Some places require the drive to earn them. The West Fork of the Black River on Forest Road 68 is one of them — a high-elevation river camp in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest that sits far enough from the pavement to feel genuinely remote, but close enough to Big Lake and the White Mountains road network to be part of a larger adventure.

We have camped here twice — June 24–30, 2018 with a large group, and July 6–10, 2020, one of our first trips after COVID restrictions, when the forest provided the open space we all needed.

The Drive In — The Wallow Fire and the Aspen Grove

The drive to West Fork on FR 68 tells a story before you arrive at camp. Near Conklin Ridge, large groves of aspen trees line the road — brilliant white trunks and flickering leaves, a distinctive landmark on the approach. Further along, the landscape changes dramatically — vast stands of dead timber, gray and skeletal, extending as far as the eye can see in every direction. The trees stand like enormous toothpicks on the hillsides — some still upright, some leaning, some fallen in great stacks. This is the legacy of the Wallow Fire.

The Wallow Fire started on May 29, 2011 near Alpine, Arizona — ignited by an unattended campfire at the Wallow area on the South Fork of the Little Colorado River. It burned for nearly a month, consuming 538,048 acres across Apache and Greenlee counties. It is the largest wildfire in Arizona history. The fire moved through the Apache-Sitgreaves at speeds and intensities that killed timber across hundreds of square miles. What you see from FR 68 — the vast standing dead forest — is what 538,000 acres of burned ponderosa pine looks like more than a decade into recovery. The scale of it is genuinely sobering.

The aspen groves near Conklin Ridge represent the recovery — aspen are pioneer species that regenerate rapidly after fire, colonizing burned areas before the slower-growing conifers return. The aspen you see are partly Wallow Fire recovery growth — the forest finding its way back.

⚠️ Draw Fire — July 2025: A second fire burned in the Wallow footprint along FR 68 near the West Fork of the Black River in July 2025 — the Draw Fire burned in steep, rugged terrain between FR 68 and FR 72. Closure orders were issued for portions of FR 68, FR 249C, FR 249E, and FR 25. Verify current road and area status with the Alpine Ranger District before visiting.

The Campground — West Fork

The campground along the West Fork is informal — approximately a dozen dispersed sites with limited formal designation, spread along the river in a setting of towering ponderosa pines and firs. Dappled shade throughout. One pit toilet with two stalls. No drinking water, no trash service — fully pack-in pack-out. No fees. 14-day stay limit. Open approximately May through October.

The river runs cold and clear — perfect for wading, swimming, and the swimming hole near the bridge where kids can safely play. In 2018 the kids spent significant time in the water here.

An active beaver colony works the river near the campground — the evidence is everywhere. Dams built across the side channels and back eddies, freshly felled trees with the distinctive pointed stumps that only a beaver produces, and the dams themselves — impressive engineering in miniature, raising the water level in the channels and creating the wetland conditions the beaver needs. If you're quiet in the early morning or at dusk you may catch a glimpse of the animal itself working the water. The beaver activity at West Fork is one of those unexpected wildlife highlights that makes this campground more interesting than it first appears.

Colonel Spring

A short hike from camp leads to Colonel Spring — cold, fresh spring water emerging from the ground in the White Mountains forest. The hike is worth doing for the spring water alone — genuinely refreshing cold water from the ground, the kind that reminds you what water is supposed to taste like. We hiked to it on both visits and filled up. If you hike further up the canyon beyond Colonel Spring you enter the burned forest — the Wallow Fire damage becomes immediately and dramatically apparent as the living forest transitions to the toothpick landscape of standing dead timber.

Near the spring, the remnants of an old homestead mark a long human presence at this water source. A chimney stands — stone construction, still largely intact — alongside what remains of an outhouse. The spring that makes the campground's water hike worthwhile also made this the right place for someone to build a life, at some point far enough in the past that the forest has largely reclaimed everything but the stone. Worth looking for on the hike to the spring — the chimney is visible from the trail if you know to look for it.

Our Visit — June 2018

We camped here with a large group for nearly a week in late June 2018 — the White Mountains in early summer at 7,740 feet, everything green and flowing after spring snowmelt. The wildlife on that trip was exceptional.

A bear near camp — the kind of encounter that confirms you're in genuine bear country and sharpens everyone's awareness about food storage. A Great Blue Heron working the river, impossibly tall and patient at the water's edge. Chipmunks throughout camp, including one that located a chocolate Easter egg someone had left and methodically licked it clean — one of the more entertaining camp interactions on record. Robin, blue jay, deer, wild horses moving through the area, and squirrels. Butterflies and a fuzzy caterpillar along the trail.

A group from our party took an afternoon trip to Big Lake — boat on the water, fishing the high-elevation reservoir. Luca came back with a fish.

On the drive out we saw pronghorn near Big Lake — a group of them, and one of the babies had separated from its mother. We watched for a while, genuinely concerned, before the young one found its way back.

Our Visit — July 2020

One of our first trips after COVID. The drive up was normal until we arrived at the West Fork campground — gate closed, grounds closed, the sign citing COVID restrictions. Standing in the open forest, the reasoning felt questionable. We got out of the truck to assess and heard air escaping from a rear tire. Flat tire. Not the welcome you want after a five-hour drive into the mountains.

We changed the tire, regrouped, and continued up FR 68 looking for a camp spot. Found a road to the left with a perfect site at the top of a hill — two tents and the Clam shade and rain shelter, appropriate for a July trip. That evening a large group of horses came running down our road, passing through camp at full speed before stopping just past us and walking on — one of those camp encounters that happens before you have time to process it.

We explored the area, finding a large open meadow perfect for night sky viewing. Found the skeleton of a deer along the trail — skull located separately further down the hill. And most remarkably — a tree that had burned in the Wallow Fire at such intense heat that the clay soil around its base had been fired to a pottery-like state. The heat of a wildfire intense enough to fire clay in place is not an abstraction from an encyclopedia. It's a piece of fired earth sitting at the base of a burned tree in the forest.

We took the animal trails down to the Black River, played in the water, and hiked up to Colonel Spring. The water at the spring was as cold and good as we remembered.

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