Half Moon Ranch
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 15 notices
In the agency’s own words
Half Moon Ranch is a ranch style house located in East Cochise Stronghold in the Dragoon Mountains of the Coronado National Forest, approximately 1-1/2 hours east of Tucson. The house is situated in a dramatic canyon that provides excellent rock climbing, hiking, mountain biking, and horseback riding opportunities. Keep reading
Recreation
The area around Half Moon ranch has long been considered a bouldering and rock climbing paradise, boasting backcountry and protected routes ranging from one to seven pitches in length, and from 5.6 to 5.12 in difficulty. Most approaches are 30-60 minutes in length, although there are a number of known areas that are easily accessible from the roads. In addition, the nearby Cochise Stronghold Campground has interpretive tales for both natural and cultural resources and history.
Facilities
Half Moon Ranch is a seven-room ranch style house, suitable for groups of up to 9 people. The house has two bedrooms, two full bathrooms, a living room, a dining room and a kitchen. The master bedroom has a queen-size bed; the second bedroom has two beds, a twin and full. The living room contains two double futons, rocking chairs, and a wood stove (firewood not provided). The dining room has a table and chairs that seats six. A small dinette set with seating for four is located in the kitchen. The kitchen is equipped with a stove, oven, microwave and refrigerator, pots, pans, utensils, dishes, & coffee machine. The house has electricity and running water. Outside, guests will enjoy using picnic table for outdoor dining. The Forest Service is unable to provide firewood at this time. Please note that the indoor fireplace is not maintained for use. Although the cabin has amenities for comfortable lodging, guests do need to provide some of their own supplies, including food, sleeping bags, linens, pillows, towels, dish soap, matches, a first aid kit, toilet paper and garbage bags. Although electricity is available, it is recommended that guests bring an additional light source in case of emergencies. A barn and corrals are located to the east of the main house. There is a covered storage area for hay as well. Up to six horses/mules are permitted in the corrals, and feed must be certified weed-free.
Natural Features
Half Moon Ranch is surrounded by the rugged beauty of the Dragoon Mountains and Cochise Stronghold. At an elevation of 5,000 feet, the sparsely wooded area is a protective rampart of granite spires, sheer cliffs, and balanced rocks and boulders which were once the refuge of the Apache Chief, Cochise. The ranch house lies in a mountain range or "sky island" in the Coronado National Forest, rising dramatically from the desert floor and supporting abundant and biologically diverse plant and animal communities.
Nearby Attractions
The Half Moon Ranch is located approximately 9 miles west of Sunsites, Arizona. Attractions in the area include the Chiricahua National Monument, Fort Bowie National Historic Site, the Amerind Foundation, the ghost towns of Gleeson, Dos Cabezas, and Courtland, and the Willcox Playa.
What the agency tells you
Pets are NOT permitted inside or outside the cabin. Unfortunately, due to a history of pet owners inadequately cleaning up after their pets, pets are no longer allowed. Forest Service staff have limited time to complete weekly cabin cleaning. Cleaning service is not cost effective due to the rural location of the cabins. Eliminating the need to vacuum pet hair, neutralize odors, and pick up poop frees up staff time to cleaning cabin amenities and address repair needs.
Access to the house is through a locked gate; the gate has a combination lock, and the house key is located in a lock box on the kitchen door. The combinations for the gate and the lock box are provided once a reservation is made.
A cabin manual is located inside the cabin to answer specific questions during your stay as well as provide you with information on recreation opportunities in the area.
Everything else this campground posts · 12
Cleaning service is NOT provided. Before leaving, renters are expected to clean the cabin; this includes washing dishes, sweeping and mopping floors, wiping down countertops, cleaning bathrooms & showers, and removing ALL trash.
Guests MUST provide some of their own supplies including: food, sleeping bags, linens, pillows, towels, dish soap, matches, a first aid kit, toilet paper and garbage bags.
Please do NOT flush anything but toilet paper to prevent clogs or damage to the septic system.
Keep the building and grounds clean to deter squirrel, mice, rats, bears, and other wildlife from the area.
Cell phone coverage is usually available in the general area, but may be unreliable in the cabin.
Off-Highway vehicle users should be aware that East Cochise Stronghold has only one road for vehicles. Due to heavy traffic by passenger cars, trucks, RVs, and trailers, it is not recommended for off-road vehicle use.
The house is located in a desert environment; please be aware that scorpions, snakes and other insects may be present at any time.
The access road leading into the cabin is passable by passenger car, but high clearance vehicles are recommended.
The cabin is a no-smoking facility.
Reservation dates subject to weather conditions.
This cabin does not honor Golden Passport Discounts.
A helispot is located at the far west end of the pasture; emergency crews may periodically use this site for emergency rescue operations.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- 1 electric
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Not allowed
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- FLUSH TOILETS on 1 of 1 campsite records
- Showers
- Yes, the record doesn’t say what kind
- SHOWERS on 1 of 1 campsite records, Shower/Bath Type states a shower on all 1 of this campground's campsite records
- Drinking water
- Yes
- DRINKING WATER on 1 of 1 campsite records
- Firewood
- Mentioned
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- Birding
- Hiking
- Horseback riding
- Mountain biking
- Museum
- Climbing
- Wildlife viewing
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.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 12
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
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.
| HALF MOON RANCH | Half Moon Ranch | cabin electric | 2.7 mi | $150 |
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.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Shaw HouseCoronado National Forest · 1.1 mi
Cochise Stronghold CampgroundCoronado National Forest · 1.8 mi
Bonita Canyon CampgroundChiricahua National Monument · 36 mi
Happy Valley SaddleSaguaro National Park · 36 mi
Walnut Grove CampgroundCoronado National Forest · 37 mi
Sycamore CampgroundCoronado National Forest · 37 miFrom Tucson: Take I-10 east to Exit #318 (Dragoon Road). Turn right onto Dragoon Road and travel for approximately 10 miles through the village of Dragoon to the Cochise Stronghold Road. Turn right on Cochise Stronghold Road and travel for approximately 6 miles to Ironwood Road. The paved road dead ends at Ironwood Road. Turn right, and travel for approximately 3 miles to the first creek crossing. The entrance to the Half Moon Ranch is on the left just beyond the crossing.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Dragoon, AZ
Typical weather
Typical October night 46°F, day 80°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 29°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 Junes are colder than the June 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
Half Moon Ranch 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 →