Kartchner Caverns State Park Campground

Wonderful SP/CG just far enough off the highway and away from the caverns to be peaceful and quiet. I'm sure it is busy on weekends and holidays because of the caverns, But very private and relaxing mid-week in the spring.

This is a fine campground if you want to visit Kartchner Caverns. The cave tours are awesome, though we enjoyed the Rotunda/Throne Room tour more than the Big Room. Both are very well done, and the docents are very knowledgeable and enthusiastic about the cave.

The campground is very neat and clean. Restrooms with flush toilets and showers are always a plus, and the water and electric hookups were very handy. There are no fire rings, but we were allowed to use our portable fire pit so we still enjoyed a campfire. The sites are paved but some are more level than others. We had to use quite a few blocks. The spots are spaced out, but there is not much vegetation so privacy doesn't really exist here.

We hiked the foothills loop trail. Lots of sprawling land to see. That's about it. It was February so maybe it would be more interesting if wildflowers were blooming. Like I said, it's a nice campground if you're going to the caves, but there isn't too much else to see really close by.

The story of how Kartchner Caverns State Park came to be is as interesting as the caverns themselves. Be sure to watch the film in the visitor center. The cavern tours are expensive, but worth a one-time visit.

The campground offers level, paved sites with adequate spacing. The campground was less than half full during our visit, so we had plenty of privacy. Facilities were clean, and the campground hosts were welcoming. The visitor center is a short walk from the campground, as are nice hiking trails with beautiful views. Easy day trips to Tombstone and Bisbee can be made from Kartchner.

We stayed here early April 2016, in a 30 ft. Class A gas motorhome. No towed this trip but the RV sites are very large, room enough for your rig and towed or tow-er, and for tent campers you'll be relieved to see raised platforms on some sites (not all) to help keep your tent high and dry. We visited Kartchner Caverns three years ago for a cave tour only (Rotunda/Throne Room), walked the park, and determined to stay in the campground next cave tour trip, which is now. We love it here. Good spacing between most sites, very wheelchair accessible, dog friendly, strong water pressure at the water and electric sites (ours is 30 amp). Good views of the mountains. Dark, starry skies. ** NOTE **: Leveling - Bring extra jack pads and lego leveling blocks. The campground is built on a gently sloping hillside and some of the sites can present some leveling challenges from 2 to 4 inches of air under the front tires (motor homes). One MH near us had the front tires up almost a foot from the asphalt, but that's an extreme example. If you don't have leveling blocks, buy some. If you do, buy an extra set just in case. We got our coach level with one set of blocks and backing up to the cement parking barriers, but that put us in a place with the trees where we couldn't deploy the awning. That was not an issue due to our stay of 2 days/2 nights plus really great weather. We didn't need our awning. BATH/SHOWERS: Clean! Shower floor is dark brown tile with gray grout, but it looked clean to DW. Everything was clean. Water pressure with the water-conserving shower head was decent and so was the temperature at the Hot level. We love the Foothills Loop Trail. We will definitely stay here again. We give this 4 stars because the new (as of our visit) WiFi has "bugs" they're trying to work out. It works closest to the Discovery Center, but also in the campground. A state park ranger said users would have to log in again every 60 minutes. We used our Verizon MiFi (hotspot) with 2-3 bars LTE. However, we gently suggest taking a digital break in this amazing place for a few days and just soak it all in. You will be away from city amenities (about a 10-15 minute drive) and among nature, which is what we needed. To truly appreciate your stay here and what it took to open Kartchner Caverns State Park, read "Kartchner Caverns: How two cavers discovered and saved one of the wonders of the natural world" by Neil Miller. Reservations are recommended. We did meet one RVing couple who were "Walk-ins". AZ State Parks has plans to build a playground for children and donations are accepted at the Discovery Center.

To begin with the warnings from other reviewers about unlevel sites are serious. With all (3 packs) of our blocks we still were never level front to back. Side to side was not a problem though. The sites otherwise are nice and most have some shade from trees that are around them. Some have nice raised platforms which are good for tent campers. Be sure to pick a site though where the southern/western sun will not be beating down on you all day as the back in sites are only 30 amps and you’ll have to be careful about what is on if you want to use your a/c. Also, you will arrive at the gate and be greeted BUT you get your park pass from the campground host who will either be at their site or riding around on the scooter. They are very relaxed-if you have reservations it’s a question only of getting the tags, if not they will settle up with you when they see you.

Another point right away: if you plan to take the cave tour (the only way to see them) make reservations BUT if the reservation site says there are none don’t give up-ask at the Discovery Center. I had waited until the day before we arrived and the reservation site said there were no tickets available any of the 3 days we’d be there. After hiking the Foothills Loop trail we went to the Discovery Center and I mentioned that we were disappointed to miss the caves-Ha! They had spaces available on the next 4 tours. The tour is not cheap but if you want to learn a lot about caves be sure to take it. There are two-Big Room and Rotunda-we did the Big Room. If you have seen caves before these are not the most spectacular but the story of their discovery and the information presented by the guides make them worth seeing. If you have never seen a cave before or feel you might be scared these are a wonderful introduction. Dissimilar to may cave systems though, since these are in the side of a hill, the temperature is warm and humid. You wll not be allowed to take anything but your wallet and keys in with you though so don’t plan to do photos. The prohibition includes cell phones. Because the tours of these caves are quite relatively new the walkways are spacious and even, handrails are throughout and there is never a feeling of being cooped up.

