Found: The perfect campground???

[Desert_Captain]

We just returned from a 3 day 2 night trip down to Roosevelt Lake. We had driven by the Bermuda Flat camping area dozens of times but never stopped to investigate what it has to offer. :S First of all it is dry camping, ironically right on the northern end/western shore of Roosevelt Lake which stretches for more than 20 miles.

You just drive down to the water on decent dirt roads and pull up as close to the water as you like. It costs just $8 a night {you purchase a Tonto National Forrest use card/permit at any of a number of local merchants}. Tuesday through Thursday there were a couple dozen rigs at the north end but weekends really see a huge increase in the crowds.

This time of year the water in the lake is in the mid eighties with daytime highs in the upper 80's, with frequent thunderstorms rolling down over the lake from the surrounding mountains. Yep, the views are spectacular in every direction. Not ideal swimming conditions as you have to get 40 yards off shore to reach 3' of water. Watching folks launch their boats is not for the feint of heart:



Best of all it is 41 miles from our house and the spectacular drive down the mountain takes less than an hour. The off road riding is awesome with Forrest Service road 445 heading west over the mountains just outside the entrance to Bermuda Flat. Next trip I will definitely haul our Rzr for even more fun. Here are a few more pics...

That is our 24' Nexus on the right:



this is just the northern section with a far larger area to the south:



Our neighbors to the north as we await another afternoon thunderstorm:





:B

[Grit_dog]

Pbutler97 wrote:

Desert Captain wrote:
As scary as this kind of boat launching/retrieval appears it sure looked like these folks knew what they were about and I sincerely doubt it was their first rodeo. The lake is around 66 percent full so there is a lot of room for more water, hopefully a good winter of heavy snow in the surrounding mountains will generate the runoff needed to top the lake up.

At least it is fresh water... can you imagine what salt what salt water would do to those nice new trucks? :S

I was looking at it from the standpoint of damaging an expensive truck, or at least making its value essentially nil. A pickup is not water tight when you submerge the rockers and bottoms of doors. But whatever floats their boat lol.

It’s a Ford. He was probably hoping for an insurance claim to total it so he can get a Ram!

[Desert_Captain]

Houston Mesa CG is a very nice but largely unknown by most folks passing through Payson. I'
ve never seen it full so keep it in mind if your travels leave you anywhere near Payson at the end of the day.

:C

[Mayor30]

Desert Captain wrote:
OP here,

Yes we live in Payson Arizona which is 40 miles north of the lake.

:C

My best friend lives in Payson. He lives on Chatham Dr. We were out there in 2017 and stayed at Houston Mesa Campground.

[bucky]

With the under seat area a convenient place for bulky electronics to be mounted I'd choose a very long trailer tongue extension instead of a deep dunk. Their truck, their choice.

[C_Schomer]

It’s been several years but I really liked camping on the west side of the lake. And if you drive up the road towards Young on the east side of the lake a few miles there’s a flat area that I always wanted to dry camp at and the view over the deep canyon was spectacular.
Also, go east on 260 and then turn south on the Young road and go about 2 miles where the big powerlines go over the road and turn left. There’s terrific dry camping in that area and one of the areas also has a terrific view over the edge of the Rim.
I think it’s about 20 miles north of Globe, up the salt river canyon, there’s two campgrounds on the left side, very secluded and peaceful and completely covered over by trees.
Dry camping in Arizona what was the best and the only problem was, I ran out of time to try all the great places I saw! Craig

[Pbutler97]

Desert Captain wrote:
As scary as this kind of boat launching/retrieval appears it sure looked like these folks knew what they were about and I sincerely doubt it was their first rodeo. The lake is around 66 percent full so there is a lot of room for more water, hopefully a good winter of heavy snow in the surrounding mountains will generate the runoff needed to top the lake up.

At least it is fresh water... can you imagine what salt what salt water would do to those nice new trucks? :S

I was looking at it from the standpoint of damaging an expensive truck, or at least making its value essentially nil. A pickup is not water tight when you submerge the rockers and bottoms of doors. But whatever floats their boat lol.

[Desert_Captain]

As scary as this kind of boat launching/retrieval appears it sure looked like these folks knew what they were about and I sincerely doubt it was their first rodeo. The lake is around 66 percent full so there is a lot of room for more water, hopefully a good winter of heavy snow in the surrounding mountains will generate the runoff needed to top the lake up.

At least it is fresh water... can you imagine what salt what salt water would do to those nice new trucks? :S

[ssthrd]

Pbutler97 wrote:
Folks drive late model trucks in with the water up above the bottoms of the doors to launch boats?

The area looks awesome. Have to get there one of these days.

Folks around here spend more boat time in the salt chuck than in fresh water. Bigger fish. And more rust.

Ya do watcha gotta do!

[Pbutler97]

Folks drive late model trucks in with the water up above the bottoms of the doors to launch boats?

[Lwiddis]

Beautiful clouds!

[Desert_Captain]

OP here,

Yes we live in Payson Arizona which is 40 miles north of the lake.

:C

[ReneeG]

joebedford wrote:

lancewgurel wrote:
What state are you in?

Looks like Arizona

Tonto is in Arizona.

[Grit_dog]

joebedford wrote:

lancewgurel wrote:
What state are you in?

Looks like Arizona

It is, Salt River chain.

[joebedford]

lancewgurel wrote:
What state are you in?

Looks like Arizona