roadtripper8897362

While I was a little leery after reading the review down below with their 35 footer, I’m going to venture they must have improved the road. We stayed June 2020, to social distance and get out of Phoenix. There were a few 35 footers up here, and you do have to go slow, as the road isn’t paved, but it’s not bad either. The views are worth it, and it’s beautiful and a little cooler than the valley down below. Even if you don’t have a view, you’ll have a great site to be at one with nature and watch the stars. We had great shade and fit 2 RV’s on our site. Both around 26 feet. We had a great view of the valley and it’s relatively quiet. Sometimes some ATV’s went by, but for the most part, you saw no one. The maps the forest rangers give you are outdated. There’s actually 22 sites and the forest rangers do come out here, not like Skull Valley, all BLM land and you can calm- where ever you want, here, you must stay at the designated spots. But it’s really nice and shaded and a great place to get away.

We drove by the Copper Basin sites too, and they were shaded beautifully with trees, so any one of these loops (I think 4 altogether and not all of them are in Campendium) will be a great spot to be.

As you take the exit off I17 into Munds Park, keep taking the main road straight until it turns to dirt. You’ll see a sign that camping is limited to 14 days Casner Park is 3 miles in, but 240 takes you all the way to Mormon Lake (12 miles in). There are so many sites all along the 240 and when you get to the Y after Casner Park at FR 700, there are a lot more campsites on 700 as well. Obviously, the further you drive in, the more secluded you’ll be, but it will take awhile to drive the rocky road.

The road is ok, but rocky, so you do have to go slow, but all size rigs will fit here. Most of the spots can fit 5-6 trailers in them. They have fire rings available and of course some sites are easier to get in than others. It’s great if you want more people staying with you. They are also spread far enough apart that even if you pulled in some sites that are taken, you’d be far enough away to feel alone.

The trees provide great shade too. This is definitely ATV country, so if the noise bothers you, you won’t like it as much. We didn’t bring ATV’s, but had a great time playing corn hole and drinking beer. Since it’s monsoon season, we had daily showers, some at night, but they were quick. It can get muddy with the storms. A couple of ppl in our group had 1500 trucks, and had no problem navigating out.

Cell service is fine in the very beginning, but as you get more into the forest, it’s spotty at best. We had tried one of the first few campsites for 3 nights, and then we stayed closer to Casner Park for 3 nights. Both were great, but no cell service by Casner Park.

The campers seem pretty respectful, they don’t speed by you if you’re walking on the road, and there was very little trash left. That always makes me happy.

We stayed here on an overnight on our way to Louisville, KY. The sites are spacious and it's real pretty here in the forest. A handful of sites might see a small area of Carlyle Lake in Carlyle, IL, but most can't. You can walk down to a sandy beach area which is nice. They rope off a swimming area for you. It appears you can't bring your boats/kayaks here, you have to drive to the boat ramp. They had really pretty sunsets, so bring your chairs down to the beach. They have a couple of playgrounds for the kids. The bathrooms are clean and even air conditioned/heated for a portion of the day to keep you comfortable. That was wonderful in the stifling humidity. Definitely a nice stay. Had great Verizon/Tmobile coverage.

This is a larger station, so more room to navigate. We came here after leaving Flagstaff, as that Giant station is tight. There is one RV dump station here, and it was empty, so easy to pull in. The dump is located on the Dynamite side, directly opposite the CVS. They have clean restrooms as well.

After full-time on the road for a couple of years, this is my favorite campground ever, between the US and Canada. You are on the largest freshwater lake in Cape Breton, and we didcthe National Park a couple of days while here, absolutely beautiful!!

While mostly seasonal campers, the best sites are for transient campers. You can launch your kayak or just swim right from your site. They are spacious, grassy and offer stunning views.

The owners are simply the nicest people you'll ever meet. Even the permanents residents are super friendly. We ended up playing "washers" with them at night.

Pool for the kiddos, some grocery items like bread, buns, condiments available, but best to be prepared, a grocery store is 25 min away. Super cute towns everywhere and a couple decent breweries.

Bathrooms and laundry are clean and reasonably priced. We had cell service if we were by the main office or out on the lake.

We will definitely come back to this gem.

All the Arkansas rest stops are gorgeous (for rest stops). They have clean, updated bathrooms, and well kept grounds. It’s a great place to stop to grab vending machine food, give the dogs a potty break or yourself. We chose to stay here on our way to Asheville and it’s a great place to spend the night. All the big trucks are in the front, and you can stay in your car overnight. The RV’s and motor homes stayed in the front with big trucks, we had a camper on our truck and we stayed in that. It was relatively quiet since you were separate from the big trucks, it felt safe and it was real pretty with grass and lots of trees. It’s only for an overnight, but when passing through, it was very convenient. We had cell coverage with both TMobile and Verizon.

If you go 13 miles north on the 260 and make a right after the big farm house on right on to FR 405A and there are about 14 dispersed campsites from that exit to the cattle guard 2 miles down the road. Most of them are on the North side, but there are 3 on the south side. Most of the south side belongs to that farm. You’ll see cows along the fence line. There are also many tent sites if you have a good 4x4. There were at least 14 RV’s and about 6 tents there this weekend. Most of the RV spots were easy to get in and out of, we saw large motor homes, and toy haulers, all sizes.

