Cieneguita Camping Area

Sites are big. Nothing assigned . Did not see a BLM ranger whole time here. Park anywhere, really. They do mow down the grass in select areas. So that is where BLM wants you to park. There is plenty of space for more then one rv in all the mowed areas. Go talk to people first in site before you just setup. Cienequita does not have vault toliets. Vault toliets are at Empire ranch . There are cows . Lots of free range cows. The larger cows will face off with your dog . There is a lot of Coyotes. There are large hawks. So smaller dogs heavily supervised at all times. Large dogs supervised heavily at night. Prairie Dogs mounds. Pack rats are in area but mainly hibernating when it is cold.
There are far more sites in area than just at Cieneguita.

We loved this free camping location. At an elevation around 4800, you get cooler temps than you would in Tucson so it was perfect. The sites are huge and level with a fire ring (sometimes two). There is potable water at the Empire Ranch Headquarters right next to the bathrooms. You can take a self-guided free walking tour of the property just keep an eye out for snakes as we came upon a 5ft diamondback near one of the buildings.

We also did a video review that we posted on the video tab of this location.

There are multiple camping areas here
Cieneguita Campground (7 designated very large camping spots)
Airstrip Group Camp (permit required minimum of 50 people required)
Oak Tree Canyon Camp (directly next to Airstrip, approx 8 medium spots)
Maternity Well Group Camp (permit required minimum of 29 people required)

GPS Coordinates for NCA
31.768716,-110.682699

Cell/Internet Speeds
Verizon 35 mbps down and 3 mbps upload speed.
T-Mobile 3 mbps down and under 1 mbps upload speed.
Starlink- little to no obstructions, Residential with Roaming 50-190 mbps down and 10-20 mbps up.

Big rig friendly. Water and vault toilets about 1 1/4 mi. away at the Empire Ranch Historic site. No dump station. Primitive fire rinds with only 1 mile or so of gravel. Road in from Hwy 83 is paved until the Empire Ranch. Very quiet, peaceful and large well spaced level sites. Sign has said future site for a BLM campground for about 6 years now. So far there is no charge.

We stayed here for one night in late March, 2022. Loved the large site we had (see video: https://youtu.be/NthTnJ7ACSI
and the views we had. We were concerned about how dry it was and then saw a brush fire south of us - yikes! Luckily they got a grip on it quickly...
All dry camping, pack it out. Was perfect for us!
A bit of a drive off of the main highway - no problems on the road at all.

We found free camping at the Cieneguita Campground, Las Cienegas National Conservation Area in AZ. In this video, we take you to the Cieneguita Campground, a free camping area within the Las Cienegas National Conservation Area, in Arizona. The campsites at this BLM free camping area are big rig friendly. Verizon cellular service clocked in at 102.0 Mbps download speed and 7.29 Mbps upload speed. AT&T cellular service clocked in at 20.2 Mbps download speed and 10.8 Mbps upload speed. T-Mobile cellular service clocked in at 0.12 Mbps download speed and 0.23 Mbps upload speed. Grid coordinates for this free camping location are as follows: 31.767429, -110.625648

Came out to Empire Ranch for the maiden voyage with my toyhauler and it didn’t disappoint. Most of the site are large and accommodate group camping, we had 2 toyhaulers. Road was in good condition. Cell service was good as well, I think 3-4 bars with Verizon. No noise at night, and a few OHV during the day (including mine). No water hookups or electric, but was there to boondock anyway.