It’s Show Low

Greer, Arizona: The Village and The Little Colorado Headwaters

Part of Springerville, Eagar, Greer & Alpine, our guide to Round Valley and the high country east of Show Low.

Greer is a tiny mountain village of 58 year-round residents (2020 Census) at about 8,360 ft, where the West and East forks join to start the Little Colorado River; the 2025 Greer Fire burned 20,308 acres around it, and Benny Creek Campground is still closed.

Checked · Edited by Sam Ridley · Sources · How we check

58residents, 2020
8,360 ftvillage (USGS)
20,308acres, 2025 fire
$24Hoyer campsite a night
An old black-and-white postcard of a still pool below a small waterfall among pines
“An inviting pool below dam on the Little Colorado River, Greer,” a real-photo postcard from about 1940. WaterArchives.org, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

The Village

The Census counts 143 homes for 58 residents, most of them cabins used part of the year. Greer is reached on State Route 373, which leaves SR 260 about 9.6 miles west of the Eagar stoplight. Butterfly Lodge, built in 1913-14 for the writer James Willard Schultz and later the home of his son, the artist Lone Wolf, is just north-east of the village on Forest Road 245 (see our historic sites page).

The 2025 Greer Fire

InciWeb says the fire started at about 11 a.m. on May 13, 2025, within Greer on the west side of County Road 1120, and grew to 20,308 acres. A Forest Order still closes Benny Creek Campground and the Southfork Day Use Area to protect people in the burned area.

The Little Colorado Headwaters and The West Fork Trail

USGS places the start of the Little Colorado River in Greer, where its West and East forks meet after running down from Mount Baldy. The West Fork Trail #94 starts on Osborne Road, 4.3 miles south on SR 373 (parking for one or two cars), and runs about 5.4 miles through a checkerboard of forest and meadow to Sheeps Crossing; bikes are not allowed on the second leg, inside the Mount Baldy Wilderness.

Camping

Rolfe C. Hoyer CampgroundTwo miles north of Greer on SR 373, across from the Greer Lakes; May-October; $24 a vehicle a night; showers, amphitheater, hosts; no drinking water, no hookups; 8,300 ft
Benny Creek CampgroundClosed since the Greer Fire
Winn CampgroundNear the Mount Baldy trailheads off SR 273; $20 a site; 9,320 ft
Greer on State Route 373. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Local Legend: Presidents and a novelist at Molly Butler Lodge

What is actually true: Arizona Highways says the lodge opened in 1910 and that Theodore Roosevelt, Herbert Hoover and Zane Grey “bunked” with the Butler family, citing no dates. The Arizona Daily Star (January 2025) is softer: it says Roosevelt and Hoover occasionally stopped at the lodge and Grey stopped by, again with no dates. A second Arizona Highways profile says the Butler family guided backcountry trips for Grey and Roosevelt. Arizona Highways also says John Wayne slept there; the Star says only that he was sometimes seen in the area, so we do not repeat it. Treat the famous guests as “said to have”; none of the pages gives a date or a record. Sources: Arizona Highways: Molly Butler Lodge
Arizona Daily Star: Western Women series (Jan. 19, 2025)
Arizona Highways: X Diamond Ranch

What We Could Not Verify

More in Springerville, Eagar, Greer & Alpine

Nearby Places and Events

Around Greer within 30 miles
5 mi15 mi30 miNSEW12345678

Places nearby

  1. 1Greer Lakeslakes, pin estimated by eye2 mi
  2. 2Mount Baldy Wildernesswilderness, pin estimated by eye5 mi
  3. 3Sunrise Park Resortski and summer resort7 mi
  4. 4Big Lakelake9 mi

Events coming up

  1. 5High Elevation HorrorSunrise Park Resort, on now6 mi
  2. 6Winter Kick-Off featuring Warren MillerSunrise Park Resort, Oct 296 mi
  3. 7Sunrise Park Resort 2026-27 ski season opening (anticipated)Sunrise Park Resort, Nov 286 mi
  4. 8Night Skiing at Sunrise Park ResortSunrise Park Resort, Dec 266 mi

Every pin here is an estimate, not a surveyed point. A place pin marked "estimated by eye" is our own guess at the spot (a lake, park or town middle); the others use a point from OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors) for the named spot, which can still be off by a few blocks. Event pins sit at the center of the event's town, because we do not have each venue's exact spot. Distances are straight-line, rounded, and will not match driving miles. Dots sit in their compass direction; distance is stretched near the middle so close neighbors stay readable. Events are the next dates from our events calendar, as of October 23, 2026, and each date is the organizer's, not confirmed by us. The same places are listed beside the map.

Questions People Ask

How many people live in Greer, AZ?

58 in the 2020 Census, in 143 homes; most are seasonal cabins.

Where does the Little Colorado River start?

In Greer, where the West and East forks join after running off Mount Baldy, by USGS.

Is Greer open after the 2025 fire?

The village is; Benny Creek Campground and the Southfork Day Use Area remain closed by Forest Order.

Sources

  1. U.S. Census Bureau TIGERweb: 2020 Census designated places
  2. USGS Geographic Names (GNIS) service
  3. InciWeb: Greer Fire (2025)
  4. USDA Forest Service: Apache-Sitgreaves alerts
  5. USDA Forest Service: West Fork Trail #94
  6. USDA Forest Service: trails and wilderness GIS (mapped lengths and acres)
  7. USDA Forest Service: Rolfe C. Hoyer Campground
  8. USDA Forest Service: Benny Creek Campground
  9. USDA Forest Service: Winn Campground
  10. National Park Service: National Register locations data

Checked October 22, 2026 by It’s Show Low. Cite this page: It’s Show Low (itsshowlow.com), checked October 22, 2026. Free to quote with a link; tables are licensed CC BY 4.0.