Yavapai Campground
We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 16 of the next 16 nights read 16:44 UTC
- A night
- $18–$36Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 21All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 15 notices
In the agency’s own words
Yavapai Campground is within the Granite Basin Recreation Area, at an elevation of 5,600 feet. The campground is located seven miles northwest of downtown Prescott. Main attractions are mild weather, cool ponderosa pine forest, and Granite Basin Lake. Activities include fishing for largemouth bass, channel catfish, and sunfish, canoeing, hiking, mountain biking, horseback riding, and bird watching. Rising to the northwest is prominent Granite Mountain Wilderness Area. Several connector and loop trails reside in close proximity to the campground. Most trails allow for multiple modes of travel. To make reservations click on the availability button to the right to book this site or call 1 (877) 444-6777. For general campground questions contact the Bradshaw Ranger District at 1 (928) 443-8000. Keep reading
Recreation
Yavapai Campground is available year-round and is enjoyed by people of all age groups and diverse backgrounds. Campsites are designed for RV, trailer, or tent camping. Two sites allow for double occupancy. Most campsites are compact and each has a degree of privacy and solitude. Many popular outdoor activities abound in the Granite Basin Recreation Area.
Facilities
Yavapai Campground has 19 single occupancy campsites and two double occupancy campsites. Campsites number 4, 16, and 21 are walk-in only and cannot be reserved. Each campsite has a picnic table, steel fire ring, and established tent pad(s). Four accessible campsites have small pedestal fire grills. All campsite driveways are back-in and have asphalt surfaces. Some campsite driveways allow a camp unit (RV or tow vehicle and trailer) and an extra vehicle quite easily, but others do not. Campsites number 3 and 4 are limited to a trailer length of 15 feet maximum or an RV length of 25 feet maximum. Campsite 9 has a 50 amp available. Campsite 10 can accommodate a trailer length of 10 feet maximum (i.e., pop-up) or a cab-over camper, or an RV that is a maximum length of 25 feet. Services include two composting restrooms, trash dumpsters, and water faucets. There is no dump station in the campground.
Natural Features
Yavapai Campground was designed to be integrated within the natural setting of granite rock outcrops and a variety of ponderosa pine, limber pine, oak, manzanita, and a variety of shrubs and grasses. The facility is located within Granite Basin Recreation area. Access to Granite Mountain Wilderness and Granite Basin Lake can either be made by several interlocking hiking trails or by driving a short distance.
Nearby Attractions
Within a short distance of Yavapai Campground, in the Granite Basin Recreation Area, there are several day use areas and Granite Basin Lake. Visitors enjoy fishing, bird-watching, backpacking, hiking, horseback riding, mountain biking, picnicking, camping, and just plain relaxing. Immediately rising north of Granite Basin Lake is Granite Mountain at 6,874 feet. The rugged topography and mixed vegetation it comprises is enveloped by the Granite Mountain Wilderness Area. Alto Pit OHV Campground and Day-Use Area is just a 15 minute drive to the southwest of the Granite Basin Recreation Area. Rising prominently to the south of the Granite Basin Recreation Area is Thumb Butte. At an elevation of 6,515 feet, Thumb Butte is one of the most popular destinations in the Prescott National Forest.
What the agency tells you
Maximum stay limit is 14 days within 30 consecutive days in Prescott National Forest including dispersed sites.
Fires are permitted only in stoves, designated fire rings, or pedestal fire grills; use only charcoal and not wood in pedestal fire grills.
Water and composting restrooms are available.
Everything else this campground posts · 12
There is no RV sanitary dump station.
At least one person must occupy a campsite during the first night after camping equipment is set up. Camping equipment may not be left unattended for more than 24 hours.
Single campsites are designed for up to 5 people and double campsites for up to 10 people.
There is a maximum of two vehicles at a single family campsite and four vehicles at a double family campsite. An RV towing a car counts as one vehicle and a vehicle pulling a trailer counts as one vehicle. The maximum number of RVs towing a car and vehicles towing a trailer is one per single family campsite. There is a $5.00 fee for a second vehicle when driven into the single campsite. The maximum number of RVs towing a car and vehicles towing a trailer is two per double family campsite. There is a $5.00 fee for a third vehicle and a $5.00 fee for a fourth vehicle when either one or both are driven into the double campsite. There is a $36.00 fee when a double family campsite is occupied by only one vehicle.
Not all campsites and road turning points will accommodate the maximum vehicle length of 40 feet (Tip: measure the distance between the front bumper of either a RV or a tow vehicle to the rear axle of a RV or a connected trailer).
Campsites number 3 and 4 are limited to a trailer length of 15 feet maximum or an RV length of 25 feet maximum. Campsite 10 can accommodate a trailer length of 10 feet maximum (i.e., pop-up camper) or a cab-over camper, or an RV that is a maximum length of 25 feet.
Pets are welcome but must be on a 6 foot leash or in a cage and never unattended.
Swimming and wading are not allowed in Granite Basin Lake.
Electric motors, oars, paddle, or sail-powered boats are permitted.
Fireworks, including sparklers, are prohibited at all times on National Forest Lands.
Fire restrictions may be imposed due to dry conditions, at which time smoking, wood and charcoal fires may be prohibited.
