McDowell Mountain Regional Park

This One Deserves 6 Stars

Wow. We had this park recommended to us by friends, and even seeing their pictures didn't prepare us for how gorgeous this park is. What a gem!

The park is very well laid out, with lots of room around each site. Even if they shrunk the park in half and doubled the number of spots, it would still be spacious.

And the views?? You're surrounded by classic Arizona desert, mountains and cacti. The coyotes howl all night long (be careful with your pets!). The sunsets are amazing.

There are several hiking trails throughout the park - many of them multi-use for mountain biking and horses.

All sites have water and 50/30 amp hook-ups, and each is immaculately maintained. We could not have been more impressed.

Due to its distance from Phoenix, Mesa, Tempe and other metro areas - it's not an ideal basecamp unless you don't mind the 30-45 mile drive into town. But what a delightful experience not too far from town!

To top it off, we had a solid Verizon LTE signal and 4G AT&T signal.

Routing tip: Make sure your GPS is aimed for the campground itself, many will route you to a dead end road in Fountain Hills that is just one of the borders of the park. You should be routing up McDowell Mountain Rd on the east border of the park.

* note - while we were there, they had signs up that the nightly fee will soon be increasing to $30. The nightly fee below down not include the $8 reservation fee.