Upper Hospital Flat Group Site
- Right now
- OpenThe agency lists it open
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
- Season
- April 15 – November 14Open April 15 through November 14
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 14 notices
In the agency’s own words
Upper Hospital Flat is a great place for groups to escape the summer heat of surrounding deserts and retreat to a scenic meadow in the Pinaleño Mountains of southeastern Arizona. The area is known for camping, scenic driving, picnicking, birding, wildlife viewing, hiking, mountain biking and history. In the 1880s, the campground served as the site for a field hospital for ailing soldiers from nearby Fort Grant, hence its name. The restorative powers of this cool, high-elevation location also attracted officers and their families seeking a summer refuge from desert heat. Today, Hospital Flat serves as popular getaway for outdoor enthusiasts and campers. Keep reading
Recreation
The campground lies along the Swift Trail Scenic Drive, which takes visitors from the Sonoran Desert at 2,900 feet to alpine meadows and forest on the 9,000+ foot ridges of the Pinaleño Range. Because of its diverse habitat, the area is well-known for birding and wildlife watching. Nearby Hospital Flat Campground includes a 0.75-mile nature trail that gives interpretive information about the meadow and its plant and animal inhabitants. The Swift Trail also provides access to a number of hiking, horseback riding and mountain biking trails, along with several other campgrounds that invite you for an afternoon picnic. A trip up to Rigg’s Lake, stocked with trout by Arizona Game & Fish, or to the Columbine Visitors Center could make a worth-while day trip as well.
Facilities
Upper Hospital Flat can accommodate a group of up to 50 people. Several first-come, first-served individual sites are located nearby in the Hospital Flat Campground (must pay separately). The group site is equipped with a picnic table, parking area and campfire ring with a grill. Dead-and-down firewood may be collected in and around the campsite. Note: There are no toilets on site. One portable/self-contained toilet is required for every 15 people. The road leading into the group site is mainly suitable for higher-clearance vehicles.
Natural Features
The campground sits along Big Creek in a mixed conifer forest, adjacent to a meadow that comes to life with wildflower blooms in late summer. The 9,000-ft. elevation offers pleasant summer temperatures. The Coronado National Forest covers 1.78 million acres of southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico. Elevations range from 3,000 to 10,720 feet in 12 widely scattered mountain ranges, or "sky islands," that rise dramatically from the desert floor, supporting biologically diverse plant communities.
Nearby Attractions
The Mount Graham Wilderness Study Area, which includes the 10,720-foot Mount Graham, the tallest mountain in southern Arizona. Columbine Visitors Center, Riggs Lake, and a variety of trails can be accessed along the Swift Trail Scenic Drive. The town of Safford is approximately a 1 hour drive from the Hospital Flat campground, heading north on SR 191. Safford is home to our Ranger Station, where you can go to find information about trails, camping, hunting and fishing, and other questions you may have about our district (open Monday-Friday, 8am-4:30pm).
Charges & Cancellations
Please review the Rules & Reservations Policies page on recreation.gov
What the agency tells you
No drinking water provided; visitors must bring their own
No toilets provided; one portable/self-contained toilet is required for every 15 people
No trash cans provided; remove trash from the Forest prior to leaving the campsite, including garbage in food-storage lockers
Everything else this campground posts · 11
Season dates may depend on weather and fire conditions; call 928-428-4150 for current information
Total vehicle length must be less than 40 feet. Trailers are recommended to be less than 22 feet due to the narrow switchbacks of AZ 366.
No hookups available
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 Lower Hospital Flat 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
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
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- None. Pack out what you bring in
- “…in and around the campsite. Note: There are no toilets on site. One portable/self-contained toilet is…”
- Firewood
- Sold here
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek, Meadow
- Biking
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Horseback riding
- Picnicking
- Ranger Station
- Scenic drives
- Visitor center
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 135th darkest of 262 in AZ
- Bortle 3
Nothing on the booking system for the next 30 nightsread 16:13 UTC
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
Every one of the next thirty nights is in recreation.gov’s record and not one site is being offered on any of them. That’s a campground closed or not yet released for booking, not a sold-out one.
Watch for a cancellation
Full? Watch it.
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 · 11
What you actually pay
“Please review the Rules & Reservations Policies page on recreation.gov” · this campground’s own terms
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 16:13 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
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 1 of the 1 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
| UPPER HOSPITAL FLAT GROUP SITE | Upper Hospital Flat Group Site | group standard area nonelectric | 40 ft | 48 ft | 1,173 ft |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Shannon CampgroundCoronado National Forest · 1.2 mi
Cunningham CampgroundCoronado National Forest · 1.4 miSnow Flat Dispersed Camping AreaCoronado National Forest · 1.5 mi
Lower Twilight Group SiteCoronado National Forest · 3.2 miFrom Safford, Arizona: Take State Route 191 south for 6 miles. Turn right onto State Route 366/Swift Trail and travel 23.3 miles to the Upper Hospital Group Site entrance on the right (MM 137.2).
From Tucson, Arizona: Take I-10 east for 90 miles. Take exit 352 for State Route 191, and turn left toward Safford. Drive 26.3 miles north and turn left on State Route 366/Swift Trail. Continue for 23.3 miles to the Upper Hospital Group Site entrance on the right (MM 137.2).
The weather
the next four days
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Swift Trail Junction, AZ
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Upper Hospital Flat Group Site 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 →