Best Tent Camping near Phoenix, AZ

I've been trail riding in the Wickenburg area since I was a kid, and the rodeo grounds across the street from Constellation Park is a gathering site for just about everyone who heads out into the desert on their 4-legged transportation. On my most recent visit to Constellation Park, the park and rodeo grounds were empty, but this place fills up fast whenever there are events scheduled, and the sites are first come, first served with NO reservations system, so plan ahead!

There are 35 dry camp sites along a dirt road north of the rodeo grounds on Constellation Road in Wickenburg - they are primitive dry sites with no tents allowed - all camping must be self contained. Site fees are $8 per night, or $12 per night to have a horse corral included. Yes, I'm confused too - horses are ok, but tents are not? I'm not sure what the logic for self contained camping is for these sites, as they would make excellent car camping/tenting sites, but I'm not the one who makes the rules.

The park opens onto state and BLM land, which you can ride or backpack into with a permit -

https://land.az.gov/recreational-permit-portal

Wickenburg is already a relatively quiet town with not much traffic outside the US 60 / US 93 interchange for people traveling from Phoenix to Las Vegas, so it's nice and quiet up here. The road undulates up over small rises, so unless there's a late night at the rodeo arena, there are no lights to compete with the star gazing show either. Again, tent camping would make so much sense here. . .

I'd give the park 5 stars for the pretty desert views, quiet location and big skies if you were allowed to enjoy them outside of an RV. Oh well, we don't get everything we want, right?

I don’t know why they bother be so strict with noise from campers after 10:00. You can’t see it, but your 20 feet off the main road and if you are there on a weekend the road noise from the motorcycles and cars racing up and down the road to and from the bar will keep you up until 3:00 in the morning. If you manage to fall asleep finally by 3:00 and you are in a tent, be prepared to be woken up again at 4:30 when the boaters start launching their boats 5 feet from the tent area. I did not find the camp staff helpful, including the fact that we got there at 2:00 which is check in time and had to wait 30 minutes for someone to show up to open the gate. We had very little interaction other than that. Obviously the noise is not their fault, but if you are planning on tent camping there you need to be aware. It may be a good spot for RVs that have some insulation from the road noise and are further away from the boat docks, but if your tent camping, find other places. Note - no water available at all to tent sites. Not even a shared spigot. The bathrooms were not working while we were there. They did provide a temporary trailer for showers and toilet but it was poorly stocked and filthy the entire weekend.

We stayed two nights at site #4 at Lost Dutchman State Park in early May, in a campervan. The campground is very large with multiple different loops, some with large open RV sites and some more secluded, a mix of pull through and back in sites. We walked most of the campground, and if you don't need a large RV or trailer site I highly recommend the sites from 1-15, they had pretty good privacy for a desert campground. The campground loop we were in was fairly empty when we were there (mid week). The view was amazing! Site was large and level if you are tenting it, with a nice level parking pad. Bathrooms were a bit of a walk from our area, so take that into consideration. They were spotless and the showers were available at no extra cost, which was great! Site was wonderful for just lounging around and relaxing at. Potable water spout was just two sites over, a short walk. There were fire restrictions so propane stoves only, no campfires. We hiked the siphon draw trail up to the top of the flatiron, a very challenging and unique hike with a lot of rock scrambling. The trail leaves right from the campground which was perfect. The campground was very clean and quiet while we were there. I highly recommend Lost Dutchman to anyone looking for camping near Phoenix! We reserved ahead of time, campsites were $25 with the online fee.