Forest Road 687 Dispersed Camping

We just finished our 14-day stay at FR 687. What an amazing location with huge sites that can fit multiple rigs. But as the previous reviewers have mentioned the Middle March Road is a bit of a drawback. On the day we arrived (May 2023), they were grading the first 2 miles of the dirt road which seems to have made things a bit better currently.

The review by BootsBikesBoatsBooks was excellent so we will defer most of the specifics to theirs but we will add that it is great to see that the rangers are patrolling the area. One ranger stopped by on the day we arrived and just asked us not to have fires since the area was in a red flag warning, he stopped by around 12 days later just to check in on us and it was clear they are making sure that people are not staying past their 14 days. WE LOVE THIS !!!

If you are interested in seeing a drive-thru of the area we post a video review on this page or the link is below.
https://youtu.be/i6hpFl2p_iA

The road in is long and bumpy but it’s not as bad as some reviewers had led me to think. The Middlemarch road is 10 miles long and there is washboard, but there are many stretches of pretty good road, and the first mile of that 10 is paved. I did 10-15 mph for the washes and cattle guards, and there are some washboards and rocky/bumpy areas. But I dropped my trailer tire pressure from 80 to 60 psi, packed everything in the trailer very tightly, and did 35ish mph without much angst. It went well.
As mentioned, the Middlemarch road is very wide. We parked on the side of Middlemarch just before the last cattle guard at about 10 miles, grabbed our bikes and went up 687 looking for a good spot. There are 8 sites along 687 suitable for big rigs before the cattle guard at 2.1 miles. There are also many other options for smaller units. The section after the 2.1 cattle guard is a popular climbing area with many smaller sites available and a few larger sites. There is a big wash at about 2.8 miles which I would be unwilling to cross with my 30' bumper pull trailer. Your last chance to turn a big rig around before that wash would be at about the 2.4 mark. Most larger trailers and coaches stayed closer to the beginning of 687 than us. There was turnover but the larger spots were mostly filled for our time here.
The Middlemarch road goes past the 687 turnoff but gets much more rugged. There are two spots for big rigs within 1.5 miles of the 687 turn off but you don't want to go past that. There are a number of smaller sites up there as well. Adventurous souls with 2 WHD, and a bit of patience, can get over the pass and get down to Pierce on the east side of the Dragoons but it would be slow. I went over it twice. My pickup handled it easily, but slowly.
The first 1/4 mile of 687 once you leave Middlemarch is the worst. Very rocky/bumpy with small rocks. No big dips or washouts, just bumpy and a wash. I did 2 MPH for that ¼ mile. After that, 687 is pretty good all the way to the big wash at about the 2.8 mile mark. You take it slow and strategize your way around dips and trees but it’s pretty comfortable.
We loved our site at about the 1.9 mile mark. We were biking/hiking most every day. The stars, sunsets, and alpenglow are very nice. Mostly the January weather was very comfortable for a couple Montanans, but we hit 12 degrees a couple nights and had a buildup of graupel one evening. We felt comfortable to leave our site for the whole day a few times. The coyotes are yipping outside as I write this. We saw deer and scorpions but no snakes. No cattle while we were here but droppings everywhere. We could see no neighbors, but there was occasional traffic on 687 and we are close to it. Our site was pretty flat but not horizontal. We did get the trailer horizontal by maxing our wheel wedges. We had 1-2 bars of Verizon 4G LTE without a booster. I am sad to leave.

The drive in was rough as other reviewers have stated. Drove in at about 20 mph which was not a good idea. Sooo bumpy. On the drive out, we took it about 30-35 mph. What a difference! BTW, we were in a Ford Transit van. The site we chose was not too far from the entrance to 687. Free range cattle wander throughout the area so there some cow patties on our site. Otherwise, it was a nice site with a great view of the Dragoon mountains.
Some road noise from vehicles driving down 687. Amazing view of the Milky Way at night. Would stay again but maybe drive further down the road to check out more camping sites.

Like all the reviews have said the road in is a long 10 miles, but I’m a glass half full type person. Take your time and enjoy the beauty if you are coming from the East climbing the mountain. I would recommend coming in from the West off HWY 80 as you aren’t climbing a mountain and this road isn’t tight if you have a big rig. Our rig is 28 ft but can easily fit a toy hauler if you have one. While we were here there were at least 50 other campers, but this land is so big our closest neighbor was a quarter mile away. The views of the sunsets are to die for especially if you climb to the top of the rocks to watch it set. From this park you are roughly 25 miles to the classic town of Tombstone. I recommend a visit here and watch a gun fight show. Hands down one of my most favorite little towns I have visited.

We spent 5 nights here and really enjoyed walking through the fields and hiking among the interesting rock formations. We parked at the end of the road that forked to the right, and the area was very popular among rock climbers. There was some noise of course with folks coming and going, but nothing problematic. Our only qualm with this place is the road to get in. As everyone has mentioned, the ~9 mile washboard road is exhausting. We had packed our trailer as we normally do but ended up with a broken glass and a very messy pantry by the time we reached our site it was so bad. We had planned to make day excursions out to do sightseeing, but the road was so annoying that we just waited to all of our sightseeing on the day we left. We stayed here during the week, but it sounds like this place is popular on the weekend among ATV riders and climbers, so weekends may not be quite as peaceful.

As for internet, we drove around all of the sites when we first arrived trying to find the best signal for our AT&T hotspot. There were some areas where we had absolutely nothing, and some areas where it was fine. Depending on your provider and your internet needs, you may have to try out a few spots to get what you need.

We drove to this location from Kartchner Caverns where we were camped. We planned to disperse camp here after we explored. I must admit that nearly 10 miles of rough, bumpy, and washboard road caused us to pass. There were many others enjoying the area, and I really wanted to as well. New 5th, made me pass...

Oh and there was one apparently abandoned campsite with lots of motorcycle parts left covered by tarps.

No joke about the 10 miles of washboard road to get to 687. Couldn’t go more than 15mph. We are in 38ft class A with a small truck towed. No issues getting in or finding an ample site to fit us. I have AT&T and there is hardly any service. But it’s a short drive back into Tombstone. The views of the Dragoon MTNs are amazing!! The sites are spread apart and it was very peaceful to stay here. Nice hiking trails everywhere!! Just go slow on middlemarch road, it’s a rough one!!

With the high rating of this place I will say I was a little worried about finding a nice site as I’m enduring the 10 miles of dust and washboard road to get here, but to my surprise there’s all kind of nice sites here. The smaller the rig the more choices you have like any boondocking you do. I pull a 26’ TT and didn’t see any big class A’s but you would have plenty of room for them. More than half the site’s, your only view is the beautiful Dragoon mountains and not your neighbors. The locals love it up here as well, so their is some daytime traffic.
The real reason I wanted to add a review was nothing was mentioned on T-Mobile cell signal. Mine bounced around between 1 and 2 bars but like my Verizon which had 3 would totally loose downloads for no apparent reason. All I could think of it’s a busy tower.