★ Field-verified · Dave's ownUSFSFree
Prescott National Forest
Drive-up · U.S. Forest Service · Yavapai County, AZ · 34.57885, -112.06999
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 free campground with picnic tables, fire rings, and vault toilet in Prescott National Forest, nestled among Jefferson Pines. Close to pavement. Enough room for one or two vehicles. No cell service. Beautiful campground and peaceful during my stay. I weathered a rare severe snow storm here and almost couldn't get out due to accumulation. Strongly recommended. This is 20 minutes from Prescott Valley, but is my favorite place to stay near Prescott.
A night on record
Dave slept here on 20 February 2019, and again on 9 February 2020. No agency publishes a season for this site, so those nights are the only season evidence we have — what the site was then, not a forecast for this year.
Nearest road on the Forest Service MVUM — Prescott National Forest · Prescott National Forest · AZ
The nearest road on the Forest Service MVUM is FR 000372A (Powell Spring Cg), 40 ft from the pin. The MVUM lists it as native material surface and maintenance level 3 – suitable for passenger cars.
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 Prescott National Forest
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 5,305 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Prescott 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 Prescott National Forest · Prescott National Forest · AZ
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- FFuel9 mi
- GGrocery9 mi
- +Urgent care10 mi
- EVEV fast charger10 mi
- RxPharmacy10 mi
- MMechanic10 mi
- HHardware10 mi
- @Mail10 mi
- LLaundry11 mi
- ShShower12 mi
- DDump12 mi
- WWater13 mi
- AAir-up15 mi
- OOutfitter21 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water's a short hop out, fuel & food sit about 9 mi out.
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 — Prescott National Forest
Access
Drive-up
Land
U.S. Forest Service
Elevation
5,305 ft
Ground slope
7.5% · gentle
Nearest highway
~6.1 mi · Interstate 17
County
Yavapai County, AZ
Coordinates
34.57885, -112.06999
Cost
Free
Nearby & resupply — around Prescott National Forest · Prescott National Forest · AZ (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureHackberry Wash · ~0.8 mi · USGS: ephemeral stream
- Nearest townVerde · ~10.2 mi
- Nearest rail linenone mapped within 10 mi
- Nearest highway~6.1 mi · Interstate 17
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelConoco Gasoline Station · ~9.3 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- Dump station~12.4 mi
- GroceriesMarket Place · ~9.3 mi
- PharmacyFry's · ~10.4 mi
- Hospital / clinicBurns Health Center · ~10.1 mi
- HardwareThe Home Depot · ~10.5 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
Yes
Tent friendly
Yes
Verdict
Highly recommended
EV charging — from Prescott National Forest · Prescott National Forest · AZ — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger10.1 mi straight-line N — Hyundai of Cottonwood - DCFC · Blink Network · CCS · 2 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reach11 within 25 mi · 24 within 50 · 122 within 100 · 160 within 150
- Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)17.6 mi — Cordes Lakes, AZ - Tesla Supercharger, Mayer
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO47.0 mi — La Quinta Grand Canyon (Williams, AZ), Williams
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)9.9 mi — LP Steel, Dewey, AZ (at an office building) · Non-Networked · J1772 · 4 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 429751 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Prescott National Forest · Prescott National Forest · AZ — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Vault / pit toiletHayfield Draw Ohv Day Use Area · ~8.1 mi NE · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletMingus Mountain Campground · ~8.4 mi N · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletMingus Mountain Vista A · ~8.5 mi N · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletMingus Mountain Picnic Ground · ~8.6 mi N · USFS
Coming out here — Prescott National Forest · Prescott National Forest · AZ
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Hackberry Wash as an ephemeral stream, ~0.8 mi from the pin (National Hydrography Dataset, data refreshed October 2022). Mapped as ephemeral — it carries water only during and right after storms or snowmelt. Nobody has checked it for you. Filter or boil anything you drink.
- Ground slope around the pin: about 7.5% — 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 is mapped within 10 mi of the pin in the FRA/BTS North American Rail Network (data updated Jul 21, 2026) — abandoned, lifted and out-of-service track excluded, so a rail-trail does not count as one.
- Interstate 17 is mapped ~6.1 mi from the pin. Straight-line, from the Census's TIGER/Line primary roads (TIGER/Line 2025, released Oct 2025) — the divided, limited-access highways, which is why a state expressway or a two-lane US route near this camp would not appear here.
- 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 Prescott National Forest elsewhere
Other camps near Prescott National Forest
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Yavapai County~0.0 mi
- Powell Springs Campground~0.1 mi
- Mingus Mountain Campground~8.4 mi · fee
- Playground Group Campground~9.0 mi · fee
The unit that manages Prescott National Forest
Stay limits, road closures and fire restrictions at Prescott National Forest are set by Prescott National Forest, not by the campsite — check there before you go.
How we know this — Prescott 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 (Yavapai 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 20 February 2019, and again on 9 February 2020. Conditions still change — confirm before you commit.
What we don’t know about Prescott 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
- How many rigs actually fit
- 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
Before you go — Prescott National Forest
Water on public land →What “dispersed” means here →Reading a forest MVUM →Getting unstuck →All field notes →