Catalina State Park

We spent our first night here in the overflow part of this campground and then moved to a site with electric/water hookups. The sites are really spacious, and our dog loved rolling in some grass after many days of sand and cacti! The ground squirrels kept her entertained too! There is some great bird watching here, and lots of hiking trails accessed from the campground. You are close to Biosphere 2, the Saguaro National Park and Tucson. Tucson itself has an amazing network of biking trails that circumnavigate the city of Tucson. We rode 40 miles and didn't begin the see the main loop! Flat and easy riding...not particularly scenic...but easy way to run errands while camping!
But our biggest surprise were the free showers! Huge tiled showers with really nice shower heads and plenty of hot water. After having traveled now for a month...to be able to take a really good shower was a treat! I don't think we have ever come across a better shower anywhere...private campgrounds included!

Beautiful locale, the sites are well maintained with a mixture of pull thru and back in options in both camping loops. Easy access to a shopping plaza including a Walmart. Also close to Tucson for other sightseeing options. Probably the only downside of this park is that it is so popular that availability can be scarce. You may have to book multiple sites to stay longer than a couple of days. You also need to leave the park and come back when switching sites. The Biosphere 2 is a short drive away with ample parking for large RVs. A good place to go for a couple of hours before checking back into a new spot.

The park is very quiet and the views of the night sky are fabulous despite its close proximity to the city.

Catalina State Park offers many outdoor activities for hikers, campers, mountain bikers, bird watchers, and equestrians. There are plenty of RV sites all with water and electric with great views of the majestic Santa Catalina Mountains. The trailheads are a good walking distance from the campsites and there are plenty of options for each hiking level. You’ll see plenty of giant saguaros and cacti along your hike, we took the Romero Canyon Trail where the creek was roaring with all the melted snow off the Catalinas. Tucson/Oro Valley is very accessible, but you would never know since this park feels very secluded from the city.

We really enjoyed Catalina State Park. The views of the Santa Catalina Mountains are so beautiful any time o the day. Also the star viewing is excellent. Sites have 50 amp electric/water for $30 a night. There are also some non-electric sites. Their sites are level asphalt and roomy! While there we had 2 bars AT&T 5GE. There is free WiFi but it gets overloaded in the evenings. The OTA channels were CBS/NBC/Fox from Tucson - no ABC signal. The shower building had tiled showers which had nice hot water. There was a hiking trail right from the campground and a trailhead about a mile awhile which had lots of trails to choose from. We really enjoyed the Romero Pools trail. Just one mile away is a super Walmart, shopping, restaurants and a movie theatre!

Stayed here one night on 11/10/2019 in site A-15. Site was large with a paved pad with water & electric hookup right by the pad. Decent privacy and spacing between sites. Bath house was new, clean and had hot water. Only 15 minute short walk to the Romero Ramada and Hohokam Ruins. Campground in a flat, brushy area but with beautiful views of the Mt. Lemmons mountain range.

Went on ranger guided tour of the ruins by Ranger Jonathan McCabe. Very informative and we learned a lot about the ancient community that was there. Highly recommend the tour, and free.

Our stay in Catalina State Park was just such a great experience. The location is perfect - you are in a quiet state park with a view of the mountains, but there is shopping literally across the road from the park's entrance. The restrooms were kept clean and the tiled showers were clean and hot. We enjoyed a large "yard" as well as having a private path to the restrooms/showers just behind our site. We even had wifi! We were told that the wifi was only available in Campground B, but we were able to access it in Campground A. The campground hosts were lovely and made sure to let us know about the concert and star party on the day of our arrival. This is such a friendly, beautiful place and we will definitely be back.

Very convenient campground for being close to Tucson but not having to stay in a private campground. Sites were spaced decently and loved that I was close to hiking trailheads. Some of the trails do not allow dogs so that was a bummer but hiked the 50 year trail. Free wifi but I did not use. Seemed to me that my regular Verizon wireless was slow perhaps due to the parks internet. In my site, very little Over the Air TV stations.

This is a very pretty, but popular, state park. The views in the campground are top notch with Pusch Ridge of the Santa Catalina Mountains always right outside your door. We were lucky to score a weekend cancellation because this park books up months in advance. Keep watching the online reservations, and if you see an opening snatch it quickly! This place is popular with the snowbirds, and we were just about the only family camping there. The park and campground are well-maintained. The hosts are very friendly and keep the place looking sharp. The Campground B roads and site driveways are all paved, perhaps newly. They seemed to be in good shape. What was missing were the usual directional arrows painted on the streets. It's always really quite obvious, but we saw so many clueless drivers going the wrong way. Not sure why that was happening, but it seems like such an easy thing not to do.

Campground A is smaller and tighter and only a few sites have hookups. Campground B is spread out more and is mostly used by bigger rigs. The driveways are huge, so giant motor homes and fifth wheels fit just fine. The trees are all small and wispy at best, so nothing to watch out for overhead. The sites are spread apart and green grassy areas separate them. A few trees, but you can pretty much see everyone all around you but you're not on top of one another. Basically, plenty of room and easy to get around.

The restrooms had running water and flush toilets, all the free hot water you want in a shower, and the sinks even had soap and paper towels. There is a dump station by Campground B for one rig at a time and another by the ranger station at the entrance that can accommodate two rigs. All sites in B had water and electric hookups.

The trailhead to most of the hiking trails is about a mile away. That parking area fills up with hikers from the campground and also families from Tucson. The Canyon Loop Trail was a beautiful hike, but this time of year there were at least four water crossings to manage. Just bring a towel so you can remove your shoes, cross it, dry off, and put your shoes back on until the next one. That's the easiest thing to do although many were trying to hop rocks and such.

We also mountain biked up the 50 Year Trail, but if you don't like steep and rocky climbs and descents, skip that and drive to the trailhead for Honeybee Canyon. There are some nice, smooth, flowy trails there if that's more your thing.

The campground has free wi-fi, but that doesn't work in the rest of the park.