“Outdoors & Recreation in Tucson, AZ”
Next time you need a break in your busy life consider cool weather camping at Tucson Mountain Park's beautiful Gilbert Ray Campground, located on the west side of the Tucson Mountains, a convenient 13 miles from Tucson. RV campers should access the park by way of Ajo Highway to Kinney Road and follow the signs to the campground. The campground has 130 RV sites with individual 30-amp electrical hook-ups. The campground has 5 sites that are designated tent only, however tenters are welcome to camp in an RV site but are asked not to use the electrical hook-ups. It has centrally located water, picnic tables, modern restrooms, and an RV dumping station. Shower facilities are not available.
Reviews of Gilbert Ray Campground
156 people have reviewed this location
Ratings Summary
Cell Coverage
Verizon 4G/5G
Confirmed by 86 users | Last reported on April 23, 2024AT&T 4G/5G
Confirmed by 43 users | Last reported on March 18, 2024T-Mobile 4G/5G
Confirmed by 17 users | Last reported on November 07, 2023Quiet, clean, a winner! I've stayed at this campground three times now. It's always such a pleasure to stay here. The bathrooms are clean, the people are nice, and the sites are well-spaced. Even managed to get a 23 mile bike ride through the desert today. Will definitely stay here again.
Gilbert Ray is a quiet, clean and well located campground for exploring Saguaro National Park and Tucson in general. We were in space #38 and it was perfect for our 25’ View and MINI road. The camp staff and hosts are very friendly. Cell reception was very good too.
Beautiful quiet campsite! Clean, spacious, and private sites, with clean bathrooms. I came in early July so it was self registration but the site was nearly empty at 5 when I arrived. Many campers arrived later in the evening. Gorgeous landscaping and desert views.
The campground was spacious, level, had power at each site as well as many water spigots throughout the loops and a dump site. Love all the cactus!
We stayed here to be close to the Sonoran Desert Museum and Saguaro National Park. There are lots of hiking trails nearby, although Sam tried a mtn bike ride along one of the trails that leads from the campground and found them not marked and pretty technical.
If you are looking to be close to Tucscon, this is not ideal, but its definitely peaceful!
Nightly Rate: $20.00
Days Stayed: 3
Site Number: 11
Cell Coverage Rating
Verizon 4G
While boon-docking often gives one the feeling of freedom and a certain satisfaction in knowing that we are benefitting directly from our own tax dollars, paying to camp at county and state campgrounds provides a feeling of giving back and preserving land that is important for all. At $20 per night Gilbert Rey campground provides ample places to fill your water tank, two modern dump stations and a 30 amp connection which allowed us to cook a casserole in the convection oven. We’d camped here before and were only able to get a smaller site that was pretty out of level. This time, knowing that the sites are first come, first serve, we left the commercial campground early and drove to Gilbert Rey. We got there by 10 am drove around the loops, picked a site and the nice folks there let us park early. One upside to this park is that you can stay in the site for up to seven days as long as you pay each morning by 11am. You can also pay up front with no refund. After leaving for a week you can go back. Another worthwhile tip is, if you plan on meeting friends, as we did, they allowed us to pick and pay for their site as well. When they got there they had the option of keeping that site or switching to another available one. One last tip – The campground is down the street from the amazing Sonoran Desert Museum. Depending on how much time you plan to be there it may be worth becoming a member. The morning are less crowded and members get free hot/cold coffee and ice tea.
Nightly Rate: $20.00
Days Stayed: 5
Site Number: 63
Cell Coverage Rating
Verizon 4G
The saguaros are the champions here, clearly. They've earned naming rights to the national park after all.
But everything between them pills the puzzle together to fruition. I won't give away the ending of your own adventure to explore this area, but I will say that from the pinholes poked through the sky cavalcade of stars to the tiniest flowering cactus tucked into some rattlesnake charmer of a shady rock enclave, this place is beauty non-stop and unusual.
From our campsite we sit and watch, study, the constellations. Morning comes easily early as the sun rises over Tucson Mountain and miles of hiking is minutes away, or a bike ride trough the campground itself is right outside of your door.
We arrived early, fearful of missing out on the first come first served spots. It was unnecessary. While the woman working the cash register said February and March were busier than usual, it's now April and aside from a few fellow campers in other loops or sites and sites away, we had the place to ourselves. From our spot we could fill water jugs and replenish our coffers with little more effort than the average suburbanite takes to retrieve his mail from the curb.
Though I tried to never leave the cactus forest, when a grocery store run or gas fillip was necessary, it was nice to have the amenities of a big city so close.
Coyotes howled the early night away, owls played the late show. Traffic could be heard in the distance, but overall it was peace and perfection night after night.
If I weren't already in a pretty serious relationship with the mother of my children, I would marry this desert and never leave.
