Best Campgrounds in Arizona

Phone rang last Tuesday, feller from Ohio asking where to camp in Arizona that isn't a parking lot with bathrooms. Fair question. Most folks hear Arizona and picture the South Rim in July with three tour buses idling — and yeah, that exists, but it ain't the half of it. Arizona's got high country pine forest, red rock, sky islands, sonoran desert and a chunk of the Colorado Plateau, and the campgrounds run the gamut from honest dirt loops in the Coconino to riverside spots you have to mail-order a permit for.

I worked the permit desk and ran trail crew on and off for the better part of four decades, mostly up in Montana and Wyoming, but I spent a couple winters down south helping the Coronado boys and I've been back most every January since to thaw out. Sadie comes with me. She's twelve now and her hips dont love the heat but she still tells me which sites smell like javelina.

What follows is the list I'd hand my own brother if he called. Not the prettiest. The ones that actually camp well.

North Rim and the Kaibab — where the buses don't go

Everybody and their cousin knows the South Rim. The North Rim sees about a tenth of the visitation and the camping is better for it. North Rim Campground sits right up on the rim at about 8,200 feet, twenty minutes from the lodge off AZ-67. Pines, cool nights, and the kind of stars you forget exist if you live near a city. Reserve well ahead on Recreation.gov — as of recent seasons it books out months in advance and the season is short, generally mid-May to mid-October depending on snow.

If the rim is full, and it will be, drop down off the plateau and look at DeMotte Campground in the Kaibab National Forest, also on 67 about seven miles north of the park entrance. Forest Service operation, smaller, quieter, and you can still drive into the park for sunrise. The aspen up there in late September is something else. Sadie chases the falling leaves like shes a puppy again.

For dispersed folks, the Kaibab allows it along several spur roads — pull in 30 feet off the road, pack it out, don't be the guy who ruins it. The Forest Service site has the motor vehicle use maps if you want to do it right.

Red rock country without the Sedona circus

Sedona itself I'll be honest, I don't love anymore. Used to be quieter — internet found it. The town campgrounds book up like concert tickets. But the country around it is still good if you know where to look.

Cave Springs Campground in Oak Creek Canyon, off AZ-89A north of Sedona, is the one I'd send my own family to. Big pines, the creek right there, sites spaced like somebody actually thought about it. Reserve early. Manzanita Campground down the canyon is smaller and tents-only, which keeps the rig crowd out — I like that.

For state-park camping with hookups if you need em, Dead Horse Ranch State Park over in Cottonwood is a solid pick and a heck of a lot easier to get into than anything in Sedona proper. The Verde River runs through it, the birding is genuinely good, and you're 20 miles from the red rocks without paying Sedona prices. Arizona State Parks handles the booking.

The sky islands down south

Most folks don't think of southern Arizona as camping country. They're wrong. The sky islands — these isolated mountain ranges rising out of the desert — give you four life zones in a half-hour drive. You can have breakfast in saguaros and lunch in Douglas fir.

Rose Canyon Campground up on Mount Lemmon outside Tucson is the standout. Sits around 7,000 feet, has a little lake the Game and Fish stocks with trout, and in August when Tucson is 105 it'll be 75 up there. The drive up the Catalina Highway is its own attraction. Spencer Canyon and General Hitchcock are smaller options on the same road.

Further south in the Chiricahuas, Bonita Canyon Campground in Chiricahua National Monument is one of the great underrated camping spots in the whole Southwest. 25 sites, no hookups, surrounded by rhyolite hoodoos that look like a fever dream. Booking through NPS via Recreation.gov. Bring a real sleeping bag — gets cold up there even in shoulder season, alot of folks underpack and regret it.

Desert camping done right

Winter is the season down low. November through March, the Sonoran is about as pleasant a place to sleep outside as exists in North America. Summer down there will kill you, and I mean that literally — don't camp Organ Pipe or the lower elevations in July, I dont care how tough you think you are.

