About this place
The Muleshoe Ranch Cooperative Management Area covers 55,000 acres of rugged country with green, well-watered strips running through it.
Three organizations own and run it between them: The Nature Conservancy, the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management.
They work together here to look after the ecosystems and to protect endangered species along with the ground those species need.
The land here is part public and part private. It takes in the Redfield Canyon Wilderness, the Galiuro Wilderness and the Muleshoe Preserve. Between them that is a lot of remote country.
Most of the watershed for seven permanently flowing streams sits inside the Muleshoe. That is some of the best water habitat left in Arizona.
About 80% of the region’s wildlife species depend on those streamside strips at some point in their lives.
The early settlers depended on them too. Ranches and homesteads went up all over this ground in the last 150 years. It was a landscape that gave nobody an easy time.
There are rugged mountains, canyon streams, saguaro cactus and mesquite bosques. A bosque is a thick belt of trees. It grows where dry country has water in it.
There are hot springs on the ranch. A ranch already stood here in the 1860s, and later a bathhouse piped the hot water into tubs. People came a long way to soak in them.
You cannot just turn up and get in. The bathhouse is open only to Nature Conservancy members who book ahead. Anyone can walk the trails around it.
Coatimundi and javelina live here, along with native fish and a great many migratory birds that winter further south.
For anyone wanting to understand the natural and human history of southeastern Arizona, this is a place to start.
The facts
- Cost
- Camping fee not confirmed
- Roads around it
- High clearance four-wheel drive only. Jackson Cabin Road is rough and washes out
- Type
- Specific campsite
- Managed by
- Bureau of Land Management
Rules and restrictions
- Sign in at the entrance kiosk, at the start of Jackson Cabin Road.
- Groups inside the Redfield Canyon and Galiuro Wilderness areas must be 15 people or fewer.
- Motor vehicles stay on the routes that already exist.
- Hunters: The Nature Conservancy signs its property as open or closed to hunting. Read the signs.
- Jackson Cabin is run by the Forest Service and goes first come, first served.
Getting there
From Willcox, heading northeast on Interstate 10, take exit 340 for AZ-186 E, Rex Allen Dr, and turn right onto Rex Allen Dr. After 0.1 miles, turn right onto Bisbee Ave and go 0.8 miles. Turn right onto Airport Rd and go 15 miles. Bear slightly right onto N. Muleshoe Rd, also called Muleshoe Ranch Rd, and drive 14 more miles. That brings you to the sign in kiosk at the start of Forest Service Road 691, the Jackson Cabin Road. Jackson Cabin Road is the only way in and out, and it runs about 16 miles.
Jackson Cabin Road is for a high-clearance four-wheel drive only. It is rough and poorly kept, and floods wash parts of it out.
Coordinates 32.342, -110.2417
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.
- Redfield Canyon Wilderness Directions
- Lime Peak 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
- Willcox, AZ Directions
Willcox 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. When you move on, 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 Gila Box Riparian National Conservation Area, Arizona — 58 miles in a straight line, but a 92 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.