Dead Horse Ranch State Park

This was our second stay here and we love it. The sites are spaced out and configured very well for privacy. The dump station is free!

Since we work during the week when we travel good cell reception is a must. We have excellent Verizon coverage here with speeds up to 94 MBPS.

Sedona and Jerome are a short drive away plus Cottonwood has some pretty decent restaurants To choose from.

Dead Horse offers a lot of outdoor activities from fishing, biking, and hiking the surrounding trails. It was warm and busy at the time of our visit, we scoped out some sites for future visits and would like a few more days to explore the surrounding areas. The large riparian lake is easily walkable and very lush with trees and greenery. Would recommend this park in the Fall through Spring. We were simply here since we were in nearby Sedona and wanted to scout future places to stay.

We stayed 2 days in the lower Quail loop and 1 night on the upper loop. It was 95 out so the power was great. we rode bikes to the fishing Lagoons and walked down to the Verde. Staff nice and helpful, clean, and everything was in good shape. Pay attention to the height warnings, we had to thread between branches in out 10' high MH.

We returned a few weeks later, only 1 hour from our house so an easy escape.

This is another great state park in AZ! The sites are spaced out pretty well and our site 67 (in Red-Tail Hawk Loop) was level. The scenery was beautiful. There are lots of hiking tails in the park too! Amenities at the park include: electric (30amp/50amp and water), picnic table, fire ring, restrooms (though we didn’t go in them due to Covid-19), dumpster and a dump station. No WiFi available, 2-3 bars LTE AT&T, lots of over-the-air TV stations and our hotspot with a MiMo antenna gave us a good speed. We would definitely stay here again because of its closeness to Sedona, just 15 miles away.

Arizona has some very nice, scenic camps and we've so far been able to enjoy everything from the cool of the mountains and high desert to hot scrub of the low land desert to stellar camps along the Colorado. Can't think of any to which we wouldn't happily return. The sites in Coopers Hawk loop where we were are paved and nicely spaced. Some trees and bushes provide not so much shade as a bit of screening and privacy.
A little confusion on checking in at Dead Horse. We were told that at 2p Wednesday (we checked in around 4p), that Az would not be taking any new reservations or extending existing ones. All state campgrounds would be effectively closing until the beginning of May. We wanted to stay in the area so booked a week at Distant Drums in Camp Verde for after our reservations here ran out. This am I noticed the park ranger removing the plastic bags and placards on the self registration stations and she told me that the order closing the state parks had been rescinded at 8p last night, 6 hours after it had been issued. So the last info is that state campgrounds in Az remain open, at least for now.

Date of stay: Oct. 13-26, 2019

Campsite 110, Cooper's Hawk Loop: Site/loop is up on the hill and offers some views and better phone reception than elsewhere in the park. Although directly across from a bathhouse, the site had nice vegetation and felt more private that some others looked.

Bathhouse: Clean, plenty of hot water, push-button. Dish-washing stations and soda machines located at the back of each bathhouse.

Location: You could stay in this park and find plenty to do without ever leaving it. Hiking, biking, fishing, horseback riding (rental stable in the park), disc golf course just outside the front entrance, OHV trail access. We even hiked from camp to the Tuzigoot National Monument (5.8 miles roundtrip.) The park is practically in downtown Cottonwood, which has plenty of stores and eateries. It is also the perfect launching point to visit Sedona.

Extras: firewood for sale $7.00/bundle, plenty of OATV

Critters spotted: Anna's hummingbirds, blue herons, Gambel's quail, king snake, roadrunner, walking stick

This was a nice surprise. I’d been boondocking and wanted a short break. This park is close to and overlooks Cottonwood. There are many trails for hiking and most allow mountain biking and horseback riding. The sites felt spacious and were paved in Red Tail Hawk Loop where I camped. There were plenty of trees and shrubs in the park. Saw one Road Runner. It was peaceful and a very pleasant place to stay.