Camping, camping, camping, please (Tucson, Green Valley: home, purchase, legal)

[Djbabybokchoy]

So, was anyone outside last night? It was soooo beautiful. And yesterday was not humid (yay!).

It got me thinking... I really want to go camping.

Of course, there's this site: Coronado National Forest - Home Page which includes Mt Lemmon, but there's no maps of the campgrounds (?) - except ones you purchase which seems backwards and wacky. Plus, the camping they mention mostly seems to not really be what I'm looking for.

In either case... I'm totally into the dig-a-hole-to-pee-in type of camping. No toilets, no showers, no one around (not those camp plots that are one on top of the other), lug your stuff a spot and pretend to be SurvivorMan for a few days.

Any ideas?

CORRECTION: I found a map: Coronado National Forest - Recreational Activities - Map Guide It's picnic areas and camping, though. Not very useful.

[mattpresley]

Originally Posted by JillBoBill

So, was anyone outside last night? It was soooo beautiful. And yesterday was not humid (yay!).

It got me thinking... I really want to go camping.

Of course, there's this site: Coronado National Forest - Home Page which includes Mt Lemmon, but there's no maps of the campgrounds (?) - except ones you purchase which seems backwards and wacky. Plus, the camping they mention mostly seems to not really be what I'm looking for.

In either case... I'm totally into the dig-a-hole-to-pee-in type of camping. No toilets, no showers, no one around (not those camp plots that are one on top of the other), lug your stuff a spot and pretend to be SurvivorMan for a few days.

Any ideas?

CORRECTION: I found a map: Coronado National Forest - Recreational Activities - Map Guide It's picnic areas and camping, though. Not very useful.

It was by far the nicest night up here since summer began. I can't wait for october!!! camping is on!! I woundn't mind shooting down to tucson to mount lemmon!

[azdr0710]

JBJ.....

sounds like you don't want an organized, official Forest Service campground, right?....

if so, you can drive up Mt Lemmon and turn onto the Mt Bigelow Rd where marked and drive a few hundred feet up (dirt road) and look for primitive sites where people have obviously pulled into before.....

no facilities, dark at night, you may feel unsafe, but will probably be OK....bring a lantern, cooler, food, water.....

this is legal on all public lands unless marked "no camping"....be clean and carry out all trash....respect the land and leave it at least as clean as before.....

[Djbabybokchoy]

Thank you, AzDr! Just what I was looking for!

[M.A.]

There are also beautiful, remote areas to camp at in Utah, if you are willing to drive.

[mdtoaz]

Hey Jill... hubby and I are planning on going next weekend. We're not totally sure where we're going at this point, but we've gone to the Gila Box Riparian Area before and that was really cool. I've heard there's some great camping in the Chiricauhuas. We usually go for the National Forests vs the parks because there's camping anywhere unless posted otherwise.

Here are some places we're debating:
Coconino National Forest - Knoll Lake Campground
Coronado National Forest - Rustler Park Campground
http://fs.usda.gov/wps/portal/!ut/p/...s%20Campground

If anyone has an opinion of these... please feel free to share. The last one is the Forks campground in the Gila National Forest in Western NM.

[azhiker]

Originally Posted by azdr0710

JBJ.....

sounds like you don't want an organized, official Forest Service campground, right?....

if so, you can drive up Mt Lemmon and turn onto the Mt Bigelow Rd where marked and drive a few hundred feet up (dirt road) and look for primitive sites where people have obviously pulled into before.....

no facilities, dark at night, you may feel unsafe, but will probably be OK....bring a lantern, cooler, food, water.....

this is legal on all public lands unless marked "no camping"....be clean and carry out all trash....respect the land and leave it at least as clean as before.....

Jill, if you just want to camp locally, I totally second azdr's recommendation. It's really, really nice on Mt. Bigelow Rd. I've never camped there, but frequently park at the top there and walk down the dirt road, which turns into a trail if you want to cut down to it. Very pretty up there, and shady too. A very easy hike if you're into that kind of thing. If and when I get around to camping, I'd definitely do it there.

Chiricahuas are beautiful to be sure, but are over by the NM border. Looks like there'd be some great camping there. Right down the road by Green Valley there's Madera Canyon in the Santa Ritas, and I'm pretty sure there are some camp sites there too (but I'd warn you, they have bathrooms )

I was up at Bigelow this afternoon. It was beautiful up there.

[Djbabybokchoy]

I'd prefer to camp somewhere close since my husband works, like, fifty-billion hours a week. I really don't want to spend what little time we can scrape together in the car with two smelly dogs.

How is the 'road' on Mt Bigelow, Hiker? We only have plain old cars, though I could care less about rock chips in my Honda - it already looks like someone's taken a brillow pad to most of it. I just don't want to get half way there just to find a big rock in the way or something. Also, I read that the radio towers are up there - what's the word on that?

What about the Rincons? I know they're farther away, but they're still close enough. I was looking at this site for ideas: Backpacking in the Rincon Mountains in Saguaro National Park East, Tucson, Arizona

And this one, too: Arizona State Parks: Sonoita Creek: Facilities -- which is a four mile hike from the trailhead - ouch. Maybe we can outfit the dogs with packs and use them as mules.


Thanks, guys!

[KarmaPhx]

For future reference, the type of camping you are describing is called dispersed camping, I just call it "real camping" though.

I am planning on camping @ Mt Lemmon this fall.

[Djbabybokchoy]

There's a lot of names for it, Karma. I heard 'hike-in' and 'backcountry camping', too.

But, yeah. REAL camping. None of this sissy garbage.