Palisades Ranger Residence Cabin
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 30 of the next 30 nights read 16:38 UTC
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 13 notices
In the agency’s own words
The Palisades Ranger Residence Cabin is located within the Palisades Administrative Site in the Santa Catalina Mountains, 20 miles northeast of Tucson, Arizona. The cabin is reached via the East Catalina Highway, which becomes the General Hitchcock Highway, a historic and scenic drive that takes visitors through multiple biozones from the Sonoran Desert to the dense forests at 8,000 feet elevation. The cabin has indoor plumbing, electricity, a full kitchen, furniture, beds and an enclosed front yard. The cabin is available from late March to early November depending on the weather. Keep reading
Recreation
The Palisades Ranger Residence Cabin is approximately one hour from Tucson, AZ, 18.4 miles up Mt. Lemmon. The cabin location provides access to a myriad of recreational opportunities, including hiking, camping, birding, horseback riding, picnicking, sightseeing, mountain biking, rock climbing, and visiting historic areas. Fishing is also available at nearby Rose Canyon Lake. Winter sports are available at higher elevations, depending on snowfall; Mt. Lemmon Ski Valley in the Santa Catalina Mountains is the southernmost ski area in the United States.
Facilities
The Palisades Ranger Residence is a five-room cabin, suitable for up to four people. The cabin has a bedroom, dining room, living room, bathroom, and fully equipped kitchen. The bedroom has a queen bed, while the living room contains 2 full-size futons. The dining room has a table and four chairs. The kitchen is equipped with a propane stove/oven, microwave, refrigerator, pots, pans, utensils, dishes, and a coffee pot. The house has electricity, a propane heater, and running water. While 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.
Natural Features
The Santa Catalina Mountains comprise one of the "sky islands" in the Coronado National Forest. From the desert floor to the upper slopes of Mt. Lemmon, biozones vary from Sonoran desert to subalpine forest, with wildlife communities that are equally diverse. An extensive trail network offers opportunities for day and extended trips, with easy access to the nearby Pusch Ridge Wilderness.
Nearby Attractions
Numerous attractions are also available nearby, including: the Sky Island Scenic Byway (General Hitchcock Highway), Rose Canyon Lake, Mt Lemmon Ski Valley, The University of Arizona Mt. Lemmon Sky Center, the hamlet of Summerhaven, Arizona, as well as numerous hiking trails, and opportunities for photography and picnicing. Attractions within one hour's drive include Sabino Canyon Recreation Area and Saguaro National Park East.
What the agency tells you
Access to the house is on the left side of the cabin towards the back of the cabin. There you will find a door keypad where you will enter the code that is given when you rent the cabin. When you leave you will lock the top lock to the door in the living room which is the door that leads out to the yard. Do a last good look for left belongings and just go out the same door you came in. The door will lock itself.
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, cleaning bathroom & shower, and removing ALL trash.
Everything else this campground posts · 10
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.
Please keep the cabin and grounds clean and litter free to deter squirrel, mice, rats, bears, and other wildlife.
Cell phone coverage is limited/spotty and is unreliable in the cabin.
Pets are permitted in the cabin, but owners MUST clean-up all pet waste.
The cabin is located in a natural area. Please be aware that snakes, scorpions, and other poisonous and non-poisonous insects may be present at any time.
The cabin is monitored by Pima County Sheriff and Forest Service Law Enforcement.
The cabin has a no-smoking policy.
Inclement weather may limit or prohibit access to the cabin. When this occurs, Palisades Visitor Center parking lot may be utilized for temporary parking.
This cabin does not honor Golden Age Passport Discounts
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- 1 electric
- Longest rig
- 20 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake
- Auto Touring
- Biking
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Mountain biking
- Climbing
- Visitor center
- Night sky · 237th darkest of 262 in AZ
- Bortle 4
Full this Saturdayread 16:38 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
3 campgrounds have sites open within 30 miles, read 16:17 UTC. See them
OpenBooked
The one site on offer is taken this Saturday. 1 is free on Mon, Oct 19. read 16:38 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 · 3
Sites the agency is offering this Friday and Saturday that nobody has taken, nearest first. read 16:17 UTC
- Sabino Canyon Recreation Area Cactus Ramada 1Coronado National Forest · 8.6 mi · 1 of 1 site-night open
- Sabino Canyon Recreation Area Cactus Ramada 2Coronado National Forest · 8.6 mi · 1 of 1 site-night open
- Saguaro National Park Wilderness PermitsSaguaro National Park · 17 mi · 22 of 40 site-nights open
recreation.gov availability, read 16:38 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.
| PALISADES RANGER RESIDENCE CABIN | PALISADES RANGER RESIDENCE CABIN | cabin electric | 20 ft | 1,107 ft | $125 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Showers Point Group SiteCoronado National Forest · 0.3 mi
Sollers Cabin (AZ)Coronado National Forest · 0.5 mi
Whitetail CampgroundCoronado National Forest · 1.0 mi
Rose Canyon CampgroundCoronado National Forest · 1.4 mi
Spencer Canyon CampgroundCoronado National Forest · 1.5 mi
Rose CanyonCoronado National Forest · 1.7 miDriving Directions: From northeast Tucson, take East Tanque Verde Road to East Catalina Highway. Turn left (north) on East Catalina Highway, which becomes the General Hitchcock Highway, for approximately 23 miles to Organization Ridge Road and turn left (just before Palisades Visitor Center). The cabin is located approximately 100 yards in on the right.
The weather
the next four days
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Willow Canyon, AZ
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
Palisades Ranger Residence Cabin 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 Palisades Ranger Residence Cabin, Coronado National Forest, Arizona
Dear Juan Ciscomani, I’m a constituent in Arizona’s 6th district. I tried to camp at Palisades Ranger Residence Cabin, Coronado National Forest, Arizona, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Palisades Ranger Residence Cabin 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 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Palisades Ranger Residence Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Palisades Ranger Residence Cabin. 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 Palisades Ranger Residence Cabin (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 Palisades Ranger Residence Cabin, Coronado National Forest, Arizona
Dear Mark Kelly, I’m a constituent in Arizona. I tried to camp at Palisades Ranger Residence Cabin, Coronado National Forest, Arizona, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Palisades Ranger Residence Cabin 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 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Palisades Ranger Residence Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Palisades Ranger Residence Cabin. 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 Palisades Ranger Residence Cabin (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 Palisades Ranger Residence Cabin, Coronado National Forest, Arizona
Dear Ruben Gallego, I’m a constituent in Arizona. I tried to camp at Palisades Ranger Residence Cabin, Coronado National Forest, Arizona, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Palisades Ranger Residence Cabin 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 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Palisades Ranger Residence Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Palisades Ranger Residence Cabin. 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 Palisades Ranger Residence Cabin (Coronado National Forest, Arizona) via campanac.com