Camp Colley is an outdoor adventure camp nestled in a pine forest on the Mogollon Rim about 50 miles north of Payson. At the camp, the Parks and Recreation Department provides structured, supervised recreation opportunities in a unique forest setting. At an elevation of 6,700 feet, the camp provides a welcome summer escape from searing Valley tempertures.

With additional construction over the next few years, the Parks and Recreation Department hopes eventually to be able to serve more than 1,200 campers each summer. The Camp Colley Foundation was established to provide additional funding to enhance and support the camp's facilities and programs.

The 30-acre site surrounded by national forest has unique operational needs. Totally off the grid, utilities are provided by the use of solar energy, propane, well water and a constructed wetlands system for waste water disposal.

Camp Colley staff will also provide coordination for a portion of the Jim Brahaney Daring Adventures program, a four-season outdoor adventure program specifically designed to meet the needs of teens and adults with disabilities. Camp Colley will provide the perfect setting for the hiking, backpacking, wilderness camping and cross country skiing segments of the Daring Adventures program.

Camp Colley is named after James Colley, the former Phoenix Parks director who died in 2003. Throughout his career he dreamed of a place where kids could experience nature, perhaps for the first time. It would be a place where their social and economic backgrounds didn't matter, a place where kids could just be kids. Camp Colley is the realization of his career-long dream.

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