Best Equestrian Camping near Superior, AZ

Great spots for your horse and trailer. Good size corral. More space on the pit side. Stay a week or month! Great trails out from camp. Water at corrals. Nice showers and restroom a short walk away. Plan to go back!!

The have a few electric and water sites, then more dry sites. Also horse corals, its neat being able to walk right into town, well worth a stop, sites are hard dirt, but adequate, spaced a little more apart on the dry sites, the electric/water sites back up to the town small railroad tracks and are much closer together. This is a great alternative when the lost Dutchman is full. 20 dollars to dry camp, but being able to walk into town was pretty cool. Seen roadrunner, quail, and doves, rabbits. A few coyotes howled at the moon at night, which was pretty cool to, off in the distance. I'd stay here again for the convenience.

Just south of highway 60, West of Superior, AZ (about 4 miles). Paved road to the turnoff for the campsite and then dirt but not too rough. My Prius made it just fine. Though there are definitely some roads farther on that are extremely uneven granite dells.

Two pit toilets are the only amenities, but there is plenty of hiking. You can hear road noise from highway 60. There’s a nearby mine and I occasionally heard muffled explosions but I did not feel them. On two of the days I was there I saw or at least heard low flying fighter jets (but within FAA regs) go by and a couple of multi-rotor helicopters. Had the skies not been overcast I’d have seen all of them. They were very loud but it was maybe five minutes total out of my week-long stay.

There’s no WiFi, even if you have a yaggi antenna. There’s enough cell service for text and phone calls (maybe/iffy) on the Verizon network.

Lost Dutchman is one of the best campsites to wake up in. One of my favorite trails in Arizona.

This is one of many outstanding Arizona State Parks. Sites are clean and most level with mix of electric and non electric. Suggest you make reservations well ahead for busy winter months!

Outstanding layout, great hosts, spectacular location.  Good hiking and sites nearby whether you are looking for lakes, wild mustangs in the Salt River, a scenic drive to Tortilla Flats or just enjoying the Arizona weather.  

Hiking in the park to accommodate all levels.

Campsites are well maintained.  Quiet in the evenings.  Could not ask for more.

Arizona State Park campgrounds are generally developed to maximize profit at the cost of minimizing camper experience. Lost Dutchman offers one bath house to service five or six loops of campsites piled one on top of the other. Because there are so many sites, the campground is managed like a military operation with untold Numbers of rules and regulations to understand and follow. If you fail to follow, a Ranger will be by to repremand and straighten you out. Coyoties are bold here and will enter your camp even if barking dogs attempt to deter. I reserved four nights but left after two. Tortilla Flat SP up in the Superstition Mountains NEAR Canyon Lake or BLM/National Forest dispersed camping is tmore to my liking.

Oak Flat is a Forest Service campground in the Tonto National Forest and is about 90 minutes from Phoenix. It's a short distance off a windy mountain highway which means it's easy to get to but traffic can be heard from camp. (Luckily it's not a busy interstate and traffic is pretty infrequent at night.) It's not spectacular location but there are decent views of the oak scrub desert surrounding the camp.

There are a handful of campsites with picnic tables and firepits, plus several flat and open areas for RVs or tent cities. Some sites are open and others have a few shady tree for hammocks, slacklines, and more. There is a bathroom which was clean and well-stocked with toilet paper, despite the campground being quite full when I stayed here for a few nights in April. There is no water, however, so be prepared with as much as you'll need. The elevation is just shy of 4,000' which means nights are typically a few degrees cooler than in the Phoenix area.

There are no hiking trails from the campground but there is a network of dirt roads which take you back into the desert scrub oak forest and through hundreds of bouldering problems of all levels. Just a few miles away, however, the Arizona Trail crosses the highway and heads north into the Superstition Wilderness.

This campsite is pretty basic but is a good place to kill some time, especially given that it's free! It's also a great place to set up your base camp if you want to do some bouldering.

Campground Review

What a great find!  We had no idea what to expect when we rolled down a long and lonely road from Phoenix out to Box Bar.  But other people sure knew about it! There were lots of party people there, playing music, floating in the river, and enjoying some BBQ.  

Box Bar is not fancy, but it is FREE!  There are no reservations and no set camp areas, but there are plenty of flat and shaded spots perfect for a tent.  There is a large dirt parking area that includes 3 port-o-potties. If you were going to camp here, the potties are quite far from the camp spots, so keep that in mind.  

