We needed a stop over campsite between the Arizona and New Mexico portion of our journey. Both the Tonto and Apache-Sitgraves National Forest have a few dispersed camp areas along the forest roads. Unfortunately, it’s December and not the best time to camp in the Arizona mountains.
We headed out from the Phoenix area. It was a very scenic mountain area which also included the Salt River recreation area (a future kayak destination!). It was an easy drive. The bonus find was that Payson’s Speedy gas station has free dumps and we were able to empty our tanks on the way through.
Unfortunately for us, we got to our dispersed camping area as dark was descending and the rain falling. Check out the video for that adventure.
The Deets
- GPS: 34.3224680, -110.7505880
- Easy to locate: Yes.
- Public Land: Yes
- Cell: None
- Crowded: not at all
- Clean: clean
- Would we stay here again: Yes but only when there’s not been any rain. The area looked great with quite a bit of sites and trees for camping
A very nice forest area and I’m assuming a popular area in the summer months as campers escape the desert heat. Will we try it again? Absolutely, as long as there’s no rain or snow.
Where to Next?
Making our way to New Mexico and planning a stop at the Petrified National Forest. Here’s the link to that post and some amazing pictures: Petrified National Forest Visit.
Working on Exploring 