Houston Mesa Campground

This camping spot was perfect. Site Elk-11 was a great site, it was very secluded. My truck was less than 50’ from the site, and couldn’t hardly see it. Lots of nice pine trees. Camp was very clean. Included a fire pit and a picnic table that was in great shape. The site is large enough for around 4 10 person tents or so, plenty of room! It was first come first serve. We arrived 2/20/2021, which was a Saturday, and had availability. We couldn’t reach the host by phone, so we bought firewood. Had we arrived during the day, we could’ve gathered wood, as there was downed trees in the area, but it was night, so we bought $6 bundles from the Home Depot that is right across the highway! As far as the noise, we could hear some vehicles on the highway, but not enough to bother us. It’s not a major interstate with lots of traffic, and the speed limit is only 45 mph I believe, so minimal noise. Anyways, great place to stay for sure, looking forward to heading here again in March!

Nice location just outside of Payson. There is a gas station just across the highway if you need anything. Our site backed up to the highway so you could hear loud vehicles, but not see them. Some sites you can see the highway from the fire pit. Site 14 was a bit tight width wise for out 35 foot travel trailer with two slide outs on the driver side, but length was long enough to leave our F250 attached. You felt like you were in a remote forest, so it was a nice break from Phoenix. The camp hosts were knowledgeable of the area and friendly. We did a day trip to the Wagon Wheel Falls. Which is only 15 minutes away, with easy access to the creek. The falls were packed and there was a $10 self pay station at the trail entrance. We were able to work, stream movies, and play Xbox using a mobile router using an ATT sim. Our Verizon cell phones had good bars, but service was below 2 mbps, so assuring congestion in the area on Verizon. We would stay here again but look for a site away from the highway.

Nice pull Thru site with no water, elect., or sewer but surrounded by tall pine trees. Coming in the roads are paved and one-way only. They have a water station fill up for free, but dump station is $10. Park is well maintained. Each site has a picnic bench and fire ring (no fire restriction currently in effect). They even raked the dirt around the picnic area. Weekends are very busy, but week days feels like you have the park to yourself. Site 6-14 is adjacent to Hwy 87, so is a bit noisy but we got use to it as our generator was probably just as loud. Sites are spacious and you don't feel like you are on top of each other. Bathrooms are well maintain and clean as we peaked in. Weather is great this time of year, between high 90' during the day & can reach to 100' but feels cooler in the shade and mid 60's at night. Cellular service has 3-4 bars for AT&T, but Verizon had 2-3 bars., works fine for us as we are working remotely. Across the Hwy is Home depot and a gas station. Only a couple miles to town and about 13 to Pine, AZ and a few more miles to Strawberry. All county forest roads are closed due to fire restrictions. We would come here again just to get out of the house during covid and still feel that we are distancing.

There is another campsite off Houston Mesa Road - opposite the privatized campsite. Called Equestrian Campsite - has sites for without horses. $20 per night - I paid $10 with Lifetime Pass. Large flat, well maintained sites with water, flush toilets and trash. Beautiful trees and vegetation, easy access and location close to town. Would stay again.

Very expensive $26 a night for dry camping. Lots of road noise, restrooms and showers locked for no reason. Dump site is on the premises but it's another $10 on top of the nightly fee. Three large, unsightly host sites (in the Elk loop alone) with the tackiest of trailer park decor---these "hosts" were invisible but clearly had settled in for the long haul. Seeing a national forest service campground taken over by a for-profit service provider is a tragedy, especially if this is the outcome.

Spots were level and private. Most of them were fairly large, especially the pull thru sites like ours (elk loop #22). Showers $3 for 6 minutes. Clean and well maintained. Very noisy campground both from road noise and fellow campers. Only 15 minutes to Natural Bridge state Park and about 10 minutes pass that to some great food/drink establishments in Pine and Strawberry. Unfortunately the hosts never seemed to be on duty and were not very good at updating the spots available. We were there on the 6th and they still had tags up from the 25th of the previous month. It made it very difficult to know which spots were available and it was impossible to find someone to ask. Dump station closed while we were there. Across the road is the horse campground which has one loop anyone can use. We ran by it and seemed quieter. There is a partial dirt road in but it’s not rough. I’d recommend checking it out too. Overall it was a convenient place to stay.

We stayed in a beautiful spot in the Mountain Lion loop with our 29’ travel trailer. It was a big pull through spot tucked in the corner of the campground with plenty of space to play with the kiddos. The problem was that the site (and many others) backed up to a service road that was quite close. We didn’t let it ruin the weekend for us and we sort of got used to the vehicles whizzing by but there are plenty of campgrounds nearby without this issue.

I hope this is helpful. Cheers