## Overview

 Burnt Corral Campground and Recreation Area (elevation 1914\') is about 5.8 miles south of Roosevelt Dam along the Apache Trail (AZ Hwy 88) along the shoreline of Apache Lake. It is nestled amongst the saguaros, mesquites, and palo verdes, and offers opportunities to boat, swim, fish, relax, hike, and sightsee.\_\_\_\_ 
## Recreation

 Burnt Corral Campground offers something for almost everyone. Motorboating, fishing, water-skiing, and paddlesports are very popular because of the developed and undeveloped lake access from within the campground. Others may enjoy hiking nearby trails, being challenged by local jeep trails, or practicing their landscape photography, or simply relaxing with a good book. 
## Facilities

 Burnt Corral Campground includes 76 camp units, vault toilets, potable water hydrants, 6 day-use picnic units, paved boat launch, boat boarding dock; Each campsite includes a parking spur, fire ring with grill, a shade ramada, and a picnic table. This campground provides access to visitors who are mobility impaired.\_\_\_\_ 
## Natural Features

 Burnt Corral Campground is situated in what may be the most stunning Sonoran Desert landscape in Arizona. The contrast of sunshine, clear blue water, and saguaro\'s surrounded by the Four Peaks and Superstition Wilderness\' is a magnificant sight to see. While shade is scarce in the desert, campsites are situated amongst mature mesquite and palo verde trees, and desert chaparral. Apache Lake is 17 miles long making it the longest in the chain of reservoirs on the lower Salt River below Roosevelt Dam.\_\_ 
## Nearby Attractions

 Roosevelt Dam, Apache Lake Marina, Tortilla Flats, Tonto National Monument (Cliff Dwellings), Roosevelt Lake, Apache Trail Scenic Byway (AZ Hwy 88), Spines to Pines Scenic Byway (AZ Hwy 288). The City of Globe and Town of Payson are only an hour away.

Burnt Corral Campground

Apache Lake is a beautiful desert canyon lake. Getting there is a little difficult via a dirt road known as the Apache Trail. Nice improved maintained sites, most are shoreline and with fire rings, picnic tables. There are some open beach camping spaces as well. Expect a dirt and rock floor, mature desert trees and low scrub. Within the campground is a small boat ramp with dock and a parking lot for your trailer if you bring your watercraft  There is a self serve pay station and a camp host. Dumpsters, vault toilets and a few freshwater stations. 

Apache Lake, lower Burnt Corral

Just about 6.5 miles from Roosevelt Dam, along a seriously narrow, winding, and mountainous dirt road, lies a great camping oasis along Apache Lake in the middle of the Superstition Mts.  The road is well-maintained and well graded, but the short drive from the dam to the campground took us about 30 minutes with our little trailer and 4-wheel drive truck. Seriously, not for the faint of heart if you are pulling a trailer.  We saw lots of smaller cars manage it fine.

This medium-sized sized campground offers lovely sites along the water and along the hill in the trees.  For $12 per night, it offers many amenities: nice waterfront sites with picnic table, fire ring, boat ramp, drinking water, plenty of pit toilets (clean given the number of people at the campground that week), and group sites.  There are some easy pull-thru sites for RV's.

Hiking, paddling, boating and cycling opportunities are available right from the campground. We paddled up the Salt River to the dam and back for a fun afternoon adventure.  Bird life abounds in both the lake and river!

Closest town is Globe, about 40 miles away, has grocery stores, Walmart, gas stations, etc. So come prepared with what you need!

First-come, first-served, no reservations.

Note: The campground didn’t have any mobile service available with Verizon.

An Oxymoron: Sonoran Desert Lakefront Camping

We brought our pop up camper and stayed at the lower burnt corral shoreline over the week days. I heard from other campers who were more regular that it gets busy on the weekends and tends to fill up, but we did not have that problem. We ended up having plenty of room and privacy. 

There was plenty of shade. Pit toilets, although some of them were pretty nasty

We were told by the ranger there that Tonto passes are valid, although signs are posted that stated otherwise.

There were also spots with pads and water spigots spread every few sites. Tables with benches at every site. 

This instantly became a favorite spot with nearly every spot located right on the water. Great for swimming, kayaking, fishing, and boating.

Warning: DO NOT TAKE APACHE TRAIL ROUTE! Take AZ87-AZ188.

