Butterfield RV Resort & Observatory

We stayed here in our 38' motorhome with toad. The site is not extra long and we had to squeeze our car in across the front of the coach, which worked. The site is gravel, but we had a concrete pad and picnic table. We also had wifi and cable. Our site was level. The staff was very nice and they had plenty of activities going on with nice facilities. We were close enough to walk to the grocery store. The biggest perk was an on site observatory, Jim the host was great and it was a fun evening of star gazing!!

Beautiful park, ugly manager. She's kicked several couples out of the park citing they'd broke the rules or thought they were above the rules. Which rule(s) is she referring to. When asked she refuses to give a explanation. Now she's posted a no trespassing sign at the park entrance. Is this sign supposed to make campers feel welcome? I think not.

We enjoyed our stay very much. The staff and fellow RVers were extremely friendly and helpful. Sites are level. Park is kept very clean inside and out. The showers, restrooms and laundry are exceptionally well kept. We spent time in the library while doing laundry.

We live close to train tracks so the train horns didn't phase us. The military jets fly during the day. They are loud but it was neat to watch them. We didn't notice the road noise at our site.

Observatory presentation was very nice and informative.

Spectrum cell service was strong. Our Starlink pointed north and had no issues.

I chose the park because of the observatory and I was not disappointed. My first night was crystal clear, so I joined 17 others in the tiny observatory at the front of the park. Be sure to put your reservation in early. It was great viewing the skies through the 16-inch telescope. The park itself is immaculate, with paved pull throughs and streets. When the weather turned nasty on departure morning, they very nicely allowed me to stay a little longer to avoid the rain/snow. There is train noise, but I found it tolerable. No ATVs racing around either.

Great RV Park. They have every conceivable convenience. All the streets are paved with very clean asphalt. The western most two rows are asphalt for pull through parking with gravel between each site. Our site was about 60 feet long. Probably typical.

After the first two rows the sites are back-in and gravel. The last two (easternmost) streets are owned cottages.

Everyone here was very friendly. Lots of overnight folks and also lots of folks here for the winter. We only stayed 5 nights.

Our only complaint was the constant (at least one an hour) trains. The tracks lay north of the park and are less than 2/10ths of a mile away. The trains blow their horns between 6 and 12 times for each passing. I suppose if you keep your windows closed and have a white noise generator you might be able to sleep through the noise but most of the time they woke me up.

We only saw one Razr type four wheeler putting through the park, although noticed quite a few of them parked at the cottages. They were no bother.

They will pick up your propane bottle at your rig and drop it back off in a few minutes. Current price was $4.00 a gallon. Tractor Supply across the street charges $3.99.

Overall a very nice place. If you’re hearing impaired you’d probably rank it 5 stars!!!

First the good: the sites are big and flat and level with few obstacles. The park is clean and well maintained. The location is good with stores and restaurants close by. Sierra Vista is roughly a half-hour away and has even more stores if you can't find what you need in Benson. UPS, FedEx, and USPS deliveries were easy, and other than the USPS they delivered right to the site. USPS goes to the office and they are great about emailing you when you have mail. Cell hotpots worked great here. Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile all had good signals and fast speeds.

The not-so-good: Tons of Razrs blasting around the park. It seems like a good percentage of the park visitors have various types of these off-road buggies. They drive laps around the park for some reason despite the ample amount of desert nearby that these vehicles are designed for. Noisy, noisy, noisy. I'm not retired like most of the other park visitors, so working remotely during the day was sometimes a challenge with all the noise. There was a former Marine with a Bugle too that would serenade the park around sunset every day. Felt like being back in boot camp.

The computer reservation system apparently is overly complicated, and it can be difficult to make any changes to your reservation and have it done correctly. It took two people and nearly a half-hour just to add three days to my reservation. I only had to add the three days because they messed up my prior reservation due to the same computer 'complications'. All I can say is triple-check your reservation receipt to ensure you're getting the days you asked for. A 'simple' reservation like a day, a week, or a month will probably be done quickly and correctly, but outside of that...dicey.

Now the bad: The noise day and night is insane! Obviously not something the park can do anything about, but there is a train crossing near the park. All hours of the day and night trains, trains, and more trains. Add to that the Hospital across the street and the multiple daily trauma helicopters coming and going. If you have a spot on the north side you have the additional noise of truck deliveries to the Safeway and Ace hardware. Safeway gets deliveries at all hours of the night. I've never stayed in a park with this much nighttime noise before. Very difficult when you have to work long hours during the day with little sleep.

Overall there are some good things and bad things. If you're retired maybe you won't care about losing sleep. But, if you're a full-timer that works remotely I would not recommend it.