Old Airstrip

We arrived on a Monday afternoon and set up camp for two nights. The road was like a wash board coming in and a lot of gullies in the airstrip area. It was really bumpy to travel across that area.There were a couple ATVs and 5 other campers.

The area was beautiful and lots of Donkeys. They chattered most of the day and night. We didn’t know all the sounds a donkey can make and they run pretty fast.

Be careful, there are a lot of nails and trash on the ground. People are burning construction materials out there. We found a lot of metal plates from trusses that still had nails in them. Bringing trash bags is a great idea, picked up lots of bottle caps, broken glass and about 4 lbs of nails from the roadway where we parked and set up camp.

There was a fire ring already established. We re-stacked some of the rocks to tidy it up.

We plan to camp there again but only during the week and bring our big magnet to clean up the area before we pull into a chosen spot.

The road in is a little rough in places but my suspension (factory Sprinter stuff) doesn't make it any better for sure. LOTS of options both at the listed location as well as further up Cow Creek road. If you have clearance, good skills or just don't care you'll have many more options.

The donkey's are hilarious and braying at all hours so while I enjoy the sounds, just know that if you're a light sleeper you'll probably want ear plugs.

Good Verizon service 2-3 bars on phone, 5 bars and ~30mbps down through the pepwave. AT&T shows 3 bars but download speed is terrible, ymmv.

Sadly as with many areas that see high use, there is quite a bit of trash and I'm doing my best to round it up but bring big/heavy duty bags and probably best with some sort of tool to pick the gross stuff.

I rolled in on Monday evening and the OHV people have been few and largely respectful. Last night some of them who haven't figured out appropriate public behaviour showed up but I think my hand gestures clued them in. I expect it will be a bit of a circus on the weekend and plan to leave Thursday or Friday afternoon.

I'll most likely be back and with a lot more trash bags (It's bad but not really that bad)

Not sure why ratings are so low for this spot. The airstrip is the main and most accessible camping area, but there are tons of surrounding and less populated land, even for big rigs. We scouted quite a bit on bikes (it's also highly walkable -- you won't have to go too far) before picking a spot, and ended up at a spot where we never were in view of another camper, even during MLK weekend. Things did get a little louder during the weekend, but that was expected and OHVers were considerate and nice. During the week it was almost empty! We are RVing full time and found internet to be a little spotty -- had to set up the WeBoost -- but generally no issues. We worked and streamed TV shows. Lots of wild (?) burros in the area, which was fun. Some spots have lake views, and the lake is accessible with a 2-4 mile roundtrip walk depending on where you are.

The nearest water and dump is at Desert Tortoise campground. Be aware that, at least while we were here, park entrance is from 6am - 8pm. Entrance, and thus dump station/water fill use, is $7. Dump is obvious not far from the main gate, but does not have potable water. To fill water, follow signs for the boat launch. After turning left from S Park Rd (the main road) to the boat launch (Waterline Way), take your first right into the big parking lot. There is a small bathroom at the back corner with a spigot on it. You will still need a good length of hose to make this work, as it's offset from the road a bit, but it was the closest spigot we found (there is also a spigot on the bathroom structure at the boat launch but it will require a very long hose).

Extremely disappointed with this location. Not because of the location itself, which minus the copious amount of trash and left over fire rings is rather pretty. Lots of jumping cactus so be aware, lots of cactus in general as well as burros, cactus wrens, hawks, bunnies. Close enough to the lake that it’s nice and cool. Too bad I couldn’t enjoy it more than one night and we lit out for our own safety as soon as it was light enough out.

29’ duely handled the road in and out fine. The actual staging area is totally destroyed by ATVs so take care and go extremely slowly if you decide to risk this spot.

The problem with this area is the people. They drink all night and drive their ATVs wildly around the staging area, getting as close as possible to other campers and reving loudly, doing wheelies, racing each other etc. I get that it’s an ATV area. During the day when we arrived it wasn’t nearly as loud, totally doable if that’s the worst it got which I figured was the case. By midnight, 2, 4 am it only got worse as the night went on and along with other dangerous behaviors the other “campers” were exhibiting I was too worried to relax at all for fear of what they may do.

I wanted to give this place a shot and thought perhaps other reviewers were a bit harsh. Turns out I need to heed those others better- this is NOT a place for vanlifers, nomads, or anyone wanting to escape the city and get some rest. Absolutely unsafe for anyone even remotely “weird” just due to the locals that infest it.

Came in on Friday and left Saturday morning. The old airstrip is a big open space you can pretty much park anywhere and squat. No privacy and no real camping sites. Generators were going all night and a groups campers had music blaring and yelling most of the night until 3am. When we left there was multiple cars already there and coming in with side by sides and atvs, motorcycles, etc. There is a lot of trash and horse crap everywhere. At night there is tons of light pollution from Phx.
Road has a little washboards but can be passable with a passenger vehicle.

Pros could be nice views of Bradshaw mountains, launching point for OHV, accessible and easy to find, cell reception, and trail access close to the lake.

Couple of things. This is an OHV area first and foremost, so with that understanding, yes, there are numerous vehicles in the area. If you setup camp in the parking lot you can expect to get vehicles, exhaust, dust, etc.... Also, there will be partying and nonsense going on. Okay, that being said, there are numerous roads and trails in the area that allow you to get away from nearly all of that and have a nice, peaceful time out camping. As you enter the Airstrip, there is a road off to the right, we took that and if you only go as far as a 1/4 mile or so, there are many great locations to setup, find a small tree for some shade and have at it! If your more adventurous, you can find spot that are even waterside.

Overrun by loud atv's that speed and kick up so much dust you can't see 10 feet in front of you. One ran into my vehicle. Lots of gun fire and campers right next to each other. No privacy. About 6 miles of rough dirt road to get here. It's passable for big rigs if you go slow but why would you want to camp here? There's less noise and pollution in Phoenix. This might have been a good spot a year or two ago but not anymore.