The RV Park at Pima County Fairgrounds

I stayed here for the FMCA rally. There were over 1100 RVs so most parked outside of the full-hookup area. The facilities, restrooms, restaurants, meeting rooms were nice, clean, well maintained. There are two laundry rooms, each has 3 washers and dryers. Probably because it is a fairground there are dirt roads, dirt path and dirt fields. When the wind blows dirt and dust is everywhere. If you are adjacent to dirt road or field the activity will kick up enough dirt and dust that you and your RV will be dirty, inside and out. AT&T 5 bar 5G was great.

PROS:
Dog parks
Paved trail(s)
Coin operated laundry
24-hour security
Well-lit at night
Full hookups (electric included with daily/weekly fee)
30 & 50 Amp Sites
Showers* (bring ID to get a key)
Dumpsters
Daily & Weekly rates
Doesn't seem to discriminate on rig age or type (skoolies, vans, etc)
ATT 5GE
Starlink 138 Mbps

CONS:
Tiny lot spaces
Showers (think of the delousing scene from Shawshank Redemption)
Goat head stickers
Noisy (gun range down the street, fairs, close neighbors)
No pull-through spots
Expensive (subjective)
No dogs outside of rig unless fenced in 5x5 space

Southeast of Tucson - first come, first serve, full hookup, 50A, gravel spots, mostly level, barely any trees. Office/hosts are friendly and helpful. Multiple private showers/restrooms - ID required to get key. Closest entrance to the RV spots was closed due to construction during our visit - slight detour around. Good Verizon service - was able to conduct virtual work meetings and stream programming. Close to grocery stores. Comfy stay. We camped at Pima County Fairgrounds in a Motorhome.

Two of the campground sections are closed, therefore you get put where they have room. We were placed in a section filled with people who had been there for a long time. The gravel in our site was permeated with dog poop. Campers around us left piles of dog poop for days at a time and the one next to us had a 5-gallon bucket overflowing with poop bags. Children were playing during the day under campers. Yes, it is only $35 a night, BUT they should clean the sites and enforce the long set of rules. We were going to stay here for three nights, we cut it to two. Even after telling them after complaining about our site, they DID NOT REFUND THE NIGHT.

I'm pretty sure that the folks who "love" this place got put in the area in front of the office. This area sat with a ton of empty spaces, reserved for an "event". When pressed, the host said he could move me, but it would be in the same area of folks that he admitted had been there since July (It was February when we stayed). When chatting and me pointing out the dog poop situation, he admitted that he "hadn't come over to look at these areas". We just left early.

My advice is for one night if you're tired AND if you get put in the good spots in front of the office, stay. If they put you in the area to the left of the office, RUN!

The Staff Was Very Friendly, We Called Two Days Before Arrival And Were Told There Are Plenty Of Sites Available No Reservations Requires. The Staff Was Confused By This But Were Very Accommodating And Were Able To Gets Us Close W ith Our Travel Companions. Rode Bikes All Over, Watched The Horse Show, Enjoyed Our Stay. 4days. 37’ 5th Wheel And A 40’ Class A

Stayed here before, had good visits then but not so much this trip.

Sites are all gravel and reasonably level, but can be pretty packed when there's an event.

The receptionist was rude and indifferent, in every way from letting us pay to just answering questions.

They give a small Good Sam discount, but this particular front desk person won't honor it unless you show the physical card. She won't accept the app profile as proof of membership, I've never had that issue anywhere else.

The fairgrounds don't accept reservations, but they were also holding 30+ sites for people who never showed up. When we arrived they stuffed our 36' trailer between two other long rigs, and extra long rigs across the aisle too - grease the sides, we're all stuffed in like sardines. We had 4' on each side, just enough for our neighbors to open the door and squeeze by but not enough to fully open the slides, while empty pull throughs sat empty all night.

The showers are closed while campers are here, are only open during the day from 9-5...when visitors to the park are all occupied with the events.

The laundromat is functional, but requires quarters they don't make available. There isn't a change machine, and they won't make change in the office, so you have to get quarters in town somewhere.

The evening security staff are great, and very helpful. Guests who arrive after ours will meet with the security, and have a very different experience.

We stayed here for one night on our way through. Pretty easy access off of I-10 (except for the road construction, which they have no control over). We arrived after hours and after dark. The security guard took us to the office and got us all checked in. The pull-through site we had easily accommodated our 63' rig. We did find out the next morning that we had pulled into the wrong site, but the one she indicated we should have used had the electric, etc. on the opposite side of our coach. We were told if we stayed we would have to move to a different site. This wasn't a problem since we were only there the one night.

We were impressed with the view when we got up the next morning. Very nice!

The park appeared very clean and well maintained. We would definitely stay here again if needed. Would even consider a long term stay.

This was our third stay at the fairgrounds: our previous stays were during the winter of 2019 - 2020 before I started writing reviews. The fairgrounds is located about two miles south of I-10, and the main entrance is a left turn off of East Brekke Road. You will pass by a security kiosk - just tell them you coming to stay at the campground - and then before you reach the second gate you’ll turn right to check in at the RV office. Since they don’t take reservations, the office staff will determine what site to put you in based on your hookup needs, your RV length, and site availability, and will then guide you to your site.

There are RV sites in multiple sections of the fairgrounds, but unless you’re there as part of a special event, you’ll likely end up (like we did) in the large “4-H RV Area” in front of the office, which is a gravel lot divided into 103 50-amp, full hookup sites. All of these sites are back-to-back back-in sites, so you may luck out and be able to pull through into your spot, but you can’t count on it. Each site has its own dedicated water spigot and sewer connection, but each power pole is shared. Our site (398) was level. There are no trees in this RV area, so it probably gets pretty warm in the summer. Some RV sites in other areas have a few trees, but pretty much all of them are also gravel or asphalt lots, so not a lot of folks hang out outside of their RVs when they stay here.

Most of the amenities can be found around the RV office: bathrooms, showers, laundry, and a propane refill station. There’s no camp store on site, but there is a small restaurant across the street from the RV area that serves breakfast and lunch items (operating hours change based on the season). There are dumpsters on the edges of the RV areas for the disposal of trash, but no recycling

There are 4 fenced-in dog parks with airlock-style gates: a pair on the north end of the 4-H RV area, and another pair on the south side of Thurber Exhibit Hall. There are also some grassy areas around the restaurant and between the exhibit halls where you can walk dogs, as well as a dirt area around the livestock ramada. Our dog did get a few goatheads stuck in his paws during our week-long stay, including one he managed to find in the gravel, so that was a small negative.

There are two cell towers on the property, so cell service was good. The best speed I got on my Verizon Jetpack with MIMO antenna was 76Mbps down and 22 up, and we had no trouble streaming video. The best speed I got on my AT&T smartphone was 169Mbps down and 27 up. I tried the campground WiFi before we left and saw 20Mbps down and 6 up.

There’s always something going on at the fairgrounds. During our first visit, a team of Budweiser Clydesdale horses was using the fairgrounds as a home base while touring the area, and we got to see them up close. During our second visit they had large animatronic dinosaurs set up to entertain kids, and a few days later they hosted a music festival (which made for a fairly noisy night on the last night of our stay). This time around there was a local festival during the Saturday we arrived, with food trucks, outdoor games, and vendor booths, and then a dog show later in the week.

Since they sometimes host large events and they don’t take reservations, it’s in your best interest to check their event calendar prior to your visit to see what’s going on, and give them a call if you have any concerns that they might be full. They do tend to fill up anytime they’re hosting a gem show in late January / early February.