Best Dog-Friendly Camping near Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest

Nice wide sites for your RV.  This park is located in the forest area of Show Low, AZ.  At this time, the amenities (due to COVID 19), except for the laundry room, are closed so was unable to give it a 5 star rating.  Location is central to everything.  In fact, we rode our eBikes to get to just about everything.  Temps are warm in June and then cool down significantly after the Monsoon rains begin.  Nice people in the park.  Nice dog park and dog run.

We camped here in the off season so there wasn't a whole lot of activity around us, which was good.  We were there at the end of October and the weather was great.  We stayed in the Redhead Loop in site 9 and it was a really nice site.  We had a lot of space and decent privacy.  Site 10 would have been perfect since it sat right at the lake.  The showers were clean and good pressure.  They are very dog friendly and even have a little kiosk with some supplies for dogs that you can borrow as well as a jar of dog treats.  We bought firewood and it was harvested from dead trees in the park.  A little pricey but it burned longer than that gas station firewood does.  Show Low is a nice town and has everything you need.  It was near Halloween and they had some scary scarecrow competition going on.  We did not have a cell signal for some odd reason.  We have T Mobile and usually have good coverage.  Not sure what was going on with it.  The lake was very pretty but we didn't go out on it or anything. There is a nice trail to hike around the lake.  Dogs are allowed on it.  We didn't do a whole lot of activities while we were there.  Just a relaxing long weekend.

Clean, well kept grounds and very friendly hosts. The only trash receptacle I saw was a dumpster at the entrance, a closer one (by the toilets) would have been nice to get rid of my dog waste bags.

We really loved this place. Incredibly clean and well kept sites. We stayed at Mallard 02 and it was a great spot. It’s a double spot so might be really tight if another family showed up. All sites have concrete pads and most seem to have full hookups. Beautiful trail around the lake that was great for birdwatching and walking the dogs. The trail was very easy and would be easy for the kiddos.

Camp here for the first time and we fell in love with the lake. The staff its very friendly and willing to answer all your questions. The campsites are nice and spacious, most are lakefront with a short walk to the water. There is plenty of roads to walk your dogs or yourself if you need to stretch. This lake has a lot to offer. If you like noise or being loud this is probably not the lake for you.

This isn't a very large campground but it's fairly close to paved road. There is a men's and women's bathroom near the boat launch that are super primitive and stink like crazy (but they lock). Each campsite that i saw had a metal fire pit with a grill grate as well as a picnic table. Plenty of space for a pop up trailer or a tent. The lake is really low so very rocky. Made it hard to walk down the "shore" with gear, a dog, and a toddler.

Needed to get out of the heat in Tucson so I headed north to the White Mountains. As I did my research, coupled with the weather map, I decided on the Showlow area. I kept coming back to Fools Hollow because it was on the water, in the Pines, had large campsites separated from where the RVs are and plenty of walking trails around the lake, fishing and kayak and canoe rentals. Also, and most importantly they were dog friendly. Well all my expectations were met and more.

Apache trout campground is a family friendly campground with excellent amenities for both tent campers and RV/trailer campers. Our family has been coming here for years, we've used both the large group site and the smaller individual campsite. Most recently we had a family reunion at one of the larger group loops - trout loop. We loved having the large group Ramada available for group meals and activities. The restrooms and showers were great especially for the kids and "non-campers" in our family. The close proximity to the lake and Marina meant we had quick and easy access to fishing and boating among all the other fun activities. We also loved the fact that the campsite is dog friendly.

The only negative - the campground is very popular and therefore always full. The sites are fairly close together so you sometimes get a bit more from your neighbors than you would like (i.e. One year our camp neighbors had a giant disco ball and dance music, and they enjoyed themselves long into the night.

Our family has the Apach Trout Campground in our list of favorites.

The Springville RV Park is well spread out very nice pull through down the middle and equally spacious back in on both sides of the pull through spots. Full hookups 30amp 50amp and 20amp power poll. The water spickets are in an under ground, green lawn sprinklers control box with an insulation blankets. Because this place does get snow in the winters. Don't want the water pipes to freeze. Don't think there is a decated dump station. But every campsite does have its own dump station. The whole campground is graded level with fresh gravel each spring. Which makes it nice to park and to get leavel you just have to raise or lower your tongue jack as the case may be! There are young trees which will make for some shade when they get bigger. They are making improvements with each year. There are not Picnic tables in every site. But after talking to Don the camp host you could get a spot with one at checkin or one if one is available at a nearby spot move to your spot. There is laundry room with a books and DVD to borrow or exchang system. We pickout two DVD to watch tonight. Tried to do an over air scan with our TV, but no stations found. So you will need to bring your own Satellite system system are your own DVD's or movies to watch. As with most campgrounds this place has a very limited WiFi. Writing this with it. But our Fire TV can't connect enough to watch. Was able to cast from my phone to watch a Netflix show using a patch cord till phone battery was use up. Over all this is a very nice campground. There is a Safeway Grocery store about a 5 minute drive down the road in town. The what you could say is a negative point. No play grounds for kids, (there is the very big flat oval drive way around the pull through area the kids could ride their bikes around, have seen a few doing that). It is a nice flat place to walk your dogs. There is no fenced in dog run areas. No bathroom or showers. It is on the list of improvements to come. There is not a Credit cards reader for payments. You can pay with a check, but to use your card. The Camp host takes a picture of it. Then sends it to the owner to run the card. After she has the info, she has the hose deleted it. The way I would recommend is to call her at check in to give here the information directly. She does not take a reservation fee when making your reservation. Still runs on your hand shake is your word you will be here and she will have spot saved for you. So if delay or need to cancel be a person of your word to let them know.

