Arizona State Parks

ardenrj · 12-12-2005, 10:28 PM

Going to Az. in January from So. Cal.. We are planning to stay at Lost Dutchman State Park, Catalina State Park, and several other State Parks in the Tucson and Benson area. Has anyone stayed at Lost Dutchman State Park, if so what are your thoughts?

72 tradewind · 12-13-2005, 05:38 AM

Hi Ardenrj, We live in Tucson, although we have not been to the Lost Dutchman, We have been to the Catalina state park and Gilbert Ray (Pima county park very close to the Sonoran Desert Museum, The wildlife Museum and Saguaro National park west) they are both very nice although they do not have sewage but they do have dump stations. When you are in Tucson you must make the Holy Grail trek to Bisbee's Shady Dell trailer park and plan on lunch at Dot's Diner at the park. It is a senic 90 miles from Tucson. Email if you have any questions.

**azflycaster** · 12-13-2005, 06:07 AM

I have not stayed at the park, but it is located in a very senic location at the base of the Superstition Mountains. A must do thing is dinner at the mining camp restaurant. It's family style, all you can eat. http://www.miningcamprestaurant.com/about.html
Apache Junction is also the winter home of this forum's favorite pig!

grizzy · 12-13-2005, 09:57 AM

If you decide to extend your stay, another nice park in the same general area as Lost Dutchman is Usery Mountain Park. Its a Maricopa County park, but has a nice little campground with power and has some very nice desert hiking trails - they range from quite easy to medium hard.
http://www.maricopa.gov/parks/usery/

Another nice park between Phoenix and Tuscon which is good for anight or two is Picacho State Park. Again, some nice hiking trails and beautiful night skies.
http://www.pr.state.az.us/parkhtml/picacho.html

When your at Catalina State Park you might see some Roadrunners. While camping there once we saw around 30-40 at one time. They were hungary and appreciated the bits of cheese we gave them.

Uberlanders · 12-13-2005, 11:31 AM

My husband and I were in the Usery Mountain park last Christmas. It is spectacular. Its hard to believe that you are just minutes from town there. The mining camp dinner was worth the experience but I wouldn't call the food great.

The highlight was getting up early and hiking the 7 mile loop at sunrise. We wanted to watch the colors change as the sun rose through the desert. Amazing stuff.