Mescal Road Dispersed Camping

I don't usually post many reviews, but after reading reviews and my recent experience I just had to comment.

Stopped here so we could tour the movie set(totally awesome!). Met the rancher who runs the cattle on this piece. I totally get their frustration, seeing the disrespectful treatment many campers & shooters give this land. They told me they have spent many Sunday afternoons cleaning up after people. Their cattle sometimes eat things they shouldn't due to the trash, get shot at, get hit on the road, then there's the fire danger. Please park on the gravel areas only and be sure your fires are dead out! They flat out told me campers are more than welcome that respect the land. My wife and I decided to help, and we filled up over 6 bags of trash and there's much more further in! You van & car people better start using your toilets, buckets, or whatever! Wipes don't decay, that's so nasty! These places will become off limits if this keeps up!

We're in a very big rig 71', there's room to park at the first spot on the right(across from the movie set), but not much room to turn around( I managed in about a 5 point turn), so suggest backing in from the road. Beautiful spot, unfortunately many people suck! Please pack it out!!!

Cell signal good, open sky for starlink. We were traveling through, so not sure of close water & dump stations, but Benson is close.

This was a GREAT place for an overnight stop when traveling in a big rig on I-10. Any closer to Tucson and we would have had to pay a lot for an RV park or go to a BLM site where we knew it was crowded and dirty, or stay on the freeway and get zero sleep. (We live in Phoenix but needed to stop in Tucson to visit our son the next morning.)

We did not stay exactly at the place the maps pointed to but rather 1 mile closer to I-10, off to the right, where a few other RV’s were. (This was right at the turn off to the studios, which is on the left.) The place indicated on the map, further down the road (dirt road at this point) was a very sketchy full timer looking RV and we didn’t feel safe. We were able to turn our big rig around in that area and go back to the first place. Had they not been there, that site would have been a 5 star rating.

Yes, we heard the train a few times during the night but it wasn’t bad because it was about 1/2 mile away and was actually a pleasant sound. What was slightly annoying was the stream of traffic going to the studios after dark as they must have started a shift about 9pm. After that it was quiet and peaceful.

In the morning, there were cows in the road that we had to ease around but we were ultimately stopped at the RR tracks for a bit with no train in sight. Finally, after waiting a while for the arms to go up, which never did, we were forced to go around them.

Regarding a permit…there are absolutely no signs at either place indicating you need one or anything indicating we are on state grant land. We did not get a permit and don’t see why you would have to. We abide by all laws and such but getting a permit for staying overnight here is just ridiculous, in our opinion, and we are AZ residents.

The area where we were would fit about 4-6 big rigs, depending on how folks park. The ground is rutted but really quite level. We didn’t unhook and did not have any issues when inside our TT.

Very near Mescal Studios where many great movies have been shot.
They have tours which are must see if available.
Cross the RR tracks on Mescal Road and you are on AZ State Land and a permit is required and it has a 14 day limit.
Plenty of places along Mescal Road to camp.
Some places are tougher to get to than others.
There is even a convenient Dollar General.

I bought my Arizona State Trust Land permit online this morning, printed it out & therefore we we able to stay in the beautiful area overnight. There are two other campers in the same area, but it is quite large enough and doesn’t feel crowded.

As other reviews stated, after the railroad tracks and cattle guard, a short way down the paved road on the right. Very large area perfect for a quick overnight!

We have a Class C Motorhome and had no trouble getting in or out of the campsite, although we did have to be slow and careful!

The further down Mescal Road, the less cell service you get. We had no service at all (both Verizon and AT&T).

There are lots of open sites and only a few tree covered. We picked a tree covered site and the site itself was quiet, but there were a few ATVs driving by a several times a day and night.

This site was beautiful, on a dry wash. The portion of the wash we were near was not conducive to hiking as it was mostly rocks. I would suggest Miller Creek or Turkey Creek Trails.

As others have stated, once the pavement ends on Mescal Rd, it's all washboard from there. Be sure to go faster, rather than slower, to minimize the bumps and save your shocks a bit!

We had a great start here. Going to give a lot of info for those with larger rigs. Arizona trust land ($20/yr pass) begins just after the railroad tracks at the cattle grate. Logical places to put a big rig: corner of Mescal and Salcido (rutted, can get very must with rain, and sometimes used as staging area for OHVs), the beginning of the dirt trail on the right about 500 feet before pavement ends (we stayed at the beginning, but a few more spots could accommodate large rigs down the dirt path before it gets dicey, flat, a bit of train noise), the location marked by this entry (two connected and level loops with one more somewhat trickier spot down the dirt path before the going gets too bad), just over the next cattle grate at a pull off on the right (large, but not so level, the rancher who has the party after the cattle grate will definitely check your permit), about another mile down on the left are a couple of decent spaces (around mile 4.5, seem flat, but may take a bit of maneuvering for large rigs), and then a long stretch with the road starting to deteriorate into a nice spot by a creek around mile 7 and a nice spot on the right around mile 7.5 or 8 (could definitely fit multiples). Would urge against taking a big rig any farther as the road gets fairly bad. If everything was full (we only saw a few other rigs in our 10 days, so seems unlikely), we would have pulled into the flat open desert just to the right of the road shortly after it becomes dirt and just checked for cacti first.

No one ever asked about our pass, but it was taped to our window, so may have not bothered us. A few OHVs came by, but never bothered us. Nice and quiet at night other than occasional train rumbling. Beautiful night skies. Easy access to lots of beautiful places. Benson (15 minutes away) has a Walmart, local propane place (slightly cheaper than the Love's), and a good ice cream place.

Some trash around, but we've seen worse. Always try to pick up some of it.

Great Verizon, decent T-Mobile.

We stayed at one of the sites not far from where the pavement ends. And we finally found out the trick for washboard - you have to go 40mph for it to smooth out! The road is very washboard. But the site we stayed at was very open and others could have joined us. We could see a few others farther down the road. There is a train crossing right before the pavement ends, and from where we were you could hear the rumble of it when outside. It was peaceful.

Nice view of the sky as well! It’s amazing how much the stars twinkle out here.

The site was mostly clean. And the ground was hard. Very easy for our shuttle bus.