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Submission
From Escalante, turn north on the Hells Backbone Road. At 0.7 miles the road will fork, stay right. After 3.5 miles the road will turn to dirt and is now called Forest Road 153 (FR 153). At 13.6 miles the road will fork, turn left on FR 154 and follow signs to Posey Lake Campground.
First Posey Lake is a beautiful, high mountain lake. It's well stocked with fish and the kids had fun for hours on it in kayaks. It's close enough to Escalante that we were easily able to camp by the lake (where it was nice and cool), then visit and hike in the national park.
The campground itself is well maintained, including all facilities we used. Potable water was available at the campsite, which was nice. Our campsite also had two bear cabinets for food and waste, which was extremely nice.
Posey Lake - USFS 8700’
The campground has 24 sites, 4 vault toilets and a few trails. The lake? pond has a boat dock and a picnic area. Most sites are level and places to hang a hammock.
I was the only camper at first and being able to listen to the nature around me was very relaxing.
I came to hike the Posey Lake Overlook trail. The trail is a moderate, 1.4 mile in-and-out, with glorious views and an awesome covered overlook observation hut at the top. The hut has benches for a peaceful rest while taking in the surrounding views. The road to the campsite/trailhead is easy to find from Escalante, paved for a bit then wide, packed dirt with great scenery all the way in! Such a treat to find a pine tree/forest hike just 30 min drive from Escalante and it's desert surroundings.
I have limited info on the campsites but they appeared nice and well-maintained. There is also a boat ramp for the lake and a picnic area. The lake seems popular for fishing. I highly recommend this hike for the variety and the scenic reward! Weather can be tricky, always check before starting the hike and be prepared!
We loved this campground, we went camping on labor day weekend and the weather was beautiful. It was during a heat wave so unfortunately it was in the upper 80's during the day but that was way better the lower on the mountain in the 90-100 range. Evenings were amazing in the low 50s I think. Very comfortable, we stayed up late and took a lot of astrophotography the night skies are amazing being so remote. The camp ground is about 30 minutes from Escalante on a easy to navigate dirt/gravel round. No need for 4 wheel drive the road is level and well maintained. The campsite worked well for my 20' tent trailer when extended.
One thing to note, if the 20 something campsites maybe 5 have a smaller than normal bear box that one fits a standard cooler. Unfortunately our site had a small one, but fortunately the camp host said he hadn't seen a bear the whole season. While remote there is a lot of atv activity in the area so it seems bears may not frequent this area as much as they did in the past. So he recommended just keeping coolers in the car so we kept them in the back of the truck, as did other people. So I would say bears are not much of a concern around this campground which was nice. Other than that campsites were nice. Pit toilets but water was available for filling water jugs. Trash does need to be packed out. The camp host was awesome and collected to dispose of daily in town, but that shouldn't be counted on, I would plan on packing out trash.
As for activities the lake is a great little spot for casual kayaking and fishing. Didn't see a lot of success from guys fishing but kayaking was fun. We kayaked around the perimeter of the lake and enjoyed the marshs, birds and scenery of the mountains.
As for swimming, this is not a swimming lake. There is way too much vegetation and marshy muck to enyoy swimming. So it was a pass on swimming.
As for hikes there is a nice little trail along the perimeter of the lake but you need to do it early in the morning to avoid the flies. There is also a little hike right in the campground called watchman trail I think and it goes up to a little lookout post with views of the lake and the expansive valley. A really amazing view from that vantage point. Other than that we left the campground and found other fun hikes and around Escalante.
Very fun spot and would highly recommend trying it at least once.
This place is beautiful. There's an awesome trail to a lookout tower above the lake. The campground was well maintained and the pit toilets were clean.
The camp host, Don, was really approachable and kind. Big thanks to him for recommending the hike!
