Hey friends, welcome back to Grand Adventure! I'm your host Marc Guido,
and in this week's episode we are going to examine the four
closest campground opportunities to downtown Salt Lake City, Utah, so stay tuned!
Now Salt Lake City is often called the "Crossroads of the West." Way back when it was a railroad
crossroads, today it's an Interstate crossroads between I-80 heading east and west, and I-15
heading north and south. That brings a lot of RV travelers through the Salt Lake City area. For
some people Salt Lake City might be a destination, right at the foot of the beautiful Wasatch
Mountains, but for others it might just be a stop along the highway between point A and point B.
Now over the last few weeks we've seen a lot of folks asking questions about the various
RV campgrounds in the Salt Lake City area, so we wanted to take this week's episode to look at the
four closest RV campgrounds to Salt Lake City. Each one has its own advantages and disadvantages,
which you'll learn today through this week's episode. In this episode we're going to cover
the four closest campgrounds to downtown Salt Lake City in order from closest to most distant.
All four are open year-round and all are pet friendly. The closest to downtown is the Salt
Lake City KOA Holiday a mere mile west of the downtown core, near the intersection of
Interstates 15 and 80 and just a few miles east of the Salt Lake City International Airport.
The Salt Lake City KOA offers spacious tree-shaded full-hookup sites with asphalt pads. Spacing
between sites is decent and the park itself is very well maintained. Current nightly rates range
from approximately $55 to $80 per night depending on the amenities included with each type of site.
Facilities on site include playground areas and a Kamp K9 dog exercise area complete with dog wash.
Although the pool complex at the KOA is closed in winter, an outdoor hot tub is available for guests
12 months a year. The KOA is only a very short ride from downtown aboard the TRAX light rail line
that stops right in front of the campground. The facilities at the KOA are the nicest of the four
RV parks that we're visiting today, and it's the most convenient to Salt Lake City's downtown area.
On the same site as the KOA is the long-term VIP Campground that is operated as a separate
business entity, with attractive sites that each include their own storage shed. However,
VIP Campground won't take reservations for monthly sites; instead they place you on a monthly site
list only when you arrive, and they expect you to remain on site and pay the KOA daily rate
until a site is made available. They also insisted upon some personal information in their monthly
application that we didn't feel they were entitled to. Combine all of this with the fact that the
facility is located in one of the less secure neighborhoods in the Salt Lake Valley, and we
opted to spend our winter elsewhere. The next closest option to downtown is the Pony Express
RV Resort, a gated Sun RV Resort just across the Davis County line about five miles north of Salt
Lake City, near the intersection of I-15 and the I-215 belt route. Pull-through sites here
are a bit less spacious than those of the KOA, but are nevertheless meticulously maintained concrete
pad full-hookup sites available for prices currently ranging from $48.50 to $65.45 per night,
and monthly rates are available. The largest sites can accommodate rigs as long as 70 feet.
On-site amenities include a heated swimming pool, life-size board games, general store, surrey bike
rentals, and a fenced dog park. It's the location that kept us from staying at Pony Express.
While convenient to downtown Salt Lake City, its site out near the wetlands lining the
Great Salt Lake is a full 60-minute drive from the skiing in the Cottonwood Canyons,
which is what keeps us in the Salt Lake area throughout the winter months.
So instead we're spending our winter in Mountain Shadows RV Park located just off I-15 around
17 miles south of Salt Lake City, in the community of Draper. Site spacing in Mountain Shadows,
varies widely and its winter monthly rate of $950 is more expensive than the KOA or Pony Express,
but Mountain Shadows is the closest to the skiing in the Cottonwood Canyons
only about a 30-minute drive away. Rates for the gravel or asphalt pads here currently cost
$69.95 per night or $349.75 per week for full hookups. The RV park is conveniently located near
the extensive commercial businesses lining 123rd South in the southern end of the Salt Lake Valley,
and there's actually a Camping World location right next door for those RV travel needs.
Propane is available on site for a very reasonable price with your Good Sam membership,
which also gets travelers a free dump station even if they're not staying in Mountain Shadows.
Amenities include an on-site convenience store, playgrounds, wi-fi, a common area with library,
pool table, computer and television, restrooms, showers and laundry,
this indoor hot tub year-round, or an outdoor pool and hot tub in season.
While there's no enclosed dog park, management will allow your dog off leash in this grassy area
near the front of the park, assuming that you trust your dog to respond to command.
Tent campers are also welcome in Mountain Shadows in this dedicated area.
Its proximity to I-15 means that the biggest downside to Mountain Shadows is the highway noise,
which is far more prevalent at the sites near the entrance than it is at other more interior sites.
The fourth and final RV campground near Salt Lake City is actually across Parleys Summit in
Kimball Junction near Park City. Park City RV Resort is 25 miles from downtown Salt Lake City
but very convenient to the ski resorts of Park City and Deer Valley, if you're in the area to
ski the Wasatch Back. Highway noise is also an issue here due to its location alongside I-80,
and at an elevation of 6,300 feet it's 2,000 feet higher and therefore somewhat colder than the RV
parks in the Salt Lake Valley. RV camping rates here currently range from $45 for partial hookups
to $50 per night for full-hookup sites. Weekly and monthly rates are available only during
the winter season.
The paved pads in this upper section are reserved for site owners,
whereas the gravel sites in this lower lot accommodate overnight guests.
Now you'll find out more about these four campgrounds on TheDyrt.com, one of the Internet's
best online directories for finding that perfect spot to spend the night. You'll find over a
million user reviews, videos and photographs for campgrounds all across the United States.
There are two flavors of The Dyrt: there's a free version that anyone can use on the
web or with their mobile apps, or there's a PRO version that adds some extra special features
including trip routing, up to 40 percent off per night in a campground,
downloadable searches so that way you can use it offline when you're outside of cell phone range,
and map layers that show you the perimeter boundaries of public lands for boondocking.
Now we have a special relationship with The Dyrt this year that gets you a 90-day free trial just
for signing up for PRO. Now think about that: that gets you all the extra special features for free
for literally half the upcoming camping season, so you really have no reason to not try it out.
Simply use the promo code grandadventure90. We'll put a link to The Dyrt down in the video
description down below, as well as a copy of that promo code so you can go and check it out for
yourself. We really hope that this review of the campgrounds in the Salt Lake City area has been
useful to you. If you like this episode please be sure to give us a big "thumbs up" down below.
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