Peppersauce Campground

I did a 6 mile hike and loved every minute of it. It was difficult at first because of how steep iand rocky t was. But once I got up to the top, the views were amazing. It's not a hike for everyone but one killer hike if you get out.

Very nice. Remote and well kept. Its surprising as road leading there is barren. Yet the camp is in a deep ravine covered in sycamore trees. Bring mosquito and rattlesnake repellent🪰🐍

Beautiful, peaceful, so many trees and lots of shade. Some sites are impossible to reach without 4 wheel drive but many shady areas near the bathrooms and water are relatively easy to reach. You may scrape rocks in a super low car like ours. The fee is $15 per night and they have water spigots, a bathroom, concrete picnic tables, bear boxes, and a fire pit with adjustable grill. The road gets a bit threatening in the last 2 miles or so before the campground. You shouldn't go any further however, unless you have 4WD or a good truck, the road beyond this campsite is not maintained much and is "drive at your own risk". Across Mt. Lemmon Rd. is a trailhead for an ATV trail marked "Rice Peak 7 (miles)" much closer than the other hiking trails, that we hiked along for a bit and it was stunning, and we saw many lovely secluded sites for camping back there which I assume are free dispersed camping areas with no amenities, and we also found a trickle of snowmelt forming a tiny creek in the riverbed while hiking there, a cool creepy cave in the wall, and lots of neat rocks. Lots of birds and little animal sounds at night shows you the life of the forest. Neat bugs too!

Restrooms need help...road Can be muddy, there is traffic through the camp due to a school camp on tje other side. Pluses are a nice creek, BIG trees and a great variety of winter birds! We tented, and the night birds, like Western Screen Owls, and Night Hawks was AWESOME! I was there for the birds. I would NOT bring anything but a tent or small camper. Don't come in a large motor home. There are water pumps near the outhouses. No showers or hand washing other than the pump. Some campsites are level, most are not. I'm not sure of the number of sites... maybe 10? There are a couple group sites for tenting. School groups and clubs come fairly often on weekends. There are "dry" camp spots on the other side of the road, but no water or outhouses there. Just a few pull outs along the creek. Rainy weather can be questionable for travel in and out of the area.!

I spent 12 days there it has its serenity moments but they come far and between all the high volume of traffic 24/7 due to the "boys academy" there whos only entrance is at the far end of the camp grounds. They charge $10 a day/night (an honor box system) the charge they say (NFS) is for the up keep of the facilities (3 restrooms w/ 1 toilet per). and the campground. In twelve days i witnessed one NFS woman one day about 45mins hose out the three restrooms. Not once did i witness anyboby clean up the campgrounds or even a ranger to check on the place. Other then that "I Love The Place" heres a couple pics.✌

I'll wait to go back when its not free. My camping was not relaxing at all, 4 kids and a dog the dog barking at everything and off leash started in my direction on my way out of the bathroom growling and barking, the kids from sun up to sun down were yelling and screaming, the parents took off leaving 2 there for over an hour who were fighting and I eventually told them "enough!, people are here to relax!" They were throwing rocks at the dumpster, at the bathroom building, slamming rocks off different rocks, the climbed up a segment of rocks slide and sat there throwing and kickimg rocks down, hitting the bag hanging bar at the picnic table with rocks repetitively just making any kind of noise they could, they also made sure to have several nice big camp fires under a no fire order. These kind of people ruin the serenity of camping...its a camp ground, not a ghetto trailer park! The amount of nit picking, and cursing and fighting, screaming... Its free from April to nov...and no maintained, the bathroom is disgusting, no t.p. crap wiped on the walls...oh..and the facility just down the road thru the campground...is more lile a juvenile detention center..my neighbor said he was told " its a place to get them prepaired and calm them down before going to prison" as 3 sheriff's came thru all red and blue lights on either handling a situation that occured there or they were transporting someone to there... Im glad it was free...the only thing I enjoyed was the shade and a short hike up the ohv trail and back down for sunrise ( before the annoying kids woke up)