Riggs Lake
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 29 of the next 30 nights read 15:35 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
Riggs Flat Lake is located at the end of Swift Trail, a road that winds along the top of the Pinaleno Mountains. It is a small picturesque lake, 11 acres in size, set in alpine forest and meadow. Its cold waters are stocked during the summer with rainbow, brown and brook trout, and anglers report that the fishing is usually good. Best baits for the rainbows are corn, cheese, garlic cheese, salmon eggs, and worms. The brown and brook trout are taken on artificial lures and flies as well. Small boats are permitted on the lake, but most people fish from the shoreline. If the big ones aren’t biting, there is always plenty of scenery to enjoy. In addition to the views of the lake and the surrounding forest, West Peak is visible from the vicinity of the lake. So are Aravaipa Valley and the Galiuro Mountains to the west if you don't mind taking a short hike to get to an overlook. Keep reading
Recreation
Day use: A Coronado National Forest or Interagency (America the Beautiful) pass must be displayed. Day use passes can be purchased at the site for $8. For visitors who do not want to use facilities, there is a small fee-free parking area outside of the campground. A valid Arizona fishing license and trout stamp (available at outdoor stores around the state) is required for all anglers 14 years of age and older. Six trout is the daily limit and the possession limit. Using live bait fish is prohibited. Fishing season is May to October, day and night. Boats are permitted on the lake, but only single electric motors may be used.
Facilities
Nearest first aid - Mt. Graham Community Hospital in Safford. Boat ramp, fee charged for some activities, picnic tables, toilets, parking Contact Info This location is unstaffed. To speak with our main office for general information, please call: (928) 428-4150. Nearby Attractions
What the agency tells you
There is a $5 per vehicle fee. Please pay by cash or check at the Fee Station upon arrival
Season dates may depend on weather and fire conditions; call 928-428-4150 for current information
No hookups available
Everything else this campground posts · 9
Check-in is at 2 p.m.; check-out is at noon
Be sure your fire is completely extinguished before leaving; do not leave fires unattended. Only dead-and-downed trees and shrubs may be collected as firewood; tree cutting is prohibited
Bears live in the area; make sure all food is secure and trash is disposed of properly
Pack and saddle stock are not permitted in Riggs camping area
Shooting is prohibited within 150 yards of any recreation site. Fireworks are prohibited anywhere on the Forest.
This is a high elevation facility; please use caution when traveling from lower elevations
Nearest first aid - Mt. Graham Community Hospital in Safford
Click here to learn more about Coronado National Forest
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
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- VAULT TOILETS on 1 of 1 campsite records
- Drinking water
- Yes
- DRINKING WATER (PEAK SEASON) on 1 of 1 campsite records
- Boat ramp
- Yes
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Beach, Meadow
- Backpacking
- Birding
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Picnicking
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 112th darkest of 262 in AZ
- Bortle 3
Full this Saturdayread 15:35 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBookedNot on the booking system
The one site on offer is taken this Friday and Saturday. 1 is free on Mon, Oct 19. read 15:35 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 · 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
recreation.gov availability, read 15:35 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 sites
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.
| A | Riggs Lake Group Site | group standard nonelectric | 40 ft | $50 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Riggs Flat CampgroundCoronado National Forest · 0.0 mi
Soldier Creek CampgroundCoronado National Forest · 2.5 mi
Columbine Corrals CampgroundCoronado National Forest · 2.9 mi
Cunningham CampgroundCoronado National Forest · 4.5 mi
Upper Hospital Flat Group SiteCoronado National Forest · 5.9 miTreasure Park - EastCoronado National Forest · 6.1 miFrom Safford, drive south 8 miles on US 191 to AZ 366. Turn right (southwest) onto 366 and drive 29 miles to the Columbine Work Center. Continue along Forest Roads 803 and 287 about 5 miles to the campground. The last 12 miles of this road are narrow and winding.
The agency publishes this point for 2 campgrounds; it’s likely a district office, not the campground. Use the agency’s own page for directions.
The weather
the next four days
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Thatcher, AZ
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
Riggs Lake 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 Riggs Lake, Coronado National Forest, Arizona
Dear Juan Ciscomani, I’m a constituent in Arizona’s 6th district. I tried to camp at Riggs Lake, Coronado National Forest, Arizona, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Riggs Lake 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. Riggs Lake keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Riggs Lake. 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 Riggs Lake (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 Riggs Lake, Coronado National Forest, Arizona
Dear Mark Kelly, I’m a constituent in Arizona. I tried to camp at Riggs Lake, Coronado National Forest, Arizona, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Riggs Lake 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. Riggs Lake keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Riggs Lake. 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 Riggs Lake (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 Riggs Lake, Coronado National Forest, Arizona
Dear Ruben Gallego, I’m a constituent in Arizona. I tried to camp at Riggs Lake, Coronado National Forest, Arizona, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Riggs Lake 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. Riggs Lake keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Riggs Lake. 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 Riggs Lake (Coronado National Forest, Arizona) via campanac.com