Clear Creek Campground (AZ)
We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 30 of the next 30 nights read 15:52 UTC
- A night
- $27From, per site
- Sites
- 19All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 10 notices
In the agency’s own words
This cozy group campground is tucked in the Lower Sonoran Desert along the banks of the fresh, chilly Clear Creek. Campers can wade in the creek, fish, or curl up with a book under the umbrella of cottonwood trees. Another popular pastime here is birdwatching, where you might just spot a hawk or bald eagle in flight. Clear Creek Campground is seven miles southeast of the small ranching town of Camp Verde. It's part of the Coconino National Forest, one of the most diverse forests in the country. Landscapes range from alpine tundra to desert valleys and red canyons. Keep reading
Recreation
The campground is part of an oasis that attracts a variety of wildlife. Colorful songbirds and raptors are common birdwatching finds, and cool water species such as smallmouth bass and green sunfish make for enjoyable fishing. Wildlife watching includes black bears, elk, turkey, deer, and bison.
Facilities
Clear Creek Campground is grassy and flat, with some shade from surrounding cottonwoods. The group campsite holds 80 people with a maximum of 20 vehicles. The campsite is a popular destination, with its relaxed, open atmosphere, so be sure to book early for holiday weekends. This facility also has 18 standard family sites available, 5 of which are first-come, first-served/13 are reservable on Recreation.gov.
Natural Features
Clear Creek sits in the Verde Valley at 3,200 feet elevation. It's part of the Sonoran desert near the base of Cactus Mountain, and the climate is arid with hot summer days and mild winters. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (928) 203-0624.
Nearby Attractions
A must-do day trip is the Montezuma Castle National Monument, where you can marvel at a well-preserved Native American cliff dwelling that dates back 1,000 years. Near the dwelling is the Montezuma Well, which is a naturally-formed well that collects over a million gallons of fresh water a day. Hot-air ballooning and horseback riding are also fun outings near the campsite.
What the agency tells you
This campground also has 13 reservable single campsites and 5 First Come First Serve Campsites available besides the Group Site.
The group parking area can hold approximately 15-20 motorhomes or RVs.
No radios or amplified devices allowed.
Everything else this campground posts · 7
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.
No portable showers or toilets allowed in campground
No cutting, chopping or splitting wood within the campground
Campsites must be occupied first night of reservation
Campsite cannot be unattended more than 24 hours
The camping stay limit in Red Rock District is limited to 7 days
Camping fee covers the first vehicle or RV/Trailer with tow vehicle. $10.00/vehicle is charged nightly for any additional vehicles.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 19 · 5 tent-only, 1 group
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- 1
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
Facilities
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
Full this Saturdayread 15:52 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBooked
Every one of the 14 sites on offer is taken this Friday and Saturday. 11 are free on Wed, Oct 21. read 15:52 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.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 14
What you actually pay
“$10.00/vehicle is charged nightly for any additional vehicles.” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own agency notice
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $27 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 · 6
recreation.gov availability, read 15:52 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
19 sites · the site map
All 19 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 1 of the 19 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 18 of the 19 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Clear Creek | 01 | standard nonelectric | $27 | |||
| Clear Creek | 02 | standard nonelectric | $27 | |||
| Clear Creek | 03 | standard nonelectric | $27 | |||
| Clear Creek | 04 | standard nonelectric | $27 | |||
| Clear Creek | 05 | standard nonelectric | $27 | |||
| Clear Creek | 06 | tent only nonelectric | $27 | |||
| Clear Creek | 07 | tent only nonelectric | $27 | |||
| Clear Creek | 08 | tent only nonelectric | $27 | |||
| Clear Creek | 09 | tent only nonelectric | $27 | |||
| Clear Creek | 10 | tent only nonelectric | $27 | |||
| Clear Creek | 11 | standard nonelectric | $27 | |||
| Clear Creek | 12 | standard nonelectric | $27 | |||
| Clear Creek | 13 | standard nonelectric | $27 | |||
| Clear Creek | 14 | standard nonelectric | $27 | |||
| Clear Creek | 15 | standard nonelectric | $27 | |||
| Clear Creek | 16 | standard nonelectric | $27 | |||
| Clear Creek | 17 | standard nonelectric | $27 | |||
| Clear Creek | 18 | standard nonelectric | $27 | |||
| Clear Creek Group | Group Site | group standard nonelectric | yes | 525 ft | 813 ft |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Sycamore CabinPrescott National Forest · 16 miPowell Springs CampgroundPrescott National Forest · 18 mi
Apache Maid CabinCoconino National Forest · 19 mi
Crescent Moon Ranch CabinCoconino National Forest · 22 mi
Crescent Moon RamadaCoconino National Forest · 22 miChavez CrossingCoconino National Forest · 23 miFrom Interstate 17, take Exit 287 for AZ-260 toward Cottonwood/Payson/89-A. Turn right onto AZ-260 and follow for approximately 8 miles to the campsite.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Camp Verde, AZ
Typical weather
Typical October night 43°F, day 82°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 25°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 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
Clear Creek Campground (AZ) 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 Clear Creek Campground (AZ), Coconino National Forest, Arizona
Dear Elijah Crane, I’m a constituent in Arizona’s 2nd district. I tried to camp at Clear Creek Campground (AZ), Coconino National Forest, Arizona, and couldn’t. All 19 sites at Clear Creek Campground (AZ) are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 14 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Clear Creek Campground (AZ) keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Clear Creek Campground (AZ). 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 Clear Creek Campground (AZ) (Coconino 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 Clear Creek Campground (AZ), Coconino National Forest, Arizona
Dear Mark Kelly, I’m a constituent in Arizona. I tried to camp at Clear Creek Campground (AZ), Coconino National Forest, Arizona, and couldn’t. All 19 sites at Clear Creek Campground (AZ) are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 14 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Clear Creek Campground (AZ) keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Clear Creek Campground (AZ). 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 Clear Creek Campground (AZ) (Coconino 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 Clear Creek Campground (AZ), Coconino National Forest, Arizona
Dear Ruben Gallego, I’m a constituent in Arizona. I tried to camp at Clear Creek Campground (AZ), Coconino National Forest, Arizona, and couldn’t. All 19 sites at Clear Creek Campground (AZ) are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 14 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Clear Creek Campground (AZ) keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Clear Creek Campground (AZ). 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 Clear Creek Campground (AZ) (Coconino National Forest, Arizona) via campanac.com