Bryce Canyon R Journey Campground Review
For a budget friendly campground perfect for families near Bryce Canyon National Park, look no further than the Bryce Canyon R Journey.
This campground has plenty of amenities to keep kids busy, while its location near Bryce Canyon National Park, Dixie National Forest and Kodachrome Basin State Park offer many opportunities for hiking, biking, archery, and other outdoor activities.
In the review below, you’ll find details from our recent visit to this campground as well as photos of our campsite and amenities to help you determine if this spot is the right one for your Cannonville, Utah, adventures.
Our camper parked at Bryce Canyon R Journey Campground in Cannonville, Utah
This post is in no way sponsored or affiliated with Bryce Canyon R Journey. I selected this campground based on my own research and paid for it in full.
This post does contain other affiliate links. If you purchase through these links, I will receive a commission at no charge to you.
Bryce Canyon R Journey: What to Consider
When researching options for our time at Bryce Canyon National Park, I came across Bryce Canyon R Journey, which was significantly cheaper than the other private campgrounds in the area.
After wondering if I was making a huge mistake, I booked 4 nights here. It turns out that the R Journey was clean, the staff was welcoming, and the campground was, overall, just as it was described on the website.
It used to be a KOA, and you can still see some of the signage throughout the property. Sometimes the KOA portion has been blacked out, but, in other places, it’s still visible. I’m not sure why the branding hasn’t been fully changed over, but our experience wasn’t negatively affected by it.
The Bryce Canyon R Journey is located in Cannonville, Utah, a tiny town about 12 miles southwest of Bryce Canyon City and the entrance to Bryce Canyon National Park. Cannonville is also home to the incredible Kodachrome Basin State Park, which also needs to be on your list of things to do in this beautiful area of Utah.
In nearby Tropic, Utah, you’ll find a small grocery store, Clark’s Country Store, which is expensive, but it has more of a selection than what you’ll find in Rubys Inn over in Bryce Canyon City.
There’s also a large convenience store and gas station, pizza restaurant, bank, and rodeo arena.
Overall, Bryce Canyon R Journey is well situated in this area so you can explore the national park as well as Kodachrome Basin State Park, Dixie National Forest, and Red Canyon.
Camping Options near Bryce Canyon National Park
If you’re looking to get close to Bryce Canyon National Park, you can’t do much better than staying inside the park. Bryce Canyon National Park has 2 campgrounds: North Campground near the visitors center, and Sunset Campground near the southern end of the Bryce Amphitheatre area.
Neither of these has full hook-ups or other amenities like a playground, laundry, or pool, but they are also inexpensive compared to staying at a local private campground.
Just outside of the entrance to the national park is Rubys Inn Campground and RV Park. This is a huge campground that’s been here for decades, and it also tends to book quickly. However, I found that it was much higher priced than the other campgrounds in the area, thanks to its premium location.
Another option very close to the Bryce Canyon R Journey on Scenic Highway 12 is the Bryce Valley Ranch RV and Horse Park. This RV park has dozens of reasonably priced pull through spots, but lacks a pool, playground or other kid-friendly amenities.
Ultimately, I chose the Bryce Canyon R Journey for its low nightly cost, pull through spots, and on-site amenities. Plus, its location only 15 minutes from Bryce Canyon City and 20 minutes from Kodachrome Basin State Park put us in the middle of everything that this area had to offer.
Bryce Canyon R Journey Campground Review
The other campers on the loop nearest our travel trailer
We arrived at Bryce Canyon R Journey after leaving Thousand Lakes RV Park in Torrey, Utah near Capitol Reef National Park. It was one of 11 different stops we made on our 8-week road trip through Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Montana, and South Dakota.
We had our Winnebago Micro Minnie 1800BH travel trailer in tow, and we opted for a pull-through campsite with water and electric hook-ups.
Check-in Process
As we pulled off of Scenic Highway 12 into the driveway of the R Journey, there was plenty of signage to help us know where to go on the property.
