Knights Canyon Road Dispersed Camping

Stayed there very recently, overall it is a great looking area with a lot of spots for camping, some are more well defined (rock fire rings, woods stumps), some good potential for a small RV set up, and plenty of primitive spots with space for tents as well as trees for hammocks. No bathrooms, showers, or water. Be careful driving out there as the sand is very soft in a lot of spots, even on the main road at times. I have a 2018 Tacoma Off Road and had to use 4wd farther back on the main road, also forgot to deflate my tires so take from that what you will. Would definitely not recommend driving back here during rain or immediately after rain, the sand looks like it does not compact well and some of the ruts present suggest it has potential for flash floods. Unless you know how to drive in those conditions I would avoid driving back there. You can definitely camp closer to the main entrance, but you will hear a good amount of cars on the back road that runs by it, but farther back is absolutely silent. I stayed somewhat close to the entrance, but the noise from cars don't bother me and I wanted to be closer to the entrance and road as I was by myself. Either way at around 10 PM the noise from coyotes drowned out any noise from cars, but luckily they stopped making noise about 10 min after they started.

Now onto the actual stay experience. I arrived around 3:30 PM to set up my site, no one there at all, but a lot of cows roaming the area. Around 4:30 a couple of trucks show up with their kids to ride their side by sides on the roads back there. No problems there, they did their thing for about an hour and left without really noticing me or paying me much attention. After they left it was already dark so I went to bed. Then at around 2 AM I am woken up by diesel truck (large pickup) pulling into main entrance, didn't really think much of it, assumed it was someone either looking to boondock real quick or stop to look at their phone. However, the truck stayed with the lights off, engine still running, didn't hear the driver or any passengers open or close the doors. This truck was about 15meters away from my site, but had the front end pointed directly at me so I could see it pretty well. I was in a hammock behind a lot of trees, but I don't think he could see me, however could see my truck for sure. I was watching the truck for about 10 minutes and noticed that the driver didn't turn on his interior lights nor could I see any phone light inside the truck. The truck sat there with the engine on for about another ten to fifteen minutes before it made two quick honks and drove out of there, but never turned on their lights until they got to the road. I'm not sure why, but I had bad feeling fall over me. For the record I have a lot of experience with big solo camping trips in the back country, have camped in a lot of free campsites when doing road trips that I'd consider "sketchier" than this location and have had experience where I knew I could be put in danger by other humans.

Either way, after those two honks, I waited for the truck to go down the road a little more, I packed up everything and left at about 2:30 AM. As I was heading down 90 back to Lordsburg, I saw in my rear view mirror two more vehicles (couldn't make them out) pull into the entrance this road. I was probably about a quarter mile down 90 when I saw those vehicles pull in.

Please take away from this what you will, I'm not saying this to deter anyone from camping/exploring that area as it is absolutely gorgeous farther back and has a lot cool spots for hunkering down. I've attached a photo that shows roughly where I was sleeping in relation to where the truck was and the road.

Did not stay here but drove thru to see if we could camp here. Have a larger (42) 5th wheel. May low hanging trees, rough road, not many spots to pull off to camp and then dirt road goes up mountain side. We are newer to this so want to post even though we did not stay here to help others decide if right for their rig. Could probably be done in Pick-up style, van, or Smaller camper but not good for bigger rigs.