Best Dog-Friendly Camping near Saguaro National Park

Just northwest of Tucson is this beautiful county campground, located a few miles from Saguaro National Park and the awesome Arizona-Sonoran Desert Museum (a must see). Hiking and mountain biking trails are all over the area, with the Brown Mountain hike being our favorite as it’s accessible from the campground and has great views all around.  

Each site is equipped with electric hookups and there are water spigots throughout the campground, in addition to running water in the clean bathrooms (no showers though) and a nice dishwashing sink.  The picnic tables ranged from normal-sized to very small and awkward, depending on the site. There is decent privacy in between most sites, as it is beautifully landscaped with native desert cacti, shrubs, and trees.  

It’s important to note that this campground doesn’t take reservations, but if you show up by 8am and get in line, you will more than likely get a spot.  You can continue to add nights to your stay before 10am each morning, for up to 7 days total. They also don’t take credit cards, so come prepared with cash or a check.

We stayed here in January 2021 during our visit to Saguaro National Park due to previous good reviews. Classic BLM-style camping, meaning no amenities, dispersed, and pack out all waste.

This campground’s name is quite apt; it is indeed a cactus forest, and a beautiful one at that. However, watch where you step AND where you drive!!!! Some places are hairier than others, but we were very careful for our own safety and for the livelihood of the Saguaros, as young ones are quite tiny and need to be protected. We were traveling with our cat, and we usually let him walk around campsites with us, but decided it was not worth the risk at this campground. I would avise against dogs roaming here as well.

This is a great campground if you are just looking to get away for the weekend or want a quaint, quiet campground amongst incredible Saguaros. However, I personally prefer the BLM Pipeline campground to this one, as it’s more spread out, has less opportunity for cactus stepping, and has a much better proximity to Saguaro NP (especially the East park/Tucson Mountain Park).

We stayed here when the pandemic shutdowns started. Was a great place to stay put. Walking distance to two grocery stores, fresh filtered water and an ice station across the street, a very small pool to cool off in, close to downtown, and close to the west side of Saguaro National Park.

Downside is that it’s basically a parking lot with no grass (we have 2 dogs) but there’s a big grassy park less than 2 blocks away. It is gated which is nice!

Nancy was a great camp host and took necessary precautions during this time. We’ve actually not met in person because of social distancing and still was very attentive.

We arrived on a Wednesday afternoon in late February and were pleasantly surprised to find this first come, first serve campground nearly empty. We drove toward the back of the campground to explore open sites and selected walk up site 23. Perched away from the road and surrounding campsites with a beautiful view of the surrounding mountainside. Equipped with a large bear locker, table, fire ring, lantern post and flat open space to pitch our tent. 

Conveniently located a short walk to the restroom, which was very clean. 

On our first night we walked down to the empty group site to pick up part of the Arizona Trail for a quick hike before dinner.

This campground is a great base location to explore. One morning we did the Sky Island Scenic Byway to the top of Mt. Lemmon and visited the cute little general store to grab souvenir stickers for the kids.  In the afternoon we drove the 30 minutes to Saguaro National Park East which was the highlight of this trip.

Tucson Mountain Park offers an amazing opportunity to camp among the saguaros, just outside of the west side of Saguaro National Park. The actual park doesn’t offer developed camping, so this is the best option for exploring the area.

Benefits of Tucson Mountain Park include its cost ($10/night for a tent), proximity to the park (less than 10 minutes), and scenery (saguaros everywhere!). The only downside is that during peak season, the park fills up. Luckily, when we visited in February, there were still a few sites left available for our tent.

Our biggest reason for visiting the area was to see Saguaro National Park, and camping here offered easy access to the park. We loved the west-side scenic loop drive at sunset, hiking in the east district, and attending as many ranger programs as we could to get a better understanding of these desert giants. We also spent one night backpacking in the eastern district, which was an incredible way to dive in deeper to see the desert ecosystem up close.

You can read much more about our four days in the park on our blog: Switchback Kids (Saguaro)

We stayed 2 nights at Catalina State Park in early May. We were in site B48 - this site was at the edge of the loop so it was nice and fairly private - but there was very little shade. I probably wouldn't pick that site again in the warmer months! There were a lot of other sites that had some trees around them and seemed much shadier. Campground was very clean. Bathrooms were spotless with giant free showers, which was awesome. The bathrooms were a pretty long walk from our site (there is only one bathroom facility for that loop). There are some trails in the park. We saw (and heard) coyote, prairie dogs, and a rattlesnake eating a prairie dog along a trail right behind our campground loop! We explored nearby Tuscon (interesting town with really cool murals and a great craft beer scene) and Saguaro National Park (about 30-45 minutes away). The park is very quiet and peaceful, yet very close to stores and a main road if you need anything. The campsite we were in had full hookups for electricity and water (we were in a campervan and didn't need them but it was nice to have access to).