Cocino National Forest - Rd. 535

This isn't a place to hear nature sounds. In fact, you'll only ever hear your neighbors screaming and partying.

The music starts at about 10pm and goes to 3am -- from a multitude of different sites, all playing different music.

On night 1 of our stay, we toughed it out. On night 2, we gave up at 11pm and packed up our tent into the car when they added ATVs driving through the camping loops with music blasting and bright flashing LED lights.

Closed- unable to go any bit on road

This place needs to be nuked.  No idea why people destroy areas so badly that it prevents future use.

There are many sites but they get abused. Trash is plentiful and we ended up near a 50+ person fiesta complete with a loud speaker that went until all hours of the night.

Tons of spots everywhere to camp. People leave their trash, but good place if you need to sleep. We had a 2WD car that was able to get in and out. Be careful of road as there are many rocks and holes.

Plenty of space, nice and quiet, not too many ding-dongs around in rvs. Also a nice escape from the tourism in Saydoughnuh

Was and good time with the family. We did a lil of everything from hiking to slide rock Haha the kidos really enjoyed that. The wife was bout right away man great times. Went hiking back at the camp site. Got me head back to where it needed to be now time to go back home and grind and progress. Till next time.

Truthfully this place has a lot of places to camp and be spread out. However I have never been to an area that lacked such etiquette. Seriously so many places to camp but people will come and camp right on top of you even blocking your access to the road out. Most of all though is the trash. It’s so sad driving through here after a weekend of campers, I have honestly never seen anything like this anywhere I’ve ever been. If your passing through and need a quick place to crash just to leave the next morning you will for sure find a spot to sleep. I just do not recommend a weekend out in this area with so many other places to camp near by.

Finding true dispersed camping with the growing population of the nearby cities and towns has become more difficult. This area is wonderful because of the access and amount of area to choose you site. There is plenty of usable space and a network of roads for adventure.

Pros: Less people Fairly good roads. 4wd recommended. Some areas were very muddy or rocky. Plenty of wood for fires when allowed. Wooded areas. Less sun exposure. Had cell reception. Enough to watch Netflix. Lots of suitable areas to choose for camping.

Cons: Need a high clearance vehicle and/or 4wd capable in some areas. I wanted a cliff side spot and the area is huge. I could not find one this time. Some people that have occupied certain sites have trashed them.

The fine if caught littering, etc. should be so high people wouldn’t even think about it. Even jail. If I was setting the fine it would be $10,000. 6 months in jail. Second offense: $20,000 and charged with a felony. I’m sick of people ruining things for other people.

I could write a long review as I normally do but I’ll sum up this area for you quickly…

Positives - Plenty of dispersed camping spots, big and small, with shade.

Negatives - Everything else. I have never in my life camped in an area that has a little respect from campers as this. The amount of trash and destroyed land after people leave is incredible. When driving through on a Sunday afternoon it literally looks like the aftermath of a frat party with dozens of trash bags everywhere, beer cans and bottles strewn about, smoldering fires, shot up trees and targets, and the list goes on.

This is a summary of what is wrong with human beings. It’s easy access and giant spots so people who want to put zero effort into camping are able to come here easily and treat it like it’s a garbage dump.

Now let’s get to the traffic part of it. About a mile or 2 down the road it becomes harder to navigate specially for people who don’t off-road or camp much so majority of the camping population is located closer to the highway. Because of this if you’re camping anywhere around there you’re constantly eating dirt from people hauling through there in search of a spot to party at with their 20 friends in tow.

Most of this area will single handedly get Coconino shut down to public use and unless the NFS steps in to help mitigate this problem then it’ll be sooner than later

Perfect example of “this is why we can’t have nice things!”

Super easy access and amazing to have free camping just outside of Sedona. We were there on a Friday night and within the first two miles on the dirt road, there were approx 20-30 sites filled to 75%.

The camp sites were gigantic!

Lots of trees. Pretty views. Most sites had premade fire rings.

No bathrooms. No water. No electric. No problem!

The downside: there is no rule enforcement. You can tell that people are just doing what they want.

Most of the sites have trash, some of it big and obnoxious like the filled makeshift 5 gallon bucket camping toilet in the bushes at our camp site. Beer cans everywhere. Just nowhere near pristine.

It’s noisy. There are a lot of trailers, dirt bikes, trucks etc coming and going. People playing loud music until 3am, the dude across from us had a generator running allll night (until he got all huffy puffy with me when I woke him up and “encouraged” him to turn it off at 1:30am.

There’s just no respect. It’s sad to see. It’s such a great spot. I hope the forest service takes it over, charges a fee, and makes it a proper staffed campsite.

Absolutely stellar free camping spot.......plenty of road to drive down and find a spot away from people. Spots are spaced out and give plenty of privacy, slightly bumpy road but any vehicle should be able to handle it. Amazing campsite within minutes of Sedona. Will come back! Bonus I had great cell service!

Road was closed as of 4/11/2021.

The road is closed. No explanation why.

Very accurate and helpful reviews made this a great overnight spot when arriving after dark! The spots along the first few switchbacks appear to be relatively clean now, probably from lighter use as winter sets in. Don't let the poor road conditions at the cattle gate off 89A dissuade you, that's as bad as it gets.

This FS Road is passable when dry and an uphill ride for several miles with rough spots, non worse than those immediately encountered when driving in thru the gate from 89A, but by and large quite driveable. I know this area from past elk hunting experience. This area is a favorite of hunters. We drove in with my 20' minilite RVtrailer towed by my Ford Explorer on 9/15. We drove~5.5 miles to where 535 ends and 536 goes left. Along the way are numerous camping/RV sites beginning close to 89A. We chose to go to the enormous meadow area at the end of 535. Bottom line, an easy overnight spot or one where one could spend days in this pine forest. Hiking trails, no facilities. Unfortunately, we did see trash left behind at several campsites near 89A. Who are these people who camp but do not respect, transients?

The initial area is littered with trash from lazy campers who don’t understand how to pack out. Once you pass the second and third cattle guards the camping is great. The road is in good shape and I have no issue towing my 25 ft travel trailer in.

The beginning of the road is really bumpy not great for lower cars but we did it in a Prius going slow. The campsite we parked in was really steep and we made it work. We got there at night so we found one of the first sites. There’s no toilets so I don’t suggest walking too deep into the campsite because there’s huge piles of human poo. The one site we were in was completely littered and I found a good size animal skeleton. We cleaned up the one site we were in using 3 trash bags. I hope to see this area taken care of by my fellow community. Maybe a ranger can have someone bury or take care of all the human poo.

A great spot if you don’t mind, as my dad would say “boon-docking it”. Lots of sites along the road. Much more of a foresty area than down in Sedona plus it’s much cooler since it’s higher in elevation!