Woods Canyon Lake Group
- Right now
- OpenInside the published season, our reading
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
- Season
- April 29Opens April 29. No closing date published.
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 7 notices
In the agency’s own words
Woods Canyon Lake Group Area is located in north central Arizona near the community of Forest Lakes. The camp is adjacent to popular Woods Canyon Lake and situated in thick pine forests, providing a great getaway for large groups of up to 100 people. It offers plenty of activities for anglers, boaters, hikers, families and photographers. Keep reading
Recreation
Woods Canyon Lake is one of seven lakes in the Rim Lakes Recreation Area, and one of the most visited. Trout fishing (both lake and stream) is a favorite pastime. Woods Canyon Lake only allows electric boat motors. Two other lakes are within a short drive. The Rim Lakes Vista Trail, less than a mile from the campground, and others in the area lead to spectacular views of the Mogollon Rim. An easy hiking trail meanders around the lake, and the paved roads in the recreation area make for great afternoon bike rides. Families might also enjoy attending educational programs given by Forest Service rangers on the weekends.
Facilities
The group camping area is primitive but convenient to the lake. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided. The facility can comfortably accommodate 70 people, though the maximum is 100.
Natural Features
Woods Canyon Lake is surrounded by a dense forest of pine, fir, oak and aspen, and sits at an elevation of 7,000 feet. Hikers who venture onto nearby trails are afforded expansive views of the land beneath the Mogollon Rim. 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 and serves as the geographical dividing line between the cool high country above and the hot, dry desert below. Summer temperatures can be very pleasant because of the elevation. However, the rainy season often brings afternoon thunderstorms from late June through August. Visitors should come prepared for rain and cool nighttime temperatures. Wildlife viewing includes birds, squirrels, deer and elk. Deer, skunks and bears are common campground visitors.
Nearby Attractions
The nearest full service community is Payson, Arizona, 35 miles west on Highway 260. Visitors can explore endless vistas and take part in many outdoor activities in the surrounding Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest, which encompasses 2 million acres of magnificent mountain country in east-central Arizona and New Mexico. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (928) 535-0181.
What the agency tells you
Walk-in season dates (mid-Apr. to mid-May; mid-Sept. to mid-Nov.) are weather permitting only
This is a high elevation facility; please use caution when traveling from lower elevations
Click here for more information on the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest
Everything else this campground posts · 4
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.
Well behaved dogs on a leash or lead are welcome. Dogs must be attended at all times - do not leave unattended dogs in campsites. Visitors who bring aggressive or nuisance dogs will be asked to leave - no refund will be given.
Only quiet generators are permitted in campground.
Group site non-electric includes space for 120 people and 30 vehicles. When the site is not reserved by a group, individual family sites are available for $25 per night first come first served.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 99 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…is primitive but convenient to the lake. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided. The facility can…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…to the lake. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided. The facility can comfortably…”
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek
- Boating
- Fishing
- Night sky · 74th darkest of 262 in AZ
- Bortle 2
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
No availability snapshot inside the last 36 hours, so this page draws nothing rather than ageing a reading into fiction.
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.
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
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.
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.
| WOOD | 1 | group standard nonelectric | 99 ft | 1,532 ftWoods Canyon Lake | 935 ft | $275 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions
Where it is
Spillway (AZ)Sitgreaves National Forest · 0.3 miSpillway Group CampgroundSitgreaves National Forest · 0.3 mi
Aspen (AZ)Sitgreaves National Forest · 0.4 miAspen CampgroundSitgreaves National Forest · 0.4 mi
Crook CampgroundSitgreaves National Forest · 0.9 mi
Mogollon CampgroundSitgreaves National Forest · 1.1 miFrom Payson, Arizona, take Highway 260 northeast from Payson toward Heber. Turn left (west) onto Forest Road 300 and follow for 3 miles. Turn right at Woods Canyon Lake Road and travel 0.75 miles to the campground on the right side of the road.
The weather
the next four days
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Christopher Creek, AZ
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it
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
Woods Canyon Lake Group 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 →