Portal Bunkhouse
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 26 of the next 26 nights read 16:38 UTC
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 12 notices
In the agency’s own words
The Portal Bunkhouse is a two-room cabin located one mile west of Portal, Arizona. Constructed in 1933 by the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Bunkhouse is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The structure is one of the finest remaining examples of river-cobble masonry construction from that era. Keep reading
Recreation
Cave Creek Canyon is located on the eastern slope of the Chiricahua Mountains in southeastern Arizona, about 2.5 hours from Tucson. It is world-renowned for its dramatic rock formations and diverse wildlife. Birding is exceptional year-round, and particularly rewarding during the summer months. Hiking and rock-climbing are also popular activities, and picnic areas dot the canyon for its many hikers.
Facilities
The Portal Bunkhouse is a two-room cabin, suitable for up to four people. It has electricity, heater, and running water. The cabin has a bedroom with bathroom including a shower, sink, and toilet; and a kitchen with a dining area. The bedroom has a twin-over-double bunk bed and a single bed. A small dinette with seating for four is located in the kitchen, which is equipped with a stove, oven, microwave, refrigerator, and coffee pot. Pots, pans, utensils, and dishes are provided. Outside, guests will enjoy using the propane grill and picnic table for outdoor dining. Although the cabin has amenities for comfortable lodging, guests will need to provide some of their own supplies, including food, sleeping bags or linens, pillows, towels, dish soap, matches, a first aid kit, toilet paper, and garbage bags. It is recommended that guests bring additional drinking water, and a flashlight in case of emergencies.
Natural Features
The Portal Bunkhouse is located at the entrance to Cave Creek Canyon at an elevation of 5,000 feet. The canyon's soaring cliffs, with their caves and pinnacles, are often described as "Arizona's 'Secret' Grand Canyon." Cave Creek, a perennial stream, flows through the canyon nearby. The diverse wildlife that can be seen in the canyon include a stunning variety of bird species.
Nearby Attractions
The Portal Bunkhouse is located approximately 1 mile west of Portal, Arizona. Attractions in the area include Chiricahua National Monument, Fort Bowie National Historical Park, historic Camp Rucker, the Geronimo Surrender sites, and the International Border and the border community of Douglas, AZ.
What the agency tells you
Pets are NOT permitted inside or outside the cabin. Unfortunately, due to a history of pet owners inadequately cleaning up after their pets, pets are no longer allowed. Forest Service staff have limited time to complete weekly cabin cleaning. Cleaning service is not cost effective due to the rural location of the cabins. Eliminating the need to vacuum pet hair, neutralize odors, and pick up poop frees up staff time to cleaning cabin amenities and address repair needs.
Access to the bunkhouse is via a driveway on the west side of the facility, accessible by passenger car. Access to the cabin is a combination lock located on the left-side front door. The combination for the lock is provided once a reservation is made.
A cabin manual with information about the facilities, well as area recreational information, is located inside the cabin.
Everything else this campground posts · 9
Cleaning service is NOT provided. Before leaving, renters are expected to clean the cabin; this includes washing dishes, sweeping floors, wiping down countertops, cleaning the bathroom & shower, and removing ALL trash.
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.
Keep the building and grounds clean to deter squirrel, rodents, bears, and other wildlife from the area.
Cell phone coverage is usually available in the area, but may be unreliable in the cabin.
The house is located in a desert environment; please be aware that scorpions, snakes, and other insects may be present at any time.
Off-highway vehicles are only allowed on designated roads and trails.
The cabin is a no-smoking facility.
This cabin does not honor Golden Age Discounts.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- 1 electric
- Longest rig
- 20 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Not allowed
- Campfires
- Not allowed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Showers
- Yes, the record doesn’t say what kind
- Shower/Bath Type states a shower on all 1 of this campground's campsite records
- Drinking water
- Yes
- DRINKING WATER on 1 of 1 campsite records
Around the campground
- On the water
- River, Creek
- Hiking
- Night sky · 25th darkest of 262 in AZ
- Bortle 2
Full this Saturdayread 16:38 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
2 campgrounds have sites open within 30 miles, read 16:43 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 · 2
Sites the agency is offering this Friday and Saturday that nobody has taken, nearest first. read 16:43 UTC
- Portal CCC HouseCoronado National Forest · 0.2 mi · 1 of 2 site-nights open
- Bonita Canyon CampgroundChiricahua National Monument · 14 mi · 4 of 46 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.
| PORTAL BUNKHOUSE | PORTAL BUNKHOUSE | cabin electric | 20 ft | 1.2 mi | $100 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Portal CCC HouseCoronado National Forest · 0.2 miIdlewilde CampgroundCoronado National Forest · 0.4 mi
Sunny Flat CampgroundCoronado National Forest · 1.2 mi
Herb Martyr CampgroundCoronado National Forest · 4.6 mi
Rustler Park CampgroundCoronado National Forest · 6.9 mi
Sycamore CampgroundCoronado National Forest · 10 miFrom Tucson, take I-10 east for 139 miles to Road Forks, NM. Turn right (south) on US 80 and drive 28 miles to Portal Road. Turn right (west) and drive 7 miles through the town of Portal. Turn left on Forest Road 42 for approximately 1 mile. The Bunkhouse is the rock masonry building just past the Visitor Information Center.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Rodeo, NM
Typical weather
Typical October night 41°F, day 75°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 25°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 Junes are colder than the June 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
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Portal Bunkhouse 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 Portal Bunkhouse, Coronado National Forest, Arizona
Dear Juan Ciscomani, I’m a constituent in Arizona’s 6th district. I tried to camp at Portal Bunkhouse, Coronado National Forest, Arizona, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Portal Bunkhouse 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. Portal Bunkhouse keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Portal Bunkhouse. 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 Portal Bunkhouse (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 Portal Bunkhouse, Coronado National Forest, Arizona
Dear Mark Kelly, I’m a constituent in Arizona. I tried to camp at Portal Bunkhouse, Coronado National Forest, Arizona, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Portal Bunkhouse 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. Portal Bunkhouse keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Portal Bunkhouse. 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 Portal Bunkhouse (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 Portal Bunkhouse, Coronado National Forest, Arizona
Dear Ruben Gallego, I’m a constituent in Arizona. I tried to camp at Portal Bunkhouse, Coronado National Forest, Arizona, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Portal Bunkhouse 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. Portal Bunkhouse keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Portal Bunkhouse. 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 Portal Bunkhouse (Coronado National Forest, Arizona) via campanac.com