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Submission
Hospital Flat is so named because in the 1880s it served as a site for a field hospital for ailing soldiers from Fort Grant. That frontier outpost is located along Grant Creek on the south slope of the Pinalenos. The restorative powers of this cool mountain meadow, carpeted with wildflowers and traversed by a small creek, were sufficiently notable that it also became a summer retreat for officers and their families trying to escape the heat of their desert outpost. Fort Grant was closed in 1905 and now serves as an Arizona State Prison Facility. Hospital Flat still serves as a popular refuge for forest recreationists who come to its pleasant surroundings for much the same reason as did those soldiers.
In Safford, AZ, at intersection of US Rt. 70 (5th St.) and US Rt. 191 take Rt. 191 south for 7.4 miles to State Rt. 366. Turn right onto Rt. 366 and go 23.2 miles to campground sign. Turn left into campground
We are camping at the upper Hospital Flat campground and were metal detecting at lower Hospital Flat campground. It's beautiful up here, and we have had a great time with our pups.
