Bear flat is situated right on Tonto Creek. First thing you should know, this is a day use only site. There is no overnight camping at bear flat Campground!

We intended on camping there with our pop up and luckily ran into a local at the top of FR Rd 405A on our way down. She told us that it was day use and that the road down is a one way, very steep and winding road, not trailer friendly. SO glad we talked to her first!

We ended up setting up camp at one of the many dispersed sites along FR Rd 405 which actually turned out to be great. There wasn’t a ton of traffic and there are so many pines that we had plenty of shade. Each dispersed site had a fire pit only.

The next morning we drove down to Bear Flat Campground. The drive is one lane and very steep. Watch for oncoming traffic and be ready to squeeze by another car. Once down, it is beautiful. The Tonto Creek literally runs right through the site. This was a great place for our family to play in the water.

There are a few cabins very near by and although I enjoyed this spot, I had that feeling like I was in someone’s backyard.

Overall. We had a great time getting out of the valley heat for a couple days but we were slightly disappointed that we couldn’t camp as close to the water as we planned.