U.S. Forest Service · Coronado National Forest · AZ
Cunningham Campground
First come, first servedNo reservation, and none to be had: the sites go to whoever pulls in first.
This is how it should work.
- Right now
- OpenThe agency lists it open
- Season
- April 15 – November 14Open April 15 through November 14
Photos · U.S. Forest Service
8,850 ftElevation
525 ftWater · Cunningham Creek
9.9 miSW of Swift Trail Junction, AZ
20%Tree cover
Bortle 3Night sky · 131st darkest of 262 in AZ
Open April 15 through November 14Today
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there
In the agency’s own words
Located high in the Pinaleno Mountains in an open, grassy stand of aspen and fir, this campground was constructed to provide a more primitive camping experience than most forest campgrounds. Campsites include a parking area and a fire grill. A public corral is available for riding and pack stock. Nearby there are plenty of foot and equestrian trails. The Grant Creek Trail starts at the campground edge and follows a scenic route down canyon to the site of old Fort Grant, once an important outpost in the days of warring between the Apaches and the U.S. Army. Today, the fort is an Arizona State Prison Facility. Keep reading
Also conveniently close by the campground is the Cunningham and Grant Hill Loop, a system of old logging roads and trails developed for mountain biking and hiking. Access to these trails is located across the Swift Trail (AZ 366) from the campground. Note: Black bear area. Store and dispose of all food in bear-proof containers and trash bins, or keep it locked in your vehicle.
Source: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026
Around the campground
- On the water
- Creek
Source: Stated in the agency description
Nothing to book, just show up
One of 1,623 federal campgrounds where the site still goes to whoever pulls in first. Get there before noon on a summer weekend.
recreation.gov publishes no availability for a campground you can’t reserve, so there’s no thirty-night reading to draw here. The season bar above is what the agency does publish.
BookingNo reservationsNothing to book, and no release date to wait forthe record
Runs itU.S. Forest Servicethe agency’s record
Every line of the receipt · 6
What you actually pay
The sign priceU.S. Forest Service
The U.S. Forest Service publishes no per-night rate for this campground that we can read, so there’s no sign price to print. That’s a gap in the record, not a free campground.
Single site: $15.
With Golden Age/Access or Interagency Senior/Access pass $7.50.
Payable with cash or check.
The booking feerecreation.gov
Nothing. This campground takes no bookings, so there’s no reservation fee to pay.
What a stay costs
The agency publishes no nightly rate for this campground, so there’s no total to show.
How we know this receipt · 4
Booking fee, change fee, cancellation fee, no-show: Rules and Reservation Policies, Recreation.gov, the published fee schedule, curated by hand into lib/reservation-fee-schedule.json (9 rows, each carrying its own verbatim sentence). The publisher states these policies were last updated September 2019. · Sep 9, 2026
The two totals: Derived by CAMPANAC by adding the agency’s own published nightly rate to recreation.gov’s own published reservation fee. Both components are cited above; the addition is ours and is shown only where every component is known. · Sep 9, 2026
Who keeps the booking fee: Recreation.gov facility policy text, Dead Swede Campground (facility 234221) · Not on the national policy page. This is agency policy text recreation.gov publishes on individual campground pages; this site holds it verbatim on 45 active campgrounds (campground_rules.cancellation_description, scripts/load-facility-rules.mjs). · Sep 9, 2026
The contract: Reservation Gods: Who Stole Our Campsites and Sold Them Back to Us, More Than Just Parks, April 2025 · Apr 1, 2025
Source: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026
record Aug 24, 2026 · How we know all this
Getting there
the map and the coordinate
Where it is
Also near here
Upper Hospital Flat Group SiteCoronado National Forest · 1.4 miTreasure Park - EastCoronado National Forest · 1.7 miTreasure Park - NorthCoronado National Forest · 1.7 mi
Soldier Creek CampgroundCoronado National Forest · 2.1 mi
Columbine Corrals CampgroundCoronado National Forest · 2.3 mi
Shannon CampgroundCoronado National Forest · 2.5 mi
Upper Hospital Flat Group SiteCoronado National Forest · 1.4 miTreasure Park - EastCoronado National Forest · 1.7 miTreasure Park - NorthCoronado National Forest · 1.7 miSoldier Creek CampgroundCoronado National Forest · 2.1 miColumbine Corrals CampgroundCoronado National Forest · 2.3 miShannon CampgroundCoronado National Forest · 2.5 miSource: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026
The weather
the next four days
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
Overnight35°Partly Cloudy
Saturday42°Mostly Sunny5% rain
Saturday Night38°Chance Rain Showers38% rain
Sunday47°Chance Rain Showers41% rain
NWS forecast for Swift Trail Junction, AZ
Source: National Weather Service, TWC forecast office · Oct 17, 2026
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it
What threatens this place
Roadless
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Source: MTJP Threatened Lands map · Oct 16, 2026
Who answers for this land
Cunningham Campground is in Arizona’s 6th congressional district. Its representative, Juan Ciscomani (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →
How we know
every fact on this page, and where it came from
Right now: The agency lists it open right now.
Season: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026
Elevation: USGS 3DEP elevation point query at this campground’s coordinate · Sep 7, 2026
Tree cover: NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC), one 30 m cell at this coordinate · Sep 9, 2026
Cell signal: the Forest Service’s own campground description, read as text by CAMPANAC. None of this is a measurement. It’s what the land manager published about the place, and phones, carriers and weather all disagree with each other; treat it as a warning, not a promise.