Bonita Canyon Campground

We were nervous about bringing in our 22 ft trailer, but the trip from Willcox was easy and with strategic wiggling dodging rocks we maneuvered it into the site. Early November weather was perfect; the shade meant our solar did not get much boost but we got by fine for a couple of days. Don't miss the Echo Canyon hike! Zero AT&T service but some minimal wifi at the visitor center.

Access: 4/5 An easy drive. I-10 heading east from Tucson has some hard pulls, with potential crosswinds, through a couple of canyons. The road from Wilcox to the park was smooth with little traffic. Cattle ranches and wild flowers dotted the two lane highway from Wilcox to the park. Along the way, dozens of dust devils stretched up across the dry lake bed, coming and going, like spirits of the wild west. I couldn't decide if I was in a western movie or a Loony Toons cartoon.

The main road into the park was easy to drive without any hairy switchbacks or big grades from park entrance to campground. But then, continuing on to the campground itself was a tight squeeze throughout. We barely fit and did not scrape our tail on the creek bed, but it was not without stress getting in and out of the campground.

The drive up and down the main park road was a narrow two lane, freshly paved, canyon road at 25 mph. We enjoyed the scenic canyon drive that offered something new past each turn.

Location: 5/5 SE of Wilcox. Stop in Wilcox for lunch at La Unica for some really tasty Mexican food. There’s a KOA in Wilcox with propane. If you fuel up in Wilcox you will have plenty of gas to do a round trip to the park and cruise the canyon. They do not offer ice or any food/drink at the Chiricahua National Monument store, just some price gouging novelty candy. Be prepared to drive 40 minutes back to Wilcox when your ice melts. I'm on the verge of upgrading to a better cooler since our ice was reduced to chilled water by the 4th morning in 90 degree temperatures. We made it through or 3 night stay but it was close due to ice chest issues.

Cleanliness: 4/5 Overall it’s clean. The flush toilet bathroom could use a professional scouring. The restrooms on the visitor center are new and clean.

Site Quality: 3/5 Poorly designed, old fashioned layout needs an update to satisfy my travel trailer taste. If you're a tent flyer this campground will fly. Site #14 fit our rig snuggly and was not easy to back into. Site 13 was lined up with ours which made it even more difficult to get into. My neighbor and I had to do the truck tango, moving our vehicles, to get around each other when backing in and out.

The land is so parched right now that the dust and leaves got to be a problem. Baking soda was required to scrub out the black dirt out of our flip flop and sandal wearing feet. The oak trees in the camp ground had lost about 80% of their leaves due to the drought. I really wish we would have brought our pop up canopy because we were in need of shade.

We had a large area for the kids to play in. I felt safe here but kept an eye out for possible bear or cougar activity. I liked the fences to give my kids boundaries but it was also kind of awkward in the park as a whole. I wish they would have spent the money on other improvements for the campground such as moving boulders and trees for better access.

Noise: 5/5 So peaceful. The fire ban meant it was a lot quieter at night and made it easier to breathe. It was a bonus that my hair only smelled like sweaty hiker and not campfire funk. We stayed Monday-Thursday and it was only about 1/3 full in early June. It was very mellow and we made new friends that were camped nearby.

Pad Type: 3/5 Dirt, unlevel. Narrow with lots of crash hazards. Water spigot. No hookups.

Notes: Morning and evening were excellent times to be active and take a walk. The highs were in the low 90's for a few hours each day. Humidity was low. If you come prepared for an improvised camp shower you will be pretty comfy afterwards. Because of the canyon walls there was a long and leisurely dawn and twilight. My kids did an evening hike to the Faraway house without complaint. They also handled the Massai Point Loop from 10-11:30am and it was in the low 80’s up top with a comfortable breeze.

No mosquitos, but had biting gnat type insects/flies. We saw a lot of wildlife.

Excellent opportunities to learn about history, geology, and wildlife.

Chiricahua is a hidden gem and well worth the effort if you're not the crybaby type. My kids can't wait to return. Now, that's the mark of a good campsite!

