Peralta Road Dispersed Camping
Reviewed Mar. 27, 2023

Depends on your needs...

We scoped this area out via Google satellite views and The Dyrt and other review sites, looking for a place to boondock for three weeks.  There's good and there's bad here:

The Good:

  • The pull-offs from the main road are fairly easy to get to. 
  • It's Arizona...but there's GREEN stuff everywhere.
  • Great view of the mountains here.
  • Saguaro cacti everywhere.
  • I fed some carrots to a horse this morning.
  • The main road is pretty good, at least as far as we came in.  (Had the wife scout out a spot on her motorcycle and sidecar.)
  • Cell service is pretty darn good.  Was getting about 40mps down with Verizon, but AT&T was definitely better at 35 down, but almost 35 up, too.  Verizon's up speed was maxing out about 18 mbps.  I didn't even get the Starlink out!
  • You do have to go through a residential area to get to here, but it's two lanes each side and very smooth.  Just slow down to 35 and 25 during the school zone times.
  • The main road (Peralta Road) ends in a trailhead where apparently you can hike.  (I won't be finding out...)

The Bad

  • As my subject says, "it depends".  I'm here, boondocking, to get a bunch of audio recording and editing done.
  • Was hoping the weekday would be different, but there is a CONSTANT stream of cars, trucks, jeeps, side-by-sides, some loud, some not.  If basic noise doesn't bother you, you'll be fine.  If you're going to be on the phone a lot for meetings and such, you might notice it or need to use your device's MUTE button.
  • MOST of the drivers are going WAY too fast. (Watch your kids and pets.)    We're on a double blind curve (hard to see where we are pulling out in the truck to go to town from both ways).  You really better pay attention.
  • There are ruts in the pull-offs.  We were lucky that the spot we got into had minimal ruts, but towards both the end and front of our rig, they're pretty deep in some spots.  Walking our dog, she was completely IN a valley-rut several times.  There's a sign posted that seems to indicate they'll be fixing it, but it's state land.  Who knows.  The ruts, at least right now, are indeed dry, but clearly they were muddy.  If you're coming here, you'd best have four wheel drive.  After we got the rig into position, I had to level out some spots with a shovel so the jacks and our blocks would be level when the rig's weight was on them.
  • Even though it hasn't been hot and it's been pretty wet, the information when you buy your year-long permit (family is $20, wow!), it says that pretty much any and all campfires are prohibited.  Even though the link they provide to a map system doesn't show any fire bans here.
  • The spots, at least on this right side of the road, aren't very wide.  Right out our front door is the adjoining property's fence line.
SiteThe 3rd or 4th possible spot when you get on the dirt road, right side
Month of VisitMarch
  • Review photo of Peralta Road Dispersed Camping by Will and Lucinda B., March 27, 2023
  • Review photo of Peralta Road Dispersed Camping by Will and Lucinda B., March 27, 2023
  • Review photo of Peralta Road Dispersed Camping by Will and Lucinda B., March 27, 2023
  • Review photo of Peralta Road Dispersed Camping by Will and Lucinda B., March 27, 2023
  • Review photo of Peralta Road Dispersed Camping by Will and Lucinda B., March 27, 2023
  • Review photo of Peralta Road Dispersed Camping by Will and Lucinda B., March 27, 2023