Ponderosa (AZ)
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 17 of the next 17 nights read 16:37 UTC
- A night
- $22From, per site
- Sites
- 5251 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 9 notices
In the agency’s own words
Named for the towering pines under which it sits, Ponderosa Campground is tucked in the rolling forests of northern Arizona. As one of the largest forest in the country, the Tonto National Forest is one of the most-visited urban forests in the United States, boasting about 5.8 million visitors annually. Its boundaries are Phoenix to the south, the Mogollon Rim to the north and the San Carlos and Fort Apache Indian reservations to the east. While this campground did undergo a timber sale a few years ago it still has many ponderosa trees that will be stronger and healthier for future generations to enjoy. Keep reading
Recreation
Take advantage of the area's hiking/biking trails and lakes or simply relaxing at the campsite. Scenic driving and outdoor recreation abound in the surrounding Tonto National Forest. A series of lakes called the Rim Country Lakes are about a 15 minute drive east. Woods Canyon Lake is one of the most popular recreational lakes in the state and offers options for boating.
Facilities
The facility provides 48 single campsites and two group sites that can accommodate up to 25 people guests each. The campsites are clean, flat and spacious with a good amount of shade from pine trees. In addition, first-come, first-serve sites are available with payment completed using the on-site fee machine. No cash is accepted. Check-In is 2:00 pm Check-Out is 11:00 am Natural Features The ponderosa pine trees make this a memorable campground. Larger ponderosas release a vanilla scent into the air and have a relatively open understory, making the area perfect for camping. Mixed into the understory are junipers, oaks and manzanita shrubs. The campground sits on the border of the Mogollon Rim, pronounced by locals as "muggy-own," a 200-mile-long cliff in northern Arizona that ranges between 5,000 and 7,000 feet in elevation. The unique landscape was created by extreme erosion and faulting that has sculpted spectacular canyons and buttes. The rim serves as the geographical dividing line between the cool high country above and the hot, dry desert below. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (928) 474-7900.
Nearby Attractions
The nearby town of Payson, Arizona, offers restaurants, shopping and other conveniences.
What the agency tells you
Extra (second) vehicle charge of $8 per night is required. An RV towing a car counts as one vehicle and a vehicle pulling a trailer counts as one vehicle. Fee can be bundled with online reservation or purchased on-site at fee machine. Maximum of 2 vehicles per campsite.
There are no electricity, water or sewer site hookups.
First-come, first-served sites are available. Payment is done with onsite fee machine.
Everything else this campground posts · 6
No firewood sales available at campground. Plan to purchase ahead of time.
No Dump or Fill Station Services.
For First-Come, First-Served sites, you must physically arrive at the campground to see if the campsite is available. There is no guarantee this site will be available to purchase upon your arrival.
Check in time is 2:00pm and check out time is 11:00am. Quiet Hours are from 10:00pm to 6:00am.
Fireworks are always prohibited on National Forest Land.
Maximum stay limit is 14 days within 30 consecutive days on the Tonto National Forest including dispersed sites.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 52 · 2 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 130 ft
- Paved pads
- All
- Accessible sites
- 1
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
Facilities
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake
- Fish Hatchery
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Horseback riding
- Night sky · 127th darkest of 262 in AZ
- Bortle 3
Full this Saturdayread 16:37 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBooked
Every one of the 36 sites on offer is taken this Friday and Saturday. 35 are free on Wed, Oct 21. read 16:37 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 · 13
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $22 a night, plus one $8 recreation.gov reservation fee for the booking. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night, booked once. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
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 16:37 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
52 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 47 mapped sitesAll 52 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. 51 of the 52 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.