Hubs and I really enjoyed our 4 day/3 night stay at Bonita Canyon. The problem was with the online reservations. We stayed April 28, 29 and 30 and left on May 1 after making the reservations at recreation.gov back in December 2020. We completed the online registration exactly as directed and entered our InterAgency Senior pass number. In spite of this, we were charged $30 per night and were not given our Senior discount. I contacted recreation.gov by e mail twice to dispute the charges. The first response stated that they had charged me correctly and that case was closed. I sent a 2nd e mail asking them to check again, given that recreation.gov showed the nightly rate as $20 WITHOUT the senior discount - after that, they failed to respond entirely. I've been home 4 days now and still no response. Ignoring us is not the right way to handle things. I'm disappointed.
Anyway as far as the campground goes - it is a delightful treed setting with level terrain. There is a tent pad (gravel), a picnic table and a dirty BBQ grill on each site. There is also an ash pail and a rudimentary BBQ tool to shove the ashes into the pail. (Our pail had large holes in the bottom). Only ADA site (#08) has electric. Electric is not available in any other site except the camp host sites. There are water spigots placed evenly throughout the campground. This campground is NOT for any RV over 30 feet. There are dips and tight corners, trees and boulders (as well as fences) all around the grounds and within the sites themselves. We saw mostly tent campers, car campers, vans, small couples campers and truck campers. There were a few larger units but they had difficulty with the dips in the road and backing into their sites.
There are no showers. There is only one restroom building containing a men's room and a ladies room. These bathrooms are heated and have two toilets each. (one stall is ADA).
The bathrooms are filthy, have only a cold water, no paper towels and if you're lucky - liquid soap. There is also an air hand dryer. The bathrooms really need to be power-washed. I was there 4 days and 3 nights and the bathrooms were never touched. Once a day the fellow who emptied the garbage threw a couple of rolls of toilet paper on the ledge between the bathroom stalls. That was it. Next time I visit I'll be bringing along a pair of rubber gloves, a can of Ajax and a scrubbie pad.
There are bear-safe containers for food at each site and trash cans dispersed throughout the campground.
There's a Visitor's Center and a small museum (museum was closed during our visit due to Covid - and masks required inside the building).
The hiking trails are numerous and have a variety of difficulty levels. Massai Point (a short drive up the hill) has a great little nature hike and is a good learning experience as well. We will be going back in October to hike more trails.
The closest town is Willcox, AZ which is 37 miles from Bonita Canyon. Make sure you have everything you need BEFORE you go to the campground as there is nowhere to buy ice or other items.
Our first 2 days/nights were very peaceful, filled with rustling trees, gentle breezes and great star-gazing. Our last night (Friday) was pretty noisy as larger groups of people arrived for the weekend - so time your visit to match your preferences.

We could not get a reservation and we are now very glad. We stayed at Indian Bread Rocks instead. We drove through the campground and were shocked that trailers were even allowed. To enter and exit the campground you have to drive through a steep wash. Even though recreation.gov says max of 29 feet and the signs entering the campground say 24 feet . . . That’s a stretch. Our trailer would have bottomed out in the wash, even though we are 28’9” from ball to bumper and our height would have taken out most of the trees lining the road because our trailer was too tall. They don’t mention a height restriction and they most definitely should.

The campground appears to have been built when people tent camped or were in the equivalent of tear-drop trailers or pop-ups.

The campground is not our style, too crowded, too close together and they fence you in. Didn’t look or feel like I was in a National Monument. Then the angles for parking the trailers were wrong and the roads were narrow. In addition, we could barely drive through with our truck because people couldn’t park the tow vehicle with their trailer so they parked blocking half the already narrow road.

I would never camp here even if I was in a tent or as we sometimes do, camp in the back of our pickup.

Didn’t go into the bathrooms, but looking at the outside of the building, it looked like something built in the 30’s.

Camp here if in a tent and like to be fenced in and crowded.

