Best Tent Camping near Surprise, 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?

No tent camping. Self contained RVs only. Constellation park campground hosts horse events and rodeos that draw crowds from everywhere and of all ages. Campground is directly across the street from all horse and rodeo activities so this is very convenient if you are in the area for horsemanship.

Nice park just outside of Scottsdale. Fun mountain bike trails. Clean bathrooms. Quiet in late December. Only 5 or 6 tent campers here. $22 night for tent site. We parked in our van. Can use showers at RV camp area. Great spot.

The map shows McDowell twice but there is only one. It us about 23K acres of beautiful desert surrounded by the Superstition Mountains. Clean campground and pretty quiet. Flush toilets, showers available in the RV campground. Fun MTB, hiking trails. We camped here twice in December 2020 because we liked it so much.. tent camping is $22/night. Highly recommend.

Large campground with beautiful views from every campsite. Desert camping so there are no tall trees for shade and it can get windy. Sites with good privacy, full restrooms with free showers. Tent sites are not as nice as RV sites with full hookup. Lots of trails for mountain biking or hiking.

This campground in McDowell Regional park is for tent camping and small Vans, etc. Mix of both walk in sites and back in sites. It is set back a ways from the rest of the park. No showers here. Need to go to the trail head or RV campground for showers which was a bit of a hassle. Excellent mountain biking and hiking trails right out of the campground.

This park is quite large and has many camping options: day passes, tent camping, semi-developed sites, and fully-developed sites with awnings for big rigs.

There are many hiking trails too, for every level of difficulty.

The nature is splendid, with hummingbirds, chipmunks, and plenty of chollas and prickly pear cactai.

The ambience is quite festive, much more than what I am used to (although the noise may be due to the fact I went on NASCAR weekend).

A dozen or so free tent sites. Tables, fire rings, grills. Vault toilets. Campers under 20’ should be okay. Larger RVs should consider a spot back off seven springs road. Going too much further up the road isn’t a good idea for RVs.

Road in is pretty good. Some washboard. Most vehicles will make it. I’ve done it several times in a compact car.

Late fall to early spring is best.

Zero cell service.

Love this Saddle Mtn Campsite! The pin location is accurate but it looks there are multiple different access routes. We really enjoyed it here because you can pull up within 50-100 yards from Saddle mountain and camp right below it. So cool.

We tent camped for about 5 days here, the crowd was minimal, felt very safe. Plenty of trails to walk, can explore the mountain and there are petroglyphs here. We only found a couple, but didn’t look too hard.

Overall loved this place, easy access, safe, fun and some cool views!

Camped 5 nights at the desert tortoise campground in my NoBo travel trailer. Semi developed so no hook ups. Bathrooms were clean and the area was well kept. The spot includes a ramada with picnic table. There is also a fire ring pit w/ grill which you’ll need to bring firewood for. I fished off the shoreline which was only a few hundred feet from my spot. The spots are relatively close to each other and tent camping is also allowed. Water is clear and very nice. Wild donkeys from old miners back in the day still roam around. They are very accustomed to humans so won’t hesitate to steal food. Definitely something to watch pets around as well.

The river was beautiful! The camp spots were close to the river with nice big fire rings. Just like a lot of low desert camping in Arizona it’s dusty and dry with lots of prickly plans. But the trail and the trees near the river were lush. My biggest complaint about the spot was all the garbage everywhere. Come on people, burn your trash or take it home! There’s no need to trip over piles of water bottles & beer cans, cigarette butts, McDonald’s wrappers and plastic bags.

Excellent... Lots of room, flat, and just off a paved road. This is better than the wild camping we found up in Wickenburg. Yes, there are signs here that you need to have an Arizona Trust Land Permit, but you get it online for$16. If you need to dump and/or get fresh water Wickenburg is just miles up the road and the Fast Mart Chevron station has two stations for this, plus propane. We paid$15 to dump and the potable water fill up was included. Wickenburg is surprising and has all the services, grocery, etc... you would need.

This was one of my favorite free longterm camping spots of all time. Desert flowers were blooming while I was there in January/Feb. Nice enough scenery.

Lots of RVs around. I was able to find a spot by toilets for my tent and then move into a more private spot after an RV left.

Fairly busy. Serviced (BLM?), very clean. Feels safe. Next to air force base which is loud and pretty cool, and sheriffs training facility /shooting range which actually is better than a lot of other free Arizona spots because gunshots aren't going off all night and bullets whizzing by from responsible gun owners...

Was not hassled at all.

Dry toilets and garbages. But pack out. Garbage piles up. Many options for RV and tents and car campers. Seems they don't ask anyone to move or anything unless they have to.

There are several different RV/Camping options at Pleasant Harbor Marina / RV Resort. 

1. In the resort with Full Hookups

2. Out on the "flat" with just water and power (dump station on site)

3. Out on the "flat" with no hookups. (can also tent / car camp)

As compared to the Maricopa County Parks side, this has a little bit more party atmosphere, is less secluded, but you can almost always get at least a boondocking spot without a reservation. They also have large events here as well so check their calendar for the weekend you are wanting to go!

We keep a boat at Lake Pleasant and are part of the Arizona Yacht Club so we are up here all the time.

General: Very small (7-site) campground. One site is ADA-accessible and paved (the rest are gravel) but there are no hookups at any site. 

Site Quality: Generous-sized gravel driveways; Site D sloped uphill slightly. A concrete picnic table, BBQ grill, and fire pit complete the site. I was a little surprised that the picnic tables did not have shelters as it gets quite hot in Arizona (the day-use pavilions were covered). 

Restroom: Two-stall, one-sink restroom. No showers. This restroom is also used by the day-use area so by the end of the day, it looks like it has been well-used. It was cleaned at night. It looked like the sink was clogged, but it was just slow draining. 

Activities: Hiking! There are several hiking trails directly accessible from the campground and all the trails are well-marked. There is a short (.6 mile) ADA-accessible trail. Horseback riding and mountain biking are also activities although we saw neither in our two days at this park. There was also a wildly popular star-gazing event while we were there. 

Final thoughts: IMO, the best sites are B, C, and D. Site D especially has no visible neighbors on either side. Kudos to the city of Buckeye – they could have easily crammed a half-dozen more campsites in this area, but I am glad they did not! As I mentioned, this is a popular day-use area and by 7 am on a weekend in early April, the day-use parking lot was completely full. Despite this, we did not see too many people on the trails.

Awesome in spring or fall in a tent! Moonless night.

We stayed at the Willow Campground for two nights while visiting family and friends in the Surprise area. Hiked the Waterfall and Black Loop Trail for a little exercise as well. Didn’t do any others as our dog had an encounter with a stray cholla ball. This would be the only concern for those traveling with pets. There are quite a few lose even along trails. Other than that the facilities are clean and well kept. Fresh water and showers are available.

Very short drive from civilization. Semi developed sites are a good way to break someone in to tent/car camping. Full restrooms and showers nearby. Usually clean.

You can even hit one of the restaurants at the lake.

Primitive camping on the shoreline is cool and still not too far from facilities.

We arrived late at night to a site full of off roading vehicles and other ATVs. Obviously a meet.

The ground is very compact and straight dirt, multiple rvs had generators running so the night was loud. We ended up leaving.

I'm sure its a sweet spot for off roading and to rv camp but not so much for tents.