Apache Creek Campground

I was intending on staying here for 1 night, the grounds themselves seemed fine, there was a ton of rain so lots of big puddles which was not great for tent camping. All though still seemed doable.

The reason I did not stay here is because when I was in town at a shop one of the locals started mentioning the drug problem that was running rampant through the towns youth and for some reason it made me very uncomfortable.

I am sorry this has nothing to do with the site its self.

Open as of June 21, 2020. Vault toilet. Several spots open through the weekend. Quite a bit of day use by picnic families. Zero cell signal with Verizon...have to drive about 2 miles toward Reserve. Apache RV Park, 1.5 miles toward Reserve, has propane, laundry (coin), dump station ($10), and showers ($10), all open to public. Small convenience store at Apache Creek 500 meters from campground. Easy hike to petroglyphs.

Grounds looked wet, few mud puddles from all the rain in July. kept things cooled for a great night sleep.

Song birds everywhere, evening saw some big deers close by.

Vault restroom was clean compared to others.

Small grocery store at the entrance, walking distance from campsite, never did visit.

Few tents and RVers.

Sound of a gunshot close by.

Forestry Services working in the camping area, left before they got crank up.

No Cellphone from my provider.

Just stayed three nights last week. It was a long drive from Tucson, made even longer by the horrible roads (mainly the mule pass area) but it was worth it once we arrived. The site is easily accessible for larger rigs which seems a bit rare these days. The campground was empty except for one other small toy hauler who left the next day. Nights were filled with stars and silence.

The creek does not exactly "flow" very well and I believe some of the stinky smells we encountered at times was due to the stagnant water. There was also a serious amount of dead cows all around the area so I assume the area has quite a few coyotes or wolves. There were plenty of trails to explore on the Can-Am and we hit up a little cage in Reserve one morning for breakfast. Fuel prices in Reserve are beyond insane so worst case, fill up just outside of Glenwood where diesel was 50 cents cheaper.

All in all, everyone enjoyed this site and we will likely go back in September.

It could be I caught this place at the wrong time, there was a large group of RVs in one location which was far enough away except they didn't leash the four dogs they brought with them and left their generator running all night long which wasn't loud except when it's in a canyon where after a few hours it starts to become bothersome. That wasn't the only issue with this place, someone butchered a horse or elk and discarded it's carcass in the camping area, I know people have to eat and out there that may be normal but it was right in the camping area. All of this set the tone for this place, in general people being disrespectful of everyone and everything else around them in this location.

This is a really pleasant National Forest campground, in the northern end of the Gila National Forest. The sites are shaded by large ponderosa pines, and the individual campsites are huge. I couldn't even see another camper from mine, though I did have a bit of a walk to the bathroom! It was very quiet, day and night. I think there were only 2 other campers there when I stayed.

It's easy enough to pick a level place, and get either shade or some sun on the solar. Sites all have picnic tables and fire rings. Some sites had a table made out of an enormous log. The campground had clean pit toilets. The dirt road in, and the loop through the campground, were both in good shape. I had no cell service on T-Mobile.

A fellow camper told me about a couple of petroglyph sites nearby, but I didn't have a chance to check them out.

This is a free national forest campground. There are 10 very well spaced, generous sized, flat sites among huge ponderosa pines. Each site has a fire ring, a picnic table, and a large "tree trunk" table. There is a vault toilet on site. We provided our own tp.

We stayed in mid April and an occasional hunter spent a night or two but generally we were by ourselves and it's very quiet with a beautiful night sky. One morning a herd of approximately 30 elk passes thru the campground. Other times we could hear cows mooing.

There are two short hikes nearby to view the petroglyphs in the area, one just a bit further down the road from the campground, the other towards Reserve, near the "Cruzville" sign.

Towards Reserve there is Apache Creek RV Park which has a clean laundry and very clean, spacious, hot showers for $5 and a dump station for $7.00.

We had a very good lunch at Carmen's in Reserve. In Reserve you can get decent 3G Verizon service but at the campground there is essentially no service except a sporadic 1X.

We camped here in a 24' travel trailer.