Fort Valley

This is a very easy location to get to with any size rig. There was a parking type lot for campers of all types to stay in. With our experience, we had a constant flow of random cars that came and stopped next to our travel trailer that would roll down their window and never get out and then leave after a period of time. We found it quite strange. There were no families at this location, but a large amount of men here. We ended up leaving and went up the road to the snow bowl. Wouldn't recommend this site.

Upside:
2-3 Bars of Verizon 4G
Beautifully wrapped in pine trees
FREE for 14 Days
Trails within walking distance
Close to Flagstaff & resources
A lot of great trails in Flagstaff

Downside:
No bathrooms or showers
very sketchy (if any) AT&T signal (we had a little signal with a booster)
A little road noise outside (can’t really hear it inside the RV) during the day
Watch for dead trees

This place was great for our first extended boondocking trip! It was just north of Flagstaff. It was only about 3 miles from a gas station and only about 5-6 miles from downtown and plenty of resources should we need anything. There’s even two Wal-Mart stores within 8 miles….and a Camping World on the west side of town about 17 miles away.

LOCATION:
The location is beautiful, especially if you like tall pine trees. They’re everywhere. Humphrey’s Peak can be seen in the near distance although it is hard to see through the pine trees from the spot where we were camped. But a nice walk around the area will give you views of the mountain through the trees.

The location is fairly easy to find (just off of 180), which is good and bad. We were not the only ones around, which is also good and bad. I don't mind an occasional neighbor as long as I feel safe, and I never felt unsafe here. But I kept my eyes open and stayed aware of who was around and when. During our stay, we had a Class A just a couple hundred yards in front of us most of the time and a truck camper that showed up on the last night of our stay. That was really the only other RV's near us except for an older 5th wheel the first night we were here.

GETTING THERE:
GPS: 35.2503, -111.6887
The road (unmarked) is just past Mile Marker 220 on 180. When you pull off of 180/N Fort Valley Road (on the right headed North) onto the road (easy to miss; make sure you are watching for it), you will follow the paved road going off to the left after you turn in. Follow that road down and to the left beside it is a dirt/crushed rock road that turns back to the front. This is the road we stayed on and there is room for 4-5 RV’s with space between; you could get more in if you didn’t mind being a little closer to each other. It was pretty level (side to side) if you stay on the right side of it. The left side starts to ramp up to the paved road. This road is fairly close to 180 so you do hear a bit of road noise throughout the day if you’re outside, but at night it was pretty quiet. Again, we were ok with that because we wanted to stay fairly close to resources for our first extended boondocking trip.

TIPS:
Propane: Near the Wal-Mart on the east side of town, there is a rental place called Grand Rental Station that has propane. We also asked them if we could grab some water and they were nice enough to allow us to fill up our fresh tank. Address: 2480 East Huntington Drive
Flagstaff, AZ 86004

Dead trees: Whenever you decide to park, check for dead trees around you before unhitching. When we first parked, I didn’t notice a really tall pine tree that was dead and decaying. I noticed it the next day and it gave me some unrest about the potential of it falling on our rig (it was the only one around except for one that had fallen already nearby). So, on day two we moved about 130 yards back away from it, which was a small pain to hitch back up, pull in the slides etc to move, but worth the peace of mind.