Best Tent Camping: Arizona. Kirstin Olmon Phillips
sure to shake them out before using them.
• KEEP TRACK OF YOUR KIDS, and leash your pets.
• DON’T STICK YOUR HANDS AND FEET into places where you can’t see.
If you encounter a wild animal, give it plenty of space, and don’t provoke it. You’re much more likely to be endangered by elk and deer (and cows) while you’re on the road than by bears, mountain lions, and the like. As the four-part warning signs along some of Arizona’s highways say: “Elk are large / In herds they run / Across the highway / Don’t hit one!”
POISONOUS (AND PAINFUL) PLANTS
Arizona is known for its prickly plants. To protect themselves from predators, many desert plants have spikes and spines instead of leaves. The safest way to avoid a run-in with them is to stay on maintained trails, keep kids in sight, and keep dogs on a leash. Carry a comb to remove such prickly hangers-on as jumping cholla (right).
Photo: Kelly Phillips
You may not think of poison ivy as a desert plant, but it’s actually quite common in Arizona’s riparian habitats. Recognizing poison ivy and avoiding contact with it are the most effective ways to prevent the painful, itchy rashes associated with this plant. Poison ivy (left) ranges from a thick, tree-hugging vine to a shaded ground cover, 3 leaflets to a leaf. Urushiol, the plant’s oily sap, is responsible for the rash. Usually within 12–14 hours of exposure (but sometimes much later), raised lines and/or blisters will appear, accompanied by a terrible itch. Try not to scratch—dirty fingernails can cause an infection, and in the best case you’ll spread the rash to other parts of your body.
Photo: Kelly Phillips
Wash the rash with cold water and a mild soap or cleanser such as Tecnu, and dry it thoroughly, applying calamine lotion or a topical cortisone cream to help soothe the itch; if the rash is painful or blistering is severe, seek medical attention. Note that any oil that gets on clothing, boots, and the like can keep spreading its misery for at least a year if you don’t thoroughly clean it off, so wash everything that you think could have urushiol on it, including pets.
Another plant found in riparian habitats and disturbed sites is poison hemlock (right). It has hollow stems, and its toxin is potent enough to kill children who put the stems in their mouths. Hemlock is very close in appearance to Queen Anne’s lace—look for the purple-spotted stems to identify this plant and avoiding coming in contact with any part of it.
Photo: William and Wilma Follette/USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (public domain)
Arizona is also known for hallucinogenic plants such as sacred datura and peyote. Although these plants have long been used in American Indian religious ceremonies, that use comes with wisdom accumulated over centuries. Experimenting on your own will likely cause major illness and possibly death.
Another plant to avoid is black nightshade, a relative of deadly nightshade. Common along roadsides and in disturbed habitats, it has small green, yellow, or black berries that can look appealing to small children.
In general, it’s unwise to eat any wild plant unless you have specific knowledge about foraging in Arizona and proper plant-identification skills.
ROADS AND VEHICLES
While doing the research for this book and bumping along dirt roads all over the state, we reset our standards for what constitutes a good road. We consider a good road to be wide, well-graded dirt, with few rocks or dips, enabling us to clip along at 30 mph.
We traveled to the campgrounds in this book in a stock four-wheel-drive Toyota T100 or a Subaru Forester, and after driving 12,000 miles, we’ve only had to replace the shocks and brakes, tighten a few loose bolts, and fix one flat tire. High clearance gives you the ability to cruise most of the state’s back roads, and a 4WD can get you out of a sticky situation, but the majority of these campgrounds can be reached by a careful driver in a standard sedan when the roads are dry. Note that road conditions can change quickly with the weather, so be sure to call 511 or the phone number in the campground entry to get a report on road conditions. Obey all traffic signs, and keep in mind that vehicles driving uphill have the right-of-way on narrow roads.
Arizona’s hundreds of miles of Forest Service roads can open a lot of backcountry to those of us who aren’t long-distance backpackers. Get a good, detailed paper map, such as the DeLorme Gazetteer, if you intend to travel the back roads, make sure your vehicle is in good shape, and carry an emergency kit with plenty of water.
Note that Forest Service roads often close temporarily due to hazards such as fire, flooding, and poor surface conditions, or seasonally due to snow or in order to protect wildlife. It’s your responsibility to know which roads are closed, so pick up a free Motor Vehicle Use Map at any USFS visitor center or ranger-district office, or download a digital version to your smartphone or GPS. It’s also a good idea to check road conditions at the website of the national forest you plan to camp in.
PERMITS AND ACCESS
If, like us, you enjoy exploring Arizona, you might benefit by purchasing an America the Beautiful National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Annual Pass, more concisely known as an Interagency Pass. The current cost is $80 per year, which covers entrance to all national parks (including Grand Canyon) and national monuments, as well as most fee areas within lands managed by the USFS, the Bureau of Land Management, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Many fee areas on federal lands in Sedona also accept the Interagency Pass in place of the local Red Rock Pass.
While the pass doesn’t cover camping fees, we’ve found it very cost-effective when it comes to entrance fees. Seniors age 62 and older may purchase a Lifetime Pass for $80, and people with permanent physical disabilities may obtain a free Access Pass. If you have a Lifetime or Access Pass, your camping fees at USFS campgrounds are often discounted by half.
Tonto National Forest, which is home to many of the most heavily used recreation areas near Phoenix, operates under a slightly different pass program. The Tonto National Forest Discovery Pass is required at many recreation sites, especially in ranger districts close to Phoenix. Daily passes can be purchased at USFS offices, online, and from local retail stores, but they’re usually unavailable for sale at the recreation sites themselves. Check tinyurl.com/tontopasses for a list of vendors.
Each pass has scratch-off date blocks, so you can buy them in advance and mark them on the day of use. Daily Discovery Passes cost $8 per vehicle and $4 per watercraft; annual Discovery Passes cost $80, and annual Senior and Access Discovery Passes cost $60.
Camping at Arizona State Parks entitles you to a waiver of a given park’s daily entrance fee; for more information, visit azstateparks.com/fee-schedule. The Arizona State Parks Annual Pass ($75) is a good deal if you plan to visit several parks a year without camping. Many regional and county parks throughout the state also issue annual passes, but they’re park-specific.
You may also want to purchase the $15 State Land Recreational Permit, which allows you to hike, camp, or drive off-road on Arizona State Trust lands and is available from the Arizona State Land Department. You won’t need this permit to camp at any of the campgrounds in this book, but it wouldn’t hurt to have on hand if you plan to drive off-road often. Check land.az.gov for rules and regulations and to download a permit application.
Finally,