Boondocking Gold Canyon Az or Peralta Canyon

[Barbarian]

Anyone Boondocked either of these two places? Visiting Family and need a good spot. 40 ft Super c towing a jeep

[JIMBO34PA]

We just drove Peralta road last month, towards the trailhead and i didn't see any spots of boondocking next to the road anymore. We drove all the way back to the new recreation area construction site, and I believe I saw a sign saying no more camping. I do believe there's BLM land area east of Peralta road, north side of 60, west of the Arizonian Rv park. There's also BLM land on 79 south of 60 going to Florence.

[MTranch]

Haven't been out Peralta Road for almost two years now but as I recall there was a fair bit of state land along the road. You can boondock on most AZ state land with a $20 annual permit. Would be a disappointment if they shut off the boondocking there. Road was quite rough last time there.

[twogypsies]

Here's some information:

https://thedyrt.com/camping/arizona/...peralta-canyon

https://www.campendium.com/peralta-road-dispersed

[AJMike]

Peralta Canyon is about 5 miles from where I live and we have boondocks there recently. The setting is particularly beautiful with the mountains in the background and all of the desert vegetation scattered throughout the area. The only real problems are that the trails often are pretty rough and there are not a lot of decent spots for camping. We camped there about 3 weeks ago and it was pretty busy.

You will need an Arizona State Lands permit to camp, and will need to display it prominently in our RV/trailer. But they are available online and are pretty inexpensive. See here. And if you do camp there please drive carefully and slowly through the Peralta Canyon community on your way there, and watch out for the school zone.

[Barbarian]

Thanks for the scouting report. Wound up staying at the Arizonian just down the road. Spent a pleasant morning exploring the road and found a number of spots for next time. Beautiful place.

[Iceclimber]

Suggest looking more towards Queen Valley there are several good Trust land spots. You need an annual permit for that sort of boondocking.

[Rexlion]

Originally Posted by Iceclimber

Suggest looking more towards Queen Valley there are several good Trust land spots. You need an annual permit for that sort of boondocking.

Hmm, interesting info. I was unaware of AZ "trust land" and of the extreme importance of having a permit. Is the individual permit annual or is it good for longer (or shorter) than that?

[Iceclimber]

https://land.az.gov
https://land.az.gov/sites/default/files/media/state.pdf

There are 9.4 million acres of AZ trust land and it surrounds Queen Valley, (I was biking on it today) lots of great bookdocking but the popular areas can be busy with ORV's on the hundreds of miles of trails etc and officers will show up and write tickets if you don't have the $20 permit. But literally you can camp wherever you like assuming the land is not leased for farming or mining. You will see barbed wire gates with signs saying state trust land, you open them and drive through and close behind you. We rented a spot in an RV park for a couple months and had to head out to trust land when I was off work to keep our sanity and catch some peace and quiet. Watch the weather, for example we just had two solid days of rain and all those washes turned into rivers.

[AJMike]

Originally Posted by Rexlion

Hmm, interesting info. I was unaware of AZ "trust land" and of the extreme importance of having a permit. Is the individual permit annual or is it good for longer (or shorter) than that?

There are individual and family versions, with the family one costing $20. They are good for one year and you can purchase them online and print them immediately so you don't have to wait for the state to mail them to you.

They cover all activities on State Trust land, which includes hiking, camping and so forth.

[Iceclimber]

Amazing how much land is not owned privately and the state/fed owns that we can use for little or no money.

[Yosemite77]

Here’s a link to a map showing who controls the land in Arizona.

https://land.az.gov/sites/default/files/media/state.pdf