Whitetail Campground
We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →
- Right now
- OpenInside the published season, our reading; a database flag says not open
- Sites
- 5All of them booked ahead
- Season
- April 1Opens April 1. No closing date published.
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 12 notices
In the agency’s own words
Whitetail Campground offers group campsites in the foothills of the Catalina Mountains of southeastern Arizona, 5 miles south of the town of Summerhaven and the top of Mt. Lemmon. Groups can enjoy picking, hiking, camping and wildlife watching while enjoying a cool respite from hot summer. The facility can accommodate groups for day or overnight use. Keep reading
Recreation
Hiking and sightseeing are popular activities. The surrounding national forest boasts a variety of trails, including some on the 9,157-foot Mt. Lemmon, for those who wish to venture away from the campground for the day. The University of Arizona runs an observatory just up the road, and visitors can also drive a few minutes to the small town of Summerhaven, which offers amenities and attractions on Mt. Lemmon's summit. Anglers can try for stocked trout at nearby Rose Canyon Lake.
Facilities
All five group areas have picnic shelters that can accommodate between 40 to 90 people each and come equipped with drinking water, electricity (small appliances only), trash collection and vault toilets.
Natural Features
Whitetail Campground sits high on the slopes of the Santa Catalina Mountains at an elevation of 8,000 feet. Because of its elevation, it can be much cooler than the lower-elevation campgrounds in the area. The campsites are spacious and spread out among stands of big ponderosa pines 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
Catalina Highway, also known as General Hitchcock Highway and Sky Island Scenic Byway, is the only paved road that leads to the upper reaches of Mt. Lemmon and the Santa Catalina Range, offering a scenic day trip. Other notable attractions include Saguaro National Park, Sabino Canyon and Colossal Cave.
What the agency tells you
RV hookups are not available
A Catalina Mountain Fee Demo Pass is required for many other points of interest in the forest in this area
Fires must be in provided campfire circles only
Everything else this campground posts · 9
This is a high elevation facility; use caution when traveling from lower elevations
Bears and other animals live in the area; all food must be secured and trash disposed in the trash cans provided
Credit cards are not accepted. Only cash and Arizona checks are accepted
Fire Restrictions: Fire restrictions may be imposed at any time due to hot, dry weather conditions, at which time campfires and charcoal fires may not be allowed.
Reserved Sites will be held until check out time (NOON) the day following your arrival date. Sites must be occupied by the checkout time of that following day to hold a reservation or the site will be forfeited and released to other guests. Once your reservation start date has begun, neither the Recreation.gov Contact Center nor the campground manager will be able to modify your reservation.
Refunds: Refund requests made through www.recreation.gov will be charged a $10 processing fee. This fee is retained by the reservation service contractor along with the non-refundable reservation fee. All requests for the return of the non-refundable reservation fee and the cancellation fee will be declined by the campground concessionaire as they did not receive these fees (these are the fees retained by the reservation contractor, a different entity).
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.
Click here to learn more about Coronado National Forest
Maximum trailer length is 26 feet.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 5 · 5 group
- Hookups
- 5 electric
- Longest rig
- 26 ft
- Paved pads
- All
- Accessible sites
- 1
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…appliances only), trash collection and vault toilets. Natural Features Whitetail Campground sits high on…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…to 90 people each and come equipped with drinking water, electricity (small appliances only), trash…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake
- Hiking
- Night sky · 245th darkest of 262 in AZ
- Bortle 4
Full this Saturdayread 16:32 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
3 campgrounds have sites open within 30 miles, read 16:17 UTC. See them
OpenBooked
Every one of the 3 sites on offer is taken this Saturday. 4 are free on Tue, Oct 20. read 16:32 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
Open within 30 miles this weekend · 3
Sites the agency is offering this Friday and Saturday that nobody has taken, nearest first. read 16:17 UTC
- Sabino Canyon Recreation Area Cactus Ramada 2Coronado National Forest · 8.1 mi · 1 of 1 site-night open
- Sabino Canyon Recreation Area Cactus Ramada 1Coronado National Forest · 8.1 mi · 1 of 1 site-night open
- Saguaro National Park Wilderness PermitsSaguaro National Park · 18 mi · 22 of 40 site-nights open
recreation.gov availability, read 16:32 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
5 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 5 mapped sitesAll 5 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. 5 of the 5 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| WHITETAIL | 01 | group standard electric | 26 ft | 15 amp | 282 ft | 1.0 mi | $150–$197 | |
| WHITETAIL | 02 | group standard electric | 26 ft | 15 amp | yes | 281 ft | 1.1 mi | $150–$197 |
| WHITETAIL | 03 | group standard electric | 26 ft | 15 amp | 281 ft | 1.0 mi | $150–$197 | |
| WHITETAIL | 04 | group standard electric | 26 ft | 15 amp | 449 ft | 1.0 mi | $150–$197 | |
| WHITETAIL | 05 | group standard electric | 26 ft | 15 amp | 449 ft | 1.1 mi | $150–$197 |
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
Spencer Canyon CampgroundCoronado National Forest · 0.6 mi
Showers Point Group SiteCoronado National Forest · 0.7 mi
Palisades Ranger Residence CabinCoronado National Forest · 1.0 mi
Sollers Cabin (AZ)Coronado National Forest · 1.5 mi
Rose Canyon CampgroundCoronado National Forest · 2.1 mi
Rose CanyonCoronado National Forest · 2.7 miFrom Tucson, Arizona, go north on Catalina Highway approximately 30 miles from Tucson until you reach Milepost 20. Turn Left on Whitetail Road.
The weather
the next four days
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Summerhaven, 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
Whitetail Campground 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 Whitetail Campground, Coronado National Forest, Arizona
Dear Juan Ciscomani, I’m a constituent in Arizona’s 6th district. I tried to camp at Whitetail Campground, Coronado National Forest, Arizona, and couldn’t. All 5 sites at Whitetail Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 3 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. Whitetail Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Whitetail Campground. 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 Whitetail Campground (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 Whitetail Campground, Coronado National Forest, Arizona
Dear Mark Kelly, I’m a constituent in Arizona. I tried to camp at Whitetail Campground, Coronado National Forest, Arizona, and couldn’t. All 5 sites at Whitetail Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 3 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. Whitetail Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Whitetail Campground. 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 Whitetail Campground (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 Whitetail Campground, Coronado National Forest, Arizona
Dear Ruben Gallego, I’m a constituent in Arizona. I tried to camp at Whitetail Campground, Coronado National Forest, Arizona, and couldn’t. All 5 sites at Whitetail Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 3 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. Whitetail Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Whitetail Campground. 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 Whitetail Campground (Coronado National Forest, Arizona) via campanac.com