About this place
The Arizona Power Company started building the Childs Power Plant in 1908, and the creek has never quite been the same.
For more than 90 years, pipes and flumes diverted Fossil Creek from its course. The water drove the turbines at the Childs and Irving hydroelectric plants.
The creek was reduced to a trickle. Early inhabitants of the region had known it running at a million gallons an hour.
In 2004 APS, who owned the plants by then, agreed to decommission them and let the creek run naturally again.
The area is now a popular place to camp, with nothing marked out. It sits below the remains of the old power plant buildings, on the edge of the Verde River.
A short walk upstream, and some wading, brings you to the ruins of the Verde Hot Springs. It was a famous resort once.
The facts
- Cost
- Free to camp
- Roads around it
- Some need high clearance
- Type
- Open area. Nothing is marked out
- When it’s open
- All year
- Managed by
- Coconino National Forest Recreation
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
- You can camp here for 14 days.
- The area can close for the season, and it can close because of fire. Check before you set off.
- Nobody collects trash here. Everything you bring in has to come out with you again.
- No campfires during Stage 1 or Stage 2 fire restrictions.
- A gas stove or lantern with an on/off switch is still allowed.
Getting there
Coordinates 34.348023, -111.697359
Open in Google Maps Agency page
What is near here
There are some well-known places within reach of this site.
- Tonto Natural Bridge State Park Directions
- Montezuma Castle National Monument Directions
- House Mountain Directions
- Agua Fria National Monument 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
- Strawberry, AZ Directions
- Pine, AZ Directions
Pine 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.
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.