Lucerne Campground is a lovely campground in Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area run by Ashley National Forest. The campground has about 140 sites and is one of about 43 campgrounds in the Flaming Gorge area. The campground sits on the west side of the Flaming Gorge reservoir and is easily accessible in a big rig whereas some other campgrounds and/or dispersed campground may not be as easy to get to due to twisty roads, grades, and elevation.
The campground sits on a peninsula in Utah but to get to the peninsula you need to drive through Wyoming. Basically, it sits right on the border of the 2 states and you will find yourself driving between the 2 states constantly. We even rode our bikes to Wyoming!
The drive to the campground from the west from I-80 (Highway 414 in Wyoming and Hwy 44 in Utah) is absolutely beautiful with lots of gorgeous scenery. This route is highly recommended and labeled as a scenic route on the maps.
Campground: Lucerne Campground
Location: Manila, Utah
Site: B001
Cost: $20 (Interagency Pass rates)
Services: E (30AMP)
Comments: We love this area, we love the campground, and we love Flaming Gorge. We had a fantastic time even with high winds one day and heavy smoke from wildfires another day. Even though it is basically a fisherman’s paradise it still provides great access to the Flaming Gorge area and is a great place to relax and enjoy the wildlife.
The campground has 7 loops, A-G, with electric provided in loops A-D. There is a dump station on site along with a swim beach, marina, lakeside grille, breathtaking scenery, and plenty of pronghorn. The sign states that there is a 14 day limit but we saw many sites with tags of 4 months. It appears to be a local campground with many people parking their rig (usually 5th wheels) at the campground for the summer and only being there on weekends. We were there for a week and the weekends were close to full but during the week most of the “people” were gone yet the rigs were still parked in the sites. There were still plenty of empty sites for first come first serve so it did not pose a problem.
The campground area also has a marina, swim beach, wetlands area with a nice hiking trail, an overlook area, another campground called Stateline Cove Campground, and dispersed camping areas.
Stateline Cove Campground is a first come first serve dry camping area long the shores of the Flaming Gorge reservoir for $12 a night. The campground area has dumpsters and vault toilets. There were no distinct sites and there was no iron ranger to pay. Maybe a host appears and asks for fees? It was a beautiful location and there were lots of campers in this area but still plenty of room for more.
One of the off shoot roads, FS 365, had a few areas of gorgeous dispersed camping with great lake views. Several of the areas were empty while Stateline Cove Campground was quite full. Do they know something we don’t know? Mosquitoes? We don’t know but we would camp here.
The area is a pronghorn habitat and there were pronghorns everywhere wandering around the campground and in the campsites. They are a bit wary of people and vehicles yet don’t run away.
The area is also full of ground squirrels and ospreys. You can see the ospreys flying around and catching fish in the water and feeding their young ones. They are everywhere. Also, we had a few high winds and dark skies but most of the days were beautiful and warm.
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