Skyline Regional Park Campground

There's only seven spots, A-G, unfortunately I took the only one available which was G, and the worst of the lot. It's the last on the loop and beside of the trail head path. At times there's 50 to 60 cars in the nearby parking lot with people hiking the trails with their dogs, strolling within 20 feet my campsite which was below the path to the foot bridge. While eating breakfast at 8 o'clock I probably had 10 or 15 people stop to look down in my camper windows as if I was on display at the park. I would recommend you stay on sites C, D, or E. Site E seems to be the premium site in the loop, at the highest point and with more separation. The bathrooms are lacking, they are for the park and the campsite, the mens bathroom had one urinal and one indestructible jail house toilet. This is also one of the very few paid campgrounds I've been to that did not have a dumpster or any place to deposit your trash other than small trashcans by the bathrooms. The park and campground is in a beautiful location, it's just a shame the campground seems to have been an afterthought during the development process. The park hours are supposed to be from sunrise to sunset, so one would expect peace and quiet after sunset, but I heard voices and footsteps long after dark on the Loop Road and around the bathrooms and parking lot; I don't think they were campers.

The park is in a beautiful desert setting with saguaro cactus and other desert flora amidst well kept trails with varying degrees of difficulty. We truly enjoyed the solitude and walking/hiking! There are no hookups. The only challenge we had is reserving the site. It's through the city of Buckeye. We called the city and they guided us through it.

We stayed here 3 days and 2 nights while attending a friends’ ultramarathon race at Estrella Mountain Park (which currently does not have camping). There’s not a ton of camping options in this west Phoenix metro area. The campsite was next to a very busy trailhead. The campsite was large and level and easy to back into. The mountains were lovely. There was nice desert hiking and I got a 7 mile trail run in with the dogs. There is also a shopping center not far from the park if you need anything. This would be an ideal camping area to stage a long trail run because the camping is right next to the trail head and the trails were very well maintained. We didn’t have the issues other reviewers mentioned with the reservation system and our campsite was well marked when we got there. We have a weboost and was able to do basic internet when it was turned on from that campsite. Recommend choosing a site on the right hand side of the loop, we were right by the trailhead and there was a constant stream of hikers walking by.

Wife and I stayed here visiting our daughter in Arizona. I agree with other posts there is a need to improve the reservation process. When we arrived there was another camper setting up a tent on our site. We reserved online in November and they had called and were able to reserve the same site a few days prior. Luckily, there was an open site and they agreed to take it since we had reserved several months ago. That issue aside it was a great dry camping experience. Busy trailhead in the park during the day but very quiet and peaceful at night. We are both fulltime remote employees so with a WiBoost we were able to work (zoom calls, emails, etc) and stream Sling TV and YouTube through a FireStick. With TMobile we had 22MB down and 1.5 up and 17MB down and 8MB up with Verizon. Both more than adequate for our work and entertainment needs. After work we had access to a lot of good trails right from the campground to soak up some Arizona sun and enjoy the views. As a bonus Buckeye is small town only a few miles away with all the essentials including a Planet Fitness we used for a shower and workout.

It seems there are issues using the reservation system so I did my best to list out each step of the process under the NOTES tab. The system is not user-friendly, so I hope the steps will prove helpful. I've stayed here on 3 different occasions over the past 2 years and have really enjoyed Skyline each time. I don't recall the reservation process being that big if of an issue. BUT that said, this last visit on the weekend of February 21st was the first time my site was not labeled with my reservation. I saw the review noting the issue with the reservation system - when I called Buckeye Rec Dept to extend my stay by one day (to see if the site was available) I mentioned that no one was updating sites with reservation tags. The attendant said they were having an issue with the system not forwarding the information to the "3rd party" who was responsible for posting reservations. Therefore, reserved sites were not being tagged in a timely manner. This is the first time this has occurred during my stays and yes, it can certainly mess up one's plans. She said they were going to address it but in the meantime, it might be a good idea to call the office to confirm your site or if you find someone occupying it. Now as far as camping itself, it is dry camping but there are lots of services nearby. And yes, this is a very popular recreational park for the community but the trailhead and parking area, while close, are completely separate from the camping area. And the trails are great, for dog walking, hiking, and some biking. I was able to work using my ATT hotspot though I didn't save my connection speeds.

Stayed here 2/23/20 to 3/1/20. The previous reviewer is correct that the reservation system is a disaster. Making a reservation online is almost impossible to figure out without calling them. And unfortunately when you call them they can't do it over the phone so you still have to go through the website anyway. However, they are very friendly and will instruct you on how to get through the online reservation system. It's really tedious and annoying but I managed to book a week on the website and it all worked out. I will say though that no one came and put a sign or anything on my site saying that I had reserved it, and I never once saw anyone working out at the park so I think someone easily could have hopped in my spot not knowing it was reserved. So yeah, this system is kind of a mess, but the girl I talked to said they were working on improving it.

This park is dry camping only and doesn't have a dump station or any water available. I had filled up with water at my previous campground, and then used the dump station at the Love's a couple miles down I-10.

One thing that I found kind of strange about this park is that it's right off the parking lot at an extremely popular trailhead. So if you're looking for peace and quiet this isn't the place. This does give you fantastic access to all the hiking trails and the restrooms though.

Another important thing I have to mention is the cell service... people are reporting 1 or 2 bars of verizon LTE, but in the week I was there the service was so spotty that it was pretty much unusable. Occasionally I'd get a bar of LTE, but it would be so short lived that I couldn't really make phone calls or do any work. It seemed to work better in the morning and at night, but during the day you can count on pretty much no service at all. If you need cell service to work like I do, definitely look elsewhere.

Overall this is a beautiful park and I'm saying that I would camp here again because it was affordable and close to some nice trails, but for a full-timer like myself that likes to stay for a week and still works, it's not the best option.

This place accepts BOTH online AND walk-up (first come, first served) reservations. Problem is, that method DOESNT work! Conflicting online reservations Made today can “overlap” with a walk-in reservation Made yesterday (they allow a stay of up to 7 days at a site), creating conflicts!

I spoke to a “ranger” about the obvious conflict that exists with reserving sites and he informed me that he DOESN’T have access to the “pay box” and so has no idea what may be reserved by walk-up’s; only the reservations that get made on-line.

They have a cash “pay box” with instructions for paying $20/night for up to 7 nights but someone can reserve the SAME site ONLINE that you already paid for as a “walk-up”; thereby creating a conflict.

With just 7 Camping spaces total, this place can NOT effectively operate with the dual-reservation process they have.

Too bad, as it really is a nice location with lots of hiking trails starting right from the campground.