Best Dog-Friendly Camping near Pinetop-Lakeside, AZ

We're frequent campers, and this is one of our favorite spots in AZ! 

The tent-only campground is small, but the sites are large and have multiple great clearings for tents. Lots of shade and easy paths for walking around the grounds, plus there's potable water at several sites. Central bathrooms with running water are kept very clean, plus there's trash service and a (very friendly) camp host if you need anything.

Directly across a small road from Big Lake and the boat ramp. There are several places to go right down to the shore, and it's only a 5-6 minute walk along the road to the general store and boat rental area, where there's also a fish cleaning station. Brookchar is just down the road from the giant Rainbow Lake, so you'll hear some RVs and ATVs on the road, but very minimal. 

We camped in site 12, which in our opinion is the best! Closest to the lake with water views, plus parking right outside your site for 2 vehicles (other sites, you park in a main lot). Bring your fishing gear and kayak/SUP (can also rent very reasonably)!

Over Memorial Day weekend, we saw highs close to 80 and lows in the high 30s/low 40s. Only sprinkled once!

It's also just an hour from Pinetop-Lakeside, so it's easy to make grocery stops or even grab a coffee (try Pinetop Coffee House + Roasters right on the highway!) on your way in/out.

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.

Horseshoe cienega lake and campground is located off the 260 about 45 minutes east of Pinetop-Lakeside. First impressions: wow! The lake in and of itself is beautiful and very similar to the other small mountain lakes in this area. It is visible right off the road. Fishing and kayaking is available here but you have to buy a special fishing permit for the White Mountain Apache Tribe.

The campground is open between May and October. No reservations, first come first serve. We stayed in a large group over Fourth of July week and of course this place was packed. That said, the sites were still far enough away to have some privacy.

The campground sits between the lake on the north and a spectacular cliff with a river running at the bottom on the south end. This was an awesome view! The river is accessible and you can hike down to it.

This is just a simple campground, no hookups, with amazing views! I would love to go back again not on a holiday weekend!

Los Burros was a beautiful little spot, tucked away in the pines near Pinetop-Lakeside, AZ. There are at least two camping spots that include a fenced in area for your horses to stay. There is a trailhead right in the campground (Los Burros Trail) that is moderate/easy and perfect for an afternoon or morning hike. There was cattle in the fields just about 1/2 a mile up the trail, but they didn't seem to mind the hikers/mountain bikers. Free range horses were in the fields across from the campground when we stayed and they paid us a visit during breakfast - they seemed to be well acquainted with people and were not scared to come right up to our truck and our tent, but they were easily scared away by tossing a few small rocks around where they were. Each campsite is complete with a fire ring with a grill cover. Overnight the site was very quiet, which was surprising because the campground was full - it seemed like most people staying here were planning on staying more than 2 or 3 nights and were pro-campers.

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.