★ Field-verified · Dave's ownUSFS · dispersedFreeRoad season: open (MVUM)
Coronado National Forest
Drive-up · U.S. Forest Service · Cochise County, AZ · 31.96591, -109.31820
Ask an AI about this campsiteOpens Grok already loaded with this site. It reads the same records this page is built from, and links whatever it tells you.
Ask about this camp →Dave's been here. A spot from Dave's own travels on U.S. Forest Service land — free to camp. Conditions still change, so confirm access, stay limits and fire rules before you go.
A short spur with a fire ring in Coronado National Forest. Next to a lovely creek. Very close to well traveled forest road so will likely encounter other vehicles. Enough room for two or three vehicles. Wooded area. No cell service. Directly south of Chiricahua National Monument. There are other similar sites along this stretch of road. Recommended.
A night on record
Dave slept here on 12 March 2019. No agency publishes a season for this site itself (the road season below is the road's), so that night is the only season evidence we have — what the site was then, not a forecast for this year.
Nearest road on the Forest Service MVUM — Coronado National Forest · Coronado National Forest · AZ
The nearest road on the Forest Service MVUM is FR 42 (Onion Saddle Cave Creek), 110 ft from the pin. The MVUM lists it as native material surface and maintenance level 3 – suitable for passenger cars.
Road season: open (MVUM) The MVUM lists FR 42 (Onion Saddle Cave Creek), 110 ft from the pin, open to passenger vehicles year-round.
MVUM record for FR 42 (Onion Saddle Cave Creek): “01/01-12/31” Read against the calendar on 2026-09-22; with JavaScript your browser re-checks it against today.
From the Forest Service's own Motor Vehicle Use Map roads layer (EDW, Clearinghouse refresh Aug 30, 2026), straight-line from the pin to the nearest mapped segment. The nearest segment is not necessarily the way in, a maintenance level is the agency's class and not a report on today, and a road's season is the road's — it is not a campground order. What the levels mean → What an MVUM is →
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at Coronado National Forest
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 5,725 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Coronado National ForestNIFC · AirNow
Checking active fires & air quality…
Active wildfires from NIFC (within ~50 mi); air quality from AirNow. Always confirm current fire restrictions with the managing office before you go.
Everything you need — measured from Coronado National Forest · Coronado National Forest · AZ
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- WWater4 mi
- DDump4 mi
- LLaundry9 mi
- FFuel9 mi
- @Mail11 mi
- GGrocery11 mi
- AAir-up22 mi
- MMechanic27 mi
- HHardware29 mi
- +Urgent care30 mi
- RxPharmacy37 mi
- EVEV fast charger37 mi
- ShShower59 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water is basically at camp, fuel & food sit about 9 mi out, the nearest EV fast charger is a 37-mi run (and back).
Not within 60 mi: Propane. Plan those before you head up.
One dot per need — the nearest of each kind, straight-line from camp. Places from OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors); the EV fast charger from the US DOE station locator. Open in Google Maps ↗
The site — Coronado National Forest
Access
Drive-up
Land
U.S. Forest Service · dispersed
Elevation
5,725 ft
Ground slope
3.5% · gentle
County
Cochise County, AZ
Coordinates
31.96591, -109.31820
Cost
Free
Nearby & resupply — around Coronado National Forest · Coronado National Forest · AZ (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featurePinery Creek · under 0.1 mi · USGS: intermittent stream
- Also mapped (OSM)Monkey Tank (water) · mapped within 1.6 mi
- Nearest townHilltop · ~3.1 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
- Drinking waterDrinking water · ~3.5 mi
- FuelFuel · ~8.8 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- Dump station~3.8 mi
- Groceries9 Acres · ~21.6 mi
- Hospital / clinicAnimas Valley Clinic · ~29.9 mi
From the field — what Dave saw, in person
Cell service
No signal
Getting there
Any vehicle managed it
Fire ring
Yes
Toilet on site
No
Tent friendly
Yes
Verdict
Recommended
EV charging — from Coronado National Forest · Coronado National Forest · AZ — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger36.9 mi straight-line NW — Willcox, AZ Rechargery Relay - W Rex Allen Dr · IONNA · CCS, NACS (Tesla) · 10 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reachnone within 25 mi · 5 within 50 · 41 within 100 · 67 within 150
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO58.3 mi — Walmart 3807 (Benson, AZ), Benson
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)28.5 mi — Tirrito Farm, Willcox, AZ · AMPUP · J1772 · 2 Level 2 ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2023-12-13 · hours: Contact site for information
- Also listed, not counted aboveNACS-only Level 2 — The Chiricahua Desert Museum - Tesla Destination, Rodeo, 17.9 mi · NACS (Tesla) · hours: 24 hours daily. Open to Teslas only. · AFDC lists it “Free”
- Pricing at the fast chargernot listed
- Power (kW)not listed by AFDC — “DC fast” spans roughly 24 to 350 kW, so ask the network.
