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trailernovice's avatar
Jun 15, 2018

No water hookup at Arizona state park

Notice for those unaware...

We stayed at Picacho Peak (Arizona) State Park about a week and a half ago (one night, during our summer road trip)...we get into the site, get the electricity hooked up....then I look around, scratching my head--I don't see a water hookup...turns out there isn't one...apparently a 'desert' thing

Not sure if only at this state park but at other state parks in the desert...also not sure if this would be only in Arizona or elsewhere...also not sure if private parks have the same issue

I'd seen sites in state parks that had water but no electricity (generally used for tent camping)...never before had I come across one with electricity but no water

Just a heads-up for folks traveling through the desert that it may be best/necessary to tank some water rather than to count on its being available through a hookup
  • Once I figured out that a lot of public parks out west had no water at the sites, when making reservations I started looking for sites near the communal water spigots, so I could stretch a series of hoses 200 feet and fill up without having to move the coach. That doesn't work at the parks where the only water fill is at the dump station area or park entrance, though.
  • Ralph, you and I sometimes disagree but not on your most recent post. 100% agree.
  • trailernovice wrote:
    Notice for those unaware...

    We stayed at Picacho Peak (Arizona) State Park about a week and a half ago (one night, during our summer road trip)...we get into the site, get the electricity hooked up....then I look around, scratching my head--I don't see a water hookup...turns out there isn't one...apparently a 'desert' thing

    Not sure if only at this state park but at other state parks in the desert...also not sure if this would be only in Arizona or elsewhere...also not sure if private parks have the same issue

    I'd seen sites in state parks that had water but no electricity (generally used for tent camping)...never before had I come across one with electricity but no water

    Just a heads-up for folks traveling through the desert that it may be best/necessary to tank some water rather than to count on its being available through a hookup


    Your post leaves me SMH. I have been to plenty of state and fed or ACOE campgrounds that are electric only sites, and a lot more that have nothing. I have also been to some that had water hook ups but no sewer connection. I knew what hookups were available prior, as they all list the hookups available on reservation sites or brochures etc.

    Personally I think that FHU sites such as they are upgrading to in some PA state parks, take away from the place, I avoid those areas/loops religiously. I have seen the change when they upgrade them. They draw an entirely different demographic of camper. Gone are the dark skies and peacefulness and the new trend is outside TVs and more lights than the Vegas strip, usually left on from dusk to dawn. At one close by they totally ruined an area that was used for amateur astronomy by campers for 50 years or more, by upgrading sites to FHU next to a mountainside meadow where everyone set up their scopes.
  • In the empty, dry West assuming any government campground has potable water is...dangerous.

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