Punkin Center Dispersed Camping

"A little north of mile marker 262, we turned east off of Hwy 188 onto Old SR188 and idled down through the little town known as Punkin Center. 0.3 miles later, one veers to the left on FS71 just past the Punkin Center Bar to go 3.7 miles to this spot on the right side of the dirt road. The view from here across the Roosevelt Lake valley is amazing -- super quiet location -- hardly any traffic going past at all except on the weekend. We couldn't even see another RV from this location the week we were there. The pavement stops and starts a couple of times but the dirt road was in great condition for us.

With 4WD and diesel power, we actually towed our 33' fifth wheel about 4-1/2 miles deeper into the outback the next day where we overnighted our 2nd night and then we returned to this location again for night #3 after returning to civilization for water. South of Punkin Center on Hwy 188 (1.6 miles) is a grocery store on the west side. It has a kiosk out front with filtered drinking water for 35 cents a gallon; bring your own jugs. About 5.6 miles further south on Hwy 188 and on the west side of the highway -- directly across from the entrance to Cholla Recreation Site which is on the east side of the highway is an unmarked loop (from either direction!) on the west side of the highway which contains two FREE dumping stations. The water hoses are always marked "non-potable" but that is only because people are typically using the water hoses to rinse out their sewer lines. One of them had a male hose thread so we simply connected to our own water hose to take on 100 gallons of "wash" water (50 in our fifth wheel and 50 in a plastic drum which lives in the back of our truck). The water was low pressure so this took a while. I picked up some trash (and latex gloves prior deplorables had left behind) alongside the road for something to do while the tanks were filling. We only use "wash" water for showers and washing dishes. We always use one-gallon jugs for our filtered drinking water, brushing teeth, rinsing veggies -- anything we might injest. For reason(s) I won't pretend to understand, the dump loop may or may not be closed (blocked by gates) on Mondays. If you ever figure out the WHY of this, please share the details.

This is a great and serene place to overnight. We hope to return to it again and again in the years to come. We have cats but there was plenty of room for them to run free while we, of course, watched them like hawks with leashes at the ready :) Our daily highs in this area were in the low 80s these first few days in April creeping up to 90F on the day we left. (We don't do air conditioning.) It can get a wee bit NUTS on the weekends here when the wreckreation crowd zooms up and down the nearby road at full speed with their toys but it was always very nice and perfectly quiet at night."

Easy access. Road wasn’t too terrible. Seemed to be a lot of traffic passing by during the day. I did find plenty of trails to explore in my SUV. I parked near the GPS location, but there were plenty more spots down the road. I ended up moving across the highway, down NF409. Better cell service, less traffic

Amazing location in Tonto. Right outside of small town called Punkin. Great views and some pre built fire pits. Careful of the coyotes at night, they keep their distance but FYI.

There are several turn-arounds large enough for trailers along this road. Apparently, its ATV haven on the weekends. However, we did not have any come along while we parked our van. We pulled in on a side road campsite. It was absolutely beautiful. I watched Jack Rabbits and the sunset. Listened to the silence.
Driving in, we drove thru a river with running water. I didn't want to go thru it, but the locals said it was find and we followed several trucks through it. We did not go off the main road very far in our Transit RWD, but if we had a 4x4 lots more spaces.
Very clean, please keep it that way. no trash or water dispersed. However had enough cell service to play Hulu after the sun went down.

My 4X4 F-150 and 20' TT made it along a nicely maintained dirt road to 33.886128309091355, -111.16878751036673, where we were in a nice little valley/ravine at the base of some hills. Stayed Mon - Wed, and only saw a UPS delivery truck (odd for sure). It is grazing country, so you will see a cow or two, but none are bothersome. Nice riparian creek nearby, mostly dry but may have flowing water during the spring. Coming in across the wash just east of Punkin' Center is a bit nerve-racking if the water is flowing. But is is perfectly navigable, being that it is small riverrock bottom. 4X4 is probably not necessary, but I'm always glad I have it.