How this picture was made
Photorealistic landscape photograph at golden hour in southeastern Arizona sky-island country: an isolated forested mountain range rising abruptly from a broad saguaro-studded desert grassland plain, pine-topped peaks catching warm low light above the desert basin, a rocky canyon mouth in the foreground, no people and no buildings or signs. 35mm lens, natural color, faint film grain.
Coronado National Forest
Camp here — Coronado National Forest
58 camps mapped in this forest, 14 of them free. Tap one for its topo and aerial, the weather, the water, and how far you will be from fuel and a shower.
- FreeCoronado National Forest
- FreeHerb Martyr Campground
- FreeRucker Forest Camp
- FreeArivaca Lake Dispersed Camping
- FreeKentucky Camp Dispersed Camping Area
- FreeClark Peak Corrals
- FreeIncinerator Ridge Dispersed Camping
- FreeMt. Bigelow Dispersed Camping
Where dispersed camping is listed — Coronado National Forest
The Forest Service lists dispersed camping as an activity at these 26 places. That is the agency saying it is allowed somewhere in the area — not a campsite we have mapped, and not a spot we can put a pin on. Read their page, then check the district for the rules that apply on the day.
- Canelo Hills
Historic ranching and mining country with broad grasslands and distant buttes provides the setting for this medium-length loop drive. The route starts out in the little ranching community of Sonoita and winds south through a…
the Forest Service page for it → - Chiricahua Mountains
The Chiricahua Mountains are the largest of Arizona’s Sky Island mountain ranges and the second highest. The main crest of the mountain range resembles rolling hills atop a narrow high plateau rather than distinct mountain peaks.…
the Forest Service page for it → - Cluff Dairy Dispersed Camping Area
This dispersed camping area, in open ponderosa pine forest at 6,850 feet, has multiple established sites. There are no amenities at this site. Refer to our Dispersed Camping page for more information and dispersed camping best…
the Forest Service page for it → - Douglas Ranger District
Dragoons, Chiricahuas, Cochise, names that hark back to the Old West. All are associated with the lands that now make up the Douglas Ranger District. Located in southeastern corner of Arizona; southwestern corner of New Mexico,…
the Forest Service page for it → - Dragoon Mountains
Part of the Douglas Ranger District
the Forest Service page for it → - Frye Mesa Reservoir Lakes
When high-elevation Riggs Flat Lake atop the Pinalenos is snowed in and covered with ice, trout anglers who come to the Safford District can still find a place to fish at Frye Mesa Reservoir. Lower winter temperatures and longer…
the Forest Service page for it → - Galiuro Mountains
The Galiuro Mountains are a large mountain range in the Madrean Sky Islands region of southeast Arizona. The range is noted for its height and ruggedness. The Aravaipa Canyon Wilderness encompasses the north perimeter of the…
the Forest Service page for it → - Grant Creek Dispersed Camping Area
This dispersed camping area is nestled in mixed-conifer forest along Grant Creek at 8,700 feet. There are no amenities at this site. Refer to our Dispersed Camping page for more information and dispersed camping best practices.…
the Forest Service page for it → - Huachuca Mountains
The Huachuca Mountains are the third highest of the Sky Island mountain ranges in southeastern Arizona and they rise almost 4,500 feet above the desert floor. The mountain range is oriented in a northwestern direction giving it…
the Forest Service page for it → - Jesus-Goudy Dispersed Camping Area
This dispersed camping area is tucked in mixed-conifer forest at 9,000 feet between Chesley Flat and Riggs Flat Lake . There are no amenities at this site. Refer to our Dispersed Camping page for more information and dispersed…
the Forest Service page for it → - Madera Canyon Recreation Area
A Visitor Information Station at the Proctor parking area, run by Friends of Madera Canyon volunteers, is usually open Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays year-round. Hours are typically 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. from April through September…
the Forest Service page for it → - Nogales Ranger District
The Santa Ritas are topped by 9.453 foot Mt. Wrightson, which is surrounded by the 25,260 acre Wilderness area of the same name . Madera Canyon in the Santa Ritas is famous among birdwatchers the world over. A number of Forest…
the Forest Service page for it → - Pajarito Mountainsthe Forest Service page for it →
