FDR 373 Thumb Butte Loop

Great place to escape from the city and get to cooler Temps. We came early May and stayed at site 14. It was 60s in the daytime and mid 30s at night. Might need an extra blanket if staying in a tent. People are friendly and sites are easy to get to. Make sure to have some clearance as the road washes out in spots and gets bumpy. You could make it in 2 wheel drive but wouldn't recommend a small car. Or vehicles smaller than a SUV.

Wind picks up in the morning and late afternoon. It's so loud sometimes it sounds like a waterfall crashing down. Very tranquil and peaceful spot and quiet at night.

This spot is pretty sweeeet. Its kind of the perfect dispersed situation. It’s easy to get to, there’s around 20 spots in the area. Road is bumpy but passable by basically any car. Sites were super clean and well spaced out. You can stay 7 days and camping is only in designated sites (they are all numbered and marked with poles at the sites entrance). Area felt pretty safe. Saw a small herd of deer on my run while visiting. It wasn’t busy when we were here in November. All sites have a fire pit as well. As always with dispersed its carry in carry out. No water/bathrooms etc.

There are different lots some are spaced far apart some are close but out of ear shot. The road is bumpy but you can get through with a car just watch for rocks. T-mobile doesn’t work on all lots of course but Verizon doesn’t have dead spots. Trucks through drive through til about 10pm from what I saw on a 3 day trip (7 day max) over all a pretty good stay.

Found a nice spot (#16) with some shade, level ground, and a pretty forest setting. Plenty of room for a large vehicle with room to turn around. Fire restrictions are in effect but there is a fire ring for when the restrictions are lifted. Campsite was semi-clean, spent some time picking up trash esp. broken glass. Quiet and private. Other campers along the road but nobody within earshot of my site.

We stayed at dispersed camping spot number 8. Very secluded with a hiking trail right off of it. Easy to get to with our van. Very private spot.

We hiked from Copper Basin road along the Prescott Circle Trail and camped the night at one of the Thumb Butte dispersed camping sites. The campsites are large and well maintained. We were lucky enough to get the last open campsite for the day, but the sites are far enough apart from others so the area stays pretty quiet. There are fire pit rings at each site, but a fire ban was in place for the summer already.

This is a good hike. It has some great views of Prescott and the surrounding area. I didn't get any pictures while on the hike itself, but I got some on Senator Highway.

Thumb Butte Loop was super rough to travel on. If you plan to go past site 15 I'd strongly suggest something with high ground clearance. Sites 1, 2, and 3 were not clearly marked from the road. Sites 4 and 5 were immediately on the roadside. Most of the pictures posted are from site 7 which is more high desert than most of the other sites. This site accommodated quite easily backing in to the site with a camper. Sites 6 and 7 are on the outside of a switchback and had some dropoffs on the sides. Some of the spaces have rock fire rings and other have metal fire rings. There was a porta potty at sites 9, 10, and 11 (one group area) but that was the only bathroom I saw. Sites 16 and 17 are laid out to accommodate a very large group and could handle a few trailers. There is a giant (like 6 ft) fire ring in between the sites but it was FULL of broken bottles so I assume a popular local hangout. We also found a few handfuls of nails thrown across the road at this point on the road. Towards the south side of the road between sites 20 and 21 the road gets narrow and goes up the side of a mountain to Sierra Prietta Overlook and has quite the drop off.