When it comes to activities at Patagonia Lake, camping is a must. The campground features 105 developed campsites with a picnic table, a fire ring/grill, and parking for two vehicles. Select sites also have a ramada. Sites have 20/30 amp and 50 amp voltage. Sites tend to fill up in the evening from May until November. Campsite lengths vary but most can accommodate any size RV. Quiet hours (no generators, music, or loud voices) are from 9 p.m. – 8 a.m. See Park Rules.

Patagonia Lake State Park Campground

We were here mid-week the end of May and the campground was almost full. There were lots of families with young children having a great time fishing and playing in the water. The Visitor Center is also child friendly. We were in a Class B in an RV site but there were lots of tent campers too. We enjoy the easy hiking paths around the park but have also brought a small boat on occasion. There is a nice place to launch a boat there and the lake is divided between places to take speed boats and a quiet place for those of us who like to troll peacefully.

A lovely drive to reach a lovely little campground

Campground was packed! Despite being crowded, it was quiet. Facilities are very clean and well maintained. Park rangers were driving through regularly, which was nice to see. Camp sites are well cared for. 

Excellent campground

Lovely blue water that makes an oasis of green around its edges with rolling hills. Various water activities (rentals on-site), swimming, and fishing are popular. Nice easy trails on site and many choices in other nearby state and federal lands. Great birding, check the migration schedules. Lots of neat wildlife including little lizards. Incredible stargazing. Find any hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant in the area for some of the best food of your life. 

There are a lot of camping options, from backcountry/primitive to RV hookup. Make a reservation if you can. Varying shade. Good basic amenities and very clean (like all AZ State Park sites I've visited). Not too crowded for camping but the day-use water areas can get pretty hectic. Overall a lovely site that's a nice lush change of pace from the AZ desert. 


Lush lake near Coronado National Forest & Sonoita Creek State Park 

Even when it's busy, it's not overwhelmingly so. Visit the beach, walk the bridge, rent a boat, or fish the lake during your camping trip. I love this place. Different ambiance than most AZ lakes. Plenty of RV parking or for tent campers preferring privacy, make sure to book a boat-in site. If you book early enough, you can snag site 38! It's technically a boat-in site but you can park in the parking lot and walk a short distance down the stairs to your own private little area. Of course, you'll have passersby looking for a great fishing spot or just walking the lake but otherwise this is your best bet for privacy without actually having a boat. Bathrooms and showers have always been clean during my trips. Convenient store always had necessities and ice cream cones to top it off. There is cell phone service but check your roaming! At times service providers will detect your in Mexico! I love this place.

Perfect Little Oasis  in the Southwest

Very nice

Patagonia Lake State Park  Has a great camping site spots with power and water in great views for really reasonably priced. They have a little sand beach that the kids can play on with showers to rinse off before you head back to your little camp.  Campsites are a couple minutes away from the mini sand beach.  There is fishing. The little Marina also rents kayaks and paddle boats and houseboats. A wonderful gram campground highly recommended for those who have children and pets. Dogs are required to be leashed at all times.

Patagonia lake state park, tent camping with kids

Very hard to get a reservation as this lake is very popular. Lake is smaller than you think, and most of it is a no-wake zone. They do rent boats st the small marina/store. Many sites are shaded and have a picnic table; some sites are built-in. Nice trails around. It is also on a major flyway so birding is good. 

Wonderful Getaway Close to Tucson

We visited for our first time for 3 nights and campground was full. Even so, we were surprised how quiet it was. Lots of day use spots if you want to picnic by the lake under trees. Camp sites are sparse (table &amp; fire pit) but we didn't feel as tightly packed as those areas down by the beach. Nice trail out to Sonoita Creek. Store was well stocked and husband even found shaving cream with razor there. Marina has canoes for rent ($35 for 2 hours, with specials for Vets on Mondays and Seniors on Wednesday); 2-person kayaks also for rent (same price); and pontoon boats and row boats (didn't get prices). I got a good 3-mile walk in every morning just walking around campground and out to Marina and day use areas. Also nice that lake has no wake zone near campground and boats can go faster on furthest away part of the lake. You definitely need to bring something to use on the lake or take advantage if marina rentals!

Quiet Campground Even When Full

This has been our least favorite campsite in the Arizona State Park system so far in our travels. We shortened our trip and headed home early because it just wasn’t for us. I’ve listed pros and cons below, but to give you an idea of our camping style, we are a family with young children and a dog. We head out in our 24ft trailer at least once a month for a long weekend totally immersed in nature. 

Pros: 
-Close to Tucson
-beautiful drive (topography and scenery) 
-although we didn’t partake due to covid there is a nature center &amp; gift shop, market, boat rentals, and a ranger stations
-primitive cabins with a great view 
-water and electric and on site dump station 
-bird viewing seemed awesome if that’s your thing. We aren’t birders, but thoroughly enjoyed the variety of birds in this area. 
-Junior Ranger program with fun prizes... posters and wooden badges. Although the rangers didn’t seem interested in engaging with the kids and just tossed them the prizes.

