TIMBER CAMP RECREATION AREA and GROUP CAMPGROUNDS
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
- $16From, per site
- Sites
- 15All of them booked ahead
- Season
- Year-roundOpen year-round
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 7 notices
In the agency’s own words
Timber Camp Recreation Area has one of the most popular family and group campgrounds in the Tonto National Forest offering both day-use sites and over-night areas. Keep reading
Recreation
Abundant recreation opportunities such as cross-country horseback riding, hiking, in-season hunting, exploring, off-highway vehicle use and wildlife viewing are in close proximity. In the spring, whitewater rafting trips on the Upper Salt River launch a mere 20-minute drive from the site. Brundrett 2 and the equestrian sites are excellent places to stage authorized outdoor group events (a separate permit may be required). While there are no dedicated equestrian trails, the surrounding terrain is ideal for cross-country horseback riding.
Facilities
Brundrett 2 is a group camping area available for advanced reservations for overnight and day use. The stay limit is 14 days, and trailers must be less than 45 feet. Brundrett 2 accommodates up to 150 people maximum and offers a large open gravel lot providing ample space for group activities. There is an open parking area for approximately 15 RVs or 25 passenger vehicles. Accessible vault toilets, campfire rings, grills, a pavilion and tables are provided. The equestrian site is available for advanced reservations for overnight and day use. This is a Non Electric site. Non-equestrian use is not permitted, site is reservable for equestrian use only. The stay limit is 14 days, and trailers must be less than 45 feet. There is a 150 person maximum for this group site. The facility offers steel corrals, two hitching rails, manure bins and open parking for about 25 vehicles pulling trailers up to 45 feet. In addition, the area includes a large group gathering area with pavilion with picnic tables, group cooking grill and serving tables. The group site is fenced, and the front entrance gated. Brundrett 1 is a first-come, first-served camping area with 13 individual campsites (12 single occupancy, 1 double occupancy) and a fee payable on site. This area has a large shade pavilion, picnic tables, fire grills and rings and two accessible vault toilets. There is a first-come, first-served day use facility located nearby.
Natural Features
Located within the Timber Camp Mountains and surrounded by a ponderosa pine and juniper woodland, this area offers a cool get away from the hot summer months. Five miles east of the site, the area eventually meets the ledges and beautiful vistas of the Salt River Canyon and the Salt River Canyon Wilderness.
Nearby Attractions
Approximately 10 miles north along Highway 60, on White Mountain Apache Tribal Lands, lies Seneca Lake and Falls, a popular recreation area for sightseeing and fishing (WMAT permit required). As you continue further north along Highway 60, the road cascades down into the Salt River Canyon where several overlooks allow you to capture the magnificent beauty of "Arizona's other Grand Canyon". Only 24 miles south from Timber Camp, the City of Globe offers an array of restaurants, as well as antique, grocery, and feed and tack stores.
What the agency tells you
Weather is more often ideal in the fall and spring. The area is at an elevation of 6,000 ft. and may receive as much as a foot of snow during a winter storm. The summer months are warm but tolerable, with the temperature ranging from 85-100 degrees.
During Arizona's monsoon season, in the months of July and August, frequent afternoon or evening thunderstorms occur and there is the possibility of flash flooding in the surrounding area.
Bears and other wildlife live in the forest, so be familiar with avoidance practices.
Everything else this campground posts · 4
Water and electrical hookups are not available at this recreation area.
Trash service is not available; Pack it in, Pack it out.
A special use permit may be required if you're planning on having a large event with over 75 people, or are charging fees of any kind. If you have questions, please contact the Globe Ranger District for more information at (928) 402-6200.
