Ponderosa Campground and Group Sites
- Right now
- OpenListed open; its database flags it not open
- A night
- $22From, per site
- Season
- April 1 – November 2Open April 1 through November 2
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there
In the agency’s own words
Ponderosa pine trees surround and tower over open-space campgrounds, providing cool shade and gorgeous vistas. Most visitors enjoy taking advantage of the area's hiking trails and lakes, traveling to Payson for the day or simply relaxing at the campsite to the sound of fluttering leaves. Review At-A-Glance below for more details about the site. 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. Keep reading
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. Recreation: Most visitors enjoy taking advantage of the area's hiking 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 47 single campsites and two group sites that can accommodate up to 25 people each. The campsites are clean, flat and spacious with a good amount of shade from pine trees. Nearby Attractions: The nearby town of Payson, Arizona, offers restaurants, shopping and other conveniences.
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake
Phone before you drive
recreation.gov publishes no availability for a campground you can’t reserve, so there’s no thirty-night reading to draw here. The season bar above is what the agency does publish.
Every line of the receipt · 7
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the lowest per-night amount the agency’s fee record states ($22), and no booking fee, because this campground takes no reservations. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
How we know this receipt · 5
record Aug 24, 2026 · How we know all this
Getting there
the map and the coordinate
Where it is
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 night of the open season: typical November night 31°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 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
Ponderosa Campground and Group Sites 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 →