Coconino Rim Road Dispersed Camping

I was uncertain if this was a legitimate site or not, as we seemed to be on National Park land, but once you turn off onto Coconino Rim road, and pass the cattle grid you are on Forest land. So all good! Lots of space on flat land.

This spot was perfect. Lots of spaces so not very private if that’s what you’re looking for. However, the site I found has an awesome fire ring. It was quiet, convenient to Grand Canyon NP. The selling point was waking up and horses were grazing around the campsites! Definitely plan to stay again

There are two pit toilets near the fire tower. Sites were sold out in the national park so we came over here and there was a ton of empty spots. Lots of fire pits and I have ATT cell service and it worked decent here.

Easy to access and tons of sites. I came in about 12am, and still found a site, after some looking. Just make sure you are IN the national forest, and not the park; you will not be happy

After the Grand Canyon this was a solid spot. Very open, quiet, and plenty of spots to pick from.

A little bumpy on the way in.

There’s available toilets near the ranger station at the base of the lookout tower.

We went pretty far in, but it was worth it! There is camping all along the road so you’ll see others, but there are so many places available that you can find one more remote. Lots of ruts as it just rained the other day, but not horribly bad. We are in a lifted GX460 with a small pull behind camper and made it through going slowly. Beautiful forest all around. So happy to find this spot! Saw elk! There’s a neat lookout tower at the entrance of the Arizona Trail too!

Dispersed camping along the Coconino Road has plenty of locations to choose from. Be advised that the first mile or so of the road is very rough (ruts, large holes), but it does improve after that. Also be very careful leaving the dirt road. The ground looks solid enough but you can easily find very soft ground and sink into it (ask me how I know).

We came after a few snow storms and the snow melting during the day made a virtually impossible escape from the site on departure. Other than that, very quiet, clean, no disturbances! Lots of nature to wander during daylight hours and so close to the canyon!

.....but no access in snow

so many spots! If you pull off of 64 and follow the road back to the Kaibab Forrest sign and there are a lot of dispersed camping spots. There are some trails back there too.

Some people left trash so we picked it up, just remember to pack it in and pack it out.

Driving a 38’ Class A motor home towing a car is what I do but when I see “Fire Road” on the map it makes me a bit nervous. Well this place is great - even for big rigs. Found a great spot. Road was bumpy the first 1/4 or 1/2 mile but if you take it slow, you won’t have dishes all over the floor. Sites are nice. Pick as tree covered or open as you like. I have 3,500 watts of solar on the roof so I picked a spot that was open to afternoon sun. You are close to many of the scenic areas of Grand Canyon. It’s right there. I was pleasantly surprised when I got here.

The gate is locked due to poor road conditions. We visited March 19 2022 should be open by end of June if they decide to open it at all. Per ranger

The trees here are very thin so you can see quite far. Many spots down this road so you can have your pick but you can see everyone. From our spot you can see 5 cars, and we are hundreds of yards apart. Otherwise it's very quiet.

Free camping along the rode, we passed about 10 people before coming to a spot from GCNP. Camped next to the watch tower. Our spot was close to road so lacked toilet privacy, but the other spots were farther off the road. Perfect spot to camp and drive 5 minutes into GCNP.

We have a 36’ Class A with a Cherokee Trailhawk tow and parked and dropped just past the entrance to the NF, then went to scout for a site that would accommodate us. We found a site about a mile in or so, just off to the right of Coconino Rim Rd(FR 310) for 7 days(end of May, beginning of June). As others have said, the Forest Roads, while a little bumpy, are in much better shape than the first part of the road as you turn off of Hwy 64 and leave GCNP. There are quite a few sites along the FRs and almost all of the sites are very well spaced, most being 0.4 miles apart or more. Some are clustered a little more closely together, but would make nice group sites. There is quite a bit of traffic on Coconino Rim Rd and the vehicles and ATVs do kick up bit of dust. The further off of the road you can get the better, and with the winds predominantly out of the“West”, that side of the road is generally less dusty. There are a number of trails/forest roads in the immediate area to hike and/or bike. Due to the decades long drought, there is usually a fire ban in the area. We did see herds of elk late in the evenings and early mornings. The ranger that stopped by to check on us was very nice. He said they have to truck water in for the elk now, as there are no longer any natural water sources for them. Flies were only a periodic nuisance, but we were infested with dozens of Dingy Cutworm Moths every night from~7-10pm. I understand that this only happens for a few weeks a year, but it was very annoying. AT&T coverage was weird, varying between 4 bars of LTE service, to 4 bars of 4G, to 4 bars of 3G(mostly), to no service and speeds wildly varying as well, ranging from nothing up to about 2 MB/s. There was a T-Mobile tower about 300 yards from our site. I contacted AT&T and they’re looking into the weirdness. There were few trees, but widely spaced, so we were able to get DISH coverage on all three western satellites at our site. There were no OTA channels to be had with our fixed omni antenna.