Agency-listedUSFSFree
Primitive Camping
Drive-up · U.S. Forest Service · AZ · 33.48648, -111.46755
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 →U.S. Forest Service 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.
Nearest road on the Forest Service MVUM — Primitive Camping · Tonto National Forest · AZ
No road within 1 mi of the pin in the national MVUM layer — and that layer carries no data at all for this forest (unit 0312), so this is the layer's silence, not the ground's. Access may be a county road or unmapped.
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 →
What the record says about the site — Primitive Camping · Tonto National Forest · AZ
- First come, first served
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 Primitive Camping
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 2,178 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Primitive 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 Primitive Camping · Tonto National Forest · AZ
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- WWater2 mi
- DDump2 mi
- ShShower4 mi
- +Urgent care6 mi
- FFuel6 mi
- GGrocery6 mi
- @Mail6 mi
- HHardware7 mi
- MMechanic7 mi
- RxPharmacy7 mi
- LLaundry7 mi
- AAir-up7 mi
- OOutfitter7 mi
- EVEV fast charger8 mi
- PPropane19 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water is basically at camp, fuel & food sit about 6 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 — Primitive Camping
Access
Drive-up
Land
U.S. Forest Service
Elevation
2,178 ft
Ground slope
2.3% · flat
Nearest highway
~7.2 mi · US Hwy 60
State
AZ
Coordinates
33.48648, -111.46755
Cost
Free · dispersed public land, no fee in any source
Nearby & resupply — around Primitive Camping · Tonto National Forest · AZ (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureWeekes Wash · ~0.7 mi · USGS: ephemeral stream
- Nearest townYoungberg · ~2.2 mi
- Nearest rail linenone mapped within 10 mi
- Nearest highway~7.2 mi · US Hwy 60
- Drinking waterDrinking water · ~1.8 mi
- FuelFry's · ~6.8 mi
- Propane / LPGFerrellgas · ~22.8 mi
- Dump station~2.0 mi
- GroceriesFry's Marketplace · ~6.7 mi
- PharmacyWalgreens · ~6.9 mi
- Hospital / clinicPinal County Public Health · ~6.3 mi
- HardwareFrontier Ace Hardware · ~7.1 mi
EV charging — from Primitive Camping · Tonto National Forest · AZ — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger8.0 mi straight-line SW — Walmart EV Charging, Apache Junction, AZ (at a shopping center) · WALMART · CCS, NACS (Tesla) · 8 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-14 · hours: 24 hours daily · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reach28 within 25 mi · 94 within 50 · 154 within 100 · 180 within 150
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO12.5 mi — Ridgeview Plaza (PHX), Mesa
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)6.2 mi — Apache Junction Multi-Generational Facility · Blink Network · J1772 · 4 Level 2 ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily
- Pricing at the fast charger$0.58 Peak / $0.34 Off-Peak per kWh (as listed by AFDC)
- 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 450435 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Primitive Camping · Tonto National Forest · AZ — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Vault / pit toiletFirst Water Th · ~1.5 mi E · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletBoulder Picnic · ~3.9 mi NE · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletAcacia Recreation Area · ~4.0 mi NE · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletPalo Verde · ~4.1 mi NE · USFS
Coming out here — Primitive Camping · Tonto National Forest · AZ
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Weekes Wash as an ephemeral stream, ~0.7 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 2.3% — 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 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.
- US Hwy 60 is mapped ~7.2 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 Primitive Camping elsewhere
Other camps near Primitive Camping
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Tortilla~5.1 mi · fee
- The Point~5.8 mi
- Bagley Flat~6.0 mi
- The Rolls OHV Area - Butcher Jones Access~6.8 mi
The unit that manages Primitive Camping
Stay limits, road closures and fire restrictions at Primitive Camping are set by Tonto National Forest, not by the campsite — check there before you go.
How we know this — Primitive 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.
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
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 Primitive 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
Before you go — Primitive Camping
Finding water out here →What “dispersed” means here →Reading a forest MVUM →Dispersed camping tips →All field notes →