Lake Havasu State Park Campground

On a passé deux jours en overflow directement sur le bord de la plage. Honnêtement si vous êtes autonomes, c’est mieux de ne pas réserver et être en overflow car moins cher et accès à l’eau potable, à la dump station, toilettes et douches qui sont super propres ! En plus, encore plus près de l’eau que le camping. Il y a une belle petite trail à faire le long du lac aussi. 25$ au lieu de 40$

(Google Translate - French to English)

We spent two days in overflow directly on the edge of the beach. Honestly if you are independent, it is better not to book and be in overflow because it is cheaper and has access to drinking water, the dump station, toilets and showers which are super clean! Plus, even closer to the water than camping. There is a nice little trail to do along the lake too. $25 instead of $40

Christmas at the beach 2022 on Arizona’s western shore! This was my first trip to Lake Havasu and I loved it so much that I plan to make it my annual Christmas retreat. I was in a premium site so it was $40 per night as opposed to the standard sites that are $30 per night. The premium sites are designated as such based on their location, all very close to the beach/shoreline. I was in site number 3 which basically had its own small private beach and was spaced far from all other campsites and was close to the bath house. The views of the lake were spectacular (see pics). Many of the sites at this campground have a view of the water, even those that are set back from the beach. The best sites for close proximity to the beach/water are; 2,3,7,8,10,14,16,34,36,38,40,41. You need to book far ahead to score any of these sites. I booked in late August for late December and was lucky to get my spot (likely a cancellation) because before I left I looked online to book for next Christmas and all of the premium sites were already booked. I will be checking back throughout the year for cancellations. On the other hand, if money is no problem, there were plenty of camping cabins available on short notice for $119 per night, and they are right next to the water.

Campsites are hard surface, clean and level with picnic tables and fire pits/grills. Some sites have covered picnic tables. There are very few, small trees, so not much shade, which is desirable for winter, but I imagine not so great in the summer with temps over 100!

There are 2 sections to this campground; the Cabin Loop and Windsor Beach. The cabin loop does have a few campsites, but they have obstructed views. Also, each cabin has hookups for an RV, but they apparently charge $30 extra for use of the hookups with the cabin (at other state parks they are included with the cabin price). The Windsor Beach section has sites with water/electric hookups. Windsor has a North and a South section. The South section is closer to London Bridge. Each section of the campground has a bathroom with flush toilets/showers; one in cabin loop, one in North Windsor and one in South Windsor. The bath houses are very nice, clean and seem fairly new and well kept. Each toilet is in a separate room with a shower and is accessed from a separate exterior door. They are unisex bathrooms and are very clean. I didn’t use the shower because there is no heat in the bathroom and it was too cold for me, but I tested the shower, they are push button and took a minute to warm up and shut off automatically after a few minutes, so you would have to keep pushing the button to get a complete shower.

It is an easy walk to London Bridge from all parts of the campground. I walked along the beach path to the London Bridge, passing by the boat ramp and day use area and then cut through a short rocky step up onto the bridge path by the condos on the left.

For those with dogs, there is a small dog beach and dogs are allowed on the trails, but not in the cabins or on any other beaches, except the small dog beach. The dog beach is close to site 34.

There are white sandy beaches, but water entry is very rocky. You can launch a kayak from any of the beaches and there is also a boat launch and a dock for temporary mooring (sign said 10min). I did see one camper who moored his pontoon boat directly at one of the smaller beaches overnight, although it was gone within 24 hrs so I’m not sure if this is allowed or not? The campground was full, but the water activity this time of year was not busy at all, but for kayakers you will have a lot of wake activity from all the speed boats. The boat activity can be noisy at times, but otherwise the campground was very quiet and peaceful. There was some nigh-time noise off and on, from the water and from the air, but nothing too late (not past 9pm). There are not boat rentals in the state park, but you can walk to the London Bridge area for lots of boat rental options.

The state park trail runs all along the shore through the whole park and there is a section with a beautiful, shaded cactus garden. From the cactus garden you can take the trail up a large hill (easy climb) where you can catch a magnificent view of the lake and park.

