Canelo Ranger Residence
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- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 30 of the next 30 nights read 15:34 UTC
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 15 notices
In the agency’s own words
The Canelo Ranger Residence is a single-story, two-bedroom bungalow at the base of the Canelo Hills approximately 15 miles southeast of Sonoita, Arizona. The building, also known as the Canelo "Big House", was constructed in 1932/33 and served as the home of the District Ranger for surrounding National Forest lands, then part of the Huachuca Ranger District. The facility is located in an oak grassland at approximately 5000' elevation, with generally pleasant year-round weather. The building was renovated in 2023 with new bathroom fixtures, kitchen appliances including an electric oven, and a heating and cooling system. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Please note that pets are not allowed inside or outside the cabin. Optimize your stay (3-minute video) Keep reading
Recreation
The two rentable cabins at the Historic Canelo Work Center are a 90 minute drive from the Tucson metropolitan area just south of the Sonoita Plain at the edge of the Canelo Hills. The area is appreciated for its scenery, biodiversity and rural pace. It located between the community of Sonoita and Parker Canyon Lake. The area offers excellent hiking, birdwatching, wildlife viewing, fishing and boating at Parker Canyon Lake, and the Arizona National Scenic Trail. After a morning on the trail or at the lake, check out the nearby vineyards in the Sonoita-Elgin area! Lean more about Parker Canyon Lake Lean more about the nearby section of the Arizona National Scenic Trail: Canelo Hills East and Canelo Hills West Facilities The Canelo Ranger Residence is an six-room residence, suitable for groups of up to 7 people. The house has two bedrooms, one bathroom, a living room, kitchen, and dining room. One bedroom has a queen-sized bed. The other bedroom has a twin bed, and full-sized futon. There is a double-sized futon in the living room. The bathroom has an easy-entry shower, sink, and toilet. The dining room is furnished with a table and seating for four. The kitchen is equipped with a stove, oven, microwave, refrigerator, pots, pans, utensils, dishes, and coffeepot. The house has electricity and running water. Outside, a small patio is available. Although the cabin has amenities for comfortable lodging, guests do need to provide some of their own supplies, including food, sleeping bags, linens, pillows, towels, dish soap, matches, a first aid kit, toilet paper and garbage bags. Although electricity is available, it is recommended that guests bring an additional light source in case of emergencies. The Forest Service is unable to provide firewood and propane for the outdoor grill at this time, but guests are welcome to bring their own.
Natural Features
The Canelo Hills are a low mountain range that serve as a connector between the Huachuca Mountains to the east and the Santa Rita Mountains to the west, both higher ranges among Southern Arizona's famed "sky islands". The Canelo Hills offer a beautiful backdrop of rolling, rocky terrain punctuated by riparian areas, oak woodlands, and grasslands. The region is considered among the most biodiverse in the country.
Nearby Attractions
There are several attractions nearby on the Coronado National Forest including Parker Canyon Lake, located 13 miles south on Highway 83. The lake has a marina, campground and boat ramp. Just beyond the lake is access to the Arizona National Scenic Trail. The trail can also be accessed near Canelo Pass. To the north, the Sonoita-Elgin area is home to numerous vineyards and tasting rooms. The closest stores, amenities, and gasoline are located in Sonoita. Lean more about Parker Canyon Lake Lean more about the nearby section of the Arizona National Scenic Trail Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (520) 378-0311.
What the agency tells you
Pets are NOT permitted inside or outside of the cabin. Unfortunately, due to a history of pet owners inadequately cleaning up after their pets, pets are no longer allowed. Forest Service staff have limited time to complete weekly cabin cleaning. Cleaning service is not cost effective due to the rural location of the cabins. Eliminating the need to vacuum pet hair, neutralize odors, and pick up poop frees up staff time to cleaning cabin amenities and address repair needs.
Check-in time is 3 PM, check-out time is by 12:00 PM
Access to the cabin is via a driveway on the north side of the facility, accessible by passenger car. Please DO NOT DISTURB the private residences at the end of the road and those down the driveways on the right before the cabin. The roadway must remain clear. Park in designated areas and not on the roadside. The public is advised that the Ranger Residence occurs within an active Forest Administrative Site. As such, you might see Forest and/or Ranger District employees in the area or working at the adjacent buildings. Please ensure your vehicles are parked under or in close proximity to the covered car port, not in front of the adjacent garages, and are not blocking Membrillo Lane.
Everything else this campground posts · 12
The doors are unlocked with a numeric code on the door handle. The combination for the lock is provided once a reservation is made.
A cabin manual is located inside the cabin to answer specific questions during your stay as well as provide you with information on recreation opportunities in the area.
Cleaning service is NOT provided. Before leaving, renters are expected to clean the cabin; this includes washing dishes, sweeping and mopping floors, wiping down countertops, and removing ALL trash.
Guests MUST provide some of their own supplies including: food, sleeping bags, linens, pillows, towels, dish soap, matches, a first aid kit, toilet paper and garbage bags.
Please do NOT flush anything but toilet paper to prevent clogs or damage to the septic system.
Keep the building and grounds clean to deter squirrel, mice, rats, bears, and other wildlife from area.
Cell phone coverage is unrelaiable in this location.
Off-highway vehicles are only allowed on designated roads and trails.
The house is located in a desert environment; please be aware that scorpions, snakes and other insects may be present at any time.