The office is easily located at the front of the property, and we had plenty of room to park in front of the office while I checked in.
We arrived just a few minutes after check-in started, but the two men working the front desk were quick to get us checked in. We were given a helpful map of the property as well as several brochures and maps of the local area.
NOTE: If you DO have to cancel last minute (in the 7 days before your arrival date), you forfeit your money. This means all of it—the deposit and the entire payment covering your stay.
One of the men, who I’d later find out was the manager of the property, took us to our site on a golf cart, making sure that we were able to fit into the site. He did come back around after we’d set up to have us move our truck off the site’s grassy area; we had plenty of room in the site to reposition the truck, so this wasn’t an issue.
We were put in site 22, which was at the end of a row in the section of campground directly in front of the main office.
Site 22 is accessible from both Sunrise Point and Sunset Point, the two roads that make up this loop. All of the roads within the R Journey are named after local trails or points of interest, so you’ll find other roads in the property with names like Mossy Cave, Queens Garden, Navajo Loop, and Inspiration Point.
That site is one of 27 pull through sites here of varying lengths, so that everyone from pop-up travel trailers to Class A motorhomes will be able to find a site that works.
There are also 21 back-in sites that will accommodate smaller travel trailers and vans. Our 21’ trailer could’ve fit easily into any of these, but I prefer a pull-through site whenever possible since that’s easier for me when I’m driving.
We didn’t have any issues navigating the property with our 21’ travel trailer, but we did see several Class A motorhomes and fifth-wheel trailers struggle to navigate some of the turns. All of them made it to their spots eventually!
The map we got upon check-in at the R Journey (Plus Plus block not included)
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Individual Campsite Review
Site 22 was shady and out of the way, which I appreciated. Since we weren’t on the way to anything thanks to our spot at the end of the row, it was rare that our peace was disturbed while we were cooking out or enjoying the sunset.
Even though we were in a private campground, our site felt secluded, in part because our trailer faced the basketball court and not other campers.
The downside to this site was that it was a water and electric hook-up only. When it came time for me to book this site, I was doing my best to keep overall camping costs on our trip as low as possible while still having access to some amenities and hook-ups.
I felt that it wasn’t worth the extra money to have a sewer hook-up when the property had a free dump station we could use after our stay.
Site 22 is one row back from Highway 12, but we had little to no road noise. The highway isn’t heavily traveled, even at the height of peak season (when we were visiting), so we barely even noticed we were as close to the highway as we were.
Cabins and Tent Camping
If you’re visiting this area, but don’t have a camper, the R Journey still has options for you.
There are 14 cabins, which are split evenly between the smaller standard cabins and the larger deluxe cabins. You can find the cabins on both of the loops within the campground.
The smaller cabins are tiny and only fit 2 people. If you’ve ever stayed in the original, standard KOA Kabins, you’ll know what to expect. Essentially, this cabin is a glamping space with no dedicated kitchenette, provided linens, or attached bathroom. These floorplans will have a queen bed, picnic table, and A/C and heating.
The larger cabins are essentially the same, but include a bunk bed in addition to a double and slightly more space in order to accommodate up to 4 people. Overall, they’re not really what I’d consider “deluxe,” especially compared to the larger cabins at KOA campgrounds, such as the nice ones with kitchen and indoor living space at the Holbrook KOA near Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona.
There are also 19 dedicated tent spaces, most of which are concentrated in 2 specific areas in the campground. The first is the Mossy Cave tent loop near the LP fill up and dump station, and the second is the more isolated Navajo Loop.
Each of these spaces has a picnic table, as well as a defined, sandy space to pitch your tent. If you pay a little extra, you can get a site with electric hook-ups.
Other Observations
Scenic Highway 12 and the pretty mesas just outside of the campground
This campground had some of the friendliest visitors that I’ve ever met—and had the highest variety of visitors from around the world that I’ve encountered on my campground stays.
