Christopher Creek
We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →
- Right now
- OpenThe agency lists it open
- A night
- $24From, per site
- Sites
- 44All of them booked ahead
- Season
- April 1 – October 31Open April 1 through October 31
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 7 notices
In the agency’s own words
With an elevation of 5640 ft, Christopher Creek Campground's crisp, fresh air and vibrant views are a joy to behold. The campground is tucked along the banks of the spring-fed Christopher Creek, which passes just below the Mogollon Rim. This campground is typically open April-November. The Mogollon Rim, pronounced by locals as "muggy-own," is a 200-mile long cliff in northern Arizona that ranges between 5,000 and 7,000 ft in elevation. The unique landscape was created by extreme erosion and faulting that has sculpted spectacular canyons and buttes. The rim serves as the geographical dividing line between the cool high country above and the hot, dry desert below. Christopher Creek is located in the desert portion, but is balanced by the cool waters of the creek and forested surroundings. Keep reading
Recreation
After a day of exploring the natural beauty of Rim Country, sit back and relax in the shaded Ponderosa Pine Forest. Each spring, the creek is stocked with rainbow trout, allowing anglers the opportunity to cast their hearts out for rainbows as well as brook and brown trout. Access the National Recreation Highline trail close by.
Facilities
The family-friendly campground has 43 sites on both sides of the creek, plus a group site that accommodates a maximum of 25 people. Most sites in this campground are reservable with only a few First come First serve sites, for first-come-first-served customers with payment completed using the on-site fee machine. No cash is accepted. There is a separate day use/picnic area within the campground. Please note if you park and use this area it is a separate fee, covered under the Tonto Pass program.
Natural Features
Christopher Creek provides creek side dwelling in Tonto National Forest, at the base of the Mogollon Rim. Sites are surrounded by ponderosa pines, junipers, oaks and manzanita evergreen shrubs.
Nearby Attractions
The small town of Christopher Creek is just a short drive away and offers a few restaurant options for those who tire of cooking at the campground.. A series of lakes called the Rim Country Lakes are about a 10 minute drive east. Woods Canyon Lake is one of the most popular recreational lakes in the state and offers options for boating as well as a nature trail that loops around the lake's perimeter. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (928) 474-7900.
What the agency tells you
This campground offers small sites close to the creek but parking can be an issue. The maximum number of vehicles allowed per campsite is two and for the group site, five.
Extra (second) vehicle charge of $8 per night is required. An RV towing a car counts as one vehicle and a vehicle pulling a trailer counts as one vehicle. Fee can be bundled with online reservation or purchased on-site at fee machine.
No firewood sales available at campground. Plan to purchase ahead of time.
Everything else this campground posts · 4
Check in time is 2:00pm and check out time is 11:00am. Quiet Hours are 10:00pm through 6:00am.
For First-Come, First-Served sites, you must physically arrive at the campground to see if the the campsite is available. There is no guarantee this site will be available to purchase upon your arrival.
Fireworks are always prohibited on National Forest Land.
Maximum stay limit is 14 days within 30 consecutive days on the Tonto National Forest including dispersed sites.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 44 · 1 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 22 ft
- Paved pads
- 43 of 44
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- VAULT TOILETS on 1 of 44 campsite records
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek
- Night sky · 102nd darkest of 262 in AZ
- Bortle 3
Full this Saturdayread 15:46 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBooked
Every one of the 34 sites on offer is taken this Saturday. 31 are free on Wed, Oct 21. read 15:46 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 · 14
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $24 a night, plus one $8 recreation.gov reservation fee for the booking. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night, booked once. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
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 15:46 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
44 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 44 mapped sitesAll 44 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. 44 of the 44 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| A | 001 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 98 ft | 304 ft | $24 | |
| A | 0010 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 27 ft | 130 ft | $24 | |
| A | 0011 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 67 ft | 268 ft | $24 | |
| A | 0012 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 67 ft | 241 ft | $24 | |
| A | 0013 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 29 ft | 156 ft | $24 | |
| A | 0014 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 29 ft | 157 ft | $24 | |
| A | 0015 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 53 ft | 206 ft | $24 | |
| A | 0016 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 113 ft | 228 ft | $24 | |
| A | 0017 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 117 ft | 131 ft | $24 | |
| A | 002 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 119 ft | 315 ft | $24 | |
| A | 003Host | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 134 ft | 104 ft | $24 | |
| A | 004Host | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 87 ft | 69 ft | $24 | |