Reservation dates are subject to inclement weather. The road to the cabin is not plowed when there is snow, so if snowfall is heavy enough, the cabin may be closed.
This cabin does not honor Golden Passport Discounts.
Group events are not allowed. The capacity of the cabin is 7 people.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- 1 electric
- Accessible sites
- None listed
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- FLUSH TOILETS on 1 of 1 campsite records
- Showers
- Yes, the record doesn’t say what kind
- “The bathroom has an easy-entry shower, sink, and toilet.”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- DRINKING WATER on 1 of 1 campsite records
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Firewood
- Mentioned
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake
- Biking
- Birding
- Hiking
- Hotel/Lodge/Resort Fs Owned
- Picnicking
- Scenic drives
- Stargazing
- Wildlife viewing
- Winery Tours
Full this Saturdayread 15:34 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBooked
The one site on offer is taken this Saturday, and on four midweek nights after it as well. read 15:34 UTC Why the weekend fills and the week doesn’t
Watch for a cancellation
Watch this campground
One email when a night opens, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We read recreation.gov once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time a site in your window is free for the nights you asked for.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
Tell me when the season opens
Watch for the season to open
One email when the season goes on sale, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time the agency has that season on sale.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 12
What you actually pay
Who keeps the booking fee
The agency’s own policy text says the reservation fee and the cancellation processing fee are “retained by the reservation service contractor”, and that a campground concessionaire will decline to refund them because “they did not receive these fees”. Recreation.gov is run under contract by Booz Allen Hamilton. What share of your booking fee the contractor keeps isn’t published in any federal dataset we can read, so we print no number for it. Our reporting on the contract →
How we know this receipt · 5
recreation.gov availability, read 15:34 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 sites · the site map
All 1 sites
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 1 of the 1 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Canelo Ranger Residence | Canelo Ranger Residence | cabin electric | 1.3 mi | $140 |
OpenStreetMap has no toilet mapped within 1 km of this campground, so no site here carries a toilet distance. That’s a gap in the map, not a finding about the campground.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions
Where it is
Canelo Ranger OfficeCoronado National Forest · 0.1 mi
Rock Bluff Group SiteCoronado National Forest · 9.0 miLakeview CampgroundCoronado National Forest · 9.3 miRoad Canyon Camp AreaLas Cienegas National Conservation Area · 14 mi
Ramsey Vista CampgroundCoronado National Forest · 15 mi
Reef Townsite Group AreaCoronado National Forest · 16 miATTENTION – ROAD ACCESS CHANGES – (4/28/2026)
Former access to the Canelo Cabins using Membrillo Lane has changed and restricted public access from crossing private land. A newly constructed public access route has been constructed to access the Canelo Cabins. The new access route is located 0.6 miles to the west of Membrillo Lane on HWY 83. GPS navigation services may take a while to adjust to the change and direct you in on Membrillo lane
Signage along HWY 83 for the Canelo facilities, at the time of writing this, are still in their original location as we work with ADOT to modify the signs.
From Tucson:
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Sierra Vista, AZ
Typical weather
Typical October night 44°F, day 77°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 28°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or more
A normal is the 1991-2020 average for the month, not a forecast: about half of all Junes are colder than the June line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it · a letter you can send
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Canelo Ranger Residence is in Arizona’s 7th congressional district. Its representative, Adelita Grijalva (D), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: A+. See every public-lands vote →
Who can change it · 3
Two offices, two different asks. The draft to the agency asks it to set aside a published share of the sites here for whoever drives up. The draft to Congress asks why that share is zero and presses for a published minimum at the campgrounds it funds.
- The member who votes the moneyAdelita S. GrijalvaU.S. Representative · Arizona’s 7th district
- Your senator, on the same appropriationMark KellyU.S. Senator · Arizona
- Your senator, on the same appropriationRuben GallegoU.S. Senator · Arizona
No contact form we could verify, so that link is their own site. Contact is inside it. Washington office: 202-224-4521.
Read the draft, or change the wording
For the camper who turned up, or tried to book, and couldn’t get in. Every draft is written from this campground’s own record (its agency, its unit, its site count and its own weekend) and the buttons above copy whichever wording is selected here.
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Canelo Ranger Residence, Coronado National Forest, Arizona
Dear Adelita S. Grijalva, I’m a constituent in Arizona’s 7th district. I tried to camp at Canelo Ranger Residence, Coronado National Forest, Arizona, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Canelo Ranger Residence are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Canelo Ranger Residence keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Canelo Ranger Residence. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Canelo Ranger Residence (Coronado National Forest, Arizona) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Canelo Ranger Residence, Coronado National Forest, Arizona
Dear Mark Kelly, I’m a constituent in Arizona. I tried to camp at Canelo Ranger Residence, Coronado National Forest, Arizona, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Canelo Ranger Residence are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Canelo Ranger Residence keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Canelo Ranger Residence. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Canelo Ranger Residence (Coronado National Forest, Arizona) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Canelo Ranger Residence, Coronado National Forest, Arizona
Dear Ruben Gallego, I’m a constituent in Arizona. I tried to camp at Canelo Ranger Residence, Coronado National Forest, Arizona, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Canelo Ranger Residence are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Canelo Ranger Residence keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Canelo Ranger Residence. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Canelo Ranger Residence (Coronado National Forest, Arizona) via campanac.com