Catalina State Park Campground

We loved this campground and it's our second time here. We stayed up at the Ringtail Loop the first time and much preferred the sites at the A and B loops. But it's all great because the park is beautiful with many trails to explore and great views everywhere, plus it's only a few miles from shopping, restaurants and Tucson. We enjoyed exploring with our bikes in the campground and right outside on a long bike path.

This state park has it all - hiking, beautiful scenery, an equestrian area and close to services and restaurants but with a nice private feel. The park was easily accessed on paved roads and all sites were paved. Most are back ins but there are enough pull throughs for big rigs. No levelers needed. There are 2 different campgrounds - "A" has some sites without electric, campground "B has electric at all sites. There is a central trailhead for trails inside the park, but several trails lead out of the park and into the Cornado National Forest. They have recently reintroduced Desert Bighorns in the area. Dogs are not allowed on Forest trails because of this. We will be back, this is a great place to stay to explore Tucson.

This park is lovely with mesquite trees throughout, and awesome views of the Santa Catalina Mountains. There is soft dirt and little bits of grass throughout, an exception to the normal desert campgrounds which tend to be gravel, and much better for dogs. Very well-kept.

Sites have nice separation from each other and all have picnic tables. Some sites (such as our corner site B13) had lots of extra space. There are two loops - Loop A has some sites with electric and water, some with water only, Loop B has all electric and water and has more modern showers. There are utility sinks in front of the shower/rest room buildings in each loop but no other facilities. There is an overflow area with dry camping, which I didn't see.

The park has lots of trails, some of which allow horses, and it has an equestrian center. A couple of the trails allow dogs and some allow bicycles. Lots of great options for all different levels of hikers.

We heard coyotes on most nights, and they sometimes sounded as if they were right next door (which they probably were). Other than the coyotes, the campground was extremely quiet and peaceful.

The state park is located is about 30 minutes north of the city center and about 45 minutes from Saguaro National Park (West, which is the main park), but has lots of stores and restaurants nearby on N. Oracle Rd. the road just outside of the park. There is a Fry's, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods and Sprouts all within a 20 minute drive. There are also laundromats, banks and lots of other services.

They technically only allow you to stay for 14 nights, but may extend if they are not full (they did for us).

Looks like a great SP and C/G. Highly recommended to us. Pulled in and saw sign warning about flooded crossings being dangerous, a common desert warning. Checking in the ranger reminded of this again and mentioned the exit road had been closed earlier in that week before because of flooding. Forecast looked good so we took a chance.

WRONG! Started to rain that evening and by morning the road was closed for the next two days. We made it out with a few others the third day, but rain started again as we pulled away. Who knows how long others back in the exit line had to wait before they could pull out.

Other than that, it looks like a beautiful place and we are anxious to try it again.

Enjoyed the stay here, but only got a dry campsite. Park is pretty against the Catalina Mountains. There are only a couple of trails that you can take dogs on, those are the horse trails. All the trails that go into the mountains are off limits due to Big Horn Sheep being re-introduced in 2013. So due to lack of electricity and very limited hiking, we left early. The highway is nearby and police/fire sirens go by about once an hour. Funny about that is it gets the coyotes howling in the middle of the day sometimes. The trails are like super highways, giant and busy. This is a park for the masses, while pretty it is, it's just not my style. Also, showers not so nice.

The decision to camp at Catalina State Park was last minute, so all we could get was a spot in the overflow section. It's basically a dirt parking lot, but it was surprisingly peaceful during our stay. We could hear generators in the distance, but so far none right next to us.

The showers in the Overflow/Ringtail loop are really clean and spacious. I heard from other campers that the showers in the A loop doesn't have temperature control, so if you're looking for a hot shower, head to Ringtail or the B loop.

The cell phone reception in our loop was terrible. With a booster we got it up to 3 bars. The other loops have much better reception.

It costs between $5-$15 more to camp in the other sections, and aside from having a little more space, a picnic table and water and power if you need it, we found the overflow section to be more than acceptable even though it was quite full.

We had read so many glowing reviews of Catalina State Park, that we were excited when friends booked to stay here and invited us to join them - despite only being able to get a spot in the Overflow area.

Now, the park itself.. is gorgeous. Great hiking, cactus and so cool that it's so close to a major city. And it definitely attracts a crowd and keeps full.

The overflow loop (called Ringtail) however, is really disappointing. It's just a big circle with spots along the perimeter. We were blessed to be able to snag a 'pull through' that kept our door opening onto our own little spot of yard... but we were right along the main road in/out and had constant vehicle and foot traffic right by our windows. The rest of the spots are very close together, and if the loop is full - you definitely feel it. Doesn't take but one or two groups enjoying a normal noise level conversation, or folks running generators for it to feel unpeaceful.

Our visit also happened to coincide with Spring Break, and we had a bunch of kids in the loop - which didn't help. Most were great kids. But we had a couple families with very young ones across the way that let them run around unsupervised. Since there's nothing for the kids to do in the loop and no play areas.. they were running into our yard and stomping all over our ground deployed solar panels (they were even banging on our RV in the early morning and woke us out of a dead sleep!!) The parents didn't appreciate us asking them to stop, but thankfully the camp hosts were willing to talk with them too. The behavior of other guests is of course not the park's fault, but the proximity of the spots and lack of space for kids to run around and be kids is.