Twin Peaks Campground in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument is the real deal. Way down on the Mexico border, dark skies, big sites, and the saguaros are something you have to see in person. Lost Dutchman State Park outside Apache Junction sits under the Superstition Mountains and gives you trailheads right out of camp — the Siphon Draw hike up toward the Flatiron is a leg-burner worth doing. See hiking notes for what to pack.

And Catalina State Park on the north side of Tucson is the one I send winter snowbirds to. Has actual hookups, the sites are decent and you can walk into the Pusch Ridge Wilderness from your tent. Books up cold for January and February, get on it.

The picks, ranked honestly

If I had to lay em out and say where I'd actually pitch my own tent this year, in rough order of where I'd point a first-time Arizona camper:

• Cave Springs (Oak Creek Canyon, off AZ-89A) — the Sedona-area site that doesnt feel like a strip mall
• North Rim Campground (Grand Canyon NP, AZ-67) — book six months out, no shortcuts
• Bonita Canyon (Chiricahua National Monument, near Willcox) — the one nobody's heard of
• Rose Canyon (Coronado NF, Mount Lemmon above Tucson) — summer refuge
• Catalina State Park (north Tucson) — winter base camp with real plumbing
• Twin Peaks (Organ Pipe Cactus NM, near Lukeville) — for the dark sky people
• DeMotte (Kaibab NF, AZ-67) — backup for when the North Rim is full
• Dead Horse Ranch SP (Cottonwood) — RV-friendly, riverside, sneaky good birding
• Lost Dutchman SP (Apache Junction) — Superstitions right there, trail access from camp
• Lockett Meadow (Coconino NF, north of Flagstaff) — aspen grove crater, primitive, no reservations but earn-your-spot drive-in

That last one, Lockett Meadow, I almost left off because I didn't want it to get any busier. But it's already on the internet, so what am I protecting. Bring a stout vehicle and don't try it in a low-clearance sedan no matter what the GPS says.

Permits, reservations and the stuff folks get wrong

Arizona campgrounds split roughly four ways: National Park Service, Forest Service, state parks, and BLM. Each one books different. The Park Service campgrounds and most Forest Service developed sites run through Recreation.gov, usually on a 6-month rolling window — meaning a site for June 15 opens for booking around December 15. Popular places like the North Rim go in minutes on opening day. Set an alarm.

State parks book through the Arizona State Parks system directly, not Recreation.gov. Catch a lot of folks on that. BLM dispersed camping is generally free for up to 14 days in a 28-day period, but check the specific field office because some areas have shorter limits and some require a permit now — the lower Verde and parts of the Sonoran Desert National Monument have changed in recent years.

Fire restrictions are the other thing that gets people. Arizona fire season can shut down stove use, not just open fires, on Forest Service land. Check the forest's restrictions page before you leave home, not when you get there. A canister stove is sometimes still allowed when wood and charcoal aren't, but read the actual order — I've turned around folks at the trailhead who swore it was fine.

What to bring that Arizona will punish you for forgetting

Three things people consistently underpack for. Water — even at 7,000 feet in pine country, the air is dry enough you'll dehydrate without noticing. Carry more than you think. A real shade setup for desert sites, a tarp and poles, because some of these sites have zero natural shade and a regular tent is an oven by 9 AM. And warm layers, because that 40-degree temperature swing between afternoon and 3 AM is no joke at elevation.

For the rest of the kit list and what's actually worth the money, the gear pages have what I'd recommend. And if you want trail ideas to go with the campsite, trails and the parks index are where I'd start. AllTrails Arizona is useful too for current trip reports, just take the difficulty ratings with a grain of salt — flatlanders rate things differently than us mountain folks.

Honest take

If you've got one trip and a week, I'd do three nights at Cave Springs and three at Bonita Canyon, with the drive between as the show. You'll see red rocks, pine forest, sky islands and grassland, and you'll never sit in a tour bus line. If it's winter, swap that for Catalina State Park and Organ Pipe. Either way, book what you can early, walk into the dispersed stuff with a backup plan, and don't trust a campground that has a gift shop bigger than its bathroom.