- Read this honestlyStraight-line miles, like every distance on this site. Roads run longer than this, and you have to get back. We know where a charger is listed. We don’t know if it works today, how fast it is, or the road miles. Check the network before you commit.
Snapshot 2026-09-16 · AFDC record 390392 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Coronado National Forest · Coronado National Forest · AZ — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- RestroomBLDG-042 Massai Point Comfort Station · ~2.9 mi N · NPS
- RestroomBLDG-016 Echo Canyon Comfort Station · ~3.2 mi N · NPS
- RestroomBLDG-017 Sugarloaf Comfort Station · ~3.5 mi N · NPS
- RestroomBLDG-019 Visitor Center Comfort Station · ~3.5 mi NW · NPS
Coming out here — Coronado National Forest · Coronado National Forest · AZ
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Pinery Creek as an intermittent stream, under 0.1 mi from the pin (National Hydrography Dataset, data refreshed October 2022). Mapped as intermittent — expect it dry for part of the year. Nobody has checked it for you. Filter or boil anything you drink.
- Ground slope around the pin: about 3.5% — gentle. Measured on USGS's 3DEP elevation model (1 m data here), sampled every 10 metres around the point. That is the hillside, not the ground under your wheels — a graded pullout or a bench a few metres across is too small to show up at that spacing, and nobody has checked this one for you.
- No rail line and no interstate or US route is mapped within 10 mi of the pin. Checked against the FRA/BTS North American Rail Network (data updated Jul 21, 2026) and the Census's TIGER/Line primary roads (TIGER/Line 2025, released Oct 2025). Both are national files and both are maps of what is built, not counts of what moves on it.
- Assume no services at all. Most dispersed camping in a national forest has none: no tap, no power, no dump, often no toilet. Everything you need, you bring.
- Power: Dave carries his own — batteries or solar. A generator will run your rig and it is also the thing everybody camped near you can hear.
- Getting online: Dave recommends Starlink. He has had it since SpaceX introduced it, used it for four years living on the road, and it delivers as promised — several hundred nights out, and he can count on one hand the places he could not connect. The cable on his unit runs 150 feet, which is usually all it takes to find enough sky. Starlink → Referral link — Starlink pays Dave $100 in cash if you sign up through it, and that money funds this site and the next trip. It costs you nothing and does not change the recommendation.
Open Coronado National Forest elsewhere
Other camps near Coronado National Forest
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Rustler Park~4.8 mi · fee
- West Turkey Creek Campground~7.4 mi
- Sycamore Campground~7.4 mi
- Morse Canyon Campground~7.8 mi
The unit that manages Coronado National Forest
Stay limits, road closures and fire restrictions at Coronado National Forest are set by Coronado National Forest, not by the campsite — check there before you go.
How we know this — Coronado National Forest
Source
Dave's own travels
Confidence
Researched — The record is detailed and internally consistent, and the coordinates land where the managing agency says this site is.
How it was placed
FIELD VERIFIED by Dave Lalande -- he has stood on this site. Coordinates are his own GPX track point, not a geocode. County and state confirmed against the FCC Census Block API (Cochise County, AZ). Everything under 'From the field' is a direct observation; nothing here is inferred from a land record.
A night on record
Dave's own GPS diary, 2017–2020: the date of the waypoint he saved here. The timestamp is UTC, so an entry saved in the evening carries the next morning's date. An observation of one night, never a forecast.
Nearest MVUM road
US Forest Service Motor Vehicle Use Map roads layer (EDW_MVUM_01, layer 1), Clearinghouse refresh Aug 30, 2026. Straight-line distance from the pin to the nearest mapped segment within 1 mi; surface type, maintenance level and open dates are the agency's own values for that segment, expanded from its codes and otherwise unedited. Nothing here says which road reaches the site.
EV chargers
US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center station locator, snapshot 2026-09-16. Straight-line miles to the nearest public, open, unrestricted station; restricted and planned units are shown but never counted.
Field check
Verified on the ground. Dave has stood on this one. He camped here on 12 March 2019. Conditions still change — confirm before you commit.
What we don’t know about Coronado National Forest
A land record can put you within a few meters of a spot. It cannot tell you any of this — so check it yourself, and treat anything below as the open question it is.
- Whether that MVUM road is the way in, and the last stretch beyond it
- Whether the site itself closes on its own schedule — only the road's season is on record
- How many rigs actually fit
- Current fire restrictions
- Whether any water here is drinkable
- Shade & wind exposure
- Noise and who else shows up
- Whether a listed EV charger works today, or the road miles to it
Before you go — Coronado National Forest
Finding water out here →What “dispersed” means here →Reading a forest MVUM →Power off-grid →All field notes →