Otterlimits

Beautiful camping in a mesquite grove, close to the Wild and Scenic Verde River. The host, Gene, is welcoming and quick to respond to any questions. Plenty of places to hang a hammock, pitch a tent, and enjoy the quiet of the Prescott National Forest. Grocery store and other amenities are in nearby Camp Verde, but once you get to Otterlimits you won't want to leave!

Response from Gene, the Host, on February 6th, 2018

Thanks for the nice review and the coordinate error correction. Happy trails to you both and please stop by next time you are in the area.

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Gene and his property were great! Perfect little set up for the a quick camping trip, close enough to the river we could hear it. The pups loved running around the campsite, which was well maintained. I didn't realize the road was within view of the property, but had little impact as the traffic was minimal during the day and non-existant at night. The firepit was a awesome, as it is difficult to find campsite in AZ that you can do so safely. Thanks, Gene-O, we'll be back!

Dawn

The property is much smaller than I expected. To me, it would feel crowded if another person was also camping there due to lack of privacy. Another strange thing is it feels like you are staying in someone wooded backyard because there is a house right next to the campsite. Im always searching for more privacy whenever I camp. However, there are many plusses to this camping spot. The river is across the street (dirt road) from the site. The river is pretty clean and we saw many wetland birds and butterflies. There is little light pollution so it does get very dark and you can see stars. Unfortunately, we heard dogs barking into the night. We also heard coyotes, but I’ll take them over the barking dogs. There is no bathrooms, so you definitely roughing it here. Enjoyable moments were walking down the road at dusk with no people or cars in sight and relaxing by the river.

Had an absolute blast! Gene was a great host, even brought us some firewood for our second night after we burned through what we brought. It was also really great being able to camp that close to the national forest where they don't permit overnight camping. Recreational site extremely close and the walk to the river was nice. Having a grill and fire pit already there was nice convenience as well. Definitely will be back to kayak down the river some more and enjoy the great outdoors!

The place did not look like the pictures. It needed to get cleaned up. The grass was way too high. Couldn’t see the night stars.

The location was great, very close to a great spot to swim. It was decently private since the guy who has a cabin right to it wasnt there and doesnt live there full time. I would 100% advise against anything bigger than your basic pick up truck. The trees were overgrown and dead branches will scratch anything that goes through it. There is a small charcoal grill there which was pretty nice. The gate was falling over and a little hard to see from the road but we eventually found it. Doesnt look like what the pictures implies it does though.

Firstly, Gene was a great host and was very responsive with all my questions before and after my booking.

We booked the site for tent camping during Memorial Day weekend May 2020. As for the site itself, the location is very remote and private as the site is on the property next to the house but no one was staying in the house during our stay. The site was easy to find based on the directions. I wouldn't recommend this site during May or during the summer months and may actually be better during the fall or winter season but it would definitely be much better if the site was cleaned up some more. Below is a summary of our experience at this site:

PROS:
1. Private and no sharing with other campers
2. Site is a short walk to the creek/river where it's a perfect spot to set up a hammock and relax in the shade or paddle out on a canoe
3. Several trees around the site to set up a hammock
4. Dog friendly
5. Fire pit and bbq available (when it's not fire season)

CONS:
1. As described by previous reviewers, the site does not look like the pictures. The site needs some TLC as it does not look like its been maintained for quite some time. Tall grass everywhere, bench swing is old and doesn't look safe
2. Maybe it was the time of year during our stay (May) but the site is covered with ants and several ant hills everywhere. There were also little black inch worms everywhere on the ground. At night, the ants would go away but the inch worms fell from the trees and covered the entire ground. It sounded like it was raining from inside the tent but it was the sound of the worms landing on our tent from the trees above. Not an exaggeration. Just be aware when reserving this site during this time of year. This would've been more troublesome if we had brought our dog or we decided to cook outside during night time as we were finding worms on us every time we would leave the tent at night.
3. The site is located right off the main road that everyone uses to take to the river with their canoes so during the day you see and hear the vehicles that go by therefore not very private from the main road.

Easy to find, parking close to the site, neighbors dogs barked all night, but other than that our stay was great!