East Cottonwood Canyon Road Dispersed Camping

Got in here. Looked for a site started sinking in! Oopps 4 high, nope, 4 low , hammer it, Ok got unstuck. If your rig is heavy be careful and check out area. I'm towing a 36 foot fifthwheel toyhauler with a dodge cummins 1 ton drw. I almost got stuck. Might be a good idea to stay close to the established roads that look like they have gravel. Might have something to do with amount of recent rain.

We stayed over Christmas holiday and it was fine until Dec 27 when parade of commercial haulers started trucking on E Cottonwood Canyon road became a thoroughfare starting at 4:30am until around 2pm. . On Christmas, the new toys came out without instruction. Off road bikes came within 2 feet of our campsite spraying sand. Kid said it was his first time….. where was the adult who should have instructed the kid to stay away from campsites????

We always enjoy our stay here. On weekends there is a lot of ATV activity. The further back you go, the less crowded it is. As of April there are cows everywhere so you may wake up to them rubbing up against your rig, and watch where you step. Weekday mornings gravel trucks start running down the road about 3:30 am. If you are further off the road it is not bad, though. Great for big rigs.

We stayed here with our 13’ Scamp and 2 dogs for a few weeks. It is a busy staging area for OHVs but we stayed near the entrance/highway and the OHVs ran around way down the road so we didn’t really notice any noise. There’s noise from the highway but nothing disruptive.

Great cell coverage (Verizon)

15 min to Florence (gas station, fast food, grocery) 25 min to San Tan Valley (grocery, gas, fast food, oil change), 30-35 min to Apache Junction

Overall we enjoyed our stay! There’s a ton of room, big rig friendly, and we never felt crowded even on busy weekends

Our only issue was the cattle, they are curious and walk around everywhere (which is fair, we are on THEIR land after all) but they definitely get pretty close! Thankfully they are cute and easy to shoo away.

We are definitely adding this spot to our list to return to!

This is a great place for big rigs, but the main road leads to a sand/gravel site and there will be dump trucks and cars heading out weekday mornings starting at 4:45 am. Weekends were very busy with lots of OHV riding the roads. The further back you drive the prettier it gets but there are jumping cholla everywhere, so be sure to bring a comb to de-cactus your dogs. Nice stay

We found Arizona State Trust Land Camping off East Cottonwood Canyon Road. In this video, we show you three separate Arizona State Trust Land camping areas located off East Cottonwood Canyon Road. An Arizona State Trust Land permit is required to camp here.

Grid coordinates for Camping Area #1 are as follows: 33.182630, -111.338185 Verizon cellular service clocked in at 8.95 Mbps download speed and 0.82 Mbps upload speed. AT&T cellular service clocked in at 39.0 Mbps download speed and 1.70 Mbps upload speed. T-Mobile cellular service clocked in at 69.5 Mbps download speed and 3.69 Mbps upload speed.

Grid coordinates for Camping Area #2 are as follows: 33.192077, -111.301414

Grid coordinates for Camping Area #3 are as follows: 33.191853, -111.275186 Verizon cellular service clocked in at 0.49 Mbps download speed and 0.45 Mbps upload speed. AT&T cellular service clocked in at 2.94 Mbps download speed and 3.79 Mbps upload speed. T-Mobile cellular service clocked in at 3.71 Mbps download speed and 1.01 Mbps upload speed.

While it us normally fairly quiet during the week, on weekends it is actively used as an OHV staging area. At times it may seem like everyone in the Phoenix area who owns an ATV or side-by-side is here, running the road into cottonwood canyon. If you camp here on the weekend expect it to be very noisy and very dusty.

Because it is so busy on the weekends, you can also expect law enforcement to show up checking for current AZ Land Trust recreational permits, and issuing fines to those who don't have one.