Cattail Cove State Park Campground

We stumbled onto this lovely state park campground on Christmas Eve, with no reservations (as usual) and found more than just a lovely campsite, but a whole community of campers. Each year this small park hosts a thriving Christmas potluck which is managed by their long term volunteer camp host couple. Many families plan their year around getting a reservation to be at this place on Christmas day!  We were simply blown away by the community, camaraderie, and fellowship we found here. 

We even tried out our first run at making homemade tamales – turned out pretty good.

Now the sites are what you might expect to see, slightly less than spacious lots with a bit of  elbow room in between your neighbors. All sites are electrical and water serviced, so no need to have generators running into the wee hours. With lots of well cared for cottonwood trees, the sites offer lots of shade and space to enjoy your area. 

The bathrooms have flush toilets with warm showers, and while a little dated, they were clean and did the job.  Nice dishwashing sink (wish more parks had these!) and picnic tables all over the place.  I think we ate nearly every meal down by the water.

The lake shore offers a good boat launch with a massive trailer parking area, and a small swimming area as well. You can rent kayaks and paddle boards from the park to enjoy the water, just be aware of the way the wind is blowing -- it can get fierce quickly! There is a beach volleyball court at the water's edge and hiking trails leave directly from the park and wind along the lakeshore and into the desert landscape. 

Lake Havasu city is about 15 minutes up the road, and there you can find everything you might need in terms of services and supplies. Check out the world famous London Bridge while you’re there.

We had to make the miles, so we arrived late after dark and left fairly early the next morning, so we were not able to fully appreciate this campground, located right on the Colorado River. We are glad we made a reservation, however, as the campground was full (Easter night).

Site Quality: We were in one of the three “premium” sites. Site 4 has no neighbors on one side and direct beach access from the rear of the site. A large picnic table and fire pit are at each site. All sites are paved and level and most can fit an RV or car/boat. The sites in the middle do not have much privacy and are separated by a chalk line in the sand. 

Bath/Shower house: Several are located throughout the campground. Clean. Didn’t use the shower so cannot comment on that. 

Activities/Amenities: All expected river activities, including swimming, boating, and fishing (many brought all the toys). Beach volleyball, sandy beach. Kayak and SUP rentals are available. ADA-accessible path. Nice amphitheater. Fish cleaning station and desert plant garden. A labyrinth, something we have never encountered in a campground. 

Even though we don’t have a boat or fish, I wish we had more time to relax on the beach and enjoy this campground, but I would choose one of the premium sites for more privacy.

This park is maintained VERY well and is super clean! You do have to contend with some boaters coming and going, but it’s not bad at all. Beach and swimming area are clean.

Good location and nice beach. However the site was more of an RV site, and not much privacy. All sites are $30 which is a bit expensive in my opinion Nice clean restrooms with showers though!

Great views and camping

Got to this campground because lake havasu was full. It’s about 20 minutes from Lake Havasu city and I liked how it’s not so crowded compared to there. There’s a nice beach area and bathrooms/showers were clean!

After driving through Havasu City this was a welcome oasis from the traffic and strip malls. The campground is on a slope so bring your leveling skills. The trees here are well established & provide lots of natural shade. There are even citrus trees with fruit that is almost ready to pick. Restrooms/showers are clean. Campsites are raked after every camper vacates. Our campsite was on the inside of the loop so we had neighbors behind us and on both sides.

This is a great location for kayaking. We put in from the boat launch and paddled up the shoreline and across to California. You are also within 15 to 20 minutes of Bill Williams Wildlife Refuge for kayaking and River Island SP & Buckskin Mountain SP for hiking.

Only two things bothered me during our 2 week stay and that was the dogs barking and the exterior lights left on the RVs all night. Seems like a dark sky policy would solve that problem.

Just another beautiful AZ state park. We will definitely return.

Nice campground off the Colorado river. Had fun fishing and exploring the Lake Havasu area.

Loved the filtered water for filling our water containers, easily accessible dumps, dog beach, cleanliness and quietness of the campsite. Quietness of the campsite is really important for us as our dogs our sensitive to noise and bark whenever they hear something. Only downfall was the campsite was too small for my liking.

Sites are really close to each other and we went when it was too hot! Our fault so definitely wouldn’t recommend in a tent. It was still in the 90’s at night and a storm came through so that helped provide some relief. Bathrooms and showers feel like a sauna but still feels good to clean up even if the water doesn’t really get cold in the summer. Gravel spots but nice views of the lake and surrounding area!

We have camped at Cattail Cove just South of Havasu City in Arizona a couple of times.  We love the white sandy beach and clear water.  Campsites and bathrooms are clean.  We rented the sites near the beach and enjoyed walking the beach under the stars and going kayaking during the day.

We stayed just one night at this very nice lakeside campground. Temps were triple digits, so the lake was a great way to cool off. Sites had water and electric. They were fairly close together, but had a picnic table a small tree, and ours was a pull-through. The camp store had ice and very friendly and courteous staff.

