Mapped · not agency-listedPublic land · dispersedFree
Gold Canyon Dispersed Camping
Drive-up · public land · AZ · 33.23976, -111.33907
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 →A mapped lead, not an agency listing. Somebody marked this as a campsite; we could not match it to a land-manager record. Worth checking rather than counting on. What changes is conditions — roads, gates, closures, fire rules. Check those with the unit before you commit to the drive.
What the record says about the site — Gold Canyon Dispersed Camping · public land · AZ
- First come, first served
- Tent camping
- Trailers and RVs fit
- Campfires allowed on the record -- check today's restrictions
- No toilet
- No drinking water — carry your own
- No showers
- Listed as a backcountry site
- Permit needed to camp
From the OpenStreetMap contributors listing for this site — their words, not our visit. Records go stale; treat it as a starting point and confirm anything your trip depends on.
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at Gold Canyon Dispersed Camping
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 1,865 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Gold Canyon Dispersed CampingNIFC · 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 Gold Canyon Dispersed Camping · public land · AZ
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- DDump4 mi
- FFuel5 mi
- GGrocery5 mi
- AAir-up5 mi
- +Urgent care7 mi
- MMechanic10 mi
- RxPharmacy10 mi
- WWater11 mi
- HHardware13 mi
- @Mail13 mi
- EVEV fast charger13 mi
- OOutfitter16 mi
- LLaundry17 mi
- ShShower21 mi
- PPropane22 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water's a short hop out, fuel & food sit about 5 mi out.
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 — Gold Canyon Dispersed Camping
Access
Drive-up
Land
public land · dispersed
Elevation
1,865 ft
Ground slope
0.7% · flat
State
AZ
Coordinates
33.23976, -111.33907
Cost
Free · OpenStreetMap fee tag: no
Nearby & resupply — around Gold Canyon Dispersed Camping · public land · AZ (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureSuperior Tank · ~0.6 mi · USGS: intermittent lake or pond
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelFuel · ~5.0 mi
- Propane / LPGFerrellgas · ~22.1 mi
- Dump station~3.8 mi
- GroceriesFitzStop · ~5.0 mi
- PharmacyWalgreens · ~10.3 mi
- Hospital / clinicfirst-aid · ~7.4 mi
- HardwareRuggiero's Ace Hardware-San Tan · ~12.9 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
EV charging — from Gold Canyon Dispersed Camping · public land · AZ — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger13.0 mi straight-line W — FasCharge 4596 FastMarket Shell Gilbert (at a public site) · RED_E · CCS · 2 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: not listed · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reach19 within 25 mi · 77 within 50 · 146 within 100 · 182 within 150
- Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)14.1 mi — Queen Creek, AZ - Tesla Supercharger, Queen Creek
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO16.7 mi — GPM INVESTMENTS 4597 DC2, Queen Creek
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)13.0 mi — NEXMETRO AVILLA BELLA, San Tan Valley, AZ · ChargePoint Network · J1772 · 2 Level 2 ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · 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 422964 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Gold Canyon Dispersed Camping · public land · AZ — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Vault / pit toiletPicketpost T H · ~9.7 mi E · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletPeralta Th · ~10.9 mi N · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletFirst Water Th · ~17.6 mi N · USFS
- Flush restroomTortilla · ~20.3 mi N · USFS
Coming out here — Gold Canyon Dispersed Camping · public land · AZ
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Superior Tank as an intermittent lake or pond, ~0.6 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 0.7% — flat. 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 Gold Canyon Dispersed Camping elsewhere
Other camps near Gold Canyon Dispersed Camping
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Picket Post Dispersed~8.2 mi
- Picket Post Dispersed~8.7 mi
- Picket Post Dispersed~9.3 mi
- Tonto National Forest~10.7 mi
Who holds the land at Gold Canyon Dispersed Camping
USGS’s Protected Areas Database (PAD-US 4.1, queried 2026-09-23) lists the ground at this pin as State Trust Land, manager on record: a state department of land. That names who holds the land — it is not a statement that camping is permitted here.
How we know this — Gold Canyon Dispersed Camping
Source
OpenStreetMap contributors
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
auto: drive (road/trail right there)
Site details
The OpenStreetMap contributors listing's own fields for this site (site type, whether tents or trailers fit, capacity, toilet, water, campfires, reservations). Printed as the record states them, unchecked by us, and never used to make a cost claim -- the cost verdict above is decided separately and audited before every deploy.
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
Contributed, not agency-listed. A mapper marked this as a campsite. We have not matched it to a land-manager record, so it stays at Likely.
What we don’t know about Gold Canyon Dispersed Camping
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
- Seasonal & winter access
- 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