Bonita Canyon campground was built during the 1930's by Civilian Conservation Corps workers that were paid $1.00 a day plus room and board. It was designed in an era when Model T's were still popular and campers used WWI surplus army tents. Most of the sites are small, very small. And they have only grown smaller as cars, RV's, trailers and tents have grown bigger.
Sometime around the turn of the 21st century plastic slat rail fencing was installed in the Bonita Canyon campground. The fencing partitions off areas in every site that are no longer available for camping. Tree islands lie within and the ground is covered with fallen branches, weeds and brush. On average each campsite lost about 40% of the pre-fence space it had. Large boulders were placed about 25 feet from the paved loop road to terminate each driveway and thus regulate how far a vehicle could back in. RV's and trailers either do not fit or must be shoehorned in. Almost every tree along the driveways is gouged from some vehicle it damaged. Cars, trucks and tow vehicles often are forced to park along the edge of the narrow and twisting, one way loop road.
Most of the sites are communal; the fence leaves wide openings between sites that you can walk through. My site had a wide walkway to two adjoining sites. The average distance from one driveway to the next is 30 feet. So your neighbor is just 15 feet away and within earshot. After the sun sets, the sites are very dark and by 10 PM, very quiet. That is when the bears come out so bring a flashlight.
Communal water spigots are placed about every 300 feet along the road. No water or electric power is available for individual sites. The water tasted fine but had a tea color to it.
The campground restroom also dates from the 1930's. The men's room is tiny; 9 feet by 9 feet square. Two toilets and a filthy sink were crammed into that space. An overhead heater blasted for a week non-stop even though temperatures were in the 70's outside. Waist high windows in the restrooms afford a panoramic view of the campground, and vice versa. The Ladies room I am told, offers a similar experience.
The one way loop road has a stream running across it in two spots. Instead of funneling the stream through a culvert under the road, a 4 foot deep channel was cut through the road and lined with concrete. Gashes on the steep concrete slopes confirm that more than a few trailers have deeply dug their rear bumpers into the road surface.
Many live oaks and other trees that do not drop their foliage completely, dot the campground. While pleasing to look at they reduced my solar charging capacity by 80%. They also produced lots of pollen in spring and made breathing difficult.
An unmanned Ranger's vehicle was permanently parked on the side of the road by the Visitor Center. It had a dummy radar gun on the dash and appeared to be a way of deceiving visitors into thinking they entered a speed trap.
WiFi is available at the Visitor Center and is free. The store inside is tiny and sold mostly overpriced books. Ice, propane, gasoline, groceries, laundry and other supplies were only available at Willcox, a 70 mile round trip drive. Cell service is non-existent at the campground and on most trails.There are no showers in the park. Thus most campers, thankfully, only stayed a few days.
The trails are wonderful and offer spectacular beauty. In April they were well used and I met about 40 people hiking on an average day. Horses share the trails and sometimes their waste was difficult to side step. "Leave No Trace" does not apply to them!

Stayed 1 nite on 1 /19/21. $10 with Senior National Parks pass. Make sure you reserve a spot ahead of arriving as not many were available. Dry camping. Wooded and secluded small campground, which makes it so special. Sites are small and tight but perfect for our 22' Sprinter. Pay attention to the 24' RV length limits because the campground road is tree lined and has several good size dips in it. AT&T Cell service two bars with booster for texting but no phone calls.
Chiricahua National Monument is a special place to see. From the small size of all the parking areas it must not get many visitors, which makes it perfect for peaceful scenic views as well as great hiking. We will definitely be back for another visit to explore all this awesome place has to offer.

The 30-foot Cruise America left its mark on the campground: two large gouges in the paved wash, colored with its white bumper paint. The campground is serious about the 24-foot RV limit - that being a 24-foot motorhome or a 24-foot trailer, not including tow vehicle. Many good reasons, including tight turns, low branches and two unavoidable deep washes.

The campground is beautiful. A handful of sites have views of the rocks. The road noise is heard all over; however, the road's speed limit of 25 MPH keeps noise to a minimum.

The "dump station" is not a traditional dump station. The gray waste-only dump is an elevated sink for kitchen water and food bits. There are two of them; both many feet from pavement. No fresh water fill.

We used the dump services at Lifestyle RV Resort in Willcox. They do propane swaps too.

Be sure to look at the pad/campsite length and study the Reserve America and CampsitePhotos.com photos. Some sites are double-wides; some are sedan width.

When we were leaving, we had to drive up onto wood and leveling pads so that we would not drag out the tongue jack and rear stabilizing jacks/bumper. ALWAYS LOOK OUT FOR TREES! Every...single...tree has a gash from an RV.

No RV parking at Massai Point. The most you could fit in the parking lot would be a Sprinter van. Driving anything larger than that up the road would be a danger to yourself and others.

Verizon cell service is one bar, text only with cellular data off and using a cell phone signal booster attached to a ten foot pole that is zip-tied to the camper's ladder. Campendium gives the option of one bar voice only, but there is definitely no voice phone calls at camp. I did make a phone call at Massai Point.

Watch for sandhill cranes flying by from November to January.

On the 186, just north of the turn to the park on the 181, there are some REALLY BAD whoops in the road (pictured). Thankfully, we hit them when we were not towing and later on, we were prepared to slow down when we hit the whoops while towing.

A bullet point from the reservation email:
“Maximum RV/motorhome or trailer length in the campground and on the Bonita Canyon Drive past the visitor center is 29 feet, actual measurements.” Note that there are MANY signs that say 24 feet and the dips in the campground will take out a 29 foot camper.

Under campground notices, the reservation email states: “Tight angles, difficult to back into site.”

This is probably one of my top favorite camping sites. It was pitch black at night and not a sound to be heard. I got such great sleep here. The campsite area is small and right - site 11 fit our 25 ft Airstream perfectly but anything bigger through the curves will be hard and difficult. NO cell reception miles from the park so it was really nice to truly unplug. No showers at the campgrounds.

We saw deer a few times and the hike around the monument is unbelievable and breathtaking.