Lower Tonto Creek
- Right now
- Closedrecreation.gov lists every site closed this weekend, read 15:34 UTC
- A night
- $20When it reopens, per site
- Sites
- 13In the agency’s record
- Season
- April 1 – October 31Open April 1 through October 31
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 3 notices
In the agency’s own words
The Lower Tonto Creek Campground is tucked away right next to the main highway just south of where the Tonto and Horton Creeks merge. Families may enjoy fishing at both Tonto and Horton Creeks or pass time hiking through nearby Horton Creek Trail or Derrick Trail. The Lower Tonto Creek Campground has a large open-space parking lot and paved walkway makes it accessible with only a light hike to the creek. This location is available on a first-come, first-served basis only. Visitors are required to physically arrive at the campground to purchase and claim a site. Keep reading
Once on-site, you will be able to pay for your campsite(s) by scanning a QR code using the Recreation.gov mobile app, and the Scan and Pay feature. You will need to first download the free Recreation.gov mobile app https://www.recreation.gov/mobile-app prior to your arrival as this area has limited or no cellular service. There is no adjacent parking spot to any camp site. Walk-in access only to all campsites (paved sidewalk is provided). Map to campground here . Please note: This campground is right next to Hwy 260 and receives a considerable amount of traffic noise and light throughout the day & night.
Recreation
The union of Tonto and Horton Creeks is at the north end of the Upper Tonto Creek campground. Fishing in both creeks is a popular sport. The trailheads for Horton Creek Trail 285 and Derrick Trail 33 are located in the Upper Tonto Creek campground. Both of these trails access the Highline National Recreation Trail (#31 Natural Features Located just South of where the Tonto and Horton Creeks merge. Campsites are dotted along a paved sidewalk surrounded by tall Pines, situated just next to Tonto Creek. Please note: This campground is right next to Hwy 260 and receives a considerable amount of traffic noise and light throughout the day & night.
What the agency tells you
There is no adjacent parking spot to any camp site. Walk-in access only to all campsites (paved sidewalk is provided).
Check in time is 2:00pm and check out time is 11:00am. Quiet hours are from 10:00pm to 6:00am.
This campground is close to Highway 260.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 13 · 9 walk-in
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
Facilities
- Stay limit
- 13 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Creek
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Picnicking
- Cell signal · Cell signal · Forest Service says
- Spotty
Nothing to book until it reopensread 15:34 UTC
recreation.gov lists every site closed this weekend
Every one of the next thirty nights is in recreation.gov’s record and not one site is being offered on any of them. That’s a campground closed or not yet released for booking, not a sold-out one.
Tell me when it reopens
Watch for it to come back
One email when the agency reopens it, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check the agency’s own record once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time it stops saying closed.
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.
Every line of the receipt · 10
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 · 4
Why this page can’t say why
recreation.gov lists every site at Lower Tonto Creek closed this Friday and Saturday night. The U.S. Forest Service has published no closure notice we hold, so this page can’t say why, and it won’t fill the gap with a guess. A closed night isn’t a sold-out one: the reservations its record still carries were taken before the sites were closed.
There’s no notice to quote and no reason to argue with, so this page offers you the watch and the list below, and no letter.
Open within 60 miles · 4
The agency’s own word that these are open, not our reading of a season.
- Upper Tonto CreekTonto National Forest · 0.5 mi · 10 sites
- Ponderosa Campground and Group SitesTonto National Forest · 2.5 mi
- Christopher CreekTonto National Forest · 4.0 mi · 44 sites
- Sharp CreekTonto National Forest · 6.1 mi · 20 sites
recreation.gov availability, read 15:34 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
13 sites · the site map
All 13 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 1 of the 13 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 9 of the 13 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
Measured shade is NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC) read at the site’s own coordinate, 27% canopy or more, and only for the sites the agency gave no Shade value. It never changes the agency’s own shaded count beside it.
| Lower Tonto Creek | 001 | walk to | $20 | ||
| Lower Tonto Creek | 002 | walk to | $20 | ||
| Lower Tonto Creek | 003 | walk to | $20 | ||
| Lower Tonto Creek | 004 | walk to | $20 | ||
| Lower Tonto Creek | 005 | walk to | $20 | ||
| Lower Tonto Creek | 006 | walk to | $20 | ||
| Lower Tonto Creek | 007 | walk to | $20 | ||
| Lower Tonto Creek | 008 | walk to | $20 | ||
| Lower Tonto Creek | 009 | walk to | $20 | ||
| Scan & Pay | Scan & Pay | type not stated | 618 ft | 1,162 ft | |
| Scan and Pay | ScanPay 2 | type not stated | |||
| Scan and Pay | ScanPay 3 | type not stated | |||
| Scan and Pay | ScanPay 4 | type not stated |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Upper Tonto CreekTonto National Forest · 0.5 miPonderosa Campground and Group SitesTonto National Forest · 2.5 mi
Ponderosa (AZ)Tonto National Forest · 2.5 mi
Christopher CreekTonto National Forest · 4.0 mi
Sharp CreekTonto National Forest · 6.1 mi
Knoll Lake CampgroundCoconino National Forest · 6.5 miThis site is 15 miles northeast of Payson. From Payson, travel 15 miles east on State Hwy. 260. Just east of mile marker 269 at Kohl’s Ranch, turn left (north) on Forest Road (FR) 289.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Kohls Ranch, AZ
Typical weather
Typical October night 41°F, day 76°F.
Coldest night of the open season: typical April night 36°F. Bring the bag rated for it.
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
what threatens it · who answers for it
Roadless country, and what’s coming for it
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Lower Tonto Creek 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 →
How we know
every fact on this page, and where it came from
“…prior to your arrival as this area has limited or no cellular service. There is no adjacent parking spot to any camp site. Walk-in…”