Oak Flat Campground

We weren't in the campground proper where we were told there's no cell service. We were on the right shortly after you turn in to the campground in what would possibly be in a creek during the monsoon. I had a couple bars of T-Mobile and was able to stream Prime video. Hubby had one bar of Verizon. Our neighbor was able to work with her booster on T-Mobile, though not video, I think. If you go up on the hill to the east, you can see cell towers off to the south. There are two vault toilets in the campground that were pretty clean when we got here. The Indian event had just ended. There are some somewhat permanent wikiups and some protest signage but the area seemed pretty clean to us. Some locals came in on Saturday night and were fairly loud, but cleaned up after themselves and left Sunday afternoon. The area has a lot of bouldering, so you can hike around any of the roads/trails and find people climbing. We got the season pass for the Boyce Thompson Arboretum and went several times while we were here. We also rock climbed at the rope climbing areas in Queen Creek Canyon. The road in has some potholes but is passable.

Keep driving past the campground toward the mine site. Take the next left. It is down an easy hill. There is a beautiful pond with boulders as a backdrop. Could not have been nicer! Until…around midnight I woke to a young couple who decided to camp about 100 feet from me. They got into a loud domestic squabble. I shouted to quiet down but no response. I finally put my ear plugs in and fell back to sleep. At 5:30 AM I pulled in my slide and turned my rig around right in front of their tent. I accidentally honked my horn…8 times before driving off. (I replaced my little horn last year with an air horn from an 18 wheeler.)

It wasn’t so beautiful. We picked a spot that had a sign reserving it for a future set of dates which we were going to be long gone by even if we hadn’t noticed that there was no WiFi. We didn’t notice til after we’d set up. It’s a great boondocking spot. Perfect trees & it was unexpected that close to what I know as full on desert. It was a delightful to hike around when I was looking for WiFi. The Indians I did run into were wonderful & simply asked if we minded if they put their wood down near our campsite for their future powwow. I thought that was cool. Definitely got great pics & video clips too

A recent review Said there were hostile Indians squatting here because it was their sacred burial grounds, And there was trash everywhere.
Well I got here this morning and there were 2 Indians picking up the last of their belongings Putting it on a flatbed trailer and they were very nice and friendly. The whole site was clean,there were some bottles and cans here and there but not bad. Right after they left U.S. forest service showed up in 4 different vehicles, Wearing masks and holding clipboards all official like, (that's the 2nd picture) to make sure they were gone.

We used to keep up here quite often and loved it. We took a drive today to check it out for future camping but the Apache tribe is claiming it as their sacred grounds and are squatting with what appears to be long-term living. I wish I would have taken pictures of the trash. I would never recommend this place even to my worst enemies. It's in Tonto National Forest so I'm going to get a hold of them and see what's going on. So sad.

I went on a scouting expedition excited to find this free campground but felt like I was barging in on the homeless living in makeshift tents there. There were several spots where people appeared to be living and I was watched like a hawk as I drove through which made me very uncomfortable. I was so disappointed. Also, the road is seriously washed out on the way in and I seriously screwed the alignment on my Pathfinder coming in passing a shady patch with low visibility.

I wasn’t super impressed with this campground. The sites are all over the place and hard to define. Many of them are not even close to level and I noticed lots of deep ruts where the wrong vehicle could easily get stuck. There were lots of open spaces, but only one or two that I would consider safe and comfortable for us to park on. We’re driving a 20ft Sprinter van, a larger rig might have some trouble navigating the tight turns along the loop and finding a large enough site. It appeared like some campers were living there. The campground is far enough from the road noise so it was quiet at night. The bathrooms smell like they've never been cleaned. I would stay again but only if I couldn’t find another free campground close by.

Just came into Mesa from Oak flat campground for a couple of nights. It was very easy to get to & right off the highway, but just far enough to lose the road noise.

There were many spots of all sizes with fire pits and picnic tables. The area seemed pretty full, but we had no trouble finding a spot, and it stayed quiet and peaceful.
Took a little hike around the area on the first day and discovered a road heading up into the hills where countless other vacant spots were, though I wouldn't attempt it without 4x4.

In the main campground there were pit toilets which were kept very clean. Some material remnants of the protests that other users have mentioned (huts, posters etc), but no activity.

Didn't seem to be any running water, or trash disposal nearby. Make sure to pack everything in&out!

Wireless service was basically non-existent so we kept it turned off.

The campground is easy to find right off the US 60. Only 5 minutes away from the town of Superior. Roads within the campground are somewhat rough but not too bad. There is some road noise but not enough to spoil the experience in my opinion. Gorgeous area with lots of birds and other wildlife to watch. One night a group of five javelinas walked through the campground which was really cool to see. There were also a few domestic cats hanging around for some reason. All sites have fire pits with grills and many of them have shade trees. The 2 vault toilets on site were clean and well stocked with TP. There is, sadly, a fair amount of litter around because not everyone packs out everything they pack in. Overall a very nice spot and would go again.

Nice spot. Each site had tables and a fire pit. Sites were pretty close to each other though. It was busy and we grabbed the last spot open. Lots of shade in most of the sites. There were vault toilets also. We did have some coyotes visit us on our second night, but we were in our camper so no big deal. Only a 5 min drive to stores and gas. No cell service with Sprint at our site, but I got signal at the park entrance, about a 1 min drive.