U.S. Forest Service · Prescott National Forest · AZ
Powell Springs Campground
First come, first servedNo reservation, and none to be had: the sites go to whoever pulls in first.
This is how it should work.
- Right now
- OpenThe agency lists it open
- Season
- Year-roundOpen year-round
5,280 ftElevation
1,452 ftWater · an unnamed stream
7.4 miW of Camp Verde, AZ
10%Tree cover
Bortle 4Night sky · 168th darkest of 262 in AZ
Open year-roundToday
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there
In the agency’s own words
A historic campground built by the CCC, Powell Springs is flanked by Hackberry Wash, a seasonal creek. Ponderosa pines provide shade in the campground, and riparian vegetation grows along the wash. View photos on Flickr Note: This site closes following especially heavy rain or snow, and when the roads are too icy. If you plan to visit and want to make sure it is open, please contact the Verde Ranger Station: 928-567-4121. When the office is closed, please check the right-hand column under "Alerts and Warnings" to see if there are weather-related closures, and follow the link to see if this site is closed or on a reduced schedule. Keep reading
Facilities
11 campsites 12 picnic tables 2 fireplaces 9 fire pits 11 pedestal grills No drinking water Vault toilet No garbage service - Please pack it out
Source: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “No drinking water Vault toilet”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…9 fire pits 11 pedestal grills No drinking water Vault toilet No garbage service - Please pack it…”
Source: read from the agency description, shown above · Sep 12, 2026
Around the campground
- On the water
- Creek
- Fall color · reported 3 days ago, 33 km away
- Patchy color
Source: Stated in the agency description
Fall color: More Than Just Parks foliage tracker, joined to this campground by distance (33 km) · Oct 14, 2026
Nothing to book, just show up
One of 1,623 federal campgrounds where the site still goes to whoever pulls in first. Get there before noon on a summer weekend.
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.
BookingNo reservationsNothing to book, and no release date to wait forthe record
Runs itU.S. Forest Servicethe agency’s record
Every line of the receipt · 4
What you actually pay
The sign priceU.S. Forest Service
The U.S. Forest Service publishes no per-night rate for this campground that we can read, so there’s no sign price to print. That’s a gap in the record, not a free campground.
None
The booking feerecreation.gov
Nothing. This campground takes no bookings, so there’s no reservation fee to pay.
What a stay costs
The agency publishes no nightly rate for this campground, so there’s no total to show.
How we know this receipt · 4
Booking fee, change fee, cancellation fee, no-show: Rules and Reservation Policies, Recreation.gov, the published fee schedule, curated by hand into lib/reservation-fee-schedule.json (9 rows, each carrying its own verbatim sentence). The publisher states these policies were last updated September 2019. · Sep 9, 2026
The two totals: Derived by CAMPANAC by adding the agency’s own published nightly rate to recreation.gov’s own published reservation fee. Both components are cited above; the addition is ours and is shown only where every component is known. · Sep 9, 2026
Who keeps the booking fee: Recreation.gov facility policy text, Dead Swede Campground (facility 234221) · Not on the national policy page. This is agency policy text recreation.gov publishes on individual campground pages; this site holds it verbatim on 45 active campgrounds (campground_rules.cancellation_description, scripts/load-facility-rules.mjs). · Sep 9, 2026
The contract: Reservation Gods: Who Stole Our Campsites and Sold Them Back to Us, More Than Just Parks, April 2025 · Apr 1, 2025
Source: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026
record Aug 24, 2026 · How we know all this
Getting there
the map and the coordinate
Where it is
Also near here
Mingus Mountain Campground and Group SitePrescott National Forest · 8.4 mi
Playground Group9.2 mi
Potato Patch CampgroundPrescott National Forest · 10 mi
Sycamore CabinPrescott National Forest · 17 mi
Clear Creek Campground (AZ)Coconino National Forest · 18 mi
Hilltop Campground (AZ)Prescott National Forest · 19 mi
Mingus Mountain Campground and Group SitePrescott National Forest · 8.4 miPlayground Group9.2 miPotato Patch CampgroundPrescott National Forest · 10 miSycamore CabinPrescott National Forest · 17 miClear Creek Campground (AZ)Coconino National Forest · 18 miHilltop Campground (AZ)Prescott National Forest · 19 miSource: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
This Afternoon64°Slight Chance Rain Showers22% rain
Tonight49°Chance Rain Showers54% rain
Sunday64°Chance Rain Showers41% rain
Sunday Night49°Slight Chance Rain Showers then Partly Cloudy20% rain
NWS forecast for Camp Verde, AZ
Source: National Weather Service, FGZ forecast office · Oct 17, 2026
Typical weather
Typical October night 53°F, day 71°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 34°F. Bring the bag rated for it.
100°30°
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.
Measured at: JEROME, AZ (USC00024453), 12 miles away and 330 ft lower
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.
Source: USFS Inventoried Roadless Areas via MTJP Roadless Map · Jul 29, 2026
Who answers for this land
Powell Springs Campground 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 →
How we know
every fact on this page, and where it came from
Right now: The agency lists it open right now.
Season: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026
Elevation: USGS 3DEP elevation point query at this campground’s coordinate · Sep 7, 2026
Tree cover: NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC), one 30 m cell at this coordinate · Sep 9, 2026
Fall color: More Than Just Parks foliage tracker, joined to this campground by distance (33 km) · Oct 14, 2026
Reported by: USA National Phenology Network (Nature's Notebook), reported patchy color · Oct 14, 2026
Cell signal: the Forest Service’s own campground description, read as text by CAMPANAC. None of this is a measurement. It’s what the land manager published about the place, and phones, carriers and weather all disagree with each other; treat it as a warning, not a promise.