About Houston Mesa
Number of accommodations: 60
Nearby Activities & Attractions
Hiking
Horseback Riding
Seasonal information
2026 Season availability
Open year round
This campground is open year round, providing flexibility for your stay.
Rates, Sites & Availability
60 Sites Available
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No available sites
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Site Details
Select a site to view details
60 Sites Available
No available sites
All sites are booked for your selected dates. Try showing all sites to see booked options, create an alert to be notified when something opens up, or adjust your dates.
Reviews (762)
What Guests Are Saying
Houston Mesa Campground is praised for its clean facilities, spacious sites, and friendly camp hosts, offering a peaceful camping experience with abundant vegetation for privacy. While the location is convenient with easy access to amenities, some guests noted significant road noise from the nearby highway and occasional maintenance issues like closed showers. Overall, many campers enjoyed their stay and appreciated the campground's natural beauty and cleanliness.
What Guests Are Saying
Houston Mesa Campground is praised for its clean facilities, spacious sites, and friendly camp hosts, offering a peaceful camping experience with abundant vegetation for privacy. While the location is convenient with easy access to amenities, some guests noted significant road noise from the nearby highway and occasional maintenance issues like closed showers. Overall, many campers enjoyed their stay and appreciated the campground's natural beauty and cleanliness.
Review Summary
Margie D
VerifiedNovember 2, 2020 • Stayed at: 063, Loop: MOUN
Large sites - lots of trees! Very clean. Wonderful
Margie D
VerifiedNovember 2, 2020 • Stayed at: 063, Loop: MOUN
Large sites - lots of trees! Very clean. Wonderful
Kathleen V
VerifiedNovember 1, 2020 • Stayed at: 003, Loop: ELK
We very much enjoyed our arrival at Houston-Mesa...our departure was a bit less enjoyable. We left suddenly in the middle of the night when a bear decided to stalk our campground - a site that was free of food and followed bear proof guidelines. While nature is nature and bear country is bear country, we were a little surprised to be unable to locate a ranger at any time during the night or in the days that followed. Surely this is just some bad luck, but it would have been nice to be able to communicate with them and explain the situation. Other than that, the site was lovely and quaint, we were able to have our privacy while enjoying the sounds of other families, and might come back again...yet would probably select another site a little closer to humans.
Renee M J
VerifiedNovember 1, 2020 • Stayed at: 014, Loop: ELK
This campground is in a great location for doing Payson and the Rim area, however, the daily stays there can be quite disrupted by noisy nearby traffic. It’s really too bad because the campground itself is pleasant and very well maintained.
Joseph A
VerifiedNovember 1, 2020 • Stayed at: 005, Loop: ELK
The camping host never came around. The campers next to us played loud music till 2 am then got into a drunken verbal altercation on the cell phones cursing very loudly. We cut our trip short due to the bad experience.
sandeep n
VerifiedNovember 1, 2020 • Stayed at: 050, Loop: BEAR
bathrooms have flushable toilets! Site was clean. Very close to city in case you want to pick some last minute stuff but you can still feel the peace and quietness of the forest. It has Bear proof dump station so you don't have to worry about leftovers. NO bearproof lockers.
Thanks and a Big shout-out to the Host maintain this site!
Robert N
VerifiedNovember 1, 2020 • Stayed at: 065, Loop: MOUN
The Campground was beautiful and spacious. The space was clean and groomed. Some noise from Houston Mesa Road was my only complaint.
Kathleen V
VerifiedNovember 1, 2020 • Stayed at: 003, Loop: ELK
We very much enjoyed our arrival at Houston-Mesa...our departure was a bit less enjoyable. We left suddenly in the middle of the night when a bear decided to stalk our campground - a site that was free of food and followed bear proof guidelines. While nature is nature and bear country is bear country, we were a little surprised to be unable to locate a ranger at any time during the night or in the days that followed. Surely this is just some bad luck, but it would have been nice to be able to communicate with them and explain the situation. Other than that, the site was lovely and quaint, we were able to have our privacy while enjoying the sounds of other families, and might come back again...yet would probably select another site a little closer to humans.
Renee M J
VerifiedNovember 1, 2020 • Stayed at: 014, Loop: ELK
This campground is in a great location for doing Payson and the Rim area, however, the daily stays there can be quite disrupted by noisy nearby traffic. It’s really too bad because the campground itself is pleasant and very well maintained.
Joseph A
VerifiedNovember 1, 2020 • Stayed at: 005, Loop: ELK
The camping host never came around. The campers next to us played loud music till 2 am then got into a drunken verbal altercation on the cell phones cursing very loudly. We cut our trip short due to the bad experience.
Location Houston Mesa
Address:
2100 Houston Mesa Rd
Payson, AZ, 85541
United States
From Payson, Arizona, go north for 1 mile to the junction of Highway 87 (Beeline Highway) and Forest Road 199 (Houston Mesa Road). Turn right (east) onto Forest Road 199 for .10 miles. The campground is on the north side of Houston Mesa Road.
The campground is accessible via Highway 87 (Beeline Highway), which is located approximately 1 mile south of the junction with Houston Mesa Road.
Latitude & Longitude: 34.27 / -111.314
Elevation: 1546 feet
Policies & Rules
Arrival & departure
Check in time
2PM
Check out time
11AM
General
- Extra vehicle charge of $8 per night is required. Fee can be bundled with online reservation or purchased on-site at fee machine.
- No firewood sales available at campground. Plan to purchase ahead of time.
- Fireworks are always prohibited on National Forest Land.
- For first come first serve sites, you must physically arrive at the campground to see if the campsite is available. There is no guarantee this site will be available to purchase upon your arrival.
- Campers who reserve sites 7 - 18 in Horse Camp (Mule Loop) are required to have horses or mules present. You do not need to have any to use sites 2 - 6 and 19 - 30
Nearby Campgrounds
Nearby destinations
Last updated: June 3, 2026
