Forest Road 535 Dispersed Camping

This campsite is very pretty, there are a lot of spots, the road is pretty bad. There are a lot of atvs and the campsites are mostly all fairly close to the main dirt road. I got a great spot, pretty field and open nature. There was a lot of atv noises and cars coming in and out. Still a great spot, just dusty and not very secluded. The area is great, right near flagstaff and Sedona.

The first 50 feet of the road is rough, the rest all the way to the top of the world is not bad. mostly gravel. if it is raining that will change quickly. over Memorial weekend, we got to our site after the switchback climbs. the site was great, with no trash and few Nabors. around 4 Pm one of the Nabors started target shooting. this is allowed but not within 150 yards of other campers or campsites. the shooting was freaking out our dogs so we packed up and left. I would rate this single weekend as a 0. we went up there in just the truck to scope out the area. looked great and there were not that many people around, which is why we chose to go back. I would avoid this place on major holidays.

The road is is pretty awful. There are a few OK spots, but a lot of it has large boulders sticking out, and after you see how many people drive up and down that road at unsafe speeds at all hours of the day and night you’ll know why it’s so bad. It gets pretty steep and narrow in some places as well. If you have a rig you don’t care about beating up it probably won’t bother you.

There are people camping all over. The spot I found must have had standing water after a previous rain storm. The soil had dried out and was cracked and just loose powder. Huge ruts, broken glass and garbage all around. You can tell the locals don’t like out-of-towers there by the glares. It really was awful.

The only plus is the close proximity to Sedona and Flagstaff.

We initially chose this site based on reviews and it’s location. We needed a base camp that would provide convenient access to Flagstaff and Williams to the north as well as Sedona, Cottonwood and Jerome to the south. Flagstaff is an easy 15-20 min drive. Sedona is an absolutely beautiful 40 min drive.

The entrance is very easy to find as there is a turning lane onto 535 from both the north and south. The entire road is a fairly well maintained gravel road with some typical washboard and rocky sections. The further you go the smother the road gets. The worst part of the road is the first 200 feet. Once past that it’s pretty easy going. We were towing a smaller 20 ft travel trailer and had no problems. There are a few hairpin turns and the road is not really a full 2 lane wide so passing on coming vehicles can be a little tricky. There are a few spots on both sides before the first turn that are really only suitable for tent or car camping. After those spots you need to climb the hill about a mile before you arrive at better spots. You will find spots on both sides of the road. Some are smaller and some will hold a larger RV. Our spot was 1.5 miles from the entrance. It was located back off the road and very private. We were there in September and the entire area was covered in fields of wildflowers. Our nearest neighbor was at least 100 yards away. During the week it’s calm and quite for the most part. On the weekend it’s a bit busier with more ATV traffic on the dirt road. Nights were peaceful with no issues.

If you keep climbing up the road will split and you will find more spots. We didn’t explore that upper section much.

Now the bad. Like another reviewer mentioned. PEOPLE ARE DISGUSTING! We spent a significant amount of time with gloves on cleaning up trash that littered our site. The fire pit was full of trash including broken bottles, so most of that didn’t get cleaned up because I didn’t want to cut myself. There was also a random spot on the side of the road that looked like someone just dumped bags of trash in the woods. WTF is wrong with people? This is the crap that gets these places shut down!

Dump station is at the Speedway in Flagstaff. The water at the dump station is potable however id never drink water from a dump station faucet. Be cautious, the faucet has high pressure. I used a regulator on it for my black tank flush.

So, in closing. Perfect location. Beautiful scenery. Private and peaceful. TRASH.

I’ve generally had pretty good luck with dispersed camping in Arizona but this one I had to comment on. Granted I did stay on a Saturday night but boy oh boy was it overrun by what I would assume were locals. It definitely wasn’t the usual boondocking bunch. It’s such a beautiful area but it has been trashed by these weekend people. They drive up and down a very dusty road all afternoon and evening on ATVs and 4x4’s yelling and what not. Also I had horrible cell phone coverage with Verizon. It basically didn’t work. When I first arrived it didn’t seem too bad although I did have to burn a bunch of nasty garbage including toilet paper that was strewn about the wilderness. Disgusting. Maybe if you drive further you’ll find better quieter spots. But I drove a good 3 miles and couldn’t seem to escape the riffraff.

We stayed at nearby Cave Springs and had to move because they were full. We came here and are glad we did! We went about 3-4 miles down the road, so we were pretty far back and we still had decent cell service. We had no problems with people or noise. Most of the noise we heard were from owls or coyotes. There were many others camping, but not close to us. Great location close to Flagstaff and Sedona. We had a beautiful site nestled in the woods. The elevation kept us cool in the summer. One night we were actually really cold! We look forward to camping here again.