About this place
You can’t drive to the water at Chevelon Canyon Lake. The campground sits up top, in ponderosa pine, juniper and pinyon. From there a steep, rocky trail drops about three-quarters of a mile to the lake, and whatever you want at the water, you carry. Going down is easy. Coming back up is the part people remember.
There are only five or six sites. They’re first come, first served, with pit toilets and fire rings. The road in is rough dirt, so a high-clearance vehicle helps.
Most people come for the trout. Arizona manages this lake to grow big fish. It has its own fishing rules, so read the Arizona Game and Fish rules before you cast. If you bring a boat, you carry it down that trail, and back up again.
The facts
- Cost
- Free to camp
- Roads around it
- Not maintained for ordinary cars
- Drinking water
- No, bring your own
- Toilet
- Yes
- Type
- Open area. Nothing is marked out
- When it’s open
- January to December
- Managed by
- Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest
The roads around this place are not maintained for a regular car. That comes from the US Forest Service, who grade every road by the kind of vehicle it is looked after for. Those records cover the roads nearby. They do not cover the last stretch in to the campsite, and nobody has checked that part. Treat this as a warning. We are not promising what you will find when you get there. If you have driven it, tell us what it was like and we will say so here.
Rules and restrictions
This counts as a dispersed campground.
Nobody hauls out the trash here. Pack it in, pack it out, and that includes anything you clean at the water's edge.
When the forest is under fire restrictions, no fires are allowed at all.
Getting there
Coordinates 34.509392, -110.840939
Open in Google Maps Agency page
What is near here
This is a good base for somewhere people travel a long way to see.
- Bear Canyon Lake Directions
- Black Canyon Lake Directions
- Tonto Natural Bridge State Park Directions
- Meteor Crater Directions
Every distance on this page is the driving distance. A short distance can still take a long time. The road may be closed for the season, covered in snow, or washed out. Many of these roads are dirt. Plan your route before you leave home. Out here there is often no phone signal to look it up on the way.
Nearest town and supplies
- Forest Lakes, AZ Directions
- Heber-Overgaard, AZ Directions
Heber-Overgaard is big enough that you’d normally expect fuel and somewhere to buy food. Nobody from here has been to check, so don’t count on it if you’re running low.
Why the drive to town is usually twice what the map says — what we found measuring every campsite in this guide.
When it’s time to move on
On most public land you can camp for 14 days before you have to move on. Check this site’s own limit before you plan a long stay. This is Forest Service land, and each forest sets its own rule for how far you have to go, so check before you travel.
The nearest other free campsite in this guide is Childs Dispersed Camping Area, Arizona — 50 miles in a straight line, but a 88 mile drive. Four more sit closer than 25 miles, if the rule here allows them.
This guide covers five states and does not list every free campsite, so there may be something closer that we do not hold. Check this site’s own rule before you rely on it.
Have you been here?
Fees and access change, and the records do not always keep up. If you have been, tell us what you found.
Thank you, that is recorded. It helps the next person.
Add road notes for this site
The thing we cannot get from any government record is what the drive in is actually like. If you have done it, this is the most useful thing you can leave behind. We read everything before it appears, and we print a first name with it if you give one.
Thank you. A person will read it before it goes on the page.
Where this information comes from
The description on this page is ours. The facts in it, and the fee and facility details below it, come from the Forest Service’s own records, read in August 2026.