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
- 21
- Hookups
- 1 electric
- Longest rig
- 40 ft
- Paved pads
- All
- Accessible sites
- 6
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…restrooms, trash dumpsters, and water faucets. There is no dump station in the campground.…”
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake
- Biking
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Night sky · 220th darkest of 262 in AZ
- Bortle 4
- Fall color · reported 3 days ago, 10 km away
- Patchy color
Full this Saturdayread 16:44 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBooked
Every one of the 18 sites on offer is taken this Friday and Saturday. 10 are free on Tue, Oct 20. read 16:44 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 · 15
What you actually pay
“There is a $5.00 fee for a second vehicle when driven into the single campsite.” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own agency notice
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $18–$36 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 · 6
recreation.gov availability, read 16:44 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
21 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 21 mapped sitesAll 21 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. 21 of the 21 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| YAVAPAI CAMPGROUND | 1 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 55 ft | 1.1 mi | $18–$36 | ||
| YAVAPAI CAMPGROUND | 10 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 106 ft | 1.0 mi | $18–$36 | ||
| YAVAPAI CAMPGROUND | 11 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 154 ft | 1.1 mi | $18–$36 | ||
| YAVAPAI CAMPGROUND | 12 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 100 ft | 1.1 mi | $18–$36 | ||
| YAVAPAI CAMPGROUND | 13 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 66 ft | 1.1 mi | $18–$36 | ||
| YAVAPAI CAMPGROUND | 14 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 66 ft | 1.1 mi | $18–$36 | ||
| YAVAPAI CAMPGROUND | 15 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 80 ft | 1.1 mi | $18–$36 | ||
| YAVAPAI CAMPGROUND | 16 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 110 ft | 1.1 mi | $18–$36 | ||
| YAVAPAI CAMPGROUND | 17 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | yes | 93 ft | 1.1 mi | $18–$36 | |
| YAVAPAI CAMPGROUND | 18 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 109 ft | 1.1 mi | $18–$36 | ||
| YAVAPAI CAMPGROUND | 19 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 70 ft | 1.1 mi | $18–$36 | ||
| YAVAPAI CAMPGROUND | 2 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 55 ft | 1.1 mi | $18–$36 | ||
| YAVAPAI CAMPGROUND | 20 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 70 ft | 1.1 mi | $18–$36 | ||
| YAVAPAI CAMPGROUND | 21 | standard nonelectric | 34 ft | 163 ft | 1.1 mi | $18–$36 | ||
| YAVAPAI CAMPGROUND | 3 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | yes | 119 ft | 1.1 mi | $18–$36 | |
| YAVAPAI CAMPGROUND | 4 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 119 ft | 1.0 mi | $18–$36 | ||
| YAVAPAI CAMPGROUND | 5 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | yes | 191 ft | 1.0 mi | $18–$36 | |
| YAVAPAI CAMPGROUND | 6 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | yes | 20 ft | 1.0 mi | $18–$36 | |
| YAVAPAI CAMPGROUND | 7 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | yes | 20 ft | 1.0 mi | $18–$36 | |
| YAVAPAI CAMPGROUND | 8 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 77 ft | 1.0 mi | $18–$36 | ||
| YAVAPAI CAMPGROUND | 9 | standard electric | 37 ft | 50 amp | yes | 80 ft | 1.0 mi | $24 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Alto Pit OHV CampgroundPrescott National Forest · 1.4 mi
Thumb ButtePrescott National Forest · 3.6 mi
White Spar CampgroundPrescott National Forest · 7.5 mi
Lynx CampgroundPrescott National Forest · 10 mi
Eagle Ridge Group CampgroundPrescott National Forest · 11 mi
Groom Creek SchoolhousePrescott National Forest · 11 miFrom downtown Prescott, take Montezuma Street north to Whipple Street, which becomes Iron Springs Road. Continue northwest on Iron Springs Road for 3.5 miles and then turn right onto Granite Basin Road (FSR 374). Travel 2 miles to Yavapai Campground located on the left.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Williamson, AZ
Typical weather
Typical October night 40°F, day 73°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 24°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
who answers for it · a letter you can send
Who answers for this land
Yavapai Campground 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 Yavapai Campground, Prescott National Forest, Arizona
Dear Elijah Crane, I’m a constituent in Arizona’s 2nd district. I tried to camp at Yavapai Campground, Prescott National Forest, Arizona, and couldn’t. All 21 sites at Yavapai Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 18 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. Yavapai Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Yavapai 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 Yavapai Campground (Prescott 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 Yavapai Campground, Prescott National Forest, Arizona
Dear Mark Kelly, I’m a constituent in Arizona. I tried to camp at Yavapai Campground, Prescott National Forest, Arizona, and couldn’t. All 21 sites at Yavapai Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 18 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. Yavapai Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Yavapai 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 Yavapai Campground (Prescott 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 Yavapai Campground, Prescott National Forest, Arizona
Dear Ruben Gallego, I’m a constituent in Arizona. I tried to camp at Yavapai Campground, Prescott National Forest, Arizona, and couldn’t. All 21 sites at Yavapai Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 18 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. Yavapai Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Yavapai 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 Yavapai Campground (Prescott National Forest, Arizona) via campanac.com