Kartchner Caverns State Park Camping — Kartchner Caverns State Park

Stayed one night will return to explore more. Clean restrooms, nice showers, friendly camp hosts.

We stayed here for 5 nights at the end of March, 2023. The campground has paved roads, showers, dump station, water & electric hookups and the usual campsite set-up.

Three trails are located within the park. The campground itself is large, sites somewhat spaced apart and the grounds have a lot of stubby trees which were leafless when we were there.

A large visitor center is near the park entrance and the cavern is up the hill behind the center. We reserved and did the Rotunda/Throne Tour. It was very cool and our 1st cave tour. I would suggest reading the rules for tours before reserving. Access to the cavern is very controlled as far as how you get in and what you can take. There's quite a story about how this park came into being.

The location of the park allows quick access to the I-10 and the town of Benson, about 12 miles away. Other interesting sights are within an hour or so of the park.

The camp sites are large, offer electric and water. You dump your gray and black at a location just outside of the camp area for free. Lightly shaded. There are picnic benches and fire pits at each site. You can easily walk to the cavern discovery center. There is ample area for little ones to ride bikes or play. Pretty views of the surrounding hills. There are clean restrooms. The stars at night are beautiful!

This is an excellent well-maintained state park worthy of the high price for a simple asphalt pad. Here sites are very close together. Highway noise continues well into the night. The groundskeepers also add noise to the general noise pollution to keep the pristine garden like appearance of this high desert area looking immaculate. My preference would actually be for something a little more natural. Give me a national forest service logging road any day. Thanks bye

Each site is really big and everything is clean and well maintained. Nearly all sites have electrical and water with a dump station located near the entrance. Each site has a table and fire pit as well as shade from trees. The park hosts the caverns and cave tours and a museum about the area. We are headed on a cave tour today! Nice trails surround the park and clearly marked for either hiking, bike or equestrian.

Set in the foothills of the Whetstone Mountains and located next to the amazing Karchner Caverns.

All pull through sites have 20, 30 and 50 amp service and water. Back in spots have 20/30 amp and water. Free dump station.

Sites are all paved and have plenty of room. Set in a mesquite grove and spaced well apart.

Generally quite, 830pm light discipline makes for a pleasant night sky viewing. Easy hiking near by. Large clean spaces and with RV slot.

Everything about this campground was great!  Lots of mesquite trees and prickly pears and birds.  Campground hosts were friendly and helpful.  The bathrooms and showers were clean and had plenty of hot water.  There are easy trails and more difficult trails for hiking.  

The caverns are definitely worth the tour and the nature center has some interesting exhibits.

Camp host was friendly and helpful. Bathrooms were clean and worked well. Nice that the trailheads are just a few min walk from the campgrounds. The foothills loop is easy and takes you all around the area without being too challenging. Incredible stargazing experience- no lights after 8pm I believe and Kartchner Caverns State Park is a designated dark sky park by the International Dark Sky Association. Glad to live only an hour away from this Arizona State Park.

Super clean, sites are spacious and all with outstanding views. Very impressed with this park. The park does not allow you to come early to check in and that’s because they clean the sites, rack the gravel and make sure everything is pristine for your stay. Everything was outstanding. The showers were clean, the water was good and electric was stable. Each site had a fire pit and picnic table.

As others have said, it’s a dart sky park so the stars are popping out of the sky.

There are bumper outs hikes to enjoy the scenery. All levels of exertion. I highly recommend this gem of a park.

I love a campground that has hiking trails right there! The campgrounds wonderful… Showers are awesome. You just have to do the tour of the keys. It is a great spot you will not regret stopping here.

Stayed here in November of 2021 in a pop up camper. All the sites were full during my stay. Bathrooms and sites were all well taken care of. Camp hosts were very friendly but not intrusive. Fire wood was also available for sale. Definitely check out the caverns, you won’t be disappointed. You do need to purchase tickets ahead of time. There is plenty of hiking in the area too!

