Playground Group
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 15 of the next 15 nights read 15:52 UTC
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 10 notices
In the agency’s own words
Close to historic western towns and centrally located in Arizona, Playground Group Campground is a great place for groups of up to 75 people to enjoy a secluded mountain getaway. The 7,500 ft. elevation of the site, puts it near the summit of Mingus Mountain in Prescott National Forest. Spectacular views of the surrounding desert valleys as well as the nearby towns of Sedona, Jerome and Prescott Valley await campers on the winding drive to and from the site. Keep reading
Recreation
The surrounding forest offers many hiking trails of various levels of intensity, from easy short-distance walks to more challenging elevated climbs. Campers who need a break from hiking can relax around the campground, take in the views and listen to the sound of the wind in the pines.
Facilities
The site has a large group gathering place with picnic tables, grills, a large fire pit and vault toilet and is adjacent to a family picnic area. There is no drinking water available. The nearby towns of Prescott Valley and Cottonwood have grocery stores, restaurants, gas stations, shopping and other conveniences.
Natural Features
The campground is in a secluded site in the tall ponderosa pine trees. Pleasant daytime temperatures and cool mountain breezes make it a nice respite from the summer heat of nearby deserts.
Nearby Attractions
A short drive away is the colorful town of Jerome, an abandoned mining town that has been transformed into an artist and tourist community. Tuzigoot National Monument, an ancient ruin of the Sinaguan culture, and Dead Horse Ranch State Park, which has mountain biking, canoeing and fishing along the Verde River, are also close by. Tuzigoot National Monument Dead Horse Ranch State Park
What the agency tells you
Maximum stay limit is 14 days within 30 consecutive days in Prescott National Forest including stays at dispersed sites.
Drinking water is not available at this Site. Drinking water can be obtained at the Mingus Picnic Site.
This is a high elevation facility; please use caution when traveling from lower elevations
Everything else this campground posts · 7
This region has frequent thunderstorms from mid-June through mid-September, Be Prepared and know the weather.
Pets are welcome but must be on a 6 foot leash or in a cage and never unattended.
Quite hours between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.
OHV/ATV use is prohibitied in the campground
Fireworks, including sparklers, are prohibited at all times on National Forest Lands.
Fire restrictions may be imposed due to dry conditions, at which time smoking, wood and charcoal fires may be prohibited.
Don't Move Firewood: Prevent the spread of tree-killing pests by obtaining firewood near your destination and burning it on-site. For more information visit dontmovefirewood.org.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 40 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…tables, grills, a large fire pit and vault toilet and is adjacent to a family picnic area. There is…”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…and is adjacent to a family picnic area. There is no drinking water available. The nearby towns of Prescott Valley and…”
- Playground
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- River
- Picnicking
- Night sky · 180th darkest of 262 in AZ
- Bortle 4
- Fall color · reported 3 days ago, 30 km away
- Patchy color
Full this Saturdayread 15:52 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBooked
The one site on offer is taken this Saturday. 1 is free on Wed, Oct 21. read 15:52 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.
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 make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
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
recreation.gov availability, read 15:52 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
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 1 of the 1 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
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.
| PLAY | Play1 | group standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 2.2 mi | 3,102 ft |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Mingus Mountain Campground and Group SitePrescott National Forest · 1.0 mi
Potato Patch CampgroundPrescott National Forest · 1.3 miPowell Springs CampgroundPrescott National Forest · 9.2 mi
Lynx CampgroundPrescott National Forest · 19 mi
Hilltop Campground (AZ)Prescott National Forest · 19 mi
Eagle Ridge Group CampgroundPrescott National Forest · 19 miTake State Highway 89A (seven miles southwest of Jerome or 13 miles east of Prescott Valley) to Forest Road 104. Travel on Forest Road 104 for two miles to Playground Group Campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Jerome, AZ
Typical weather
Typical October night 36°F, day 67°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 21°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 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 · a letter you can send
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
Playground Group 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 →
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 moneyElijah CraneU.S. Representative · Arizona’s 2nd 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 Playground Group, Arizona
Dear Elijah Crane, I’m a constituent in Arizona’s 2nd district. I tried to camp at Playground Group, Arizona, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Playground Group 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. Playground Group keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Playground Group. 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 Playground Group (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 Playground Group, Arizona
Dear Mark Kelly, I’m a constituent in Arizona. I tried to camp at Playground Group, Arizona, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Playground Group 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. Playground Group keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Playground Group. 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 Playground Group (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 Playground Group, Arizona
Dear Ruben Gallego, I’m a constituent in Arizona. I tried to camp at Playground Group, Arizona, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Playground Group 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. Playground Group keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Playground Group. 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 Playground Group (Arizona) via campanac.com