Bureau of Land Management opens new campground and finalizes rules in the Klondike Bluffs area
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MOAB, Utah — The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Moab Field Office has opened a new campground and issued final rules that limit camping to designated areas, require use of a portable or established toilet for human waste and prohibit wood cutting and collecting in the Klondike Bluffs Mountain Bike Focus Area and a nearby isolated 160-acre BLM parcel in Grand County, Utah. These changes are designed to protect natural, cultural and paleontological resources, address concerns about human waste contamination and better serve public land visitors.
“These changes will improve visitor experiences and recreation opportunities in the Klondike Bluffs area while protecting the natural and cultural resources that make it an exciting place to visit,” said BLM Moab Field Manager Nicollee Gaddis-Wyatt. “We are grateful to those who provided input and to our partners who helped make the new campground a reality.”
The new North Klondike Campground was made possible by dedicated partners and employees. The State of Utah Office of Outdoor Recreation and Grand County provided invaluable feedback and funding. BLM employees designed the campground, fabricated the shade structures and continue maintaining the campground and facilities. The fees collected from recreationists to public lands managed by the Moab Field Office continue to support the site. The campground includes 25 individual sites and two group sites reservable on recreation.gov. Camp sites can accommodate recreational vehicles, trailers, tent camping or passenger vehicles and provide easy access to hiking and mountain biking trails. The campground can be accessed from gravel road 143 which crosses State Route 191 approximately 22 miles north of Moab, Utah. Visitors should follow signs for North Klondike Bluffs.
Klondike Bluffs includes a popular mountain bike trail system that has more than 50 miles of world-class single-track trails. Mountain bike trails with names such as Jurassic, Dino Flow, Mega Steps and Baby Steps are an ode to the area’s rich paleontological history and amazing dinosaur tracks. On busy weekends in Moab, hundreds of visitors are camped on the side of the road to the Klondike Bluffs trails with many more trying to gain access to the trails and dinosaur track sites. These changes will help address the resource and visitor impacts from this high use. The Moab Field Office manages 1,662,581 acres of public lands (91 percent of the field office area) as available for dispersed camping.
The final supplementary rules are available online at https://bit.ly/2UVhDCc (within the documents tab). Hard copies of the rules may also be obtained by visiting the Moab Field Office at 82 East Dogwood Avenue, Moab, UT 84532. For additional information regarding the proposal, contact Katie Stevens at 435-259-2172.
The BLM manages more than 245 million acres of public land located primarily in 12 western states, including Alaska, on behalf of the American people. The BLM also administers 700 million acres of sub-surface mineral estate throughout the nation. Our mission is to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of America’s public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations.