Catalina State Park Campground

Catalina State Park is one day's drive from our SoCal home, so when we're headed east we stop here. It's a beautiful site with hiking trails and Indian ruins within the park. The restrooms are SPOTLESS and they include awesome warm showers for free!!

The hosts are also top notch. We always stay in the $10 no hookup overflow lot because we're self-contained and only 22' long..

One time we had to stay in the full hook-up section because the overflow lot was full. It is very spacious making it easy for Class As and trailers to get around.

Catalina State Park can get busy during spring and fall, especially when there are gem shows in Tucson, so plan accordingly.

We had planned to drive straight through from Usery Mountain Regional Park in Mesa to Rockhound in Deming, but decided at the last minute to take a break and check out Catalina State Park. We loved this park! The showers were fabulous. After being on the road in our C Class for 6 weeks, it was really nice to take a long hot shower in a nice clean bath house. The sunset view of the mountains is stunning. There is a nice shop at the ranger station where you can find hats and t-shirts and stuff. We will definitely be back.

Catalina State Park is set against the Santa Catalina mountains north of Tucson making for a gorgeous backdrop for your adventure. We visited the week of Thanksgiving and the weather was very mild with lows in the 50s and highs in the 70s. Campground B is built for trailers and big RVs. The sites are incredibly easy to get in and out of and the water and electric is in a great location at each site.

The campers here were very respectful and quiet. You barely hear anyone. The loudest thing was the garbage truck emptying the dumpsters before 7 am right next to us. Well that and my kids playing tag.

We used this as a base for Saguaro National Park and the Mt Lemmon scenic drive before heading to Phoenix to visit family for the holidays. This is a great winter camping location and even though Tucson is enemy territory if you're a Sun Devil. The biggest drawback was it is fairly far north for a lot of Tucson. The drive to and from the national park is a bit long.

Cell service with Visible/Verizon was very bad but might be better with Verizon. T-Mobile wasn't great until I pointed the directional antenna due west and it works great. 50-85 down and 2-12 up with about 50ms latency.

360 Photo - https://goo.gl/maps/FdwUTaEDJufXfdRx8

This is a beautiful campground. Lots of hikes, and sites are reasonably spaced. I have only 2 complaints. No one seems to pick up their dog poop. On the first day here, I picked up over 30 piles of poop. I complained to the park ranger, and they said”yes it’s a problem”. I was furious. My 2nd complaint is that there is no dump in campground A. They could easily put one in as the camp host has sewer. So if you’re staying for more than 4 days, you either have to break camp or tow your pooper transport over one mile. Not good.

Showers and grounds are very clean, and we will be back, but the above concerns need to be corrected.

What a great place to go for a weekend getaway. Stayed in A loop with water and elec. The camp host came by asked if me needed anything, very friendly. Level sites with picnic tables with BBQ grill. Lots of desert wild life to keep you busy while looking at your view of the mountain. Restrooms were clean, but could had some air freshener due to the water saving urinals.
If you love a mountain view, put this campground on your list of places to go stay.

What a great place to go for a weekend getaway. Stayed in A loop with water and elec. The camp host came by asked if me needed anything, very friendly. Level sites with picnic tables with BBQ grill. Lots of desert wild life to keep you busy while looking at your view of the mountain. Restrooms were clean, but could had some air freshener due to the water saving urinals.
If you love a mountain view, put this campground on your list of places to go stay.