Lower Twilight Group Site

Lower Twilight Group Site offers groups a secluded camping escape from the summer desert heat. The scenic mountain setting is a great base for hiking, wildlife viewing and picnicking. The facility sits along the Swift Trail in southeastern Arizona, adjacent to Upper Twilight Group Site. Lower Twilight can accommodate a single group of up to 50 people for camping, with parking for up to six vehicles. Amenities include picnic tables, campfire rings with grills, and bear-proof food lockers and trash cans. Vault toilets are located at Upper Twilight Group Site, a short walk away. Dead-and-down firewood may be collected in and around the campsite. The campground lies along the Swift Trail Scenic Drive, which takes visitors from the Sonoran Desert at 2,900 feet to alpine meadows and forest on the 9,000+ foot ridges of the Pinaleño Range. Because of its diverse habitat, the area is well-known for birding and wildlife watching. The Swift Trail provides access to a number of hiking, horseback riding and mountain biking trails, along with several other campgrounds that invite you for an afternoon picnic. A trip up to Riggs Lake, stocked with trout by Arizona Game & Fish, or to the Columbine Visitors Center could make a worth-while day trip as well. At an elevation of 7,400 feet, the campground lies beneath a nice canopy of ponderosa pine trees in the scenic Pinaleño Mountains in Coronado National Forest. Temperatures are very pleasant in summer compared to the heat of the surrounding lower deserts. The Coronado National Forest covers 1.78 million acres of southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico, with elevations ranging from 3,000 to 10,720 feet across 12 widely scattered mountain ranges, or "sky islands," that rise dramatically from the desert floor and support biologically diverse plant communities. The Mount Graham Wilderness Study Area includes 10,720-foot Mount Graham, the tallest mountain in southern Arizona. The Columbine Visitors Center, Riggs Lake and a variety of trails can all be reached along the Swift Trail Scenic Drive. The town of Safford is approximately a 45 minute drive from the Twilight campgrounds, heading north on SR 191.