Forest Road 552 Dispersed Camping

Easy to get to and find right at the intersection. Several fire rings already set up, although not much firewood around so bring your own. The ground isn't very level in too many spots so if your tent camping you may be limited in your choices. Thankfully for me and my dog there is nobody else here so we were able to get a good flat spot. We've been here about an hour already and a handful of cars have already driven by but all of them have been leaving the forest. In the distance you can still hear road traffic from the freeway but it's not that bad in my opinion.

MY EXACT SPOT is: 35°22'25.8"N 111°35'55.4"W :This is the intersection of 552, 552-A and 522. (link: https://goo.gl/maps/THmqRa7Hk6qvm2pi6)

As of today, June 2, 2023, You cannot go beyond the site I am on in a vehicle (522 corner lot) due to "Burned Area, Flash Floods, Fallen Trees, Rocks and Debris" but you won't know that until you get around the bend and see the road is blocked and inaccessible to vehicle traffic. Plenty of hikers, runners and bicyclists go up there though.

My site is rather large as I have a 40 ft motorhome and a 2020 jeep in tow and people who choose to go around me (the car IS attached) have no problem going through my site. There are actually 2 fire pits here but I have pulled up between the trees and am taking up both sites, not intentionally, but my rig is aimed to leave by pulling straight ahead. I did have to detach the car to get in here.

There is a small lot across from me, no firepit, I think it's more of a parking area for hikers and bikers. One guy did get up there with a trailer in tow but I thought it was going to flip over in that attempt. It's got a bit of a steep entrance and one side is higher than the other. He made it though and they leveled very quickly.

552-A (aka 553) is closed, as well.

Schultz Pass Road (aka 552 - left off of Lockett Meadow from Hwy 89) is closed.

418... well... there are motorhomes and other campers back there but at the bottom of the hill the road has multiple deep ruts from a washout/flash flood situation. I drove my jeep Cherokee over it and thought "nope, not my motorhome". That was the end of that. Scout this one before you take your expensive equipment down there because if it rains, it can only get worse.

I did try to stay at the intersection of 552 and 418 because it IS big enough for a 40 ft motorhome and a car but I could not get level to save my life so I moved up to the rooster intersection. The 418 lot a keyhole shaped lot with a tree in the center. Just watch out for low hanging branches around the perimeter. There is a fire pit.

There is A LOT of traffic on all these roads and it's extremely dusty. All the roads are washboard but not as bad as others I've been on.

One thing I found a bit disconcerting is that most spots are really not that big for a 40 ft motorhome with a car and the few that were, are taken by people with a tent, a van or a camper van. They could easily fit into many other other sites but big rigs are quite limited and all the big spots were taken. I really thought I'd have to find a way to turn around with a car attached (there aren't any that I saw - even a tractor trailer came in to drop an excavator and he had to back all the way down the road) and move along up the highway until I found the spot I eventually settled in.

Please be aware that you may see roosters running around from time to time. I actually saw a chicken cross the road and this is the high desert, there is no water there except when it rains. The rooster, as it turned out, was extremally thirsty and hungry which I took care of quickly and efficiently. I actually stayed a day longer than I intended while I tried to find a rescue for him. It turns out that the city of Flagstaff doesn't allow roosters within it's limits. When people sell baby chicks there, they sell all chicks, regardless of sex and you can't tell until they are probably 2 months old or so.... then these people who figure out they have a rooster just take them up and dump them in the woods to fend for themselves. Little Rooster Cogburn (CB for short) was rescued and now has a wonderful new life. It's very sad that Flagstaff has a law about not allowing roosters within the city but allows them be sold to unknowing buyers which is the majority of the reason these birds get dumped where they can't survive. I'm not happy with Flagstaff. There is a way to sex the birds for sale; they just don't care.

REGARDING AMENITIES: I have Visible which uses the Verizon Network (no booster). I have a triangle rather than bars on my phone so I would liken it to 1-2 bars. I have internet via this service and it's slow loading photos and video's but they do post given a few extra minutes. Web pages come right up. Email is a bit slow. Am able to stream Netflix no problem.

It's quiet except for the traffic. Its only dusty when there is traffic. It's dark as hell out here but I did get one really good picture with my Pixel 7 (will post photo taken at 9:45 pm).

We have a 36’ Class A with a Cherokee Trailhawk tow and parked and dropped at the Tee of the entrance road and Schultz Pass Road, then went to scout for a site that would accommodate us. Schultz Pass Road is closed to the South/left due to the Pipeline Wildfire damage last summer. So we couldn’t get to where we stayed a couple of years ago. We went right and found this nice site about a half mile North or so and a couple hundred yards off of Schultz Pass Road. We stayed for 4 days. There were quite a few gravel haulers running back and forth on Schultz Pass Road, which kicked up quite a bit of dust, but if you’re off of Schultz Pass Rd a bit, the dust is not too much of a bother. There are a number of trails/forest roads in the immediate area to hike, some with nice views of the valley and surrounding mountains.

AT&T coverage was fair, with 3 Bars of LTE service and speeds up to 8 MB/s. Although there are trees, our immediate site was pretty open, so we were able to receive all 3 SW Dish satellites and Starlink had up to 11 MB/s. We didn’t try to load any OTA channels.

Stayed here March 25, 2022 in small class C RV. First part of the road is a little rough then it’s smooths out. I just went slow and it was fine. When I first pulled off the road I had no Verizon cell service but up on the hill I got one or two bars. Beautiful, quiet place to camp in wooded forest. Seem to be quite a few sites. I would stay her again.