Saddle Mountain BLM (Tonopah, AZ)

Camped for one night on my way from NM to LA.  Arrived at night and it was easy to find. Awoke to a beautiful sunrise at the foot of the mountains. Great rock hunting too! This will be my regular camping spot form now on when traveling the same route.

Great place to Boondock up to 2 weeks.

This was just an overnight stop. You can get right up next to the mountain if you want. Very rocky though. I made it with a 35' skoolie. Just go slow. It was fairly busy.

Saddle Mountain is fun to hike but strenuous. The area is quiet and easy to get to. RV and pet friendly.

January Rv 23 fr Cell. Att. 3 bars

This is a great spot that is easy to get to. You can see lots of lights from a refinery or factory of some sort but it didn’t really distract. The 10 fwy is only a few miles away and you can see it but if you are facing the mountains it feels more remote. Take the road further in. Most rv’s or big rigs can get pretty close to the mountain before the road becomes too tough. There are several roads that cut into the camping area from the main highway so you do t have to take the one that the directions here send you to. We were able to stream tv with good cell reception on att. I went on my dirt bike for the r into the mountains Very cool spot.

Love this Saddle Mtn Campsite! The pin location is accurate but it looks there are multiple different access routes. We really enjoyed it here because you can pull up within 50-100 yards from Saddle mountain and camp right below it. So cool.

We tent camped for about 5 days here, the crowd was minimal, felt very safe. Plenty of trails to walk, can explore the mountain and there are petroglyphs here. We only found a couple, but didn’t look too hard.

Overall loved this place, easy access, safe, fun and some cool views!

Not too far from I-10, easy to get to from highway. Used Google Maps. Pilot truck stop right off the exit with a few taco stands/trucks. Many roads to get on the BLM land, some more rocky than others. We had a big rock lodged between our 2 back dually tires, but suspect that doesn’t happen often. Some days it was a little windy and with the winds from the west it brought black flies. We had 8-10 flies hang in the van with us after we opened the door a few times. Other than that, plenty of sites very spaced out and neat walking trail up the mountain.

Great place to spend a couple of nights with a nice view of Saddle Mountain, west of Phoenix. Quiet and clean.

The good: it's quiet (except for the occasional dirt bikes) and the mountains are cool. There's a chance you'll find a fire agate. The bad: the road coming on from the west is washboard. The ugly: flies. Lots of them. We were here in December and it wasn't this bad (March now).

Stayed at the base of Saddle Mountain. Turned left on the dirt road around mile marker 13--as other reviewers stated, the dirt roads closer to you when coming from the east are very rocky--I had to take it VERY slow just driving my high-clearance truck. The dirt road I turned down while towing my 36 ft. 5th wheel was much smoother and allows you to get very close to the base of the mountain. The views are pretty and the mountain is right next to you.

Any indicators of good cell service is deceptive--yes, you have "a lot of bars," but bars are not necessarily a good determiner of signal strength. I use both ATT and T-Mobile sim cards in an LTE router/modem combo. The cell towers closest to the campsites are to the NW, right on I-10, and they have VERY high latency. Even if you have good download/upload speeds, you can't do any streaming/video calls with latency in the 300+ millisecond range and Jitter in the 2k millisecond range. Unless you have a high dB LTE directional antenna to point toward a better tower to the NE (which I do, thankfully), closer to Buckeye/Phoenix, you will be out of luck if you need reliable LTE internet for remote work. 

This is the only reason I didn't give the site 5 stars, since cell phones, tablets, and omni-directional antennas will always gravitate to the tower with the strongest signal, which is the one with high latency, in this case. If you don't need reliable internet to work on the road, this might not mean much to you, but if you do, keep this in mind.

We came from the west on 10 and exited on Salome rd- it was all dirt. But if you come from the east to courthouse rd it’s paved. We took the mile marker 13 and we’re very happy. Did a great steep hike up saddle mountain trail.

We chose this spot based on reviews. It did not disappoint. Great spot. A few campers, but so quiet and courteous. The land goes way back to the mountain, you can go deeper as there are many more level spots beyond the main area. Will need a smaller RV to fit the narrow rocky road, scout first before rolling out back.

We road our E bikes all over and did some agate hunting with wonderful success!

Great spot, lots of camping spots well spaced out, many with established fire pits. Very little road noise at night, and gorgeous sunrises and sunsets. T-mobile , 2 bars 5G service.

Spent the better part of a week here on our way through to Joshua Tree. Site was fairly level, road in was rocky and somewhat rutted but manageable. Verizon service came and went, but was overall fair. Saddle Mountain is beautiful and offers a great hike to any willing to do some scaling. The saguaro cacti are huge and everywhere, as are opportu items to find fire agate! Will definitely stay again if we pass through.

Perfect spot for boondocking. The dirt road is decent, people are spread out, it's peaceful. Bit of a drive to get gasoline...fill up before you get here!

Quite and peaceful. Roads ruff but manageable for a 44 foot Roadwarror Toyhauler.

Saddle Mountain is an amazing place to stay. There are lots of trails for hiking or mountain biking, and a few ATVs but they are not bothersome. The various roads that take you closer to the mountain can be quite rocky so keep in mind your vehicle clearance while driving in. 

The further you get away from the eastern side the better, as that is where people are shooting. Only heard gun shots a couple times while we were there. 

There are so many good spots to choose from here. The ground is a bit rocky but there are some spots with smoothed out surfaces that would be good for tents. 

People in other reviews have complained about flies swarming and being an issue due to a poultry farm nearby but they were not bad. A few pesty flies but nothing to drive us away. We probably got lucky with the wind direction while we were there.

There is some road noise if you’re close to the main road but otherwise it's not bad. There was minimal trash around and we packed out some extra when we left. 

There are many other RVers here, but the area is so spread out and open that you still feel like you have privacy.  Closer to the mountain the spots are closer together, so for us the sweet spot was midway between the road and the mountain - quiet and secluded.

There are only a few chollas but they are further up on the mountain so it is fairly safe to let your dogs run free without having to pick cholla spikes out of them. 

If you are into rockhounding then Saddle Mountain is your place for chalcedony and fire agates. You’ll see several people walking around multiple times a day with their heads down searching for these very cool gems. 

Good Verizon & ATT, 4 bars 

Another perk is that down the road about 5 miles is a place called Saddle Vista Ranch where you can dump and fill you tanks and dump trash for a fee. The guy is really nice and he’s got friendly pigs and chickens and tortoises you can visit. We paid $15 plus another 5 to dump a garbage can full of trash. There are cheaper places to dump but this is so convenient that it is worth it especially if you are planning on staying a while in the area.  

Nearby in Wintersburg the General Store there has bulk propane and a small convenience store, and a Dollar General on the corner.

This is one of my favorite areas to boondock in the southwest winter season. The views are phenomenal ! To my surprise I thought it would be crowded here this year, but no. As soon as you turn off of W Salome Hwy on to W Courthouse rd you’ll find at least 9 or more entrances that lead up towards the mountain. Some better than others, meaning they can be very rocky, so be careful of tire damage. Like any time your looking for a site, park in a safe place and search by either foot or in my case ebike. I have found the last couple roads in on the far west to be the smoothest, but they are also more populated. Sites here can accommodate the big rigs, but the smaller you are the more options you have. This BLM, 14 day maximum.