Dairy Springs
- Right now
- Shut for nowOutside the published season, our reading; a database flag says not open
- A night
- $30From, per site
- Sites
- 32All of them booked ahead
- Season
- – October 11Closes October 11. No opening date published.
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 14 notices
In the agency’s own words
Dairy Springs is a comfortable campground tucked away in a scenic area of northern Arizona. Its main attraction is the seasonal Mormon Lake which, when filled with water, draws visitors for fishing, windsurfing and wildlife watching. Hiking, biking, horseback riding and photography are available year-round. The facility has both individual and group sites that can accommodate groups of many sizes, including large families. Keep reading
Recreation
Recreation usually centers around fishing in nearby Mormon Lake (seasonally). The area is ripe with additional outdoor activities. Three hiking trails originate at Dairy Springs and one at nearby Double Springs. The trails lead to scenic overlooks of Mormon Lake and surrounding prairies, forests and volcanoes. Wildlife watching is also popular. It's a very good place to spot hawks, including northern harriers and ospreys. The area boasts a healthy population of elk and mule deer too.
Facilities
The moderate-sized campground has 30 single unit campsites with tables and cooking grills, in addition to two group sites that can each hold 40 people and may be reserved at the same time for a group of up to 80 campers. Campsites are nicely spaced with plenty of room and shade. Visitors can walk along a self-guided nature trail or attend a campfire program at the facility's amphitheater. Fifteen single unit sites are available at the adjacent Double Springs Campground by reservations only.
Natural Features
Dairy Springs sits in a picturesque forest of old Ponderosa pine and oak trees with a grassy understory. The campground is at an elevation of 7,100 ft. and has summers that are characteristically sunny, warm and dry, with the occasional afternoon thunderstorm. Dairy Springs is adjacent to Double Springs Campground, which has a spring that runs to the surface just above the camping area. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (928) 774-9671.
Nearby Attractions
The closest town is Mormon Lake, Arizona. This small and scenic mountain resort village is conveniently close to the campground and offers horseback rides, mountain bike rentals, a country store, service station and steakhouse.
What the agency tells you
Two vehicles per campsite. A fee of $10 per night will be collected at the campground for the second vehicle. Discount cards are not accepted for second vehicle fees.
No amplified music or public address systems allowed
Check-in time is 2 p.m.; check-out time is 11 a.m.
Everything else this campground posts · 11
This facility is available for day use from 10 a.m to 4 p.m. at a fee of $12 for up to 5 people. each additional person is charged $4.00.
Tents and small motor homes up to 35-ft. are permitted at both campgrounds
No hookups
No horses allowed in the campground
Motorbikes may only be used for entering or leaving campsite
Campground roads and parking spurs are gravel
Click here for more information on Coconino National Forest
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.
One RV or two tents permitted per site
Note: Campsites #25-30 are available as first come first served sites. No reservation needed!
Firewood for sale at $10.00/bundle. Ice for sale at $5.00/bag
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 32 · 3 tent-only, 2 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 40 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake
- Biking
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Horseback riding
- Picnicking
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 94th darkest of 262 in AZ
- Bortle 3
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
No availability snapshot inside the last 36 hours, so this page draws nothing rather than ageing a reading into fiction.
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.
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 · 15
What you actually pay
“A fee of $10 per night will be collected at the campground for the second vehicle.” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own agency notice
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $30 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
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
32 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 17 mapped sitesAll 32 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. 32 of the 32 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| DAIR | A | group standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 130 ft | 1,527 ft | $135 |
| DAIRY SPRINGS | 01 | tent only nonelectric | 18 ft | 43 ft | 1,606 ft | $30 |
| DAIRY SPRINGS | 02 | tent only nonelectric | 18 ft | 43 ft | 1,648 ft | $30 |
| DAIRY SPRINGS | 03 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 46 ft | 1,655 ft | $30 |
| DAIRY SPRINGS | 04 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 54 ft | 1,647 ft | $30 |
| DAIRY SPRINGS | 05 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 54 ft | 1,693 ft | $30 |
| DAIRY SPRINGS | 06 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 54 ft | 1,706 ft | $30 |
| DAIRY SPRINGS | 07 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 54 ft | 1,751 ft | $30 |
| DAIRY SPRINGS | 08 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 46 ft | 1,840 ft | $30 |
| DAIRY SPRINGS | 09 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 46 ft | 1,863 ft | $30 |
| DAIRY SPRINGS | 10 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 53 ft | 1,798 ft | $30 |
| DAIRY SPRINGS | 11 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 53 ft | 1,790 ft | $30 |
| DAIRY SPRINGS | 12 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 51 ft | 1,814 ft | $30 |
| DAIRY SPRINGS | 13 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 59 ft | 1,901 ft | $30 |
| DAIRY SPRINGS | 14 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 51 ft | 1,843 ft | $30 |
| DAIRY SPRINGS | 15 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 83 ft | 1,980 ft | $30 |
| DAIRY SPRINGS | 16 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | $30 | ||
| DAIRY SPRINGS | 17 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | $30 | ||
| DAIRY SPRINGS | 18 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | $30 | ||
| DAIRY SPRINGS | 19 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | $30 | ||
| DAIRY SPRINGS | 20 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | $30 | ||
| DAIRY SPRINGS | 21 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | $30 | ||
| DAIRY SPRINGS | 22 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | $30 | ||
| DAIRY SPRINGS | 23 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | $30 | ||
| DAIRY SPRINGS | 24 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | $30 | ||
| DAIRY SPRINGS | 25 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | $30 | ||
| DAIRY SPRINGS | 26 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | $30 | ||
| DAIRY SPRINGS | 27 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | $30 | ||
| DAIRY SPRINGS | 28 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | $30 | ||
| DAIRY SPRINGS | 29 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | $30 | ||
| DAIRY SPRINGS | 30 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | $30 | ||
| GRPB | B | group standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 139 ft | 1,643 ft | $135 |
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 32 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions
Where it is
Double SpringsCoconino National Forest · 1.1 mi
PinegroveCoconino National Forest · 5.2 mi
Pine Grove CampgroundCoconino National Forest · 5.3 mi
Ashurst LakeCoconino National Forest · 6.2 mi
Forked Pine CampgroundCoconino National Forest · 6.6 mi
Lakeview Campground (AZ)Coconino National Forest · 7.6 miFrom Flagstaff, Arizona, go southeast on Lake Mary Road/Forest Road 3, for 21 miles. Turn right (west) on Forest Road 90 at the north end of Mormon Lake. Proceed 4 miles to Dairy Springs Campground (4.6 miles to Double Springs Campground).
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Mormon Lake, AZ
Typical weather
Typical October night 31°F, day 66°F.
Coldest night of the open season: typical October night 31°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 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
who answers for it
Who answers for this land
Dairy Springs 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 →