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
- 15 · 2 group, 1 equestrian
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 45 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…RVs or 25 passenger vehicles. Accessible vault toilets, campfire rings, grills, a pavilion and tables are…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River
- Hiking
- Horseback riding
- Water sports
- Night sky · 98th darkest of 262 in AZ
- Bortle 3
Full this Saturdayread 16:53 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBookedNot on the booking system
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
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $16 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 16:53 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
15 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 15 mapped sitesAll 15 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. 13 of the 15 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Brundrett 1 | 001 | standard nonelectric | 74 ft | 1.9 mi | $16 | |
| Brundrett 1 | 002 | standard nonelectric | 74 ft | 1.9 mi | $16 | |
| Brundrett 1 | 003 | standard nonelectric | 68 ft | 1.9 mi | $16 | |
| Brundrett 1 | 004 | standard nonelectric | 68 ft | 1.9 mi | $16 | |
| Brundrett 1 | 005 | standard nonelectric | 73 ft | 1.9 mi | $16 | |
| Brundrett 1 | 006 | standard nonelectric | 58 ft | 1.9 mi | $16 | |
| Brundrett 1 | 007 | standard nonelectric | 58 ft | 2.0 mi | $16 | |
| Brundrett 1 | 008 | standard nonelectric | 68 ft | 2.0 mi | $16 | |
| Brundrett 1 | 009 | standard nonelectric | 68 ft | 2.0 mi | $16 | |
| Brundrett 1 | 010 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | 1.9 mi | $16 | |
| Brundrett 1 | 011 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | 1.9 mi | $16 | |
| Brundrett 1 | 012 | standard nonelectric | 136 ft | 1.9 mi | $16 | |
| Brundrett 1 | 013 | standard nonelectric | 75 ft | 1.9 mi | $16 | |
| Brundrett 2 | Brundrett 2 | group standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 490 ft | 1.8 mi | |
| Equestrian Group | Equestrian Group | group equestrian | 45 ft | 5157 ft | 2.9 mi |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Schoolhouse Campground (AZ)Tonto National Forest · 26 mi
Reynolds Creek Group CampgroundTonto National Forest · 27 mi
Reynolds Creek Group Camp (ID)Tonto National Forest · 27 mi
Grapevine Group CampgroundTonto National Forest · 28 mi
Kellner Group CampgroundTonto National Forest · 29 mi
Windy Hill CampgroundTonto National Forest · 30 miFrom Globe, head north on Highway 60 toward Showlow for about 20 miles. The campground is adjacent to Highway 60 and south of the Seneca Lake Recreation Area.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Copper Hill, AZ
Typical weather
Typical October night 40°F, day 72°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 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 · a letter you can send
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
TIMBER CAMP RECREATION AREA and GROUP CAMPGROUNDS 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 TIMBER CAMP RECREATION AREA and GROUP CAMPGROUNDS, Tonto National Forest, Arizona
Dear Elijah Crane, I’m a constituent in Arizona’s 2nd district. I tried to camp at TIMBER CAMP RECREATION AREA and GROUP CAMPGROUNDS, Tonto National Forest, Arizona, and couldn’t. All 15 sites at TIMBER CAMP RECREATION AREA and GROUP CAMPGROUNDS are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 2 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. TIMBER CAMP RECREATION AREA and GROUP CAMPGROUNDS keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run TIMBER CAMP RECREATION AREA and GROUP CAMPGROUNDS. 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 TIMBER CAMP RECREATION AREA and GROUP CAMPGROUNDS (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 TIMBER CAMP RECREATION AREA and GROUP CAMPGROUNDS, Tonto National Forest, Arizona
Dear Mark Kelly, I’m a constituent in Arizona. I tried to camp at TIMBER CAMP RECREATION AREA and GROUP CAMPGROUNDS, Tonto National Forest, Arizona, and couldn’t. All 15 sites at TIMBER CAMP RECREATION AREA and GROUP CAMPGROUNDS are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 2 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. TIMBER CAMP RECREATION AREA and GROUP CAMPGROUNDS keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run TIMBER CAMP RECREATION AREA and GROUP CAMPGROUNDS. 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 TIMBER CAMP RECREATION AREA and GROUP CAMPGROUNDS (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 TIMBER CAMP RECREATION AREA and GROUP CAMPGROUNDS, Tonto National Forest, Arizona
Dear Ruben Gallego, I’m a constituent in Arizona. I tried to camp at TIMBER CAMP RECREATION AREA and GROUP CAMPGROUNDS, Tonto National Forest, Arizona, and couldn’t. All 15 sites at TIMBER CAMP RECREATION AREA and GROUP CAMPGROUNDS are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 2 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. TIMBER CAMP RECREATION AREA and GROUP CAMPGROUNDS keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run TIMBER CAMP RECREATION AREA and GROUP CAMPGROUNDS. 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 TIMBER CAMP RECREATION AREA and GROUP CAMPGROUNDS (Tonto National Forest, Arizona) via campanac.com