Youthful 55+ parks in Arizona

Look at places a bit farther away, smaller camps & without the "quilting club". Florence, Black Canyon City, Superior, Sierra Vista, Bisbee.
There are gold mining groups, A/Utv groups, Wine afficionados( Sierra Vista area) even a trap/skeet shooters camp. That one is Double Adobe east of Bisbee.

Look for places that are RV only and not part of a "Retirement Community" that are mostly park models and mobile homes.
Nothing wrong with those. It's the RV crew that seems to be more active and "younger"

Fizz wrote:
Look for places that are RV only and not part of a "Retirement Community" that are mostly park models and mobile homes.
Nothing wrong with those. It's the RV crew that seems to be more active and "younger"

I agree, many RVers move on to a park model or mobile home as they get older but are not ready to give up snowbirding. After our
14th season as Winter Texans I see this all the time and am included in this group. So where there are a large number of park models and mobile homes the population will likely be older but most of us have started out in an RV.

I also subscribe to the logic that RV parks are younger (and more active, but that is a very personal viewpoint.) That's the reason I go to a winter park that has NO park models and it is mandatory that no rig can stay over 6 months.

If that logic makes sense to you then I would explore public parks vs private parks. I would also use Google Earth to zoom in on the park and see what type of RV's are present. Easy to tell from the roofs.

On Edit:

If I ever did decide to winter in AZ on my short list would be Parker and Green Valley. YMMV

What do you want to do there? What activities are you looking for? I agree that park models usually mean an older population. However, if you want facilities and activities like ball team, pickleball, a decent workout room etc, those are usually found at larger parks that do have park models. The age of the park will be a good clue, also. We are in our second year in Yuma at a park that has about 2/3 park model/RV mix & 1/3 RV only. Good luck on your search!

I'd recommend that you zero in on activities you'd be interested in rather than age.

I think many parks are in a turnover phase. The old guard is fading out and new blood coming in. it is causing friction in some places
Such is the case where I am.
But the older people are not in gods waiting room.

Those are all good replies. Thank you. I’m glad no one took it the wrong way either. We have spent some time in a big park with a lot of park models. The “older” people were super nice. But we did miss having more people closer to our age. And we are not alone, because more than once at a function, a younger than 70 couple would sit by us and remark about how it was nice to meet someone younger at the park. I guess deep down I figure I want to put off aging, just like we all do. And hanging around with people a generation older makes me feel older.

I was struck by how many of the residents in their late 70s had been coming to the park for 15-20 years. So maybe back then it was a younger park. But it is hard to imagine much turnover now. Maybe a few percent every year? My guess is that any park model heavy park is always going to be mostly people who have been retired for quite a while.

Ben, what kinds of issues are coming up?

John &Joey, we think Green Valley is an entire town of 70+ folks. I’ve never seen anything quite like it, although The Villages must be like that except much bigger.

There is always a large turnover of park models each year in the park where we have ours. Often one of a couple will die and the other moves in with kids, etc. Sometimes they sell the units very cheaply (that's how we got ours) or the units are so old they are 'sold' to a removal outfit. Then the park has a new site for RVs for the coming year and that site may become a park model again or may not, just depends. The parks need to have a certain number of RV sites to remain under the taxing area of an RV park not a mobile home park.

We don't do a lot in the park because to us the 'reigning clique' is too old and inhospitable. But then we like jazz, not C&W, don't play cards, don't drink to excess and stagger around the park at 7:00 pm, etc. We do visit many of the arts centers in the valley, usually have 2 or 3 concerts at the Musical Instrument Museum, a couple at the Mesa Arts Center, or Scottsdale, or Chandler, etc. We have a lot of things to do during our time here, and then in the evening we come home for the night. This is our recharge time (including medical appointments, etc) before heading out each spring for more adventures. Really look at what you like to do and then find the area where those things will be available. For us it was the Phoenix area and there were many more choices of parks in Mesa than elsewhere in the Valley. We spent a couple of years doing a week or two in many of the parks to find the ones we liked, gradually increasing to 2, 3, 4 months before buying our park model for our winter recharge.

I didn't think Green Valley would fit your profile, but it is a very beautiful desert area with nice people.

This OP topic has come up every year about now, but I think it might have some bearing on your last statements. I believe that the new retiree's don't want to RV, just too much work with a certain amount of hardship thrown in for good measure.

Right now I'm hunkering down an extra day in upper TX just to let rain and high head winds pass. This morning when I left LA I fought heavy fog. The morning before that fog caused a huge pile up on I10 east of Lake Charles. So far I've had zero problems, knock on wood.

The nice park I'm in tonight is $54/night. The Comfort Suit with free breakfast in town is $67/night. I guess what I'm trying to say is the WWII "can do" but prior to the internet retirement lifestyle is a dying breed.

You may never find what you're looking for when it comes to RV parks because they are fading away with our parents and aunts/uncles. I don't think any of them ever heard the term all inclusive or Google search. Not many new retiree's that had nice homes care to live in a tin can on a 35 foot wide lot no matter how expensive the RV paint job is. That same money can be used in Google searching for adventures/experiences all over the world.

Like you I'm not trying to stir the pot, just trying to find the next fit. After 10 years of being a mobile RV snowbird, I'm ready for the next chapter and FOR ME it does not include bingo, cards, dulcimers, pickle ball, excessive drinking, or square dancing in a compound setting with clean bathrooms. So yes, I don't have a clue what I'll do when the RV tires need replacing.

Hope you find your park. Never been to Palm Springs, but I heard that was a good area from younger RV retiree's. What little I saw of Yuma looked like the WWII retiree lifestyle.