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Originally Posted by mcaslaon4449
We do, however, like the amenities offered at most of these parks. We are asking our fellow Airstreamers for suggestions for RV parks in CA & AZ. Do you have a favorite you'd like to share? I'm sure there areas that are better then others, what are they? Are there places to stay away from? Maybe, Organ Pipe Cactus Nat'al Mon.? What are some of you favorite state parks in CA & AZ? Any help you can give us will be great appreciated. You've been there, we haven't, please share you experiences & opinions. Thank you very much!!
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We have spent most of the last three winters in Arizona and the San Diego area. We stayed at one RV resort, the rest at state/national/regional parks. The RV resort was Palm Creek in Casa Grande; very nice place but this isn't the experience we enjoy so we only stayed for one week. That said, although it's a relatively expensive place, they had a good introductory offer of $250 for a week and $550 for one month.
Arizona parks: Lost Dutchman, Catalina and Picacho peak state parks - all excellent. Usury Mountain Regional Park was superb if you like the Sonoran Desert (we also heard great reviews of McDowell Mountain RP). All get somewhat expensive at $30 per night and approach Palm Creek on a monthly basis. Dead Horse Ranch SP in Cottonwood was also excellent but probably on the cool side in January and February (we were there in March).
Note that early reservations are necessary for all parks located near Phoenix and Tucson. We reserved the state parks in May for January and February; the regional parks have a six month reservation window I believe and we reserved in August as I recall and Usury Mountain was already filling up.
You mentioned Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument as a place to stay away from. We have been there the last two years; 5 days in 2015 and 8 days this past winter. It has become one of our favourite parks and there is no worry about safety now (assuming you take a few precautions). The park area has been flooded with Border Patrol agents (about 500 are based in Nearby Why). Right now it's first come, first served but the park is considering making about half the sites reservable. Note the sites are dry camping only (no electricity) but there is a water fill and dump station. We get along fine with our solar panel and batteries otherwise you will need a generator.
The only place we have stayed in S. California is Santee Lakes Recreational Preserve just outside San Diego. It's one our favourite spots and we have stayed there for a month at a time for the past three years. It will be tough to get a spot on a monthly basis now as sites tend to reserve a year in advance (we reserved a spot for next winter in late March before we left). Daily rates are expensive, monthly less so. I recommend the premium sites at the back which I believe are now just under $900 per month plus electricity.
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