Franklin Basin Road USFS Dispersed

Where is This?

A very nice dispersed area off UT Highway 89 east of Logan and NE of Salt Lake City called Franklin Basin Road. The road follows Logan River and many sites are along this stretch of water making it even more inviting. Highway 89 is a nice main paved highway. Check road conditions if you’re traveling in the winter or shoulder seasons as the forest roads are not plowed and could still be closed.

Getting There

We came in from the east and traveled on highway 89 from the Bear Lake area. From the west or you can travel in from the west from Logan, UT and it’s about 25 miles to this intersection of Franklin Basin Road (FR006) and Highway 89.

The Details

• GPS:
  • 41.931401, -111.561852 is the intersection from highway 89 to FR006 (Franklin Basin Road) and sites appear soon after you pass the pit toilet and trail head parking
  • 41.96909, -111.59924 is our actually location on FR289 (N.Franklin Basin) which is a rocky climb and we used 4WD to navigate.
• Easy to locate: Yes; right off of Highway 89.  Take the Franklin Basin turn. There’s about 3 miles of forest land with many dispersed sites.
• Public Land: Yes (USFS)
• Ranger Station: Logan Ranger station in the Cache National forest is the closest to call for up to date information
• Stay Limit: 14 days
• Allowed Dispersed Area: at least 150′ from a designated forest road and 100′ (prefer 200′) from water
• Cell: None through the canyon area
• Crowded: We were there over Memorial Weekend and every spot was occupied by groups of campers and we don’t know how it is for normal summer or off season
• Buggy: Not in May when we visited
• Clean: yes, pretty clean
• Would we stay here again: Yes
• Amenities: a pit toilet at the trail head parking but none in the camping areas

Franklin Basin Road & Logan River Area

This main forest road, Franklin Basin, was the only dispersed area I located in this part of the Cache National Forest in this area. It was clear when looking at satellite maps, there are plenty of options for setting up camp. Although, being a holiday weekend and a Friday afternoon, I assumed it would be challenging to locate a place to camp. It was.

Every camp area was occupied by a group of trailers. We did recon on a few side roads and discovered a small pickup was leaving their site shortly. Due to the rain, they were packing it up. Steve was confident in driving the rig up the rocky road and we did. Here’s the location of where we ended up. High clearance is recommended and 4WD if there’s any wet conditions.

Would We Return?

Absolutely. I want to see how busy it is when it isn’t a holiday weekend. The area is beautiful and it would be nice to stay in dryer weather so we could go explore more beyond the roads in this valley, see the dam, even visit Logan, UT or the area around Bear Lake for an afternoon.

Video – Camp Area Review

Click the link below to watch a short camp area review video!

https://youtube.com/shorts/hSsTPu2E7vA