Sharp Creek
We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →
- Right now
- OpenThe agency lists it open
- A night
- $29From, per site
- Sites
- 20All of them booked ahead
- Season
- April 1 – October 31Open April 1 through October 31
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 6 notices
In the agency’s own words
Sharp Creek is a small campground located in an area of central Arizona known for its pleasant temperatures, spectacular scenery and outdoor recreation. There are tent-only, family and group sites to accommodate a wide range of visitors. Keep reading
Recreation
The campground is in a central location for hiking, fishing, boating and picnicking. Anglers can try for trout in nearby Christopher Creek. Hikers and Mountain Bikers can access the National Recreation Highline Trail, which spans 63 miles along the base of the Mogollon Rim, from the 260 Trail three miles east of the campground. Two lakes nearby offer additional fishing and boating options.
Facilities
Sharp Creek is a small campground with 28 campsites conveniently spread out into 3 loops. Campsites are spacious, comfortable and well-maintained, with some shade. Each has a picnic table, grill, campfire ring and lantern holder. One additional loop contains three group campsites that can each accommodate 75 people. 19 Sites are reservable and 9 sites are first-come, first-serve. Payment for first-come, first-serve sites is completed using the on-site fee machine. No cash is accepted.
Natural Features
Sharp Creek sits at a cool 6,000 feet elevation, perfect for escaping the desert heat of southern Arizona and getting away to shaded forests and refreshing creeks and lakes. It is surrounded by a thick ponderosa pine forest below the Mogollon Rim. The clear waters of Christopher Creek are less than a mile away. The Mogollon Rim, pronounced by locals as "muggy-own," is 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 small town of Christopher Creek is less than a mile away and has a few restaurant and shopping options for basic conveniences. Woods Canyon and Willow Springs Lakes sit above the Mogollon Rim, only a 10-minute drive away, and offer boating and fishing. The National Recreation Highline Trail is just a few miles east on Highway 260.
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.
No off-highway vehicles allowed off the main campground road.
No firewood sales available at campground. Plan to purchase ahead of time.
Everything else this campground posts · 3
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 10:00pm through 6:00am.
Maximum stay limit is 14 days within 30 consecutive days on the Tonto National Forest including dispersed sites.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 20 · 3 tent-only, 3 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 120 ft
- Paved pads
- All
- Accessible sites
- 3
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 91st darkest of 262 in AZ
- Bortle 3
Full this Saturdayread 16:20 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBooked
Every one of the 19 sites on offer is taken this Friday and Saturday. 20 are free on Tue, Oct 20. read 16:20 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 · 14
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $29 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 16:20 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
20 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 20 mapped sitesAll 20 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. 20 of the 20 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.
| Juniper | 019 | standard nonelectric | 52 ft | 82 ft | 1,729 ft | $29 | |
| Juniper | 020 | standard nonelectric | 64 ft | 87 ft | 1,631 ft | $29 | |
| Juniper | 021 | standard nonelectric | 57 ft | 87 ft | 1,557 ft | $29 | |
| Juniper | 024 | standard nonelectric | 80 ft | 270 ft | 1,303 ft | $29 | |
| Juniper | 027 | standard nonelectric | 70 ft | yes | 118 ft | 1,571 ft | $29 |
| Juniper | 028 | standard nonelectric | 74 ft | 82 ft | 1,665 ft | $29 | |
| MANZ | 1 | group standard nonelectric | 623 ft | 629 ft | $150 | ||
| MANZ | 2 | group standard nonelectric | yes | 108 ft | 1,063 ft | $150 | |
| MANZ | 3 | group standard nonelectric | 639 ft | 498 ft | $150 | ||
| Oak | 007 | standard nonelectric | 56 ft | 114 ft | 1,935 ft | $29 | |
| Oak | 008 | standard nonelectric | 69 ft | 114 ft | 2,032 ft | $29 | |
| Oak | 011 | standard nonelectric | 83 ft | 183 ft | 2,034 ft | $29 | |
| Oak | 013 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | yes | 146 ft | 2,314 ft | $29 |
| Oak | 014 | standard nonelectric | 120 ft | 126 ft | 2,356 ft | $29 | |
| Oak | 016 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 95 ft | 2,252 ft | $29 | |
| Oak | 017 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 95 ft | 2,159 ft | $29 | |
| Oak | 018 | standard nonelectric | 64 ft | 207 ft | 2,017 ft | $29 | |
| Pine | 001 | tent only nonelectric | 25 ft | 312 ft | 2,411 ftHunter Creek | $29 | |
| Pine | 002 | tent only nonelectric | 25 ft | 108 ft | 1,169 ft | $29 | |
| Pine | 005 | tent only nonelectric | 25 ft | 462 ft | 2,456 ft | $29 |
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.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Christopher CreekTonto National Forest · 2.2 mi
Mogollon CampgroundSitgreaves National Forest · 2.8 miFr 9350 CampgroundSitgreaves National Forest · 2.9 mi
Crook CampgroundSitgreaves National Forest · 3.4 miAspen CampgroundSitgreaves National Forest · 3.5 mi
Aspen (AZ)Sitgreaves National Forest · 3.5 miThis facility is located 23 miles northeast of Payson, Arizona, approximately 1.5 miles east of Christopher Creek. From Payson, take Highway 260 east for 23 miles. The campground is on the south side of Highway 260.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Hunter Creek, AZ
Typical weather
Typical October night 40°F, day 72°F.
Coldest night of the open season: typical April night 36°F. Bring the bag rated for it.
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
who answers for it · a letter you can send
Who answers for this land
Sharp Creek 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 Sharp Creek, Tonto National Forest, Arizona
Dear Elijah Crane, I’m a constituent in Arizona’s 2nd district. I tried to camp at Sharp Creek, Tonto National Forest, Arizona, and couldn’t. All 20 sites at Sharp Creek are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 19 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. Sharp Creek keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Sharp Creek. 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 Sharp Creek (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 Sharp Creek, Tonto National Forest, Arizona
Dear Mark Kelly, I’m a constituent in Arizona. I tried to camp at Sharp Creek, Tonto National Forest, Arizona, and couldn’t. All 20 sites at Sharp Creek are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 19 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. Sharp Creek keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Sharp Creek. 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 Sharp Creek (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 Sharp Creek, Tonto National Forest, Arizona
Dear Ruben Gallego, I’m a constituent in Arizona. I tried to camp at Sharp Creek, Tonto National Forest, Arizona, and couldn’t. All 20 sites at Sharp Creek are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 19 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. Sharp Creek keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Sharp Creek. 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 Sharp Creek (Tonto National Forest, Arizona) via campanac.com