Kartchner Caverns State Park

Another great AZ State Park!! Kartchner Caverns campground is very clean and the bathrooms were clean and all operating. The only negative is there are millions of small thorn balls all over the rocks and grassy areas. They stick onto the bottom of your shoes and then you track them into your trailer and step on them with bare feet. Check your shoes before going inside...ouch! Also, I don't know if it was just the time of year we were there or because of the campground's position at the base of a canyon but it was super windy--gusts between 20-40 mph.

Our site was 47--back-in, long and pretty level, and backs up to wilderness. I would book this site again.

From our site we got some WiFi from the park at times and 1-2 bars LTE and 5G on T-Mobile most of the time.

As others have noted, some of the sites look flat in the campground photos but if you have a long rig, you will need a lot of leveling blocks.

I made note of a few particularly un-level sites--37, 44, 45, 54

Level but short sites--58, 43

Some longer level sites--38, 39, 40, 41, 46, 47, 51, 52, 55, 56, 57

Most of the sites I noted are in the east/lower part of the campground. I didn't walk around the west/upper part.

During our camping trip, we did one of the tours (Throne Room) and almost all the hikes (all very nice and Guilliani Loop is a good cardio workout). Near Benson we did a tour of Forever Home Donkey Rescue; and and afternoon wine tasting in Sonoita/Elgin. We highly recommend Dos Cabezas for pizza in Sonoita.

AZ state parks keep their sites one of the best I've seen. Kartchner was clean and relatively spread out, quiet too. We did the Foothills Loop, which was nice, not demanding. The short spur to the top of one hill was a little tougher, it had a few areas with big steps/rocks to get over. We also did the Rotunda/Throne Room tour which was a real treat. Believe the comments about 99% humidity and 70F. There are air lock doors and a misting hall to go in just to keep the climate right for the rock formations. We also spent a day in Tombstone, visited the Courthouse, which was a blast in the past history. Then on to Bisbee, which was interesting, but we really enjoyed the Bisbee Breakfast Club for lunch. We also spent a day hiking at Chiricahua National Monument. We really enjoyed the rock formations during the hike. I would recommend doing both those trips.

This was a quiet and clean place - stayed for 5 nights while visiting relatives in Tucson. Two hiking trails in the park: Foothills is relatively easy if you're mobile..rocky and slippery in sections and some boulders to clamber over. Guindani is a 4.2 loop trail that goes into state forest land and is much more challenging. We went counter-clockwise from the beginning of the trail and liked that direction. As you are heading back on the west side of the loop it is mostly downhill and you are exposed to the sun on a steep narrow path. Neither trail is bike friendly.
Roads are paved, some sites are roomier than others. Cave and Discovery Center were awesome.
ATT speed test: 54.7 down & 3.39 up. The free Go Ranger WiFi worked well also.
Site 11 actually DOES have a sewer connection! It fit our 35' fifth wheel and our truck. It is however very very close to the neighbor on site 12. Other sites in the park are much wider spaced.
FYI-They have a very roomy paved overnight RV dry-camping lot - so if you just want to stop over and no sites are available - there is a good chance the overnight lot will be able to accommodate you. The lot does have water pumps and covered picnic tables.

Love's Travel is at the I-10 exit and on both sides of the road they have diesel available.
AJO Bikes in Tucson fit us in to "thorn-proof" our bike tires. Great customer service, big bike shop.
Visited Saguaro East National Park and did the 8 mile loop and Visitor Center. Ate lunch at the little bistro at the entrance-very good.

Super clean, sites are spacious and all with outstanding views. Very impressed with this park. The park does not allow you to come early to check in and that’s because they clean the sites, rack the gravel and make sure everything is pristine for your stay. Everything was outstanding. The showers were clean, the water was good and electric was stable. Each site had a fire pit and picnic table.

As others have said, it’s a dart sky park so the stars are popping out of the sky.

There are bumper outs hikes to enjoy the scenery. All levels of exertion. I highly recommend this gem of a park.