Once the loop cleared out after the weekend, it wasn't so bad. Folks could spread out more and you didn't feel the closeness. But for $15/night for dry camping.. we really expect more space around us - not being crammed into a lot. Maybe we just got spoiled after all the amazing free boondocking on public land opportunities in the area?

We took a drive through the A and B loops (which range from $20-30/night), and while there were some nice sites in there.. the campground just didn't feel well laid out. Very few sites offered privacy.

The cool thing about the location is the proximity to big box stores and dining, so if you're needing to stock up on such things - it can be an ideal stop over. But that also means that approaching the park from Tucson or areas south, you have 10 miles of heavily trafficked suburbia roads to work your way through - it took us 30-45 minutes each way in and out to reach the park.

We'd probably return if we were in the area and had friends staying here to hang out with, but this park won't rate high on our lists.

Cell phone signal for AT&T and Verizon were both intermittent, definitely requiring a booster to be usable.

This place is a gem, but you need to plan ahead. It's not an understatement that this is a very popular and can be a very crowded park. We failed to make reservations until about 2 months before we planned to meet up with friends here. Luckily, we managed to get a site in the A loop, which is a dry camping site but is an actual site (unlike the Ringtail/Overflow loop). Our site (#24) was great, a nice big pull through with a picnic table and loads of space and great views of the mountains. And our friends, who were in nearby sites (20 & 21) had plenty of room to host several get togethers and a large Happy Hour...while still feeling private.

There are many, many trials to hike around (most are dog friendly) and the flora and fauna are simply stunning (cacti of all varieties, mesquite, verde trees, flowers blooming). Many are easy and enjoyable for early morning or afternoon strolls. Others can be a real challenge but the views are very much worth it (particularly the Romero Pools and further up to the Romero Canyon).

The park is also very close to pretty much every kind of store or restaurant you can imagine, all while still feeling remote. Since we stayed almost two weeks (and this was after spending the prior month out in the wilds) we were happy to have the ability to go grocery shopping, handle mail, use a fax machine, buy some new hiking shoes and much needed hiking clothes (we love Summit Hut), and treat ourselves out to eat a few times with our friends.

Sabino Canyon is a fairly short drive away and is a must see/must hike. Biosphere 2 is also near by and is worthy of a visit.

All in all the park is gorgeous. My advice is to try to plan ahead and grab a reservation in the A loop (there are electric sites in A as well...the newer B side is just a bunch of pullthrus that lack the campground feel). Also, the showers on the A loop are not very good (there's a push button that only allows the water to spray for about 30 seconds before it has to be pushed again...and the water temp is non-adjustable). Do yourself a favor and take the short walk (or bike ride) over to the B Loop for a real shower. Totally worth it. Also, be aware that in the non-electric areas of both A loop and Ringtail there can be a lot of generator usage during the day. If that bothers you then you might want to check out B loop.

We plan on staying here again this coming winter as there is so much more in the area we'd like to see...and a lot of trails in the park we didn't hike yet.

If Catalina were a budding young Pip, Tucson would be its Ms. Havisham.

While surrounded immediately by a relatively subtle escarpment of course rising granite known as the Santa Catalina mountains all the day long, it is but a stone's throw worth of gasoline to amenities as prized as an Ace Hardware, a Safeway or two, even a multitude of Walmarts, some boasting large green signs claiming to be "neighborhood markets." Dubious, indeed.

However, though the subtle hymn of traffic en route to wherever people need go in this piece of the American pie is ever present, particularly more so at night when the sounds of gameshow contestant snowbirds in the distance calms to a silence, the natural sounds of the Sonoran desert take center stage.

We heard great horned owls dueting every night but one. That one night in particular it was coyotes in their stead. Literal hooting and howling.

I need to wrap this one up so I'll just state that I was knee deep in a mean streak of bad omens when we arrived and here we are five days later and my turn signals work once again, my stove is as white as a flake and the people I call clients are sending smiley-faced emoticons my way. Is nearby Gilbert Ray a little better? Yes, but my fives are higher here than they were there, so please feel free to read into that as you will.

We had a great experience at Catalina State park, and were sad to leave. Most of the reviews of this campsite were probably from peak times, yet we stayed in early May in the middle of the week. So the campground was about half full and we did not have any of the crowding problems others have had. It was clear that this park is heavily based on reservations and in peak times getting a spot would probably be almost impossible. In fact the spot we had picked was not available the next night so we had to move down a few spots due to the reservation system.

The sites are spaced decently and we had little noise issues. The park is located right across from a huge shopping complex, and we appreciated the convenience of that while still being far enough away from the noise of the town.

The bathrooms were fabulous even though the showers were only push button. The campground host Roger was super friendly and fun to talk to. The trails and cacti are definately worth your time as well.

My expectations were low due to reviews on this site, but if you go in a low time you will not be disappointed.