U.S. Forest Service · Tonto National Forest · AZ

Larry Forbis Overnight Group Site

ReservableBookable through March 31; April 1 opens October 1.
Book on recreation.govWe make nothing when you book
Right now
Taking bookingsSites offered on 30 of the next 30 nights read 15:35 UTC
Sites
3All of them booked ahead
1,400 ftElevation
587 ftWater · Salt River
5.2 miNE of Mesa, AZ
0%Tree cover
Bortle 5Night sky · 262nd darkest of 262 in AZ

The place

what’s there · 5 notices

What the agency tells you

Rule

Each reservation includes 10 designated parking spaces. These spaces can be used at your discretion for what you bring, however, you may not exceed 10 vehicles per reservation and you may not encroach on the roadway or leave the asphalt with any vehicle or equipment. For example if you have a trailer that exceeds the length of a single parking space, you may "pull through" multiple parking spaces. However, that will limit the amount of other vehicles that can fit properly in those 10 parking spaces. If you have more than 10 vehicles, extra vehicles may park in the Pebble Beach Recreation Site, but they are required to have a separate Tonto Pass. Total parking area dimensions are approximately 20 feet deep by 100 feet wide

Rule

Each vehicle with the group needs to have a copy of the reservation placed on their dash.

Rule

Groups of 75 or more people will require a separate Special Use Authroization. Please contact the Mesa Ranger Station ahead of time for further details.

Everything else this campground posts · 2
Rule

Gate security is the responsibility of reservation holders. Gate must be locked and secured after each entry to keep access limited to those holding a current reservation. Gate combinations may not be shared with anyone outside of your reservation.

Rule

Trash services are not provided at this site. Pack it in, Pack it out or use the dumpsters at the Pebble Beach Recreation Site.

Read them on the agency’s own page →

Tents and rigs

Sites
3 · 3 group
Hookups
None
Accessible sites
None listed
Source: Recreation.gov campsite records · Aug 23, 2026

2 of 3 site-nights open this Friday and Saturdayread 15:35 UTC

Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.

OpenBooked

Booking windowThrough March 31Bookable now through March 31, 2027, the end of the reservable season. On April 1, 2027 at 10 AM ET, availability opens through October 1, 2027.recreation.govAdd to calendar (.ics)
Sites, a night, from$75From the rate schedule matched to 3 of its 3 sites. U.S. Forest Service publishes no campground-level rate we can read.derived by CAMPANAC
If plans change$10 to cancel$10 to change a reservationrecreation.gov’s schedule
Runs itU.S. Forest ServiceBooked through recreation.govthe agency’s record
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.

Free forever, no booking kickbacks.
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’ll write once, when the season that starts Fri, Oct 1 2027 is open for booking.

Free forever, no booking kickbacks.
Book on recreation.gov

We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.

Every line of the receipt · 12

What you actually pay

The sign priceU.S. Forest Service
Sites, a night, from$75
Derived by CAMPANAC from the rate schedule matched to 3 of its 3 sites. U.S. Forest Service publishes no campground-level rate for this campground that we can read, only per-site rate templates its own record matches to each site’s own type.
Group area, a night$75
Rates for the season the campground is in now, Oct 1, 2026 to Dec 31, 2026.
The booking feerecreation.gov
Reservation fee, booked online$8
One fee per reservation, however many nights you book, and it’s non-refundable. $9 if you book by phone, $3 in person.
Pass discounts only apply to the recreation (or use) fee for the facility. Other charges such as electricity or water hookups, reservation or other fees are not eligible for a discount.
What a stay costs
The agency publishes no nightly rate for this campground, so there’s nothing to add the $8 booking fee to. We won’t total a receipt with a number missing from it.
If your plans changerecreation.gov
Change fee, moving to dates outside your booking$10
Cancellation fee$10
Cancelling the day before, or the day of$10 + your first night
No-show$20 + your first night

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

recreation.gov availability, read 15:35 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

The sites

3 sites

All 3 sites

SleepsUp to

The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 3 of the 3 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.

Getting there

the map and the coordinate · the phone number

The weather

the next four days · the thirty-year normal

Next four days, and the thirty-year normal

Forecast

Tonight65°Partly Cloudy5% rain
Saturday79°Partly Sunny9% rain
Saturday Night65°Chance Rain Showers36% rain
Sunday81°Slight Chance Rain Showers21% rain

NWS forecast for Mesa, AZ

Typical weather

Typical October night 56°F, day 90°F.

Coldest month of the year: typical December night 38°F. Bring the bag rated for it.

110°30°

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.

Measured at: STEWART MTN DAM, AZ (USC00028214), 2 miles away and at about the same elevation

The land, and who answers for it

what threatens it · who answers for it

Roadless country, and what’s coming for it

Roadless
Goldfield15,257 acres · 5 mi · inventoried roadless area

You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.

Who answers for this land

David Schweikert, official portrait

Larry Forbis Overnight Group Site is in Arizona’s 1st congressional district. Its representative, David Schweikert (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

How we know

every fact on this page, and where it came from
Right now: recreation.gov is offering sites on 30 of the next 30 nights, which isn’t something a closed campground does.
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.