If you want to bike over to the London Bridge you have to go the long way around, exit the park and go out to the London Bridge road, because the state park is fully fenced with no way in/out on wheels except through the main park entrance/exit. It’s better to just walk over there and it is a beautiful walk where you will pass a couple of lighthouse replicas.

There was a camp host, but I never saw them.

Cell Service; I have Visible which is on Verizon network, but only 3G. Without a booster I had 2 bars and could stream video and text. With my WeBoost I had 4 bars and could upload pics and videos.

TV; my antenna did not pick up any TV channels here.

My only complaint about this campground is the dump station, it was nasty! Probably the worst dump station I have used due to the smell and poop all around on the ground. The camp hosts/rangers need to monitor this dump station more closely since people apparently do not know how to dump their tanks without making a mess. YUK!!!

I would have stayed here longer, but I wanted to check out the other very nearby state parks (see my review of Buckskin Mountain, especially if you have dogs 🐩)

Stop by the drive through lane for your pass. Many restaurants and stores right out of the park.
Bathrooms were average. Electric and water were operational. Good hiking up the road at SARA, and there is a 2.4 mile trail in the park.

Take the cheap ferry boat ($4/round trip) across the lake to the casino. Some power boat noise from the lake, but not bad.

AT&T cell service was excellent, 5 bars of 5G. We didn't need the booster.

First time trying the state park as we have boondocked in Lake Havasu before. We had a nice site, easy access to water and to the London Bridge. A bit warm (late April) and lots of bugs, but we played in the water often to stay cool. Water and electric only, with a dump station and potable water (there is a sign) near the entrance of the park.

We parked our semi in the overflow parking area, but the sites do allow your tow vehicle on it. Plan well ahead for reservations as this is a popular park to stay in. They are updating their reservation system which will hopefully be an improvement as I could not make a reservation online a year before and talked to someone to reserve.

I do recommend this place, maybe earlier in the spring, fall and winter, unless you do not mind the heat as it is one of the hottest places in Arizona.

This is a very busy city area so there was no walk-in vacancies at the actual State Park campground. We did however stay in the overflow parking lot right at the beach and close to the kiosk. It was fine for us as an overnight rest stop, but you could tell by their set-ups that many RV'S were here for multiple nights. We would NOT like that at all. It's a parking lot...At least there were restrooms with hot showers very close by, yay...The winds can really howl in this parking lot and there is zero protection. We were glad to move on the next windy morning.

Pros: Lots of space between RV's, the beach, the sites have BBQ grates, fire pits, picnic tables & covered areas, pretty sunsets & sunrises. I think the draw is proximity to Lake Havasu obviously and for people who swim or love walking along a beach.

Cons: Very Noisy (street, jets & aircraft - 2am planes), no place to walk dogs other than streets and rock strewed roads, dismal (gross) bathrooms (think prison cells) absolutely no grass or park.

Note if you have hounds like us: The campground is FULL of quail and rabbits which were a terrible distraction to our 2 hounds. Because you can only have dogs on the streets and they are rabbit-bush lined, it was a constant battle to keep them from hunting the critters that darted out in front of us while we walked.

Got a last minute reservation to stay here for 3 nights starting New Years Eve. After we got to the park we knew right away we wanted to stay longer. Luckily, we were able to piece together a total of 10 nights. We were in site 13, 1, and back to 13. No complaints about either site. The rangers and hosts take a lot of pride in this state park. They rake the rocks and keep it tidy. One of the few parks I actually see people cleaning the sites between campers. Sites were water & electric. They do have a dump station available along with potable water. In addition to the reservable sites they do have dry camping in an overflow lot for $25/night. That gives you access to the state park, bathrooms, showers, and dump station. Dump station alone is $15. Walking trail available in the park (they have signs up saying no bikes). Short walk to the channel and up to the village and the London Bridge. Verizon signal was OK. There were times that it was slow for basic internet searching. I would definitely stay here again. In my opinion, the only sites I would not want to stay in are 22 & 23. The only views that those 2 sites have are the overgrown shrubs.