| ALOO | A-03 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 94 ft | 1.2 mi | $22 | |
| ALOO | A-04 | standard nonelectric | 70 ft | 94 ft | 1.2 mi | $22 | |
| ALOO | A-05 | standard nonelectric | 70 ft | 158 ft | 1.2 mi | $22 | |
| ALOO | A-06 | standard nonelectric | 37 ft | 52 ft | 1.2 mi | $22 | |
| ALOO | A-07 | standard nonelectric | 100 ft | 91 ft | 1.2 mi | $22 | |
| ALOO | A-08 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 214 ft | 1.1 mi | $22 |
| ALOO | A-09 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 170 ft | 1.1 mi | $22 | |
| ALOO | A-10 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 68 ft | 1.0 mi | $22 | |
| ALOO | A-11 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 68 ft | 1.0 mi | $22 | |
| ALOO | A-14 | standard nonelectric | 42 ft | 156 ft | 1.1 mi | $22 | |
| ALOO | A-16 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 156 ft | 1.1 mi | $22 | |
| ALOO | A-18 | standard nonelectric | 130 ft | 104 ft | 1.1 mi | $22 | |
| ALOO | A-19 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | 104 ft | 1.1 mi | $22 | |
| ALOO | A-20 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 98 ft | 1.2 mi | $22 | |
| ALOO | A-21 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 51 ft | 1.2 mi | $22 | |
| ALOO | A-22 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 51 ft | 1.2 mi | $22 | |
| ALOO | A-23 | standard nonelectric | 37 ft | 111 ft | 1.2 mi | $22 | |
| ALOO | A12 | standard nonelectric | 65 ft | $22 | |||
| ALOO | A13 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | $22 | |||
| ALOO | A15 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | $22 | |||
| ALOO | A17 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | $22 | |||
| BLOO | B-01 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 110 ft | 1.2 mi | $22 | |
| BLOO | B-02 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 110 ft | 1.2 mi | $22 | |
| BLOO | B-03 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 81 ft | 1.2 mi | $22 | |
| BLOO | B-04 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 96 ft | 1.1 mi | $22 | |
| BLOO | B-05 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 96 ft | 1.1 mi | $22 | |
| BLOO | B-06 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 52 ft | 1.2 mi | $22 | |
| BLOO | B-07 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 113 ft | 1.2 mi | $22 | |
| CLOO | C-01 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 122 ft | 1.2 mi | $22 | |
| CLOO | C-02 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 122 ft | 1.2 mi | $22 | |
| CLOO | C-03 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 122 ft | 1.2 mi | $22 | |
| CLOO | C-04 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 110 ft | 1.2 mi | $22 | |
| CLOO | C-05 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 110 ft | 1.2 mi | $22 | |
| CLOO | C-06 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 110 ft | 1.2 mi | $22 | |
| CLOO | C-07 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 101 ft | 1.1 mi | $22 | |
| CLOO | C-08 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 171 ft | 1.1 mi | $22 | |
| CLOO | C-09 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 171 ft | 1.1 mi | $22 | |
| CLOO | C-10 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 81 ft | 1.2 mi | $22 | |
| CLOO | C-11 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 131 ft | 1.2 mi | $22 | |
| DLOO | D-01 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 143 ft | 1.3 mi | $22 | |
| DLOO | D-02 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 143 ft | 1.3 mi | $22 | |
| DLOO | D-03 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 117 ft | 1.3 mi | $22 | |
| DLOO | D-04 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 117 ft | 1.3 mi | $22 | |
| DLOO | D-05 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 198 ft | 1.3 mi | $22 | |
| DLOO | D-06 | standard nonelectric | 28 ft | 77 ft | 1.2 mi | $22 | |
| DLOO | D-07 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 77 ft | 1.2 mi | $22 | |
| DLOO | D-08 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 157 ft | 1.2 mi | $22 | |
| DLOO | D-10 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 117 ft | 1.2 mi | $22 | |
| DLOO | D-11 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 117 ft | 1.2 mi | $22 | |
| ELOO | GR-E | group standard area nonelectric | 152 ft | 1.3 mi | $100 | ||
| FLOO | GR-F | group standard area nonelectric | 352 ft | 1.4 mi | $100 | ||
| Scan & Pay | Scan & Pay | type not stated | 25 ft | 1.2 mi |
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.
25 of 52 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions
Where it is
Lower Tonto CreekTonto National Forest · 2.5 mi
Upper Tonto CreekTonto National Forest · 3.0 mi
Christopher CreekTonto National Forest · 4.6 mi
Sharp CreekTonto National Forest · 6.6 miFr 9350 CampgroundSitgreaves National Forest · 8.1 miFrom Payson, Arizona, go east on State Route 260. The campground is located on the south side of 260. A campground sign is visible before the campground entrance.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Tonto Village, AZ
Typical weather
Typical October night 41°F, day 76°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 26°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
Ponderosa (AZ) 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 Ponderosa (AZ), Tonto National Forest, Arizona
Dear Elijah Crane, I’m a constituent in Arizona’s 2nd district. I tried to camp at Ponderosa (AZ), Tonto National Forest, Arizona, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 51 of the 52 campsites the agency files at Ponderosa (AZ), and every one of them is booked ahead, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 36 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Ponderosa (AZ) keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Ponderosa (AZ). 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 Ponderosa (AZ) (Tonto 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 Ponderosa (AZ), Tonto National Forest, Arizona
Dear Mark Kelly, I’m a constituent in Arizona. I tried to camp at Ponderosa (AZ), Tonto National Forest, Arizona, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 51 of the 52 campsites the agency files at Ponderosa (AZ), and every one of them is booked ahead, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 36 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Ponderosa (AZ) keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Ponderosa (AZ). 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 Ponderosa (AZ) (Tonto 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 Ponderosa (AZ), Tonto National Forest, Arizona
Dear Ruben Gallego, I’m a constituent in Arizona. I tried to camp at Ponderosa (AZ), Tonto National Forest, Arizona, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 51 of the 52 campsites the agency files at Ponderosa (AZ), and every one of them is booked ahead, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 36 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Ponderosa (AZ) keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Ponderosa (AZ). 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 Ponderosa (AZ) (Tonto National Forest, Arizona) via campanac.com