Rail X Ranch Dispersed Camping

We stayed here two night in Feb 2023, and it was by far our least favorite state trust land location.

The main road is complete and in good shape, however the drop off at the cattle guard coming into the property is a good one and bottomed out our hitch.

The spots the coordinates take you to, would suite several trailers our size (28 ft) if they were in good conditions but many of the established camping circles were very rutted and holding water. Additionally, this was full of trash, mainly beer cans in the fire circles, but staying there on a weekend we did not want to take the chance of the same folks coming back to party if it's their local site.

We took the main road all the way back to the solar fields looking for spots but it there were not many options for our trailer so we turned around there and ended up camping right across the road from the coordinates just above the main wash.

This is much more suited to vans, and those looking to ride the trails.

Definitely not for larger campers or trailers. Our spot barely fit us but would be awesome for a van or two!

There is construction going on (looks like they are installing a solar field), so it’s changed the way some things look out here from what you see on Google maps. With the huge ruts in the roads, we couldn’t find a place to park our 38 ft fifth wheel except a couple of spots that were right on the main road (which is rather busy with construction going on). Also be careful about roads you go down. We ended up in a tight situation when all looked fine until we came upon some huge ruts. We ended up leaving to explore another area.

Pretty rough road in - you have to go back at least a mile or so to get to some decent spots, but the view is worth it. Good Verizon cell service and lots of paths for walking or biking. Once in a while you’ll see cows walking around. Don’t camp near the water troughs or any big dips where there is sitting water. Apparently, you have to be at least 1/4 mile away from those so you don’t disturb the cows from getting water. We had a farmer come by and tell us to move because we were too close to the sitting water. You do need a permit to camp here but no one was enforcing/checking for it.

As others have noted, the road in is rough. It took us 30 minutes to drive 1.5 miles to our campsite. Originally, we were camped at 32.515204, -110.952107. After a couple nights, a man towing a horse trailer told a nearby camper that we were too close to the watering tanks for the cows and threatened to call the sheriff. We moved down the road to the coordinates on Campendium and didn't have a problem for the rest of our stay.

There was a Javelina hunt during our stay, though we weren't affected. There was also random target shooting at all times of the day and night even though it's illegal.

Our group cleaned up a lot of garbage at both sites.

One day of rain turned the road into a soupy sloppy mess. We could get out in 4WD but didn't want to tow in either direction until it dried up.

The location is great for accessing the north east side of Tucson and there was a gorgeous owl residing at our second camp.

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We were scouting out this site, because it was listed as big rig friendly. Just for a point of reference, we consider a big rig to be 40ft + and weighs >20,000 lbs. We are 43ft and weigh 37,000 lbs.
There are too many deep dips in the road and the washes have too much soft sand for a large heavy vehicle. I'm attaching a few pics from our scouting trip.