Hiked the 4.1 mile trail with 4 and 2 year old. It was a 3 hour adventure that felt like 5 different bikes bc of all the different landscapes the trail takes you through. Truly one of best hikes I’ve ever done. Only negatives of campsite were the shower water pressure and the unlevel site we had.

The campgrounds are clean and well kept, host is friendly. The bathrooms are spotless. Great place to stay for a while. Great hikes, don’t miss the cave tour. We were impressed!

We have been to the caverns several years ago did not know about the campground.  The camp sites are spready well apart which is nice, they are all paved and well set up and maintained.  The facilities were all great.  The hiking trails in the park were awesome providing adventures and scenery for all levels.  We used the park as a base while we toured the caverns and hiked in the park as well as to visit other nearby sites such as Sierra Vista, Bisbee, Tombstone and Benson.

Very nice Campground with full hookups.

Nice clean park, enjoyed the cave visit and took a few trail that run through the park.

We stayed at this State park on 12/27/2020.  We were not able to visit the caverns as all tickets had been sold when we arrived in the morning!  Plan ahead and purchase tickets in advance online.  The RV park was fantastic.  Our site was W/E with a dump on exit.  The site was level with a asphalt pad, some shade, a fire ring and picnic table was provided.  The bathrooms and showers were super clean as well.  There are hikes on the property that were well maintained as well.

This State Park is an amazing place. I’m lucky enough to live in Benson, AZ where it is located. The Cavern tours (if you are lucky enough to get a reservation during COVID) are spectacular! There is a short movie about the Caverns discovery back in the 60’s which is well done & very informative. The Rangers are knowledgeable & the tours are wonderful. The Discovery Center is well designed. The Campground has around 60 sites & the views of the surrounding mountains are incredible, especially at sunrise & sunset. There are a few pull through sites. The bathrooms are very good clean (when opened due to COVID) & the camp hosts friendly & welcoming. There are well marked trails for novice hikers & more seasoned hikers. Put this on your bucket list! You won’t be disappointed!

1-17-2021 site 33. Talk about clean! This is by far the cleanest campsite I have stayed at. The camp host are really nice and really do care about the camps. Nice and quiet at night. Electric and water at the sites. And some cool Arizona fire rings. We weren’t able to go into the caves because of our small child but there is a hiking trail which was nice. Great weekend getaway. Site 33 is right next to the cabins so are kinda close to there fire pits when relaxing but all the other sites look perfect.

This is the cleanest campground I have been to. The bathrooms are well kept, there is a nice hiking trail close and you can reserve a spot to see the caverns too. Close enough to Tombstone as well. Really like this place.

Wow, what an awesome AZ State Park! If you live in Arizona and haven’t camped here you are doing something wrong! It’s a quick weekend getaway from Tucson or even Phoenix. The camp hosts are friendly and stopped by to say hello, leave us maps, and give us the run down on a few rules. Kartchner is a designated Dark Sky park, so they do a great job of making sure everyone keeps the lights off after 8pm so you can enjoy the stars. It really is an awesome perk of the park! The campgrounds are immaculate. Like the cleanest and most well taken care of sites I have ever seen. Everything was perfectly raked and swept prior to our arrival. *We didn’t use the restrooms, showers, or dish washing stations due to covid, so we can’t report on those. We did notice family restrooms, which is always welcomed with little ones! We walked around the loops, like we always do when camping, to make note of the best ones for future trips. There were too many to count! All the sites looked spacious (for state park standards), clean, and had plenty of mesquite trees (perfect for learning how to climb trees for the first time!) The hiking trails are aplenty and dog friendly. The caverns are a quick 5 min walk from the campsites. We didn’t visit due to covid, but in the future plan to visit the caves, discovery center, and cafe. Although the campsite seemed to be most occupied by snowbirds, it really is the perfect destination for families too! We can’t wait to go back!

This is an open desert State Park campground with a fancy, cavernous registration center you have to park and walk a few hundred yards to enter. The gift shop was closed.