Photos titled ‘aerial view’ are from a private helicopter tour of the lakes I took about a year ago but they are so amazing that I had to include them. They are all of Apache lake where Burnt Corral is located.

Great camping!

March 20-22, 2019. Campsite #42. Site was right on the water, as quite a few are. There were other sites available that have amesome elevated views of the lake, and even more sites in between but we opted for the lakeside site(s) and it was perfect for us (2 families, 5 kids, 4 adults and our little pupperino Biscuit). There was a beach area on the grounds which was nice to play around and float about. The camp host, Nick, was great and the campsites and bathrooms were very clean.
As we were packing up to leave, three airplanes flew over the lake about 40 feet from the surface of the water, flying threw the canyon. We were definitely caught off guard, but it was super cool and a nice way to say goodbye to a fantastic time at Burnt Corral. We would gladly go back and stay at the same site, or most of them really, with or without the flyover. But after hiking around a bit, for a more primitive or intimate experience, maybe we will try the Upper Burnt Corral area next time.

Beautiful setting with a flyover

Not easy to get to but it’s worth it!

Well maintained campground. Campsite very from water edge to hillside. Lots of trees to shade your campsite. Campsite are $20 a night for single campsite and $40 for a double campsite. Campground hosts are excellent. Very friendly, knowledgeable and reasonable to work with. 

We camped at site number 44. A very nice pull through single site on the water.

Vault style bathrooms were clean. Great boat launch on site. 



Our new favorite place in Arizona

I stayed at this campsite for one night in early November because I wanted to find a place that would be good for paddle boarding the next morning. It was a bit too cold in the morning for me to actually paddleboard but it was still very very worth going. The road is a little bit tough to get down and you drive for quite a while so make sure you’re good on gas. But the dam and the drive down to the campsites on the river was beautiful. I paid $20 for one night in a single campsite. The reason why this campground landed four stars was because of the amount of flies and mosquitoes. I ended up having to hide in my tent by 5:30 because there was just so many of them. I understand the mosquitoes because you are on the water but the amount of flies seemed a bit much. There was also quite a bit of spiders. It was warm enough that I was able to keep the fly of my tent off during the night so I got to watch the sun go down, the sun rise, and the stars during the night which was absolutely beautiful. I would definitely go back just maybe with more bug repellent next time.

Burnt Corral Campsite

We visit Burnt Corral mid-January. The weather was balmy. We pulled at 20’ trailer. The road getting there has steep drop offs but we were able to navigate it pretty easily. Toilets were clean, Palo Verde and mesquite bushes/trees made the area beautiful and shaded. We loved being right next to the water and it was so peaceful. We stayed in 31D which was connected to 31E - but there is no way to reserve 31E so it was basically two sites in one. There was NO cell service. We loved that, but it is something to mention in case others need it for some reason. 

Beautiful, quiet

Gorgeous lake front campgrounds.  It is busy and noisy but the views are worth it.  The road is bumpy so leave your big trailer at home.

Insanely beautiful

Beautiful camping sites! The lake with the mountains in the background is breath taking. The drive down to the campground from the main road is 6 miles but takes about 15 minutes due to the steep winding gravel road. The even camp sites are first come first serve, call beforehand to check how full it is beforehand. We went kayaking and just relaxed on the shore of the lake. No showers and no cell service! There are bathrooms, but they’re vault toilets and no sinks.

Secluded Offgrid Camping

We stayed 3 nights mid-week for a short spring break. Campground was mostly empty on Wednesday and maybe 75-80% full by Saturday morning. There is a boat launch adjacent to the campground so most campers also had boats. Some sites were very overgrown which didn’t look very appealing for us as tent campers. Sites by the water had zero separation or privacy. We opted for a site on the outer road, we didn’t have neighbors until Friday night but still a view of the water and a short walk. Bathrooms are pit toilets. Pretty smelly but clean and well-stocked. This campground definitely exists for boaters. 

Spring Break 

I wanted one of the waterfront campsite but since it was first come, first serve and school is out, it was packed. There still was plenty of room I was at  campsite 64 still had a nice view of the lake and a short walk to it. Campsite 64 can hold two small tents. ￼ access to the bathroom, which were clean and trash, which didn’t smell.￼ There is shade from the trees, but the pollen does come down a lot, but it was peaceful, and I loved it and I would go again. ￼
