Burro Creek Campground

Overview

The Burro Creek Campground (1,960’ elevation) is situated along the 57 mile Burro Creek in a transition zone between the upper reaches of the scenic Sonoran Desert and lower reaches of the scenic Mojave Desert. The campground offers visitors a variety of scenery including saguaro-studded cliffs along steep canyon walls that contrast Burro Creek’s dense vegetation and flowing waters that form deep pools of water just adjacent to the campground. 

The campground accepts reservations for the group site, sites 7 & 9, and 10-17. Reservations must be made at least 7 days in advance of your arrival at the site. Sites 1-6, 8, and 18-23 are available on a first-come first-serve basis. 

Recreation

To enhance the visitor experience, the campground features a Watchable Wildlife Exhibit and an Interpretive Desert Garden as well as access to Burro Creek via hiking trails from the campground. The creek offers opportunities for rockhounding, wading, and wildlife viewing especially for birding with a wide-array of raptors and other species of birds. Sites 7, 8, and 9 are best for bird watching. 

Facilities

Access to the Burro Creek Campground is provided via a 1.25 mile paved road from U.S. Highway 93 at mile post 140.2. The campground offers visitors 23 individual campsites, 1 group site, and 2 day-use sites featuring shaded picnic tables, fire rings with grates, and grills at the group site and day-use area. Flush toilet facilities are provided at 2 different locations in the campground as well as 1 dump station. Although water hookups are not available at campsites, drinking water is provided a various locations throughout the campground. 

In planning your trip, please note that sites 1, 2, and 10 through 17 are best for larger RVs (Class A) and trailers (fifth wheels) due to maneuverability throughout the site. Other sites can be utilized for larger RVs and trailers, but it is recommended for visitor convenience that the aforementioned sites are used first. 

Natural Features

The campground scenery features an adjacent canyon carved by the flow of Burro Creek with other mountains and mesas visible in the background as well as a diverse Sonoran desert plant community including saguaros, a variety of cholla and barrel cacti, creosote bushes, Palo Verde trees, and catclaw. Nearby, on the banks of Burro Creek, visitors will also see willow and cottonwood trees as well as a wide-variety of riparian shrubs. 

Wildlife is frequent in the campground and include occasional sightings of desert bighorn sheep on the cliffs above Burro Creek and a variety of birds including cactus wren, Gambel’s quail, Gila woodpecker, great horned owl, great blue heron, Vermilion flycatcher, and cliff swallow to name a few. Javelina, raccoons, coyotes, and foxes have been known to use the area as the creek serves an important role in the harsh desert environment.     

Nearby Attractions

The public lands surrounding the Burro Creek Campground are readily available for visitors interested in sightseeing via use of a four-wheel drive vehicle along county-maintained dirt roads. These roads wind through a variety of interesting geologic scenery combined with unique vegetative communities including Sonoran and Mojave deserts intermingled with areas of interior chaparral and pinyon-juniper woodlands. County roads are maintained regularly, but it is always a good idea to check with the local BLM office prior to planning your trip as well as exercising caution when travelling on any of these unimproved dirt roads as visitors travel at their own risk. 

The area, while desolate during the warm summer months, gives way to cooler temperatures from October through April annually and provides exceptional opportunities for hunting, off-highway vehicle use, wildlife watching, photography, sightseeing, and a variety of other dispersed recreational opportunities. Depending upon winter and spring precipitation, the area surrounding the Burro Creek Campground provides visitors with excellent spring wildflower displays March through May.   

Charges & Cancellations

Recreation.gov Reservation Cancellations & Changes

Cancelling a Reservation: Customers may cancel their reservation prior to arrival both on-line and through the call center. A $10 service fee will be withheld from any refund for a cancellation. Depending on when you cancel in relation to your arrival day, it may be considered a late cancellation (see below). 

Recreation.gov Late Cancellations or Cancellations within the Cut-off Window

Individual Campsites: A customer who cancels a reservation the day before or on the day of arrival will pay a $10.00 service fee AND forfeit the first night's use fee (not to exceed the total paid for the original reservation). Cancellations for a one-night reservation will forfeit the entire amount paid and will not be subject to an additional service fee. 

Group Facility (including Cabins and Lookouts): Customers who cancel a group overnight facility reservation less than 14 days before the arrival date will pay a $10.00 service fee AND forfeit the first night's use fee. 

Recreation.gov No-Shows

-Overnight and Day-Use Facilities: A no-show customer is one who does not arrive at a campground and does not cancel the reservation by check-out time on the day after the scheduled arrival date (or for day-use facilities, by check-in time the day of arrival). Staff will hold a campsite until check-out time on the day following the arrival date and will hold group day-use facilities until check-in time on the arrival date.

-No-shows are assessed $20.00 service fee and forfeit the first night’s recreation fee.