- Peloncillo Mountains
The Peloncillo Mountains stretch approximately 70 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border north to the Gila River. The range is situated southeast of the Chiricahua Mountains and just north of the U.S.-Mexico border. It is located…
the Forest Service page for it → - Pinaleño Mountains
The Pinaleño Mountains, capped by 10,720-ft. Mount Graham, are the tallest of southeastern Arizona’s sky island mountain ranges. State Route 366, also known as the Swift Trail Parkway, offers easy access into this beautiful…
the Forest Service page for it → - Red Spring Singletrack
The Red Spring Singtrack area is located approximately 4 miles west of Exit 40, Chavez Siding, off of Interstate 19. Access is from Forest Service Road 684. A staging area provides parking for vehicles and trailers. There are two…
the Forest Service page for it → - Rincon Mountains
Mountain range within the Santa Catalina Ranger District
the Forest Service page for it → - Safford Ranger District
This recreation area is the home of the Coronado's most extensive mountain range, the Pinaleños , and topped by the highest peak in southern Arizona, 10,720 foot Mt. Graham. A scenic road named the Swift Trail (Hwy 366) leads…
the Forest Service page for it → - Santa Catalina Ranger District
Located adjacent to Tucson, the Santa Catalina Ranger District is the most heavily visited part of the Coronado National Forest. The Catalina Highway (Sky Island Scenic Byway) winds nearly to the top of 9,157 foot Mt. Lemmon,…
the Forest Service page for it → - Santa Rita Mountains
Northernmost mountain range within the Nogales Ranger District. Includes the popular Madera Canyon .
the Forest Service page for it → - Sierra Vista Ranger District
The Sierra Vista Ranger District includes several mountain ranges which are separated by rolling hill county and some of the Southwest’s most extensive grasslands. The area includes the Huachuca, Patagonia and Whetstone mountains…
the Forest Service page for it → - Snow Flat Dispersed Camping Area
Snow Flat Dispersed Camping Area is tucked away down from the Swift Trail where there is a small pond at the bottom of the road. This area is a snow play area in the winter season. There are no amenities at this site. Refer to…
the Forest Service page for it → - Tumacacori Mountains
Mountain range within the Nogales Ranger District which lies just west of Interstate 19 and extends southward to the International border.
the Forest Service page for it → - Turkey Flat Dispersed Camping Area
This dispersed camping area, in open ponderosa pine forest at 7,400 feet, has limited established sites. There are no amenities. Please refer to our Dispersed Camping page for more information and dispersed camping best…
the Forest Service page for it → - Upper Hospital Flat Dispersed Camping Area
Upper Hospital Flat Dispersed Camping Area is a great place to escape the summer heat of surrounding deserts and retreat to a scenic meadow in the Pinaleño Mountains of southeastern Arizona. The area is known for camping, scenic…
the Forest Service page for it → - West Turkey Creek
Perennial water flows through this wooded canyon, supporting a riparian forest and creating a lush year-round recreation destination on the edge of the Chiricahua Wilderness. A HUB FOR HIKING Six trails start from FR 41 along…
the Forest Service page for it →
Where the camps cluster
The place
Coronado National Forest doesn't work like most national forests. Instead of one continuous block of trees, it is a constellation of sixteen separate mountain ranges scattered across southeastern Arizona, with a piece extending into Hidalgo County in New Mexico's bootheel -- managed as five non-contiguous ranger districts out of a supervisor's office in Tucson. These are the Madrean "sky islands": ranges that stand alone above the Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts, close enough to see each other and far enough apart that their high forests are effectively marooned. The Santa Catalinas and Rincons sit over Tucson; the Pinalenos, Galiuros and Santa Teresas lie to the northeast; the Santa Ritas, Tumacacoris and Pajaritos run to the south; the Chiricahuas, Dragoons and Peloncillos hold the southeast corner; and the Huachucas, Patagonias and Whetstones cover the Sierra Vista country. The vertical range is the whole point -- campgrounds alone run from about 4,000 to 9,300 feet, and Mount Graham in the Pinalenos tops out at 10,720 feet. You start the day among giant saguaros and end it under Douglas-fir with snow on the ground.
