"Lynx Lake Family Campground" in Prescott, Arizona - was rated: 7

[Diane Wallace]

This is a US Forest Service campground, not an RV Park -- just wanted to make that clear from the start. I was forced to input a phone number by this website, but just FYI, the number listed is for the Prescott National Forest, not the campground host; and there are no showers, and since "N/A" was not an option, I had to answer "I Don't Know" to the shower question. This campground is in the Prescott National Forest, but you'd never think that when you are first visiting, because it is literally 5 minutes from civilization. That could be good or bad depending on what you prefer when you go camping. You see tons of stores, restaurants, etc, and then, all of a sudden, you're amidst pine trees and the city noise is gone. Our day temps in mid-May were 88 during the day and 50's during the night. Pros: *The camping spots were nice size, and we did see some larger pull-through spots. *$10 per night *Lynx Lake and the Lynx Lake Recreation area is right around the corner from here and is a great place to take the family for a picnic, boating or fishing, etc. There is a wonderful trail, appx 3/4 mile walk that takes you right to the south shore of the lake. Their website indicates that there are some lake view spots although we didn't see any of these spots. *The south shore of Lynx Lake has the Recreation area with Picnic tables (some shaded), charcoal grills, great shaded lake access for fishing and the boat ramp. *The north shore has a store and boat rental. *Stores and restaurants are very close by, so if you forgot something or just want to give the cook the night off, you have many grocery store, fast food and even sit-down restaurant choices. Cons: *No electric or water hookups. There are water spigots throughout the campground, but nothing for filling RV tanks, no showers, or flushing toilets. *There are some larger pull-through spots, but their website says that a rig can't be any larger than 40', so it might be difficult to maneuver a larger rig around this campground. *Campground does not accept reservations and is first-come, first-served, so you are really taking your chances trying to get a spot in this campground on a holiday, or weekend during the summer months. Most of Phoenix is trying to escape to these campgrounds on the weekend, so it can fill up quickly. *The pine trees at this campground have really taken a beating in this forest -- not sure if it's drought related, forest thinning, or the bark beetle, but many trees have been chopped down and many look dry and are missing their lower limbs. This makes for a lack of shade in many spots. We stayed in Loop C, site #14 and our spot along with most in our area had the sun beating down on us between 11:00am and 3:00pm making for a hot, uncomfortable, sun-burn kind of day. We have other campgrounds that we prefer, but this one is a good one to return to if we can get some time in the middle of the week and just want to stay for a couple of days.

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