This is another Arizona state park on Lake Havasu. About 20 miles south of Havasu City. Electric & water, dump site. Cellular is not as good here as Lake Havasu State Park, and I am an AT&T user, 2 bars.... The trees in this park are specimens, and are labeled on a ground stake. They were interesting. The beach area is sand & there are water devices to rent if your into that. I found this park more noisy than some other parks in the area. There is a boat ramp, so there are people launching boats all day.

We woke up to birds that sounded like nothing I’ve ever heard. Pretty sure the one we called the alarm bird was a myna or some other starling because it sounded exactly like someone’s alarm clock followed by a chirp!

Easy access to the lake, a few miles of trails, very clean bath houses. But the sites back right up to each other so no way to avoid hearing your neighbors noises. STS.

To avoid this, recommend site 53 or 52. They look ideal.

The Cattail Cove Campgrounds are perfect for a beginners camp site. The campsites are flat and easy to back in your car and set up your tent. The table on site is big enough to sit 6 people. There is water on site and a fire ring. The staff was very helpful and the gift shop has ice, firewood, ice cream bars, and small essentials for sale. The reason for the 4, is due to the dog beach being a small rocky area and the water wasn’t as clean.

Lake side with power water and dump station. Nice beach large sites. Lake side trails for hiking

I love this park because it is small and less crowded than most.  If you have a boat there is plenty of room for you to ski or whatever you want without being in the main part of the lake.  The spots have enough space, some do not have trees, most are big enough to support a nice sized rig.  The only downside is if you have a dog, they are only allowed on a small part of the beach right by the boat launch.  They are not allowed at the regular beach even on a leash.  They keep the park and the restrooms up and do patrol quite a bit.

Beautiful state park! Beach. Birds. Owls. Shade trees. Very quiet and serene! Five 🌟

Lake Havasu is beautiful. This campground has amazing hiking trails that take you around the park and give spectacular views of the lake. The beach is nice, the sites are large. We will be back!

Cattail cove was another Havasu Campground my family frequented from 1984 to 2000 It has awesome memories of hiking along the red rocks and lake, following wild Ram through the mountainsides and finding great cliff-jumping spots into the refreshing waters in summer heats. It DOES get very hot here in the summer, so be prepared. I have been during a record 132-degree days. You stay in the water and dont get out under some shade!

Excellent swimming areas. Good docks for your boats- but make sure you have some good bouis so you dont get any damage. The restaurant / bar used to be really good. In 2012 we visited it and it was not great... but we didnt get sick. Functional store. Gas available for your boat or vehicle. Clean nice bathrooms. OK Campgrounds... clean, more-so meant for motorhomes however some pretty good tent sites in the valley area.
At night bring out your black light and look for scorpions. You'd never even know they were there if you were enjoying the night sky on the jetty. Awesome wildlife and nature. While wild burros / donkeys are more predominant on the California side of the lake you'd still be likely to see some. Skunks. Bats. Owls. Hawks. Rams, snakes (rattlers, king snakes, gophers and more though the campground maintenance is pretty good about keeping it safe). Great large mouth bass fishing, catfish and other species, crawdads, and other fun finds. I used to enjoy skin diving near the cliffs there and in coves.

Great way to afford enjoying Lake Havasu. Note this is an Arizona State Park so daily vehicle rates do apply if just visiting and/or camping. Located on the east side of Lake Havasu side in Arizona state border. California to the west separated by the Colorado River/Lake Havasu. Lake Havasu City is 19 miles away and the Parker strip is 8 miles away (Lake Havasu separated by the Parker Dam). Remember you're camping in a hot, dry desert climate and limited shade as only palm trees and small shrubs. Campground has showers and restrooms as well as RV dump station. If you're looking for a place to enjoy Lake Havasu, lounging in the water or boating, highly recommend Cattail Cove State Park. A little more remote than right in the city.

This place is great for water ports but would not come here in the summer because of the heat. I did get sunburn so please bring sunblock. I did go on a night hike which was kind of scary but great. There is a lot of switch back trails. The sunset here was unbelievable and would stay here for more than a few days if possible.

Cattail Cove State Park is a nice park with about 60 spaces. They are laid out nicely so you don’t feel like you’re on top of one another. The park is 90% dirt and gravel so bring shoes to wear around your site. Now I do NOT recommend going in June, July or August unless you have a boat and plan to be out all day long. Our trip they said hit record temps that day…June 118 degrees. It was so freaking hot it was unreal! I didn’t get to see the people beach as I have dogs (another HUGE positive for me is dogs are very much allowed) and do have their own “beach.” Now it’s a very very tiny beach right off the boat dock but I’m not complaining when my babies got to go swimming! The water’s edge, at least at the dog beach, is all rocks so I would totally suggest river shoes. I have to get HUGE props to both Ranger Keith and the park host Gary. We had an issue with our pop up camper and they both helped us for over an hour, in the 118 degree heat, to get it fixed! They went so far above and beyond what they had to do I was impress. They are the reason we will be back…a nice campground and even nicer rangers tops it all!! But it won’t be in the summer months ; )