About this place
The Mittry Lake Wildlife Area has about 600 acres of water and 2,400 acres of marsh and upland.
It is a popular local fishing spot, from the shore and from a boat. The sport fish are largemouth bass, sunfish and catfish.
Anglers aged 10 and over need a valid Arizona fishing license, resident or not, for any publicly accessible water in the state.
Children under 10 do not. Nor do blind residents.
There is a three-lane boat launch ramp for motorized boating.
The lake sits in an old bend of the river. Laguna Dam began holding water in 1907, the river was straightened behind it, and this oxbow was left on its own.
People camp in the wide pull-outs along the road beside the water.
A great many waterways connect to the main body of the lake. Exploring by boat here is something out of the ordinary.
The plants and the wildlife are varied, and three mountain ranges stand behind them.
Mule deer, javelina, bobcats and desert bighorn sheep are the common mammals.
Herons and egrets work the water: the black-crowned night-heron, the green heron, the great blue heron, the great egret and the snowy egret.
Osprey hunt over it. Western grebes, Clark’s grebes and double-crested cormorants are on it.
Smaller birds are everywhere too. You may find loggerhead shrike, Abert’s towhee, red-winged blackbird and burrowing owl.
Virginia rail, sora, least bittern and American bittern are on the list as well.
So are lesser nighthawk, Bell’s vireo, common yellowthroat, yellow warbler and blue grosbeak.
So are southwestern willow flycatchers, Vaux’s swift, and tree, violet-green and bank swallows.
American pipit rounds it out, with the Nashville, Macgillivray’s, Townsend’s, hermit and Wilson’s warblers.
There are many others.
The Bureau of Reclamation and the Arizona Game and Fish Department manage this area jointly.
The facts
- Cost
- Camping fee not confirmed
- Stay limit
- 14 days in any 28
- Type
- Specific campsite
- Managed by
- Bureau of Land Management
Rules and restrictions
How long you can stay
The limit at Mittry Lake changed on 1 November 2025. It used to be 10 days a calendar year. It is now 14 days in any 28.
The change brings Mittry Lake into line with the public land around it.
After your 14 days you have to move at least 25 miles away. Nothing else about the rules here changed.
Getting there
Take AZ Highway 95 east from Yuma for 7 miles. Turn north on Avenue 7E and go 9 1/2 miles, to where the pavement ends. Carry on, and Mittry Lake starts about half a mile past the end of the pavement.
Coordinates 32.8194, -114.47033
Open in Google Maps Agency page
What is near here
There is another spot of ours within reach, and some better-known places further out.
- Pilot Knob Directions
- Muggins Mountain Wilderness Directions
- Kofa National Wildlife Refuge Directions
- Cibola National Wildlife Refuge 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
- Buckshot, AZ Directions
- Fortuna Foothills, AZ Directions
Fortuna Foothills 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
You can camp here for 14 days. After that you have to move on, and the Bureau of Land Management usually wants you at least 25 to 30 miles away. So the free campsites closest to you are the ones you cannot use.
One in this guide sits inside that 25 miles. The nearest one you could move to is Woolsey Peak Wilderness, Arizona — 93 miles in a straight line, but a 122 mile drive.
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 Bureau of Land Management’s own records, read in August 2026.