Agency-listedBLM · dispersedUnpriced · confirmOpen today
Gila Box Riparian National Conservation Area
Drive-up · Bureau of Land Management · AZ · 32.89220, -109.49210
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 →Bureau of Land Management lists this site. On most of their ground you can camp away from developed sites pretty much anywhere — so treat this as a known-good spot, not the only one allowed. The unit sets stay limits and how far off road and water you must be. What changes is conditions — roads, gates, closures, fire rules. Check those with the unit before you commit to the drive.
Can I go now? — Gila Box Riparian National Conservation Area · Bureau of Land Management · AZ
Open today Year-round per the agency record.
Bureau of Land Management record: “Year-round” Read against the calendar on 2026-09-27; with JavaScript your browser re-checks it against today.
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at Gila Box Riparian National Conservation Area
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 3,336 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Gila Box Riparian National Conservation AreaNIFC · 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 Gila Box Riparian National Conservation Area · Bureau of Land Management · AZ
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- @Mail10 mi
- FFuel13 mi
- GGrocery13 mi
- AAir-up13 mi
- +Urgent care13 mi
- MMechanic13 mi
- HHardware14 mi
- RxPharmacy14 mi
- LLaundry15 mi
- ShShower16 mi
- WWater45 mi
- EVEV fast charger48 mi
- DDump59 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water is a real 45-mi drive, fuel & food sit about 13 mi out, the nearest EV fast charger is a 48-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 — Gila Box Riparian National Conservation Area
Access
Drive-up
Land
Bureau of Land Management · dispersed
Elevation
3,336 ft
Ground slope
10.5% · noticeable
State
AZ
Coordinates
32.89220, -109.49210
Cost
Unpriced — no source gives a price; assume it may cost something and confirm before you go
Nearby & resupply — around Gila Box Riparian National Conservation Area · Bureau of Land Management · AZ (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureGila River · ~0.3 mi · USGS: perennial river
- Nearest townSanchez · ~3.3 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelFuel · ~12.9 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- GroceriesThriftee Super Market · ~13.3 mi
- PharmacyWalgreens · ~14.5 mi
- Hospital / clinicMount Graham Regional Medical Center · ~15.0 mi
- HardwareHarbor Freight Tools · ~14.4 mi
EV charging — from Gila Box Riparian National Conservation Area · Bureau of Land Management · AZ — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger47.7 mi straight-line SW — Willcox, AZ - Tesla Supercharger (at a hotel) · Tesla · NACS (Tesla) · 8 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-06-18 · hours: 24 hours daily. Open to Teslas only. · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reachnone within 25 mi · 2 within 50 · 39 within 100 · 128 within 150
- Nearest listing CCS47.9 mi — Willcox, AZ Rechargery Relay - W Rex Allen Dr, Willcox
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO79.7 mi — Walmart 3807 (Benson, AZ), Benson
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)12.7 mi — Best Western Plus - Safford (at a hotel) · Non-Networked · J1772 · 2 Level 2 ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2024-11-06 · hours: 24 hours daily
- 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 101996 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Gila Box Riparian National Conservation Area · Bureau of Land Management · AZ — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Vault / pit toiletDry Canyon Boat Take-Out Recreation · ~0.7 mi SW · BLM
- Vault / pit toiletSerna Cabin Picnic Area · ~0.7 mi E · BLM
- Vault / pit toiletVault Toilet 2 - Riverview Campground Flying W · ~0.7 mi SE · BLM
- Vault / pit toiletVault Toilet 1 - Riverview Campground · ~0.8 mi SE · BLM
Coming out here — Gila Box Riparian National Conservation Area · Bureau of Land Management · AZ
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Gila River as a perennial river, ~0.3 mi from the pin (National Hydrography Dataset, data refreshed October 2022). Mapped as perennial is not the same as flowing today. Nobody has checked it for you. Filter or boil anything you drink.
- Ground slope around the pin: about 10.5% — noticeable. Measured on USGS's 3DEP elevation model (10 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.
- Practice a first night on real ground in Dispersed 3D, free in the browser. The game's ground is Montana's Lolo, Custer Gallatin and Beaverhead-Deerlodge forests and the Arizona desert at Quartzsite; this camp is not in it.
- 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 Gila Box Riparian National Conservation Area elsewhere
Other camps near Gila Box Riparian National Conservation Area
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Riverview Campground~0.8 mi
- Black Hills Back Country Byway~5.3 mi
- Safford-Morenci Trail~9.4 mi
- Owl Creek~11.8 mi
The unit that manages Gila Box Riparian National Conservation Area
Gila Box Riparian National Conservation Area is in the Safford Field Office, Gila District, Bureau of Land Management. Stay limits, permits, road closures and fire restrictions are set there, not at the campsite — check before you go. Its page maps every camp in it.
How we know this — Gila Box Riparian National Conservation Area
Open season
Year-round
Fee note
The BLM page names both free use and fee camping, read 19 Sep 2026: "The conservation area is open year-round. Fees are charged at Riverview Campground and Owl Creek Campground . Use of the Flying W Group Day Use Picnic Area is free of charge, but you can reserve it for a fee. Those float…" https://www.blm.gov/visit/gila-box-riparian-national-conservation-area
Source
Bureau of Land Management recreation data
Confidence
Likely — The record is good enough to put a pin on, but thin in places. Treat the details as a starting point, not gospel.
How it was placed
BLM RIDB record, agency-listed. Its fee field names both free areas and fee sites, so the cost is unpriced ("The conservation area is open year-round. Fees are charged at Riverview Campground and Owl Creek Campground . Use of the") (field read 2026-09-19). Access not field-checked (assumed drive-up). | Mixed 2026-09-19: "The conservation area is open year-round. Fees are charged at Riverview Campground and Owl Creek Campground . Use of the Flying W Group Day Use Picnic Area is free of charge, but you can reserve it for a fee. Those float…" Source: https://www.blm.gov/visit/gila-box-riparian-national-conservation-area (worker_W, statement verified on that page).
Season
Read from the agency's own season / closure text in this record (data/conditions.py) and checked against the calendar. The words we read are printed under the verdict at the top of the page.
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
On the agency's books. The land manager inventoried this site, so its existence is not in question — current conditions are. Nobody from here has camped it recently.
What we don’t know about Gila Box Riparian National Conservation Area
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.
- Road surface & last-mile access
- How many rigs actually fit
- Cell coverage by carrier
- 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 — Gila Box Riparian National Conservation Area
Finding water out here →What “dispersed” means here →Dumping grey & black →Dispersed camping tips →All field notes →