Back to the campground. The bathrooms are clean, showers are OK but pressure was low-medium at best. A caveat-we were at the upper campground where the water pressure is very low. This includes the sites and we ended up putting water in the tank and turning on our pump so we had decent pressure. The lower campground supposedly has decent pressure in both the showers and the sites. The dump is on the way in/out and another well placed and spacious area.

Cell reception varied between the campgrounds just like the water pressure. Where we had a bare 2 bars of Verizon and ATT we heard the reception in the lower CG was OK. I believe the same is true for TV but since we don’t have one I cannot speak to that. Trash receptacles were at the bathrooms and clean with no smell. There is recycling- plastics (1&2 only) and aluminum cans) as well.

Once again, a pet friendly CG BUT watch for burrs and cactus. There is prickly pear cactus at some of the sites which is easy to avoid but when one is of the feline persuasion and enjoying the early morning bird sightings (on a tether) the cactus can get in the way. (He learned a valuable lesson.) The other things of which to be aware are SKUNKS. I did not see any but my husband did-right outside our door-and we were warned by the host that they are “all over” and come right to the sites. There are warnings about the other critters-including scorpions-but as always, leaving them alone, leaving rocks where they are and not sticking hands in holes will prevent the majority of run ins. If you have children it makes sense to teach a few safety rules if they don’t already know them.

The hiking here is quite nice and the Foothills Loop trail gives a nice view of the surrounding countryside along with some great chances to see various types of cactus. Take water as even the shortest hike is hot.

We did not get to the town of Benson so I am unsure about food shopping or laundromats.

Another great Arizona state park. It is somewhat remote, but that's a plus if you enjoy beautiful desert scenery, stargazing, hiking and simple relaxation. Easy access from I-10, nice site separation, spotless restrooms, excellent wifi and friendly camp hosts. When we arrived the camp hosts came over to introduce themselves and brought us maps and pamphlets with lots of information about the area. Wonderful service! Highly recommend tour of the caverns. They have some very unusual formations...cave bacon, cave turnips, and large columns. Also, recommend a trip to Chiricahua National Monument. It's 80 miles from the park, but was worth the drive. Very unique and amazing rock formations.

A good state park setup, they could have given each site a little more room however each site has picnic table, fire pit, electric hook ups and water. Apparently very busy in season so there probably could be more sites. The cavern tours are well done and quite educational, this may or may not suit everyone, we thoroughly enjoyed it but reservations are a must as they book up. The circle walk trail into the hills is worth the effort and it circumnavigates the cave you will tour.

Kartchner Caverns are simply amazing, words can't describe the beauty that awaits you underground. Park staff and volunteers are friendly and helpful. Sites are nice size, paved and ours was fairly level? Lots of songbirds. There was a bit of highway noise at night, not bothersome but count give it 5 stars. Park has great free wi-for.

The campground is a great way place to base yourself to see the area. Forget Tombstone unless you like tourist traps and instead check out all the National Monuments in the area.

**CAMPSITE REVIEW**

I'm noticing a lot of the reviews here are based on the caverns tour rather than the campground. I'm going to be reviewing the actual campground here! =)

Our spot was not level (#34) - as many other reviewers have stated. We had water and electric (30 amp only - so we had to use our adapter for 50 amps) and a nice dump station. The dumpsters were also very close to where we were - which was convenient. We found the camp hosts to be OK, we've had much nicer ones at other parks. Overall the park is pretty small, we love to take walks around campgrounds and must have done the loops there 50x a day because they were so quick. :)

The park has some beautiful views and great hikes with varying distances and difficulty levels. You can find a map of the hikes at the restroom. Speaking of the restroom, they were in great condition, clean and warm inside. They even have a large family bathroom that includes a toilet, sink and shower which came in perfect for getting our family showered and ready for bed when our tanks were about full.

They also have some new wooden cabins available to rent - which were really nice inside. They have a great little patio, too, but there is no furniture on the patio - so either bring a couple of extra chairs, or bring the couple that are inside out!

**Also** the webpage says that there is only a community fire - however that is incorrect. There are now nice, new firepits at each site - so bring firewood! It's also available to purchase from the camp hosts.

The park was nice, but nothing spectacular - I wouldn't necessarily choose to go back, there are better places to go in Southern Arizona.

Check out our video RV reviews and adventures here:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKmZqsaeydzPKNgZ3ilx_gA

Campground was pretty empty when we visited in December (we had snow both nights) so it was extremely quiet and peaceful. Spaces are not very private but each have plenty of room to spread out. There are several walking trails that begin right from the campground. Big highlight and reason to stay here is to explore the caverns which for us were worth a stop. We also spent a day exploring the wine country nearby in Elgin and Sonoita, AZ. Great wines! More day trip ideas in our blog post on this campground.