★ Field-verified · Dave's ownUSFSFree
Tonto National Forest
Drive-up · U.S. Forest Service · Maricopa County, AZ · 33.97066, -111.86564
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 in Tonto National Forest near Carefree, Arizona. In valley next to small stream. Some tall trees provide shade. Vault toilet, picnic tables, fire ring. Enough room for two or three vehicles. No cell service. Reasonably convenient to town. There is a decent amount of traffic here, but it was of no consequence and still relaxing. Nearby hiking. Somewhat recommended.
A night on record
Dave slept here on 29 November 2018. 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 3,346 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
- WWater8 mi
- +Urgent care10 mi
- FFuel10 mi
- GGrocery10 mi
- @Mail10 mi
- MMechanic11 mi
- HHardware11 mi
- RxPharmacy12 mi
- DDump13 mi
- EVEV fast charger16 mi
- ShShower21 mi
- OOutfitter23 mi
- AAir-up24 mi
- LLaundry24 mi
- PPropane24 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water's a short hop out, fuel & food sit about 10 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
Elevation
3,346 ft
Ground slope
3% · gentle
County
Maricopa County, AZ
Coordinates
33.97066, -111.86564
Cost
Free
Nearby & resupply — around Tonto National Forest · Tonto National Forest · AZ (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureCave Creek · under 0.1 mi · USGS: intermittent stream
- Also mapped (OSM)Bronco Creek (stream) · mapped within 1.6 mi
- Nearest townRoad Junction Windmill · ~5.9 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
- Drinking waterDrinking water · ~8.0 mi
- FuelShell · ~10.5 mi
- Propane / LPGSuper Pumper · ~17.1 mi
- Dump station~13.4 mi
- GroceriesDesert Donkey · ~10.5 mi
- PharmacyWalgreens · ~12.5 mi
- Hospital / clinicHonorHealth Primary Care - Dynamite Blvd · ~17.1 mi
- HardwareAce Hardware · ~17.1 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
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 charger16.4 mi straight-line W — New River, AZ - Tesla Supercharger (at a gas station) · Tesla · NACS (Tesla) · 10 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 reach15 within 25 mi · 89 within 50 · 134 within 100 · 180 within 150
- Nearest listing CCS17.1 mi — CircleK - Anthem, AZ, Phoenix
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO17.9 mi — Walmart 5329 (Anthem, AZ), Anthem
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)11.2 mi — Town of Cave Creek Administration · Blink Network · J1772 · 3 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 151953 · 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 toiletCcc Campground · at this camp · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletCave Creek Th · at this camp · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletSeven Springs · ~0.2 mi S · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletCave Creek Group · ~0.3 mi N · USFS
Coming out here — Tonto National Forest · Tonto National Forest · AZ
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Cave Creek as an intermittent stream, under 0.1 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 3% — 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.
- 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.
- Juniper Dispersed~0.3 mi
- Cave Creek Group~0.3 mi · fee
- Juniper~1.1 mi
- Bronco Trailhead Dispersed~3.6 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 (Maricopa 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 29 November 2018. 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 →Power off-grid →All field notes →