Another beautiful Maricopa County park nestled up in the foothills above Mesa, Arizona. The campground has 61 sites (both back-ins and pull-outs) offering water and electric hookups with nice spacious gravel picnic areas with picnic table, fire pit, and grill. Most are large and spacious and offer privacy. There are a few sites in the low numbers that are a bit unlevel but most of the others are flat. We found the back-ins in the high 20’s and the low 30’s on the outside loop (our preferred spot, usually) to be the nicest as far as sunset views and city views and privacy. The sites near the group camping area can be a bit noisy if it is a weekend and there are groups of kids camping.
There is also a nice Nature Center and an Overflow Camping area for when you can’t find a site or when you are waiting on your site. The campground tends to be quite full most of the winter. We made our reservations last summer (due to family obligations) and found all sites were full every night we were there. We only saw a a few rigs in the Overflow area during our stay. The Overflow area can be either in the small parking lot by the entrance for $12 a night or sometimes it may be in the group camping area which is much larger for $20 a night. They have signs to direct you to the area.
There is a nice dump station with two sides to dump at right at the entrance to the campground. We found this area to be somewhat of a bottleneck at times when a few rigs want to dump as the dump area is rather small and even if only 1 rig is in line they have to wait in the road whereby almost blocking other rigs trying to come and go. Also if 1 rig is dumping on the outside lane then no one can enter the inside lane.
Campground: Buckhorn Family Campground
Location: Mesa, Arizona (east of Phoenix)
Site: 59
Cost: $30
Services: W/E (50 Amp)
Comments: A nice flat, spacious site with Usery Mountain behind it yet far enough away it didn’t block the morning sun. The parking area for the rig and toad was quite large and could accommodate a number of vehicles (we had a few guests) and the picnic area was very large and nicely maintained. The picnic area is right next to the picnic area at site 58 (our neighbor) and only separated by a row of rocks. So if your neighbors are outside a lot and so are you then you will be having some new friends and a few parties! This was the only site we saw like this.
There is a shooting range, Rio Salado Sportsman’s Range, nearby so the sound of gunshots can be heard in the distance (or is that downtown Mesa, wink, wink). But you don’t hear it at night so you can sleep soundly.
All in all, if you need to be in Phoenix then this is a terrific campground setting with lots of hiking, close proximity to stores, and fabulous views.
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