The best part -- the gorgeous river!  The Rio Verde runs right through here and is the main attraction.  At Box Bar there is a small dam that holds the water in just enough for a calm small lake to appear.  There is also quicker waters that can be kayaked or floated on. Many kids were putting in and going around the bend, getting back out, and doing it over and over again!  The water is cool and refreshing in the Arizona sun.

When we went, it was a Saturday.  So I’ll be anxious to go back on a weekday or Friday to see if it is as crowded other days.  It wasn’t OVER crowded, but the loud music can get old :)

Overall, a truly great find.  Only 30 minutes from Phoenix too!

Product Review

As a Ranger for The Dyrt, I get products to test from time to time.  At Box Bar, I got to use the IceMule Pro Large Cooler.

Before heading out, we packed up sodas, juice boxes, apples, and a tupperware of cookies into the IceMule and poured ice all over the top.  The temperature that day was over 100 degrees, but when we got to the campsite and opened the top, the ice was still there and the drinks and food were freezing cold.  Never had such a refreshing soda! I’m used to having to drink a warm soda or water while adventuing, so this was quite the treat.

Besides keeping the refreshments ice cold, the backpack was also super comfortable to wear.  The straps are super padded, as well as the bag where is rests against the back. I am a super weak person and it was easy and fun to wear.  

I totally recommend this cooler to anyone wanting to reward a long hike, boat, or camp with freezing cold treats.  

For more info, visit: https://icemulecoolers.com/

We were not impressed with this USDA Forest Service operated campground. There are better places to stay in the Tonto National Forest area. I’d only stay here again if everything else was full.

It was toilets. That was about it. No cell service either (T-Mobile). No water or trash. Pack it in, pack it out. There are also some protests going on in the area right now. The land is sacred to Western Apache tribes and it might be opened up to copper mining.

The picnic tables and fire pits are nice. I highly recommend driving along the Gila-Pinal Scenic Route. Breath taking vistas.

A beautiful desert park at the foot of the Superstition Mountains. One of the cleanest campgrounds I have ever been to. I have only tent camped alongside a camper on an RV pad, but the space was more than ample for both. Lost one star because you can hear noise from the nearby "ghost town" attraction.

Had so much fun doing our Cotopaxi questival challenge at this camp site. So beautiful as we watched the sun rise with a camp fire! Weather was great!

The campground was great! Clean and nice bathrooms with showers, nice places to park. Gorgeous views of the mountains. The only complaint is that it’s a little crowded, but not enough to ruin our experience. The price was great too!

Visit for scavenger hunting challenge.

We stayed two nights at site #4 at Lost Dutchman State Park in early May, in a campervan. The campground is very large with multiple different loops, some with large open RV sites and some more secluded, a mix of pull through and back in sites. We walked most of the campground, and if you don't need a large RV or trailer site I highly recommend the sites from 1-15, they had pretty good privacy for a desert campground. The campground loop we were in was fairly empty when we were there (mid week). The view was amazing! Site was large and level if you are tenting it, with a nice level parking pad. Bathrooms were a bit of a walk from our area, so take that into consideration. They were spotless and the showers were available at no extra cost, which was great! Site was wonderful for just lounging around and relaxing at. Potable water spout was just two sites over, a short walk. There were fire restrictions so propane stoves only, no campfires. We hiked the siphon draw trail up to the top of the flatiron, a very challenging and unique hike with a lot of rock scrambling. The trail leaves right from the campground which was perfect. The campground was very clean and quiet while we were there. I highly recommend Lost Dutchman to anyone looking for camping near Phoenix! We reserved ahead of time, campsites were $25 with the online fee.

Clean facilities, beautiful surroundings, full amenities. We loved staying with a big group of teardrop trailers and home built campers. The area is beautiful and user friendly facilities. One of my favorite winter camp spots.

I absolutely loved the setup for this campground. Each space offers enough room and you get a wonderful view of Lost Dutchman surroundings. There's full on bathrooms, shower, and campfires.

This spot has excellent showers and amenities and its beautiful

However it's expensive and if you don't make a reservation you might wind up in a parking lot at fullprice like i did

very clean and well maintained park. sites are level and plenty of distance from each other.