While we were there, we met families from France, Quebec, Australia, Sweden, and the Netherlands! One night at the pool, my kids were playing with kids from 4 other countries, and they were managing without all speaking the same language. It was so fun to see my kids teach the other international families how to play Sharks and Minnows with what English all of them shared and a lot of hand gestures.
Another night, a young family from the Netherlands came over to say hi and ended up chatting for a while over some drinks. These chance encounters truly made this campground memorable among all of the places we stayed on this specific trip and in all of the US campgrounds we’ve visited.
The other major thing that sticks out about this campground—outside of its great amenities and quiet location—is the fact that the manager had to remove a camper from the location.
One of the campers down the loop from our site had a dog that was being aggressive to their neighbors, and the bad campers refused to put the dog up even after the neighbors had been snapped at multiple times as they were setting up their campsite.
When this situation was brought to the manager’s attention, he went out to talk with the dog owners, who immediately started yelling at him and allowing the dog to continue barking and snapping at others. He took swift action, calling out the local sheriff’s deputy and having the couple, their dog, and their camper removed within the hour.
Having stayed at campgrounds like Lakewood Resort in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, where the staff didn’t care AT ALL about their visitors’ complaints, it was refreshing to see a manager willing to dive into a situation and quickly resolve it. (Plus, all of this made our afternoon pool time all the more interesting as we watched it unfold.)
Bryce Canyon R Journey Amenities and Activities
While there’s more than enough activities in this part of Utah to keep you busy for weeks, you probably want some down time around the campground, too.
Especially since I’m traveling with kids, I like to stay at properties where my 2 little campers will have more to do than hang around our travel trailer complaining they’re bored.
There was plenty to keep them occupied at the R Journey, and everything was compact enough at the campground that we were easily able to walk to all of it. (This isn’t always the case, as some campgrounds like the Vineyards in Grapevine, Texas, almost requires a bike or golf cart to navigate.)
Pool
The pool is located next to the office building, and it is fenced in.
While it is a standard rectangular pool with little landscaping and no hot tub, my kids had a blast here thanks to the many other children staying at the campground.
There are a few tables and chairs scattered around the pool deck for those who’d like to sunbathe or watch their kids.
Bring your own pool toys and floats to make this basic space more dynamic.
Playground
The playground was my kids’ other favorite spot on the property, and they spent much of our down time in the tower structure at the heart of this space.
I loved that the playground was also next to the office and within shouting distance of our campsite, so my kids could go play by themselves while I fixed dinner.
The play space isn’t huge, but there’s enough to do here to help kids burn off some steam before bed.
Camp Store
The front of the on-site store
The camp store has basics like ramen, soft drinks, candy bars, and bags of chips if you’d like a quick snack. It also had some RV gear and a few souvenirs.
While you won’t be able to do a full grocery shop here, it’s a good option if you need a quick post-swim snack and don’t want to drive over to Tropic, Utah, to buy something from the gas station or Clark’s Country Store there.
The employees during our stay were extremely friendly and welcoming, and they always were patient with my kids when we went in for a candy bar or a quick question.
Basketball Court
While this space is far from an NBA court, it’s plenty for a couple of kids who want to practice their free throws.
We saw a couple of families come to use the court before dinner during our stay, and, while we didn’t use it, I like that the property has multiple ways for people to stay active.
You can find the basketball court on the Sunset Point/Sunrise Point loop on the end towards the entrance to the property.
Dog Run
Since there is a leash requirement in effect in the campground, it’s nice to have a fenced in dog run for visiting pups to get their zoomies out.
You can find the dog run next to the basketball court.
Laundry
So much space, so few washing machines
Of our entire experience at the Bryce Canyon R Journey, the laundry was the most disappointing.
