Lake Pleasant Regional Park – Lake Pleasant, Arizona

Shake down Trip # 2

We have owned our new RV for a bit over a month and did our first shake down trip at Lost Dutchman State Park last month where we hooked up with power to test everything which runs on power. Then we came back home and spent a number of weeks upgrading and making modifications based on lessons learned and also for what we would like to see in an RV. On this trip we wanted to dry camp so we could test our new solar panels and batteries and see how long we could last without running a generator. We debated driving to Quartzsite but we have been so busy that we decided to try somewhere a bit closer to home. Finding a campsite in Maricopa County in March is nearly impossible BUT we lucked out and got a site at Lake Pleasant Regional Park. Off we went! We didn’t tow our toad (car) on our first shake down trip because we didn’t have all the parts. But this trip, shake down #2, we towed. It all worked perfectly!!

Entrance to the park

Main gates to enter the park

View inside our rig of the backup camera display showing our toad

A view from one part of Desert Tortoise campground to the other portion on a peninsula

Campground: Lake Pleasant Regional Park
Location: Lake Pleasant, Arizona
Site: 106 (back in)
Cost: $24.67 (includes an $8 reservation fee)
Services: dry camping
Comments: A perfect place to have a shake down of our new rig and enjoy the fantastic scenery, a few campfires, and some great hiking. Our site was level but was not water front. The sites across from us were all waterfront.

Site 106 – back up – nice site privacy – level

Our own private picnic area – yes, Beardsley Trail is just above and behind our site

View of site 106 from up on the hill

Tucked in a little corner with a small hill behind us

A few trees around and a nice shaded picnic area

We selected a time period when the weather forecast was for cloudy skies so we could really put our solar panels to the test. The rule was NO RUNNING THE GENERATOR. Everything worked fine, our new solar panels charged us up fully every day even with using the TV at night for watching movies, charging the phone, laptops, camera batteries, etc. AND more importantly, the fridge (compressor 12 volt) kept our food perfectly cool for our entire trip.

Looking down at our site 106

Checking out the panels

A better view of the panels

When the sun broke out we were getting more than 20 AMPs

There are 2 campgrounds at Lake Pleasant, Desert Tortoise and Roadrunner. Roadrunner has more hookups, is more suited to big rigs, and is a bit hilly in places but both campgrounds have beautiful views of the surrounding lake and scenery. As of January 2019 a gate code is required to enter the individual campgrounds. Just make sure you don’t forget the code (on your reservation paperwork – keep it on your phone) if you leave with your tow vehicle (not that you can’t go back to the main gate and get it or go talk to a host). AND, of course, you cannot reach the gate code box from an RV. You have to get out to press in the code. Perfect!!! (she says in jest).

Desert Tortoise campground is in 2 sections both with some waterfront sites. The section we stayed in was a single road with sites on both sides (one side waterfront) and a turnaround at the end.

Looking down on Desert Tortoise campground – both in the foreground and in the background across the water

Looking across the water to the peninsula (on the left) which is more of Desert Tortoise campground (separate entrance). Shoreline camping is in the distance on the right.

Turnaround at end of campground road

Campground turn around

Site 116 – at the turn around – great site – waterfront

The area directly around the campground is lovely and there are plenty of areas to walk around and enjoy the shoreline.

Hiking down to the lake

Across the water to the other section of the Desert Tortoise Campground

A few wildflowers here and there

Kayaker enjoying the day

Beautiful clear water

View of some of the dry camping shoreline areas

The park has a boat launch, a few nice hiking trails, and several picnic areas (day use area and trailheads). We enjoyed our daily hikes exploring the area, looking for burros (which frequented the campground every night and were quite noisy), and enjoying the spring wildflowers. The longest trail in the park is Beardsley Trail which we could catch from right behind our campsite. We followed it all the way over to the boat launch and then hiked the shoreline back to the campground.

The mighty saguaro

Ahhh…perfect location to tent

Anothr great view of the lake

View of the lake from the day use area

Atop Benny HIll – police parking area to monitor the summer crowds

A view of the lake near the boat launch

We also hiked the Wild Burro Trail one day looking for burros but, of course, we saw them either in our campground or on the road.

Hiking Wild Burro Trail

High clouds with nice reflections in the water

Cactus – a nice variety of them along the trail

We hiked past several coves

I love cactus reflections in the water – such a juxtaposition

Looking for burros

“Hope” in the trees!

Lake Pleasant Regional Park is right off Castle Hot Springs Rd which continues on north after the turnoff to the park. It makes for a lovely drive as it turns from a paved road to a dirt road and heads on up past the northern end of Lake Pleasant and on towards the newly restored Castle Hot Springs Resort and further. There is a boat launch and another dry camping/boon docking (fee area – self pay) at the northern end of Lake Pleasant. Quite a number of rigs were parked there camping.