| A | 005 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 87 ft | 86 ft | $24 | |
| A | 006 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 87 ft | 173 ft | $24 | |
| A | 007 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 74 ft | 237 ft | $24 | |
| A | 008 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 61 ft | 108 ft | $24 | |
| A | 009 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 27 ft | 132 ft | $24 | |
| B | 0018 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 65 ft | 107 ft | $24 | |
| B | 0019 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 65 ft | 136 ft | $24 | |
| B | 0020Host | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 30 amp | 58 ft | 37 ft | $24 |
| B | 0021 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 58 ft | 74 ft | $24 | |
| B | 0022 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 97 ft | 66 ft | $24 | |
| B | 0023 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 70 ft | 78 ft | $24 | |
| B | 0024 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 70 ft | 137 ft | $24 | |
| B | 0025 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 67 ft | 85 ft | $24 | |
| B | 0026 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 67 ft | 151 ft | $24 | |
| B | 0027 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 94 ft | 164 ft | $24 | |
| B | 0028 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 106 ft | 150 ft | $24 | |
| B | 0029 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 28 ft | 139 ft | $24 | |
| B | 0030 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 28 ft | 140 ft | $24 | |
| B | 0031 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 44 ft | 150 ft | $24 | |
| B | 0032 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 44 ft | 193 ft | $24 | |
| B | 0033 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 78 ft | 108 ft | $24 | |
| B | 0034 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 78 ft | 183 ft | $24 | |
| B | 0035 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 122 ft | 294 ft | $24 | |
| B | 0036 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 122 ft | 330 ft | $24 | |
| B | 0037 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 65 ft | 363 ft | $24 | |
| B | 0038 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 65 ft | 302 ft | $24 | |
| B | 0039 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 76 ft | 371 ft | $24 | |
| B | 0040 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 82 ft | 314 ft | $24 | |
| B | 0041 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 82 ft | 324 ft | $24 | |
| B | 0042 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 105 ft | 301 ft | $24 | |
| B | 0043 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 105 ft | 271 ft | $24 | |
| B | G001 | group standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 181 ft | 135 ft | $80 |
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.
25 of 44 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions
Where it is
Sharp CreekTonto National Forest · 2.2 miFr 9350 CampgroundSitgreaves National Forest · 3.7 mi
Lower Tonto CreekTonto National Forest · 4.0 mi
Upper Tonto CreekTonto National Forest · 4.0 mi
Mogollon CampgroundSitgreaves National Forest · 4.6 miPonderosa Campground and Group SitesTonto National Forest · 4.6 miFrom Payson, Arizona, take Highway 260 east for 21 miles to the Christopher Creek Campground turnoff. Take Forest Road for 1/4 mile to the campground, Ask host for directions to campsite.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Hunter Creek, AZ
Typical weather
Typical October night 40°F, day 72°F.
Coldest night of the open season: typical April night 36°F. Bring the bag rated for it.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or moreOutside the published season
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 · a letter you can send
Roadless country, and what’s coming for it
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Christopher Creek is in Arizona’s 2nd congressional district. Its representative, Eli Crane (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. 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 moneyElijah CraneU.S. Representative · Arizona’s 2nd 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 Christopher Creek, Tonto National Forest, Arizona
Dear Elijah Crane, I’m a constituent in Arizona’s 2nd district. I tried to camp at Christopher Creek, Tonto National Forest, Arizona, and couldn’t. All 44 sites at Christopher Creek are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 34 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Christopher Creek keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Christopher Creek. 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 Christopher Creek (Tonto 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 Christopher Creek, Tonto National Forest, Arizona
Dear Mark Kelly, I’m a constituent in Arizona. I tried to camp at Christopher Creek, Tonto National Forest, Arizona, and couldn’t. All 44 sites at Christopher Creek are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 34 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Christopher Creek keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Christopher Creek. 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 Christopher Creek (Tonto 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 Christopher Creek, Tonto National Forest, Arizona
Dear Ruben Gallego, I’m a constituent in Arizona. I tried to camp at Christopher Creek, Tonto National Forest, Arizona, and couldn’t. All 44 sites at Christopher Creek are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 34 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Christopher Creek keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Christopher Creek. 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 Christopher Creek (Tonto National Forest, Arizona) via campanac.com