★ Field-verified · Dave's ownUSFS · dispersedFree
Tonto National Forest
Drive-up · U.S. Forest Service · Pinal County, AZ · 33.35194, -111.21058
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 beautiful desert canyon primitive campsite with a stone fire ring. Surrounded by saguaro cacti, mountains, and canyons. Very remote and peaceful. Tonto National Forest. Four wheel drive required. Poor cell service. Enough room for two or three vehicles. Only con is that it isn't very flat. Lush and green. A lot of roads to explore. Some OHV traffic. Recommended.
A night on record
Dave slept here on 5 February 2020. No agency publishes a season for this site, 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 — Tonto National Forest · 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 →
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at Tonto National Forest
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 2,531 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Tonto 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 Tonto National Forest · 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
- WWater6 mi
- FFuel6 mi
- GGrocery6 mi
- AAir-up6 mi
- DDump7 mi
- @Mail8 mi
- +Urgent care13 mi
- MMechanic13 mi
- RxPharmacy14 mi
- ShShower18 mi
- OOutfitter20 mi
- HHardware20 mi
- LLaundry20 mi
- EVEV fast charger22 mi
- PPropane31 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 — Tonto National Forest
Access
Drive-up
Land
U.S. Forest Service · dispersed
Elevation
2,531 ft
Ground slope
6.1% · gentle
County
Pinal County, AZ
Coordinates
33.35194, -111.21058
Cost
Free
Nearby & resupply — around Tonto National Forest · Tonto National Forest · AZ (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureStream · mapped within 1.6 mi
- USGS NHDno named surface water within 1 mi
- Nearest townQueen Valley · ~5.9 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
- Drinking waterDrinking water · ~5.8 mi
- FuelFuel · ~5.8 mi
- Propane / LPGLPG · ~23.5 mi
- Dump station~7.1 mi
- GroceriesFitzStop · ~5.8 mi
- PharmacyWalgreens · ~14.2 mi
- Hospital / clinicfirst-aid · ~12.6 mi
- HardwareFrontier Ace Hardware · ~20.3 mi
From the field — what Dave saw, in person
Cell service
No signal
Getting there
High clearance / 4×4
Fire ring
Yes
Toilet on site
No
Tent friendly
Yes
Verdict
Recommended
EV charging — from Tonto National Forest · Tonto National Forest · AZ — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger21.5 mi straight-line W — 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 reach8 within 25 mi · 70 within 50 · 145 within 100 · 183 within 150
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO24.6 mi — GPM INVESTMENTS 4600 DC1, Mesa
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)19.5 mi — AJ Apartments - Office, Apache Junction, AZ · EVGATEWAY · J1772 · 2 Level 2 ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily
- Also listed, not counted aboveNACS-only Level 2 — Town of Superior - Tesla Destination, Superior, 7.6 mi · NACS (Tesla) · hours: 24 hours daily. Open to Teslas only. · AFDC lists it “Free”
- 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 Tonto National Forest · Tonto National Forest · AZ — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Vault / pit toiletPicketpost T H · ~5.9 mi S · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletPeralta Th · ~8.5 mi W · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletFish Creek Vista · ~14.0 mi NW · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletFirst Water Th · ~16.0 mi NW · USFS
Coming out here — Tonto National Forest · Tonto National Forest · AZ
- Surface water mapped nearby: Stream. That is wash water at best, and nobody has checked it for you — a creek can be dry and a tank can be mud. Filter or boil anything you drink. USGS maps no named surface water within 1 mi of the pin (National Hydrography Dataset, data refreshed October 2022).
- Ground slope around the pin: about 6.1% — 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 Tonto National Forest elsewhere
Other camps near Tonto National Forest
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Picket Post Dispersed~5.5 mi
- Picket Post Dispersed~5.8 mi
- Picket Post Dispersed~5.9 mi
- Oak Flat~9.7 mi
The unit that manages Tonto National Forest
Stay limits, road closures and fire restrictions at Tonto National Forest are set by Tonto National Forest, not by the campsite — check there before you go.
How we know this — Tonto 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 (Pinal 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 5 February 2020. Conditions still change — confirm before you commit.
What we don’t know about Tonto 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.
- 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 — Tonto National Forest
Finding water out here →What “dispersed” means here →Reading a forest MVUM →Off-grid communication →All field notes →