Cave Creek Group Site
- Right now
- OpenThe agency lists it open
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
- Season
- Year-roundOpen year-round
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 12 notices
In the agency’s own words
Cave Creek Group Site is located 20 miles north of Cave Creek and Carefree, Arizona. It is a historic campground constructed in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). This site is a short drive from the blistering heat of Phoenix offering cooler temps, a clear running creek, and plentiful shade to relax and enjoy nature. With food prep areas, grills and covered picnic tables, you're all set for a weekend with your loved ones you'll never forget! Keep reading
Recreation
At this site you'll enjoy camping, hiking, mountain biking, picnicking, sightseeing, exploring, bird and wildlife viewing, and there is even a game area for volleyball and horseshoes.
Facilities
There are 12 picnic tables, three central grills, a covered food prep area and one serving table. The tables are stoneware consisting of deep crimson jasper interspersed with common fieldstone. There are also two large covered ramadas, four benches, a game area, campfire area, vault toilets, and trash service.
Natural Features
This group campsite is nestled in a narrow valley of juniper and sycamore trees providing abundant shade. Water flowing through seven springs is minimal and only several inches in depth. The area has one large open camping area and a nearby trailhead offering access to over 48 miles of hiking and mountain biking trails. Bring your camera during springtime to get photos of the desert wildflowers in bloom.
Nearby Attractions
Across the road, Cave Creek trailhead offers over 48 miles of hiking trails - great for overnight backpacking trips. Bronco Trailhead further south, offers parking for 40 vehicles plus trailers and six horse pens. Just seven miles south is Sears-Kay ruin. Listed in the National Register of Historic Places, this site features the remains of an ancient Native American tribe's hilltop village. For spectacular scenic views take Forest Road 562 to Humboldt Mountain. Or, you can simply stay on site and observe nature and hunt for crawdads in the nearby creek.
What the agency tells you
No drinking water.
Please contact the Ranger District at 480-595-3300 (Monday to Friday from 8:00 a.m - 4:00 p.m.) for entrance gate code information.
Trailers over 16 feet are not recommended.
Everything else this campground posts · 9
Use caution during the rainy season, the area is prone to flash flooding; do not cross flooded roadways.
The Cave Creek group site has a 150 people maximum.
Glass containers are prohibited.
Trash service and vault toilets are provided.
No horses, mules or livestock.
Dogs must be on a leash.
No amplified music or concerts.
No loud music or generators after 10 p.m.
Don't Move Firewood: Prevent the spread of tree-killing pests by obtaining firewood near your destination and burning it on-site. For more information visit dontmovefirewood.org.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 group
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…benches, a game area, campfire area, vault toilets, and trash service. Natural Features This group…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Creek
- Biking
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Hunting
1 of 2 site-nights open this Friday and Saturdayread 16:55 UTC
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
OpenBooked
Watch for a cancellation
Full? Watch it.
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.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 13
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 16:55 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.
| CAVE CREEK GROUP SITE | 001 | group standard nonelectric | 846 ft | $75 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Drive 19 miles north from Carefree, Arizona. From Carefree, take Cave Creek Road (Forest Road 24) to Seven Springs Day use area. Continue for less than 1/2 mile to the turn off to the group site. The last 9 miles of Forest Road 24 is an all-weather gravel road that is narrow with blind curves.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Scottsdale, AZ
Typical weather
Typical October night 60°F, day 86°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 41°F. Bring the bag rated for it.
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 Julys are colder than the July line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Cave Creek Group Site is in Arizona’s 1st congressional district. Its representative, David Schweikert (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →