Potters Pond Campground is closed through 12:01 a.m. on September 10, 2026. Forest Supervisor Barbara Van Alstine signed Forest Order 04-10-26-02-03 on August 13, and the order is already in force.
Do not drive to Upper Joes Valley hoping the ponds are still reachable. The same order closes Potters Canyon Road, a stretch of Skyline Drive, Spring City Canyon Road, Reeder Ridge, Lowry Water, and the Miller Flat access that most cars use to get there.
- Window: 12:01 a.m. August 13 through 12:01 a.m. September 10.
- Closed now: Potters Pond Campground and its spur roads.
- Also closed: named Skyline Drive, Spring City, and Miller Flat segments.
- Who signed it: Forest Supervisor Barbara Van Alstine on August 13.
- Next check: Recheck the Forest Service alert before any September trip.
What the August 13 order actually closes
The signed order is not a suggestion and it is not a smoke advisory. It prohibits entering the described area, being on the listed roads, and being on the listed trails inside the Ferron Ranger District of the Manti-La Sal National Forest.
The closed box sits in Sanpete and Emery Counties. It covers Forest Service land northeast of Reeder Canyon Trail, east of Skyline Drive, south of Potters Canyon Road, and west of Millers Flat Road. Inside that box sit Potters Pond Campground, the campground spur roads numbered 2206, 2207, 2209, 2213, 2228, and 2232, and every other Forest Service road and trail in the same described area.
The pond is not a maybe.
The Forest Service recreation page still describes Potters Pond Campground as a 19-site high-valley campground beside two stocked ponds at about 8,900 to 9,000 feet. That page is a facility description, not a current open sign. The August 13 order names the campground and those spur roads in the closed list, so a leftover Recreation.gov reservation does not reopen the gate.
Several named corridors are closed even if a driver never intended to camp. Spring City Canyon Road, Forest Road 0036, is closed. Skyline Drive, Forest Road 0150, is closed south from the Potters Pond Road intersection to Reeder Ridge Road. Reeder Ridge Road is closed in its entirety. Reeder Canyon Trail, Forest Trail 091, is closed. Potters Canyon Road itself is closed. Lowry Water, Forest Road 0038, is closed. Miller Flat Road, Forest Road 0014, is closed from State Highway 29 north to Cottonwood Canyon Road.
That Miller Flat segment matters because the official driving directions to the ponds use it. From Orangeville, the recreation page sends visitors west on Utah 29, then north on Miller Flat Road for about 9.8 miles, then left onto Potters Canyon Road. Both of those forest roads are now on the closed list, so the usual car and RV approach is blocked even before a visitor reaches the campground loop.
A violation is a Class B misdemeanor. The order cites a fine of not more than $5,000 for an individual and $10,000 for an organization, or imprisonment of not more than six months, or both.
How to read the official map before you leave home
The Forest Service attached Exhibit A to the order, and that map is the traveler document to save. The orange header dates the closure to 12:01 a.m. on August 13. The same map prints the September 10, 12:01 a.m. end unless the order is rescinded. A red triangle marks Potters Pond Campground on the east edge of the hatched closure.
Yellow lines mark defined closed roads. Those labels include 50036 Spring City Canyon Road, 50150 Skyline Drive, 50271 Potters Canyon Road, 50054 Reeder Ridge, 50038 Lowry Water, and 50014 Millers Flat. If a weekend plan used any of those names as a scenic drive, an OHV connector, or a campground approach, treat that plan as closed until a later official map says otherwise.
The InciWeb Black Canyon page carries a matching August 13 public-information map. That sheet shows the wildfire perimeter, a larger pink closure overlay, and the same road names. Use it to see why the recreation closure is larger than the burned ground. The fire is the reason. The signed forest order is the rule.
The order exempts only a short list: people with a specific Forest Service exemption permit, officers and firefighters on duty, and special-use or range permit holders who have already coordinated entry with incident staff. A fishing license, an old campground confirmation, or a screenshot of last summer’s trip is not an exemption.
What the fire is doing around Reeder and Lowry Water
Lightning started the Black Canyon Fire on July 30, 2026, about 16 miles east of Ephraim on the Ferron Ranger District. The August 12 incident update on InciWeb put the fire at 3,543 acres and 9 percent contained.
The August 13 public map listed 3,549 acres as of 11:42 a.m. on August 12. Containment numbers move with each operational period, so do not use a morning percentage as permission to sneak onto a closed road. The traveler fact is the dated closure, not the latest acreage tweet.
Castle Country Radio reported the same Wednesday update locally: crews had built containment line in the Lowry Water area and were still focused on the Reeder Subdivision. That independent recap matches the Forest Service sheet and is useful because it names the neighborhood the order is trying to keep people away from.
The August 12 update said the top priority remains homes in the Reeder Subdivision and along Lowry Water Road. Night crews were still patrolling Reeder and Joe’s Valley. The Emery County Sheriff’s Office still had the Reeder Subdivision under a GO evacuation order at the time of that update. Residents should follow the sheriff, not a forest recreation page, for house-level instructions.