The great thing is, if all the sites are full, as soon as you come to this next spot 2 miles down this road, there’s a big turnaround spot. You could always get back on the 260 by making a left right after FR 1371, but it’s also easy to turn around, so don’t fret going down with a big vehicle.

The first spot that this review talks about is right off the road, so it could be loud from car noise. You could keep going and find more private sites down the road. We stayed about 1 mile in, right next to a small creek. You could put your feet in and get wet, but that’s about it. The shade was beautiful and you could hike in various trails in the area. It’s within walking distance from Hell’s Gate and probably 5 miles from Bear Flat. You also could walk to Ponderosa Pines campground. Our exact spot was 34.2811151, -111.1312905

Most of the spots are large and could accommodate multiple RV’s if you had a group gathering. Not much cell service, 2 bars with T Mobile and Verizon, but it was enough to receive texts/calls and checking in our beers on the app Untappd. All the sites had man made fire rings too, but there are no fires allowed now. It got cold overnight, and warmed up to 80 degrees.

There were some irresponsible campers, who left trash, but for the most part it was ok. We cleaned up any trash we found to try to keep it nice for the next campers. It was great to get out of the house and we had a perfect weekend!

We stayed here the last 2 weekends, first in H32, then in H16. Most of the 47 available spots here are huge. Some are smaller and great for tents. The prime spots are closer to the visitors center, H1 - 3A, B, C, D, E. Hard to get to those spots, the driveway especially to 3A - E is very rocky and better for smaller RV’s or tents. But you are right on the rim with spectacular views. Unfortunately the smoke from the wildfires was so thick the views were not as visible. Also remember its much windier by the rim, so if you stay in one of those spots, it will be windy.

H32 is the north side, a large spot, we had a couple travel trailers on it, we stayed the weekend after Labor Day and it was pretty quiet. There is a ton of hiking or lakes in the area to kayak. If you go across the 260 to old rim road (300) you can catch the rim trail or Gen Crook Trail. There are so many to choose from in this area. We picked up a little of the trash that others have left. Unfortunately there are still inconsiderate campers around.

H16 is 500 steps from the rim. So it was a perfect combination of being far enough away to not have wind, but close enough to the rim that we brought our chairs and watched the sunset every night. We saw deer, elk, and wild horses. The horses came right into our campsite. Fires were allowed, but we have our gas propane fire. Some sites have picnic tables, all have fire pits. You have to camp within 50 feet of the ‘camp here’ sign.

Forrest Lakes Convenience store is only about 3 miles away east on the 260 and is a well stocked store, including RV parts and games. So if you need anything, you can go right there and pick it up instead of going back to Payson.

No cell service for TMobile, but great cell service for Verizon.

Try to make it your mission to clean up after inconsiderate campers to keep America beautiful.

If you go 15 miles north on the 260 and make a right into the Ponderosa Pines campground, but just keep going past that until it dead ends at a T. There’s one big spot on the left and if you go right, there are about 14 dispersed campsites . Most of them are on the North side, but there are 3 on the south side. Most of the south side belongs to that farm. You’ll see cows along the fence line. There are also many tent sites if you have a good 4x4. There were at least 14 RV’s and about 6 tents there this weekend. Most of the RV spots were easy to get in and out of, we saw large motor homes, and toy haulers, all sizes.

We walked all up and down this area, and there was only one place on the side of the road that was really trashy. Someone must have come and picked up the trash.

The great thing is, if all the sites are full, you could always get back on the 260 at the end of the road. We stayed about 1 mile in, right next to a small creek. We saw the big site this review talks about, and there was a nice sized travel trailer there. At our site, you could put your feet in and get wet, but that’s about it. The shade was beautiful and you could hike in various trails in the area. It’s within walking distance from Hell’s Gate and probably 5 miles from Bear Flat. You also could walk to Ponderosa Pines campground. Our exact spot was 34.2811151, -111.1312905

Most of the spots are large and could accommodate multiple RV’s if you had a group gathering. Not much cell service, 2 bars with T Mobile and Verizon, but it was enough to receive texts/calls and checking in our beers on the app Untappd. All the sites had man made fire rings too, but there are no fires allowed now. It got cold overnight, and warmed up to 80 degrees.

As I mentioned, there were some irresponsible campers, who left trash, but for the most part it was ok. We cleaned up any trash we found to try to keep it nice for the next campers. It was great to get out of the house and we had a perfect weekend!

This is a really neat area on the side of a mountain. There are lots of spots that are spacious and spread out. The locals seem to leave their rigs here during the week, so you may have to drive up a ways to find an open spot. If its warm, it can be a little uncomfortable, so bring some canopies. It was great exercise going up the hill, so get yourself out there and work those legs and lungs!

It’s true, after you get past the power lines that it may be harder to turn around if some of the spots are taken and your rig is big. We managed, and got a great spot close to the top. Lots of tent options around here that are smaller and hidden.

The road can get tough at times, but just go slow. Depending on how far you go up, will be how convenient it is to Mancos. We also went to Mesa Verde national park. Cell reception was great!