By:
Submission
Chute Group Campground is located in beautiful Huntington Canyon, along the Huntington Canyon National Scenic Byway on Utah Highway 31. It is situated at an elevation of approximately 8,000 feet. Many recreational activities are available, including hiking, biking and fishing.
Popular activities enjoyed by visitors to the area include fishing, hunting, hiking, mountain biking, horseback riding, rock climbing and scenic driving. Huntington Creek is a Blue Ribbon fishery, providing high quality fishing for brown, cutthroat and rainbow trout.
The 4-mile Left Fork of the Huntington National Recreation Trail is nearby and open to hikers and horseback riders. The 10-mile Fish Creek Trail, for hiking, biking and horseback riding is also close by.
The campground offers one large group campsite that can accommodate up to 50 people. An accessible vault toilet is provided, but there is no drinking water, electricity, or garbage removal service. The large parking area within the campground is dirt. Grassy areas located throughout the site provide nice spots for tents.
Large spruce trees offer shade throughout the site. Grassy meadows and thick stands of willow trees line Huntington Creek, which flows next to the campground. The canyon area has numerous lakes and streams, vibrant summer wildflowers, colorful fall foliage, and abundant wildlife.
The Huntington Canyon National Scenic Byway is part of the 86-mile Energy Loop. It offers stunning mountain and lake views as it tops 10,000 feet in elevation.
The historic Stuart Guard Station Visitor Center is nearby, offering a glimpse of the 1930s life of a ranger and his family who once lived there. Exhibits of Civilian Conservation Corps projects and original equipment are on display. Area information is available there as well.
The campground is located about 26 miles west of Huntington, Utah, along Utah Highway 31.
Nice place by the stream. Would have liked individual firepits. 2021 place is recovering from previous fire, new trees are coming up, it does feel a bit desolate at the moment though.
Close to the highway so there's a lot of traffic going by. But it's off the road enough so you don't need to worry too much about kids wandering into the road. The area is beautiful and we had a great time.
It's amazing that the fire didn't touch this campsite. You can see it burned all around it but the campsite and the trees are still intact. It's a big site and has restrooms if you need them. We had 17 people and there was a bunch of room for social distancing.
Great campground, easy to find with Google maps. Parking is a little rough if you have a really large group and lots of trailers but we made it work! Very pretty, great gathering area and fire ring. Public trails were kind of hard to come by for anything wider than 50”
I visited here with my partner during the peak of the 2023 Perseids meteor shower.
TL;DR: This campsite is a hidden gem. I highly recommend it for stargazing and will be returning again. It's clean, small, not popular enough to be crowded, and truly stunning. I didn't even go hiking or swimming or fishing but it would have been perfect for that too. Not too cold even at night (note that this was in August), no cell phone service.
We set up our tent directly next to the stream, and at 1am, we moved all our bedding (including blankets and pillow from my actual bed at home) to a more open clearing to really view the stars in all their glory from a nest of fluffy comfort.
Let me tell you that I had an infinity of stars that night- 5 stars alone could never compare to the experience I had.
I was worried when this area didn't appear on any dark sky maps, and the forest and canyon certainly impeded some of our view from the ground, but this wasn't a loss. The sounds and sights of nature surrounded us constantly, from animals to foliage to the bodies of water everywhere we went. It created a silhouette to frame the starry sky and it made a gorgeous backdrop in the light from the rising sun in the morning.
If I could change anything, I would have jumped into one of the several lakes/ponds in the area the morning before I left. Don't get me wrong, the water was freezing even in the middle of the day, but it felt so fresh and so clean, it would have been worth it.
I hope you get to experience this truly spectacular little site someday, because even a taste of my visit would keep you coming back for more.
No pictures. Just go.