A temporary flight restriction covers the fire area. Recreational drones in that zone force firefighting aircraft to shut down. Leave the drone at home.
Incident information is staffed at 435-485-5631 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. The fire desk also lists [email protected]. For the closure order itself, the Ferron Ranger District number on the signed document is 435-636-3580, and the supervisor’s office in Price is 435-636-3561.
Nevada Team 1 scheduled a public meeting for 6 p.m. on August 13 at the Emery County Courthouse, 75 East Main Street, Castle Dale, Utah. Anyone still holding a weekend itinerary through Joes Valley can use that meeting, or the next official update, to ask whether the September 10 date is likely to move. A meeting is not a reopen.
Reservations, replacement plans, and the September 10 clock
Sites at Potters Pond can normally be booked on Recreation.gov through the beginning of October. Nine double sites and two single sites are reservable, site 6 is a group site, and a few loops stay first-come at $3 per vehicle when they are not reserved. None of that inventory is usable while the order is in force.
If a confirmation for late August or early September is sitting in email, open Recreation.gov and cancel or move it before the no-show clock starts. Do not assume the fire will empty the reservation for you. The Forest Service page also says the campground has no potable water, no electricity, and no trash service even when it is open, so a last-minute swap to another high-elevation loop still needs a water plan.
Joes Valley is not a hidden substitute. The forest alert board currently lists Joes Valley Campground as temporarily closed for a renovation project, a separate reason from the fire. Stage 2 fire restrictions also remain in effect on the Manti-La Sal National Forest from July 17, 2026. Those restrictions limit campfires and other ignition sources on land that is still open. They do not unlock Potters Pond.
The August 13 order supersedes earlier Ferron closures that covered the same acts in the same area. An older map that ended on August 31 is no longer the controlling document. That is the material change for anyone who planned a Labor Day weekend around the previous end date. The new clock runs to 12:01 a.m. on September 10 unless the Forest Service rescinds the order sooner or replaces it again.
Read that last clause twice. September 10 is the printed expiration, not a promised first open day. A later order can extend the same roads. A rescission can come earlier if fire managers decide the area is safe. The only proof that matters is a new official alert on the Manti-La Sal page.
Travelers who want a current example of how an official campground order should be read before a long drive can use Deep Arrival’s Grand Canyon campground water order as a method check, then come back to this Ferron document for the Utah roads. The two orders are different places and different problems. The shared habit is the same: open the signed order, match the named site, and do not improvise a side road.
What this does not change
The order does not close the entire Manti-La Sal National Forest. It closes the described Ferron box plus the extra named roads and trails. Skyline Drive north of the Potters Pond Road junction is not listed as closed in this order. Do not treat that as an invitation to probe the boundary. The hatched map, not a hopeful reading of the leftover highway, is the safe guide.
A Utah fishing license does not override a forest closure. The two stocked Potters Ponds stay closed to the public for the life of this order.
OHV riders who use the Arapeen trail system should assume any connector that relies on Potters Canyon Road, Reeder Ridge, Lowry Water, or the closed Miller Flat segment is unavailable. The recreation page still advertises more than 350 miles of designated OHV trail from the campground. Those miles do not include a legal crossing of a closed forest road.
Stay out of the Ferron closure until the Forest Service lifts order 04-10-26-02-03.
If a September trip is still on the calendar, reopen the Manti-La Sal alerts page before you drive. If the order is still posted, pick a different valley.
| If you… | What to do |
|---|---|
| Hold a Potters Pond reservation through September 9 | Cancel or move it on Recreation.gov. Do not drive in. |
| Planned Skyline Drive or Spring City Canyon this month | Drop those segments. Use only roads still left off the order. |
| Need Miller Flat to reach another site | Treat Highway 29 north to Cottonwood Canyon as closed. |
| Live in or were evacuating Reeder | Follow the Emery County Sheriff, not a campground page. |
| Want a September reopen date | Wait for a new Forest Service alert. September 10 is not a promise. |
- This weekend: Keep cars and OHVs out of the hatched Ferron box.
- Reservations: Clear any Potters Pond booking before the no-show window.
- Replacement camp: Do not default to Joes Valley. That loop is separately closed.
- September 10: Recheck the official alert. Do not treat the date as an opening.
- Airspace: Leave recreational drones on the ground over the fire.
Is Potters Pond Campground open if I already have a reservation?
No. Order 04-10-26-02-03 names the campground and its spur roads. Cancel or move the booking and stay out until a later official alert says otherwise.
Can I still drive Skyline Drive across the Wasatch Plateau?
Not on the signed segment south from Potters Pond Road to Reeder Ridge Road. The August 13 order closes that stretch, plus Spring City Canyon Road and Reeder Ridge.
Does September 10 mean the roads reopen that morning?
No. The order ends at 12:01 a.m. on September 10 unless it is rescinded or replaced. Recheck the Forest Service alert before any trip that depends on that date.
Who can still enter the closed area?
Only people with a listed Forest Service exemption, on-duty officers and firefighters, and special-use or range permit holders who have already coordinated with incident staff.