History
The name comes from Francisco Vazquez de Coronado, whose entrada left Compostela in New Spain on February 23, 1540 hunting the fabled Cities of Cibola and, later, a place called Quivira. Over 300 armed Europeans, at least 1,200 Indigenous allies, Franciscan priests and scores of servants and enslaved people came north through this country -- the San Pedro River valley is widely regarded as the corridor they used -- and by the time the expedition straggled back to New Spain in April 1542 it had found no gold at all, only ruin for Coronado himself, who ended in bankruptcy and facing charges. The National Park Service, which interprets the expedition at Coronado National Memorial down near the Huachucas, is honest about the evidence: there is no physical trace of the expedition in the memorial itself. What the entrada did leave was a cultural and biological exchange that permanently changed the lives of the region's Indigenous peoples. This is also Chiricahua Apache homeland -- Cochise and Geronimo are the names history remembers, and the Chiricahua Apache were forcibly removed from the region in the late 19th century. Cochise Stronghold, in the granite of the Dragoon Mountains, still carries the name. The forest itself was assembled piece by piece: land here was part of the Santa Rita Forest Reserve in 1902, transferred to the new Forest Service in 1905, and the Coronado National Forest was formally established in 1908. A string of small separate forests -- Santa Catalina, Santa Rita, Tumacacori, Chiricahua, Dragoon, Peloncillo and Huachuca -- were folded in over the years, and Mount Graham National Forest, absorbed into the Crook in 1908, finally came to the Coronado in 1953.
Wildlife & plants
The sky islands are one of the great wildlife destinations in North America, and birders are the reason. Madera Canyon in the Santa Ritas is rated among the very best birding spots in the United States, with more than 256 species recorded -- including 15 kinds of hummingbird, 36 wood warblers, the sulphur-bellied flycatcher, and the elegant trogon, a green-and-crimson tropical bird that draws people across the country for a look. The Chiricahuas have logged 375 bird species on their own. The mammals are just as good: black bear, mountain lion, bobcat, white-tailed and mule deer, and 16 species of bats in Madera Canyon alone. This is also the last corner of the country where the big cats of the tropics still turn up -- ocelots are documented in the Chiricahuas, and a male jaguar was photographed by trail cameras at 23 different spots in the Santa Rita Mountains between 2012 and 2015, one of only about eight jaguars documented in the southwestern US between 1996 and 2024. In 2012 the US Fish and Wildlife Service designated roughly 838,000 acres in Arizona and New Mexico as jaguar critical habitat. Highest of all, on the cool spruce-fir crest of Mount Graham, lives the Mount Graham red squirrel -- a subspecies that exists on that one mountain and nowhere else on Earth, presumed extinct in the 1950s, rediscovered in the 1970s, and federally listed as endangered effective June 3, 1987.
Notable features
The Catalina Highway -- the Sky Island Parkway -- is the forest's signature drive, climbing from Tucson to the little village of Summerhaven below 9,171-foot Mount Lemmon, the high point of the Santa Catalinas, where the air runs 20 to 30 degrees cooler than the desert at the base and Mount Lemmon Ski Valley operates as the southernmost ski area in the continental United States. The peak is named for the botanist Sara Plummer Lemmon, who reached the summit on horse and foot in 1881 with her husband and a local rancher, E.O. Stratton; telescopes on the mountain still work today for projects like the Catalina Sky Survey. Sabino Canyon cuts into the same range closer to town. Northeast, Mount Graham (10,720 feet) is the forest's roof and Arizona's most topographically prominent peak, sacred to Western Apache people as Dzil Nchaa Si'an and crowned by the Mount Graham International Observatory, home of the Large Binocular Telescope and the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope. In the southeast, the Chiricahuas rise to 9,759-foot Chiricahua Peak over a landscape of stone spires eroded from welded rhyolite tuff -- the ash left by the Turkey Creek Caldera some 27 million years ago. Eight designated wilderness areas are spread across the forest, at least one in every ranger district: Chiricahua, Galiuro, Miller Peak, Mount Wrightson, Pajarita, Pusch Ridge, Rincon and Santa Teresa.
Camps are sourced from public U.S. Forest Service recreation data and have not been personally visited. Roads shown are Forest Service passenger-car routes (maintenance level 3–5) and may be seasonal or gated. Always confirm access, fees and fire rules with the ranger district before you go. Found a fee where we show free? Tell us on the contact page.