Kentucky Camp Cabin and Headquarters Building
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 29 of the next 30 nights read 16:26 UTC
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 14 notices
In the agency’s own words
Kentucky Camp Cabin and Headquarters is located in the Santa Rita Mountains near Sonoita, Arizona in the Coronado National Forest. The five adobe buildings originally served as headquarters for the Santa Rita Water and Mining Company from 1902 to 1906. The facility also served as a cattle ranch from the 1920s through the 1960s. The Forest Service acquired the land in 1989 and it has since become an ideal location for guests seeking a unique lodging experience, rich in mining and ranching history. Keep reading
For a more detailed look at Kentucky Camp's history and facilities, please click here Recreation The area has popular hiking, mountain biking, and horseback riding trails which range from gentle walking paths, to steep, strenuous trails leading to the top of 9,453-foot Mt. Wrightson and other nearby peaks. The Arizona Trail runs through Kentucky Camp. Two-track and dirt roads are available for off-highway vehicle travel around Kentucky Camp; however, off-highway vehicles may not be ridden within the site's boundaries. Birders congregate in southeastern Arizona as it is touted as one of the country's most revered birding areas. With fifteen species of hummingbirds, 36 species of wood warblers, and over 256 documented bird species, the area is a birder's paradise.
Facilities
This facility consists of a cabin and headquarters building. The cabin can accommodate up to five people, and is equipped with two twin beds, a twin bunkbed and a full-sized futon. The kitchen has basic amenities including a small refrigerator, microwave, hot plate, coffee pot, dishes, utensils, cookware, and a table and chairs. Outside, there is a grill and picnic table for outdoor dining. A vault toilet, stall for solar showers, and an outdoor sink are located on site. Please note: Tent Camping is prohibited within the site boundary of Kentucky Camp. The cabin has electricity and propane heat, but no indoor running water. Guests MUST bring their own food, sleeping bags, linens, towels, dish soap, matches, a first aid kit, toilet paper, solar shower, and garbage bags.
Natural Features
Spanning four life zones and several ecosystems between the Sonoran desert and the "Sky Island" mountain peaks, the area surrounding the camp and cabin supports abundant and biologically diverse plant and animal communities. Mountain peaks, high desert grasslands, and seasonal streams provide diverse habitat for the area's abundant wildlife. White-tailed and mule deer, rabbits, wild turkeys, and squirrels are commonly seen, along with numerous bird species. While black bear, Coati, foxes, ring-tailed cats, bobcats and mountain lions are more elusive.
Nearby Attractions
Numerous attractions are available nearby in Madera Canyon. Attractions within a one-hour drive include the Mining Museum, Titan Missile Museum, Whipple Observatory, Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, San Xavier Mission, the Amerind Foundation, and Tumacacori National Historical Park.
What the agency tells you
Access to the cabin is via a driveway & locked gate from Forest Service Road 163, accessible by passenger car. The house key is located in a lock box on the back door near the grill. The combinations for 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.
Maid service is NOT provided. Before leaving, renters are expected to clean the cabin; this includes washing dishes, sweeping and mopping floors, wiping down countertops, and removing ALL trash.
Everything else this campground posts · 11
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.
A vault toilet is located nearby (less than 100 feet).
Keep the building and grounds clean to deter squirrel, mice, rats, bears, and other wildlife from area.
Cell phone coverage is usually available in the general area, but may be unreliable in the cabin.
Pets are permitted in the cabin, but owners MUST clean-up after their pets.
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.
Off-highway vehicles are also only allowed on designated roads and trails.
The cabin is a no-smoking facility.
Reservation dates subject to weather conditions.
This cabin does not honor Golden Passport Discounts.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- 1 electric
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- VAULT TOILETS on 1 of 1 campsite records
- Drinking water
- Yes
- DRINKING WATER on 1 of 1 campsite records
Around the campground
- On the water
- Creek
- Birding
- Hiking
- Historic Sites
- Hunting
- Mountain biking
- Wildlife viewing
- Winery Tours
Full this Saturdayread 16:26 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
1 campground has sites open within 30 miles, read 15:47 UTC. See them
OpenBookedNot on the booking system
The one site on offer is taken this Friday and Saturday. 1 is free on Mon, Oct 19. read 16:26 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 · 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
Open within 30 miles this weekend · 1
Sites the agency is offering this Friday and Saturday that nobody has taken, nearest first. read 15:47 UTC
- Canelo Ranger OfficeCoronado National Forest · 19 mi · 1 of 2 site-nights open
recreation.gov availability, read 16:26 UTC · 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.
| KENTUCKY CAMP CABIN AND HEADQUARTERS BUILDING | 001 | cabin electric | 4,515 ft | $75 |
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
Kent Springs CabinCoronado National Forest · 7.9 mi
Bog Springs CampgroundCoronado National Forest · 8.0 miFrom Tucson, take I-10 east to Exit #281 (Highway 83 - Sonoita/Patagonia). Travel south on Highway 83 for approximately 21 miles to the signed turnoff for Gardner Canyon Road. Turn right on Gardner Canyon Road and continue 0.9 mile to Forest Service Road 163. Turn right on Forest Service Road 163 and continue approximately 5 miles to the entrance to Kentucky Camp. Stay to the left and continue to the parking lot and gate that marks the entrance to Kentucky Camp. There are signs to Kentucky Camp from Highway 83.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Sonoita, AZ
Typical weather
Typical October night 56°F, day 79°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 39°F. Bring the bag rated for it.
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 · a letter you can send
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Kentucky Camp Cabin and Headquarters Building 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 →
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 moneyJuan CiscomaniU.S. Representative · Arizona’s 6th 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 Kentucky Camp Cabin and Headquarters Building, Coronado National Forest, Arizona
Dear Juan Ciscomani, I’m a constituent in Arizona’s 6th district. I tried to camp at Kentucky Camp Cabin and Headquarters Building, Coronado National Forest, Arizona, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Kentucky Camp Cabin and Headquarters Building are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Kentucky Camp Cabin and Headquarters Building keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Kentucky Camp Cabin and Headquarters Building. 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 Kentucky Camp Cabin and Headquarters Building (Coronado 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 Kentucky Camp Cabin and Headquarters Building, Coronado National Forest, Arizona
Dear Mark Kelly, I’m a constituent in Arizona. I tried to camp at Kentucky Camp Cabin and Headquarters Building, Coronado National Forest, Arizona, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Kentucky Camp Cabin and Headquarters Building are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Kentucky Camp Cabin and Headquarters Building keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Kentucky Camp Cabin and Headquarters Building. 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 Kentucky Camp Cabin and Headquarters Building (Coronado 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 Kentucky Camp Cabin and Headquarters Building, Coronado National Forest, Arizona
Dear Ruben Gallego, I’m a constituent in Arizona. I tried to camp at Kentucky Camp Cabin and Headquarters Building, Coronado National Forest, Arizona, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Kentucky Camp Cabin and Headquarters Building are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Kentucky Camp Cabin and Headquarters Building keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Kentucky Camp Cabin and Headquarters Building. 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 Kentucky Camp Cabin and Headquarters Building (Coronado National Forest, Arizona) via campanac.com