Dead Horse Ranch State Park - Cottonwood, AZ - a park named for a horse found on the road side

There are 423 acres covered by the portion of Dead Horse Ranch State Park that is developed. Mild temperatures result from the elevation of 3300 feet making the area ideal for hiking, fishing, camping and picnicking. Six miles of the river make up the Verde River Greenway State Natural Area that has a unique ecosystem has one of the fewer than twenty riparian zones that there are in the world.

During the late 1940's the Ireys family went from Minnesota to Arizona in search of a ranch to purchase. They found a dead horse by the road at one of the ranches they looked at, two days later the kids told their father that this was the ranch they liked the most. The name Dead Horse Ranch was chosen and in 1973 a condition of the sale to Arizona State Parks was that the name be kept in order to sale it.

Registration, a gift shop, first aid and information about the Dead Horse Ranch State park can be gotten at the visitor center. The center is open all year with the exception of Christmas from 8am until 5pm each day. Handicapped accessible restrooms are available at the day use, and camping loops. Day use restrooms have hot water as do the camping loops which are also designed with showers. The cabin area of the park has hot showers in the family restroom. There is also a gift show in the Dead Horse Ranch State park offering a variety of souvenirs in addition to fishing supplies for visitors to the park.

The entrance fee to the Dead Horse Ranch State park is $2 for individuals or bicycles and $6 per vehicle with one to four adults in it. The rates for camping at the park is $12 for a site without electrical and $19 for a site with electrical. The cost of renting a cabin in the park is $50. Raven Loop campground has twenty-three sites that can be gotten with a reservation.

Dead Horse Ranch State park has more than one hundred sites for RVs that are first come, first serve. The majority of the sites have the ability to accommodate motor homes of up to forty feet and sixty-five foot truck and trailer rigs. Sites include portable water, there are no generators allowed. Visitors may only stay for fourteen nights during a thirty day period. There are four other camping sites in the Dead Horse Ranch State Park.

Away from the campgrounds are eight one room cabins that can be gotten by making a reservation. The cabins come furnished with a bed, dresser, table and chairs and electricity. There is a picnic table and barbeque outside of each cabin. The showers are within walking distance of the cabins. A deposit of $50 is required to make reservations and the rate is $50 a night with the maximum length of stay being fourteen nights during a thirty day time frame. Reservations for the cabins can be made up to one year in advance.