This is one of the great RV Parks of northeast Arizona. Beautiful year round with well maintained sites. Highly recommend making a reservation to get a primer spot.

Don’t be fooled when you drive to this park though, you enter through a neighborhood.

We have camped at a lot of the Arizona State Parks and Fools Hollow was one of our favorites yet. Everything is very clean and well kept. We stayed in Mallard 8 which has full hook ups, great shade and views of the lake from your campsite. We were advised to go up the channel for fishing as during summer time they rent boats at the boat dock and that scares the fish up stream. We fished with both powerbait and catfish bait. Had success with catfish.

Show low is 2 miles away if you forget any essentials.

Probably the most beautiful campground in Arizona. Just outside Show Low, in the eastern part of the state, you are nestled in the pine & juniper of the region. Despite being in the middle of a developed area, once in the park, you feel appropriately isolated. We were at a reserved tent site (Osprey 12). All tent sites overlook the lake & a couple of them even have creeks running through them after rain. Visited family on a full hookup site & while the pads are huge, it seemed like you were more exposed to your neighbors. The tent loops all have access to a vault toilet & the middle loop has showers as well (the other loops are still walking distance from showers). There are several day use areas & boat ramps to the lake. Saw (& heard) many different birds & animals. Can't wait to go back.

Campground Review

I remember camping at Hawley Lake all the time as a kid and it was one of my favorite places to be. After this trip back as an adult I noticed things have changed quite a bit. Do not get me wrong… it’s a beautiful lake with plenty of camping in a pine tree forest. However, there were some areas for improvement.

For starters, the roads are not marked very well. For example, you do not know how to get to the general store until you are almost to the general store. Generally, this does not bother me because I just turn on Google Maps and find whatever I need but there is intermittent cell service at best (with Verizon). Once in a while I’d catch a bar of 4G but most of the time was on “analog” or had no service at all. Along these lines, the campsites are not designated at all. Basically, you can just park and setup wherever you want. I felt like we were a bit encroached upon because of this.

There are bathroom buildings but all the ones I saw were closed. They then would have a few port-a-pottys sitting out in front of the building. The port-a-pottys weren’t well kept and were rarely stocked with toilet paper. There was trash everywhere! We walked to the ramadas by the lake and the fire pits were full of plastics and other garbage. There were constantly beer bottles left next to the port-a-pottys and randomly around camp and the lake. There was a bunch of stray garbage (including a very sharp sheared off tent pole) left in our campsite before we arrived.

The icing on the cake was the attitude of the fellow campers. There were generators running almost all night, loud music, and like I said earlier there was some weird lack of boundaries between sites.

So now that I have told you what I didn’t like about Hawley Lake let me tell you what I did like. The lake is very large and very beautiful. Most of the shoreline is easily accessible for fishing or lounging lakeside. Words for the wise you can not swim in this lake. There is a little boathouse that offers boat rentals if you would like to venture out into the water.

The weather is a wonderful escape from the valley. There is rain almost every day (varying between light afternoon showers and heavy storms). The camping fees are paid by the car and are very affordable ($9/night/car). If you plan to purchase your camping permits at the lake be sure to bring cash. The General Store does offer some essential items and has a small café with hotdog/hamburger type foods. There are cabins available for rent lakeside as well.

Product Review

As a Ranger for The Dyrt, I get products to test from time to time. On this trip, I tested The ICEMULE Pro X-Large. The ICEMULE Pro X-Large was bigger than I had expected. It makes total sense once you think about it because it holds 24 cans and ice but it still surprised me. When I was filling the cooler or trying to get those last few precious cans out of the bottom I have to stick my entire arm in all the way in up to my armpit.

The cooler is made of a very thick and durable flexible plastic type material (kind of like an above ground pool siding). It has been super rugged and did not get scratched or torn up when we have used it on a pool deck, thrown it in the truck bed (with the scratchy spray in liner), or when being toted around camp and to the lake. The cooler has an adjustable bungee cord on the front. At first, I was not sure what we were going to use that for and the more we take out the cooler I find the possibilities are endless. We have been using it to carry our silicone cups, extra sunscreen, a spare hat, etc.

The cooler has a fold top design with a buckle. I do not have any other bags that close this way so it was a bit odd to get used to and is a bit harder to do when it was full. When properly closed the cooler will float. I was shocked to find that even full of cold beverages and ice the cooler floated when I pushed it into the lake. This is a great feature if you want to use it for boating, kayaking, or tubing.

We have been using the cooler quite a bit and in a few varied conditions. One of the examples I will share is that we used it for a poolside BBQ in Arizona. We filled it with 30 cans and bottles and about a bag of ice (which is far more stuff and less ice than suggested). Our beverages stayed perfectly chilled in 100+ degree weather even though we were in and out of it constantly and after 8 hours, there was still ice in the bottom.

We have also used it without ice. We put in 12 cold drinks to start with and even without ice they were cool 3-4 hours later.

The last example I will share is that we put 3 bags of ice and 6 cans in to it. After 48 hours there was about 75% of the ice still left in the cooler!

If you do use it to its full capacity, I suggest that you fill it on an elevated surface. With 24 cans and 3 bags of ice, you will be looking at around 40 lbs of weight and when I tried to pick ours up from the ground it threw me off balance a little. After that, I would fill it on a picnic table or counter top and it was so much easier to just turn around and pick it up from carrying height. The straps on the bag are very padded and very comfortable even when it is full. There is a chest strap but no hip strap. If I could offer a suggestion to ICEMULE for improvement, it would be to add a hip strap to help carry the weight.