Picacho Peak State Park

I gave this campground 4 stars but with lots of reservations. True, it is close to I10 but its location is not ideal. For us, it was a little too close to Tucson, but at 37 miles away, too far away to be a base for a visit there. And, it is over an hour to Phoenix. As a destination, we found not much to do there. The town of Eloy has nothing to offer, no good supermarket or wine/liquor stores, though Casa Grande to the north has everything.

As to the positives, sites are well maintained, and many are well spaced. The bathrooms are large and very clean. Oddly, though there was no potable water available, the showers were. Our site, C19, was level and large. Though we could see traffic on I10, we could not hear it. There is a dump station at the entrance. One could bicycle the roads but they are very hilly.

IMO most AZ state parks are very good. This one, however, is not up to that standard. As others have mentioned, take the drinking water you will need as no potable water is available. Also, there are only 2 ramadas for shade for about 27 sites in the C loop, so make sure you have an awning of some type. I was told I could pay $3.95 for wifi but that the speed was glacial, so I declined to try it.

Bottom line: okay for one night but $35 seems alot to pay for electricity only and little to no ambience.

The sites are actually nice and well kept host seem real nice we enjoyed three nights here unfortunately there is a lot of wind and Highway noise you do hear the trains going by most of the evening and it does have a soothing sound that will put you to sleep after a while or make you get up and leave.... myself kind of a fan of trains
This park doesn't have water or sewer hook 30/50amp hookup showers were very clean and keep up
Nice weekend get a way

We arrived at near dark. But the camp host Jim was very helpful. The road is asphalt. Our site was asphalt too.
We had the handicap site, PCP-C4. It’s very wide. I had no problem pulling the side ramp out on the car and there was plenty of wheelchair room at the end of the ramp. The length of the site had more than enough space so that we could put the ramp down on the camper and have plenty of wheelchair room.
The picnic table is on cement and covered. There is a grill and a fire pit.
I cannot comment on the bathrooms as we didn’t use them or the trails.
The whole place is hilly so if you are pushing a wheelchair or using your own power it would be tough. We stayed in our site.
The charge for the night was $30 but there was a $5 “reservation fee” do $35.
The sunset was gorgeous.

Loved our stay here. The sites are huge...plenty of space for any size rig. They are well taken care of and super clean. Bath houses are clean and close to sites. Sites are level and have power, but no water or sewer. Dump station is in park, but closest place to get fresh tanks filled is 12 miles down the road, so prepare accordingly.

This park is easily accessed from I10. The hikes are great although at a more strenuous level than some parks. The pads were asphalt and the upper pads are more level than the loop pads farther from the restrooms. The restrooms were well kept and the staff was very helpful. The only negative is that you can hear I10 but this was not troublesome to us. There is a cell tower near the I10 exit so cell service is surprisingly good.

If you like to hike, this is the place to test your mettle. The hike to the top of Picacho Peak is grueling but well worth it. There are easier trails and the views from all of them spectacular. The camp sites are fairly well spaced and all have electricity, but no water.

Others have complained about noise from the train tracks and I-10 traffic below the park but we found it to be barely noticeable. This park is situated in saguaro country so there is no shade. Cell coverage is good here but we purchased a 7-day pass to AirBeam_WiFi. We found it to be okay for texts, emails and reading the news but too slow for streaming videos.

All in all we enjoyed ourselves and will definitely visit again.

This is a beautifully laid out campground. I've stayed here a total of about five nights this year and really like it, but you must arrive with a full water tank. If you want to refill, you'll need to drive 10 miles to a truck stop and pay to fill it. I've learned how to conserve water mightily here, so I can last about four days. There is quite a bit of noise from I-10 and the trains. I especially notice the train rumble at night. Overall, the privacy of the sites and some of the views make this a special place and make up for the drawbacks. Oh, and these are the hardest working, most conscientious hosts and rangers I've ever seen. They even clean the fire pits everyday!