The campsites are close together affording little privacy. Each has water and electric hookup, a picnic table and fire ring. The back in sites are paved and level. The bathrooms with showers were clean and well appointed.

The Camp Host greeted me once I was settled. He Wanted me to be aware of the rules and regulations of the campground. Before he left, he asked me if I was traveling alone. The campground host circled the campground in his golf cart several times each day peering into each site on his way by. The only other campground I experienced his behavior was in Lost DutchmanState Park up near Apache Junction.

I hiked the Foothills Loop which was challenging in spots especially around the apex. Walking sticks are recommended. The views were awesome.

I’d give this four stars, but I don’t like feeling surveilled

We’ve been here a few times and enjoy the campground. It’s quiet but inviting. You can connect with fellow campers but still have your personal space. We love the hiking trail behind the campground too.

As a solo female traveler this place was just what I needed for the week. Great amenities, super kind camp hosts, spread out spaces. Awesome dog friendly trails, walk to 4 different trailheads right from camp. Stars were awesome because all guests actually respected the no bright exterior lights rule. This is a great full-service stop for a vanlifer looking for a simple, well-accommodated week. Charge up those batteries and have a nice shower after a post-remote workday hike. Say hi to Paula for me.

Can't give this one high enough stars.

We're van camping and working remotely, so our priorities are internet connectivity, electricity, and running water.

The sites are all nice and flat, very well maintained, and pretty well spaced out. For the desert, there's surprisingly good vegetation between sites for privacy (but it is the desert).

The bathrooms are plentiful, immaculate, and have hot water, showers, heated hand dryers, and a dish washing station... All open, even in the winter!

Decent cell coverage on both verizon and t mobile, plus good free WiFi. Our site, in particular, had some issues with the different providers, depending on the direction of the wind, but I was able to work all day.

Our only itty bitty gripe is that the fire rings did not have grills. But really, that's nothing.

Would gladly stay again!

Oh, and there's some pretty nice trails and caves, too. Make sure you reserve your tour well in advance

Fabulous views and the campground is very well maintained. Each site looked to be very spacious with plenty of room between neighbors. The hosts were friendly and helpful. While we were the fire restrictions had been lifted so we used the fire pit to enjoy at night. The only negative that we found was they didn’t have a dog park but I’m assuming that’s because there are so many hiking options the dogs get plenty of exercise. There are bathrooms and showers available and cute little casitas if you don’t have an RV. Electric and water hookups but no sewer although the do have a dump station so it made it easy. Overall I highly recommend this campground

I typically rate campgrounds as they fit into 1 of 5 categories. This campground will be rated as a Regional/Public Park — Grounds that are on public lands, and have a cost for entry and/or overnight stay. Ratings for this category are based on: Cost: 5 Allure of the park/lands: 4 Amenities as available (bathrooms, showers, hookups, etc): 5 Layout and privacy of sites: 4

We wish we had more time to spend here! We used these grounds as a jumping-off point to visit Tombstone (meh), Bisbee & Lowell AZ along with a few other small ghost towns. We also headed to Chiricahua National Monument on our way out of here, though it is a trek(about 90 minutes). The area is remote and has a beautiful mountain backdrop. We weren’t able to explore the caverns at the State Park but will on our next visit! We’ve heard the tours fill up daily, so make reservations for your planned stay.

The price is very fair at $30/ night for electricity and water hookups. The showers and bathrooms were always clean. The layout was quite nice with plenty of personal space.

Worth mentioning, we were there in January and it was very, very cold. We were unaware just how cold AZ could get. This was our awakening.

April 18-20, 2019 Enjoyed this park. Very clean. Site had electric and water. Restrooms with showers, flush toilets and heat. Elevation 4,639. We did not get to go on the cave tour.

The State of Arizona has done it again with the Kartchner State Park. The Campiste is beautiful in a way only the desert can be and Kartchner Caverns is breathtaking. Recommend making reservations to ensure you get a long enough spot and get a spot in a tour of the caverns.