Cons:
-the campground was not clean at all. Dog poop was everywhere and litter was strewn all over the campground. Our site alone was full of bits of broken plastic, paper, dog poop, and cigarette buds. It was disheartening that neither the rangers nor the campers take pride in this campground. We did our best to leave our site much cleaner than we found it. 
-while the sites are more spacious than an RV park, they are not as spacious as nearby karchner or roper lake. There is not any privacy.
-many sites are not level. Our parking spot was level but nothing else. Leaving us without a great spot to put our chairs and table. 
-the traffic is non stop. Even up until midnight we had trucks driving through the campground. (This may have been campers or Border Patrol as we saw them driving through every couple of hours)
-there is a lot of day use foot traffic through the campground. Between that and full campsites, we didn’t particularly feel safe outside of our campsite in terms of covid. Very few were wearing masks in congested areas. 


With that being said, we will not be returning to this campground. 

Least favorite state park 

When we arrived I wish the park rangers would have been more Informative on where to park, boat ramps, FIREWOOD, things to help out people who have never been. We had a great campsite that we boated to and camped which we loved. Company wasn’t as friendly as expected people would come in and fish right at our campsite, we didn’t mind but just be prepared people are not as warm and inviting to a simple hello. I wish when we arrived that the site was cleaned up. Trash was over full the table was extremely dirty and the fire pit was filled with so much ash we had to shovel it out just to utilize the pit. I get it but dang we paid over $65 dollars to camp for a dirty site not my favorite but it was beautiful! 
It’s a busy lake so be sure to book ahead best of luck. Bring your own wood because you can’t collect wood at the sites which we found out. Oops. Also hope your prepared to have company we had a couple of cows and a bull at our site and scared the crap out of us and the dogs had a hard time sleeping. To be honest Mo (which I named our cow) made things interesting through the night. Great memories. 

Expensive site needs to be cleaned more often 

We camped in our Tellaro in space 18. It's a nice wide spot where we could easily fit a 2nd vehicle or a 5th wheel and truck. Due to Covid the bathrooms, water hookups and dump station were closed but they all looked like nice facilities. The camp spaces are nicely spaced out except for 2. #'s 35 &amp; 36 are attached so they would be good for 2 rigs traveling together. 14 looks like one of the best spots if you reserve it quick enough. Great place for empty nesters or families with kids as there is a nice beach and picnic area if you dont mind tons of people and kids, otherwise it was pretty crowded. The views are spectacular especially as the sun sets. This is a birders paradise with a scenic overlook and trails into the bird sanctuary.

Beautiful lake and trails, a bird watchers heaven.

Great Lake if you can hop on a kayak and get away from the day beach area. Weekends during the summer are crazy. It’s the only real lake in the whole area so it is what it is. We go 3/4 times a year.
Bird watching is amazing. Also can hike the trail and see some cows. 
Water and electric on sites plus fire pits. 
6/25/2020

Fun but dirty and noisy

Most sites have a lake view. Seems like Arizona takes good care of her parks. Lots to do in the area. 

Friendly with easy campsites and new showers   

Right next to the Mexican border. Gorgeous park with sites on the water. Park is clean, with exceptional restrooms. Boat rides are offered on the weekends. Birding walks on Friday and Monday mornings. We will definitely come again!

Beautiful Birding Park!

Friendly neighbors and very clean bathrooms and showers. Bring a small kayak with you. There are also picnic tables right on the water and hiking trails.

Nice & clean, quiet park

We stayed here once in March of 2020. Must have Spring Break - tons of families, tons of kids, dogs and a few old timers. There's a couple short hikes from the campground that were OK. Lots of birds, saw a couple javelinas. 

There's some boat rentals and a small visitor center/general store. We had water and electric at our site. Sites can be pretty close together with boundaries undefined. Shore of the lake difficult to get to in places because of thick vegetation. East CG is maybe a little less busy than the west.

Lots of places to explore nearby - Tubac, Madera Canyon, the Town of Patagonia, Ramsey Canyon near Sierra Vista, which is a good place to resupply and other more far flung places like Tombstone.

It was to have a lake by the campground which is a little unusual in Arizona. The land is different than the Sonoran desert of Tucson but still cool. We probably wouldn't go back unless it was offseason.

Very busy, lots of families with kids, good location for exploring the area

Good campground for fishermen and bird watchers. There is also some hiking available.

Pros - well maintained facilities but a little old. Hot showers and clean bathrooms. Camping next to the lake. The campground has a visitor center and camp store.

Cons - campsites are very close with limited privacy. 

Older Facilities

Great campground located on a lake. It's offers all the standard campground amenities. I do really like the birdwatching area outside the visitor center. There's also a small beach you can swim at.