We were here 3 years ago and did the ‘Big Room’ tour. This time did the ‘Rotunda and Throne Room’ tour. AZ has done an exceptional job making this cave accessible and keeping it preserved. Very nice collection of cave formations (a ‘living’ cave, so not done yet!). I also did the Guindani Loop including Cottonwood Saddle - about 9 miles total from campground. Very nice, only saw a couple of deer but great vista views.
Very nice dark skies as well.

We were in 3 different campsites in 3 nights - not our preference but we took what we could get. It seems quite a few others were in the same situation, which seems strange.

You should not come here unless you have reservations for a cave tour in advance. We pulled in day one about 11 am - early - and were told at the gate to hurry over to the Discovery Center because that day was already booked up and tomorrow was filling fast. A few minutes later we were at the Discovery Center and told that today, tomorrow AND the next day were already fully booked. All 3 days we were there. It’s fortunate we had time the morning we left and were able to book a 9 am tour (which was terrific). But reserve early by phone or online. There’s not a lot else luring you there, so don’t miss out.

Staff at the Discovery Center front desk on the first day were not friendly, not very helpful nor very interested in answering questions. It may have been a bad crew on a bad shift.

The spacing of the campsites was quite variable - some very private and spacious, others just a few feet apart and/or adjacent to heavily-used trails. Not the best planning. But the campground - and all the grounds and facilities - were well maintained. The roadways were wide and newly-resurfaced.

If you’re interested in astrophotography, this is a good dark sky location. I shot for 3.5 hours one night from a trail near the campground.

I would stay here again if I could bring grandkids to see the wonderful caverns. The history of these caves - discovered in just 1974 - is fascinating. https://azstateparks.com/kartchner/explore/park-history

I travelled here with a 35’ 5th wheel, long bed pickup and parked in site 18, a 30A E/W BI site for $30/night. Roads/sites are asphalt and the CG is easy to navigate. This site was a little difficult to get into due to a tree close to the edge of the road on the opposite side which reduced the available turning radius. #13, 16, 25, 46, 49 and 50 look very easy to get into. The bathhouse was clean and warm! Some CG’s don’t heat their shower areas making it uncomfortable to use in cold weather. The site was very spacious. Small trees around would provide some additional privacy when they leaf out in the spring/summer. Nice fire ring and picnic table. The water pressure was very weak so I filled my tank and used my water pump. No real shade which was good at this time of year. Wifi was ok, gets slow at night. 2 bars LTE Verizon. I was still able to stream video with these connections. Didn’t check OTA. There are some nice trails around the park. Took both cave tours. One would have been enough in my opinion. Also visited Bisbee and Tombstone. Really enjoyed hiking the stairs in Bisbee and eat at Cornucopia if you have a chance. Very good food. It’s a nice campground and I would stay there again if I was in the area.

Solid Arizona state park. Sites are well spread out, very clean, and the access to the cave tours can’t be beat. The only oddity we found was all exterior lights have to be off by 830pm…and the rangers did enforce it.

Cell Phone Speeds:
ATT: 145 down, 5 up
Verizon 5 down, 5 up

Park Wifi: Was spotty - but if you get a spot close to the bathrooms, it was solid. Speeds were 4 down, 4 up.

(Stayed 11/3-4/21). Stayed at this really nice state park for 2 nights. Wish we had more time. The sites are large and well-spaced apart (especially the back-in sites). The pull-thru sites on the inside of the loops seemed more tightly spaced. It is really hard to tell from the map provided when making reservations.

Anyway, our site was level and had some nice mesquite trees for some shade. The site was very clean and well manicured. We had water and electricity at the site. Most everyone in the campground adhered to the "dark sky" concept. Great views of the stars at night and the mountains. Nice hiking trails that lead from the campground.

Bathrooms are clean and hot showers are free. There is some noise from the highway. Probably less noisy in the west sites (in the teens).

The cavern tour we took was amazing. The ranger was very knowledgeable about the area and geology. Nice visitor center and gift shop. It was nice to have these activities right on site so you don't even need to move your truck!