advance rather than claimed on arrival. The operator of record is Utah Recreation Company on 385-273-1100, working in partnership with the Spanish Fork Ranger District on 801-798-3571. Fees are set on the reservation system and change between seasons, so read the current listing rather than any figure printed elsewhere.

Typically from about the middle of April to the end of October, which is a snow judgment rather than a fixed calendar. That window moves from year to year with conditions in the canyon, and the access gate at the canyon mouth below the campground is frequently closed through the winter, which puts the site out of reach by vehicle for part of the year regardless of what the listing says. Confirm the current season dates on Recreation.gov before planning a trip around either end of the shoulder.

Partly. Three of the twenty seven sites are listed as equestrian sites, but Recreation.gov rules bar horses from the campground loop, and horse trailers park in a lot about a mile below the campground. Call the operator on 385-273-1100 before you plan a trip with horses. Both numbered Forest Service trails leaving this campground are open to horses: Right Fork #007 at 5.19 miles and Left Fork #006 at 5.89 miles. Book the equestrian sites through Recreation.gov in the same way as any other pitch.

Two, and they are graded completely differently. Right Fork Maple Canyon Trail #007 begins about half a mile above the campground, runs 5.19 miles climbing roughly three thousand feet to Maple Canyon Lake and on toward Spanish Fork Peak, meets Sterling Hollow Trail #008, and is closed to motor vehicles. Left Fork Maple Canyon Trail #006 starts at the lower parking area, runs 5.89 miles on gentle grades along the drainage, connects to Little Diamond Trail #016, and is open to off highway vehicle trail riding as well as walkers, bikes and horses.

No. The campground climbers mean is in Sanpete County, in the San Pitch Mountains west of Fountain Green near the hamlet of Freedom, at about 6,700 feet in the Manti-La Sal National Forest, and it is listed separately on Recreation.gov as campground 232413. That canyon holds more than forty conglomerate cliffs and well over a hundred and forty bolted routes. Whiting is in Mapleton's Maple Canyon, roughly ninety minutes north of it, and there is no developed climbing there.

It works for one, with a caveat. It is about three miles up a canyon road from a town, which is close enough that a night going badly is not a crisis, and the loop sits under tree cover at 5,400 feet with a stream and a trail beside it. The caveat is the water: there is none, so the packing list is longer than a beginner expects. Check what the two group sites are doing that weekend as well, because one of them takes up to two hundred people and that changes the evening entirely.