Schnebly Hill Rd, Fox Borough Dam

Exit 226 off of I-17 and head west on Schnebly Hill Rd. There is dispersed camping all along the road for the first mile or two. It is first come first serve. This is a dirt road and on the weekends there are a lot of off road vehicles and they will not hesitate to drive right through your campsite if they want to get somewhere. We ended up blocking the trail that the off-roaders kept taking with a fallen tree and our teardrop camper to keep them out. That might have been a jerk move but it was crappy to have them drive through and kick up dust at all hours.

After that was taken care of, we had a nice time. The little pond was full of water, lots of wild life, camp fires were aloud, plenty of trees for hammocks, lots of hiking trails, space for group camping. 

I did have some hitchhiking spiders when I got home.

A nice surprise

It was your typical dispersed camping experience at ~6500 feet. Pine trees. Cool nights. Beautiful place. Schnebly Hill seems like a campground more geared toward off-roaders though. We saw at least 40 ATVs, Polaris, quads, etc...and we were only there for 24 hours. The Foxboro Lake was bone dry but the dam was still neat to check out. About 15 minutes north is Munds Park and Pinewood...go there for an even more off the beaten path experience. It was pleasant but I wouldn't recommend if you're really looking to get away from PEOPLE. Its a great outdoors spot if you just want some fresh air mountain vibes.
PS - Please bury your toilet paper after wiping and while you're at it bury your poop! Ladies, we dont like to see tampon applicators left in the wild. Be better humans in the wild PLEASE!

Pine trees and off-roading.

An epic campsite. Schnebly Hill Rd. was a bit bumpy but was nothing but an amazing experience with aired down Gladiator. We saw tons of all wheel drive driving up to the Merry-go-round. After passing the Schnebly Hill Vista overlook where you can start seeing some dispersed campsites, we went up the road for about 1 mile or so and found an amazing campsite overlooking the Sedona red rock mountains!!! Sunset from there was just a breathtaking and stars at night were sparkling clear and shiny.  Very quiet until 8 am when you start to see Polaris every now and then. A must to go campsite! You won’t regret it! 

An epic campsite with an amazing sunset over Red rock mountains!!!!

I came from route 17 and camped 2.1 miles farther down the road than the gps coordinates here. I saw some nice forested sites along the way. Beyond my location got VERY rocky, like, larger rocks sticking up all over the place, and I’m traveling alone, so I stopped here. I have a Subaru Forester. If I had more intense tires I would have gone just a little bit farther and you get some truly beautiful spots. (It seems like you get some of the nicer views on the drive if you come up from Sedona but I don’t know how the road is.) But it was a quick walk away to see the sunrise. Quiet and peaceful, my closest neighbors that I know of were over a mile away. 

Lovely view, isolated spot

I took I 17 as the directions stated. Lots of spots that had existing fire rings. I used my propane fire pit since there were fire restrictions. If you drive down Schnebly hill road there a plenty of sites. After about 6 miles on a dirt road you will reach the schnebly hill overlook. The road gets a lot rougher from here. I didn’t go further from here. The site we stayed at wasn’t far from the exit on I17. The sky was beautiful. I would definitely stay here again. 

Nice area

Love this site but I highly recommend getting to it via route 17 unless you are very comfortable with off-roading. If you come from Sedona this is the route the pink Jeep tours use and there is a ton of traffic! The one and only time we came from that side the only other vehicles on that part of the trail were the pink jeeps. But it’s beautiful quiet and fun 