Since we were here as a part of a much longer trip, I had to do laundry consistently so we’d have fresh clothes. I’d planned our time at the Bryce Canyon R Journey carefully because they had a laundry, and our time here fell at a time when I knew we’d run out of the clothes we’d brought.
The day that I’d planned to do laundry came, and I hauled my bag of clothes to the laundry room, only to find that there was a single washer available and 4 dryers. The washer was already in use, so I returned to the camper. A couple of hours later, after I’d gotten my kids to bed, I went back, thinking that a late night laundry session would allow me access to the single washer.
Nope.
There were 2 other ladies in there already, literally waiting in a line for the washer to finish its cycle.
I should also mention here that there was room for another 2 or 3 washers, but the wall connections weren’t attached to anything. I have no clue what was going on there, or if the property plans to get new washers to bulk out their offerings.
Right now, the laundry situation is rough and not sustainable for the number of people at the campground.
I ended up taking our laundry into Tropic the next day, where you’ll find a 24 hour public launderette behind The Pizza Place on North South Street. The Wash and Dry launderette had a half dozen washer and dryers that were reasonably priced, and included a TV and coin machine.
Plus, that launderette is right across from the Stage Stop Station, Tropic’s huge gas station and convenience store, so I got to sip on a Frazzle slushy while waiting on my laundry to finish.
Bath House
The bath house was another area that was just okay about the property.
The toilet and sink areas are separate from the 4 individual shower rooms, and I never found that either of these areas were particularly busy.
The women’s toilet area was clean, but a little outdated. My dad told me that the men’s restroom was also clean.
The shower rooms are the old school kind from the KOA franchise; in the newer KOAs, most of these have been replaced with larger, more spacious shower rooms, but this one hasn’t been updated in a while.
The shower rooms were so small that I could barely stand inside with my younger kid so that I could help him get his shampoo and soap and clothes organized for his shower.
Even when I was the only one in the room, the changing space is small enough that I was constantly bumping the walls and single bench. The changing space is divided from the shower by a thin curtain, so the floor ends up wet.
The shower rooms were consistently clean, though, even if they were outdated, and I’m willing to overlook at lot for that.
Overall, it’s not the worst bathroom we’ve visited (that honor belongs to the restrooms at the Colorado Springs KOA), but it’s certainly far from the best (an honor that probably goes to the bath house at Zion Canyon RV Park and Campground in Springdale, Utah).
Dump Station
The many signs at the dump station
While there are some sites that include sewer hook-ups, many of the smaller lots here do not.
If your site is one of those, you’ll find a conveniently located dump station on the far side of the pool near the LP fill up station.
Use of the dump station is free for campers staying on property, and $20 for those who aren’t.
Accessing the dump station is easy with a pull in space on gravel, and large area to turn around in if you’re leaving the property immediately afterwards.
Final Thoughts on Bryce Canyon R Journey
The campground as seen from the general store’s porch
I am glad that I took a chance on this property, and, ultimately, my fears about going with a cheaper campground were completely unfounded.
While there are a few areas that the R Journey needs to focus on in the future—expanding the laundry and updating the shower rooms, specifically—this campground is a great bargain for the many amenities and location.
I loved the abundance of trees and shrubs throughout the property, which helped keep the sites cool in the afternoon sun. Many of the other nearby campgrounds do not have tree coverage, so this aspect of the property was a great surprise.
In many ways, the R Journey balances the best of private campgrounds (like a pool, playground, and site hook-ups) with what we like about state park and NPS campgrounds (like shaded lots and views of the surrounding natural beauty).
Since we were so close to the area’s major attractions, it was easy to get around from our home base here. Yet, because we weren’t staying in Bryce Canyon City at the crowded complex that is Rubys Inn, I still felt like we were able to better experience the outdoors in this area.
I ended up liking this campground so much that it made my list of the best RV camping at the Utah national parks!
Whenever we find ourselves in this part of Utah again, and I hope it is soon, I wouldn’t hesitate at all to book a site here again.
