Best Glamping near Wenden, AZ

I grew up in Arizona and had never been to Alamo Lake.  The lake is kind of in the middle of nowhere but what a hidden treasure. We camped there in March 2018.  It was on the warm side.  The area is best suited for camping October - March.  This is the desert people.  Or if you have a giant RV with air conditioning and cable television, you could go anytime.  Fish early in the morning and late at night. 

The campground is rather large with different areas for tent camping and hook-ups.  We stayed with an electric and water hook-up in a pop-up tent trailer.  There were lots of big rigs and toy haulers.  We definitely had toy envy with only our pop-up and kayaks.  This is a big ATV area so there were lots of ATVs riding around.  People also had speed boat and canoes.  The campground was not completely full even though it was Easter weekend.  It was also relatively quiet.  The bathrooms were sparkling clean and had nice showers with hot water.  There was also an AMAZING fish cleaning area at each campsite loop.  If you aren't really a campsite person, there is dispersed camping available by the shore but you need to drive down a dirt road through a tiny fork in the road "town" called Wayside.  There is a bar/restaurant/store/campground/gas station in Wayside.  The next town is about 30 miles away.

We found some great fishing which is unusual for Arizona.  We caught bass, bluegill and catfish.  We saw people catching a lot of fish.  They have bass fishing competitions at this lake and I can see why. 

The lake is surrounded by pretty red mountains. The sky is a beautiful blue.  I highly recommend the area.  Not too crowded, good fishing, nice clean campground.  What more could you want but maybe a nice cold beer!

Buckskin is another favorite if you don’t mind the heat but want to be within walking distance to the water. The river is extremely busy during the summer months. You can swim close to shore but can’t swim across the river as you’ll get ran over. Great beach areas to beach boats and play in the water for the kids. We stayed in 57 which was close to the dump station but wasn’t busy until Sunday at check out time. There is a dog park on site. Cell phone service is terrible. (Verizon). The resturant and store recently closed. As well as the gas station. We heard that on the California side there was a newer site opening and an arcade but never checked it out.

PROS: 

• Some sites are right on the Colorado river.
• Beautiful mountain ranges in the background.
• Full amenities at this park including showers and restrooms.
• Our site had a nice fire pit and grill, where you could simultaneously cook over coals while still having a nice fire going in the other area of the pit.
• This campground is near a lot of incredible hiking opportunities.

CONS:

• Our site was right underneath a bright lamp that shined into our tent and made it hard to sleep. We were at the site next to the walkway down to the river. Sites next to the bathrooms will also deal with night lamps.
• Tent sites are gravel, which isn't so bad except the whole are kind of slopes down to the river, making sleeping flat difficult.

Overall a well maintained and friendly park. Would come again.

I booked our first trip in our new rv to Emerald Cove for 4th of July. We were sent to the very last space far left at the edge of the campground. The furthest away from bathrooms, showers, store, snack bar, pool, beach, everything! The beachfront spaces were all occupied. But so was the walkways to the water! The spaces reserved as access for all campers to get to the water were filled with cars, tents, people, even though these were clearly marked as walk ways and no parking or any other was allowed. We couldn't even get to the water! Staff did not enforce fair access. Worse, the next camper close to us had a 4 seat razor. Since there was a few spaces between us that were vacant they decided to use the area as a raceway and drove their off road razor vehicle whipping around our camp kicking up dust, dirt and rocks that even flew into us hitting us. I first approached the other campers and asked them nicely to stop driving their OFV wicked fast around us that we were being struck by rocks. They didn't stop. I reached out to the staff who did nothing. We were so unsafe with the vehicle driving around us doing broadies, that we packed up and left within the first 24 hours. We had a 4 day reservation. I phoned the office to let them we had just left and why...they couldn't care less. We will never return here.

This is the main campground for CRA, Colorado River Adventures, membership campground. Well Over hundred gravel pull through sites. Think the only back in sites are the ones that back up to the Colorado River. There are two covered pools to hot tubs, a kids one foot deep splash pool. A bar with Cafe grilled with great food for breakfast, lunch and dinners. Kids clubhouse, playground, miniature golf. Nicely stocked Camp store. Boat launch ramp into ColoradoRiver. Full hookups. Down side was if your not in or on the Water it was hot. Was there last October for two nights and was very warm in hi 90's but this time was 115° to 120°