Sinkhole Campground

Sites 16 and 17 are the same asphalt parking pad. If you book site 16 you will share the parking pad with whoever books site 17 (and vis versa). This information is not indicated on the reservation website. There is one shared picnic table and a fire pit. How this is physically one site and listed on the website as two separate sites I do not know.

We stayed here one night while on our way up north. The campground had just opened and was all FCFS with plenty of spaces open in early May on a weekend (it does transition to reservation for half the campground later in the season).

I love most National Forest campgrounds, this is no different especially with the ponderosas. Families were here for the weekend, but quiet enough even when they were up around the campfire late at night. There is a nice walk to Willow Lake across the street from the campground. The dumpsters were propped open with a stick when we were there but there was a sign on them that stated there was a fee to dump trash, maybe to discourage people coming in from boondocking to dump it.

The downloads on Verizon were fast enough for streaming with a simple mimo antenna but uploads were horrible so it's off our list for places to work during the week. Far too much tree cover for Starlink that we didn't even try.

The turn off to the campground says "Willow Lake", nothing about a campground. We thought we had missed it.

No dump station, what appears to be drinking water is in cisterns near the entrance so no tank fills but there are options nearby.

My son and I camped here with his Boy Scout troop. It was a disaster of a trip, mostly due to rainy weather but I'm not letting that affect my review.

Sinkhole Campground is just ok. The pro is that it's in a forested area with tons of beautiful and delightful-smelling ponderosa pines on top of the Mogollon Rim. But there are a few other campgrounds nearby (Canyon Point, Aspen, Spillway) that are nicer and have more amenities.

The campground is two circle loops. We were in the south loop which is ridiculously close to 260, so the road noise is never ending. I don't know where people are going to on that road at 3 am, but they're going somewhere! And trucks and their brakes are noisy, too. Also, the campground is about a mile from the day use area at Willow Springs Lake, so maybe bring a bike if you don't want to drive to it.

The sites are paved and pretty level, but they aren't too spacious or private. No hookups. Pit toilets are ok. The water (if it's available and it sounds like it's not always) is just a gravity fed tank so filling up an RV here is a hard no. Also, as previously stated, there is no dump station. Sites have a fire ring with grill. Tenting is difficult as the terrain is bumpy and lumpy and peppered with rocks. Also, lots of pools form when it rains and it isn't always easy to see where the water will flow. Lots of our tents ended up in a pool or stream. We left a day early as the weather was not cooperative, so I wouldn't recommend this campground during monsoon season (mid-July, August, early September).