Alas, she'll be but my mistress for the next few weeks as we explore various other state parks nearby, though I can't imagine any will live up to Gilbert Ray's splendor.
Nightly Rate: $20.00
Days Stayed: 3
Site Number: B9
Cell Coverage Rating
AT&T 4G
We loved it as others have. What can we add? We attended an excellent ranger talk (Bob) at the NP that was an excellent primer on the flora and fauna of the area. We also attended a "binoculars" tour of the night sky sponsored by Mt. Kit observatory (but held at Saguaro NP). When you are picking your site, consider one that faces west for the fabulous sunsets. Watch out for the little ball shaped cactus spikes - if you step on one, best removed with a comb (or other - not your bare hand!)
Nightly Rate: $20.00
Days Stayed: 4
Site Number: -
Gilbert Ray Campground is conveniently located on the west side of the Tucson Mountains.
The girl in the office was very accommodating when we arrived. She assigned us a spot and mentioned that it wouldn't be a problem if we wanted to move. We then drove around the loops, picked a new spot, went back to the office and she cheerily reassigned us.
The grounds are naturally landscaped with saguaro and cholla cactus, so we kept our dog on the paved roads to avoid getting prickers in paws.
Sites are somewhat close together; one night we could hear our neighbor's television.
Verizon - DOWNLOAD: 10.21Mb/s, UPLOAD: 1.88Mb/s
AT&T - DOWNLOAD: 6.54Mb/s, UPLOAD: 2.36Mb/s
Nightly Rate: $20.00
Days Stayed: 7
Site Number: A43
Cell Coverage Rating
Verizon 4G
AT&T 4G
Enter the campground office and hold back from giving the host hugs and gifts, she's that friendly. Chat while she fills out your tag and tells you not to forget to hang it properly (and you won't because you'd never disappoint her). Go to your campsite and get out your camera, take a thousand pics. Then put on your hiking boots and climb Brown Mountain (6.2 miles round trip if you walk from A59). Don't even look at cholla cactus or they will attack you. Bring tweezers in case. And pliers. Come back, get your mountain bike out and ride from the grounds over to Starr Pass trails and just try to be unhappy. Then when you are thoroughly exhausted peruse the campground and find all the cool kids (you'll know by their rigs) and drink their bourbon, tequila, beer, or whatever else they are offering. They may even feed you. Enjoy fantastic company. Exchange social media info. Go to bed ridiculously content. Wake the next morning early and watch the sun rise over the sonoran desert. Walk to Old Tucson or bike to the Desert Museum. Head down to the city for lunch at Martin's Comida Chingona and then have dinner and beer at Reilly Craft Pizza and Drink (google it). If you are still able to drive you can go over the Barrio and drink their beer. Get a cab back to the campground. Stay for the entire 7 day limit and do a variation of the above each day.
Nightly Rate: $20.00
Days Stayed: 7
Site Number: A59
Cell Coverage Rating
Verizon 4G
While I would love to give a glowing review the site which we were in was extremely small. Our 30ft Airstream barely fit and with the truck parked next to it you had to get out into cacti on the passenger side.
The sites are first come first serve of course but I was assured that this would be plenty of room for us when the lady assigned us.
Now understand there are larger sites and such so it will be hit or miss as to how well you do when coming here.
There is water available for fill up around the campground and also 2 dump stations and fresh water fill available there as well.
Verizon coverage is great.
If you are planning on going to Saguaro National Park this is a great campground for that!
Nightly Rate: $20.00
Days Stayed: 3
Site Number: 74A
Cell Coverage Rating
Verizon 4G
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Gilbert Ray Campground
Hours
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Parking
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Pets Allowed
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Restrooms
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Wifi
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Wheelchair Accessible
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Credit Cards Accepted
- Affiliation
- Other public land (TVA, DOD, county parks with campgrounds)
- Back In RV Sites Count
- 15
- Last Nightly Rate
- 30.0
- Longest Vehicle Length Reported
- 40.0
- Lowest Nightly Rate
- 10.0
- Max Stay
- 7
- Sites Count
- 130
- Standard Tent Sites Count
- 15
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Paved Sites
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Fifty Amp
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Full Hookup
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Rec Facilities
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Pull Through
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Tent Sites
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Dump Station
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Big Rigs
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Open Seasonally
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Age Restricted
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Back In RV Sites
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Boondock
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Cabin Sites
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Dispersed Sites
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Firewood
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Fulltime Residents
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Group Tent Sites
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Laundry
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Mobile Homes
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Permit Required
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Potable Water
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Propane
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Public Water
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Pull Through RV Sites
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Reservations
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Sewer Hookup
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Showers
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Sites
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Standard Tent Sites
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Vehicle Wash Permitted
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Water Hookup
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Adult Only
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