Back in February, we headed to the Phoenix, AZ area to check out the campgrounds at the Maricopa County Regional Parks. While planning this leg of our adventure Jeri was surprised at how many regional parks in the Phoenix area had electricity hookups. These regional parks are very popular and book out way in advance. Jeri had a hard time getting us reservations when she was booking in September. We were able to camp at three of the five parks that Jeri wanted to check out including, White Tank Mountain Regional Park, Lake Pleasant Regional Park, and Usery Mountain Regional Park. No wonder these campgrounds are so busy, they are great!

Velocity Truck Centers - Tolleson

First, we had to stop in Tolleson at Velocity Truck Centers for the annual maintenance on the motorhome. It’s actually been slightly over two years since we did any chassis work, mainly delayed due to not driving much due to COVID and being in California the much of that time. Our last service was in Oct 2019 which is way over the annual service regardless of mileage so we got an oil change, chassis lube, front hub, and rear axle service. The nice thing about going to Velocity Truck Centers is they have about a half dozen full hookup campsites adjacent to the service center that are first-come, first-serve so we just arrive the day before and drop off the motorhome first thing in the morning the next day.

We stay in the jeep with the cats in the parking lot. The work took most of the day since they also found some worn bushings and a cracked radiator evaporator tank that was leaking so we opted to just get all that done and stay an extra night, then leave the following day. I think the bill ended up being around $2k which is more than we’d expected due to the extra work, but hopefully means we have another year of problem-free driving.

Another nice thing about this truck center is Superstition Meadery is only 14 miles away. Jeri found this Groupon deal for Superstition Meadery so we decided to check it out and we were impressed. The mead is incredible! They have dozens upon dozens of choices so we did the mead flight which was a dozen different tastes and honestly most of them are amazing, even the least favorite was good. The food we paired it with was also delicious. As you can see from the photo below we tried a little bit of everything, and we took three bottles of mead to go. Highly recommend you check out Superstition Meadery.

White Tank Mountain Regional Park

At White Tank Mountain, we camped in the Family Campground in site #37. Our site was very unlevel and we needed to use some blocks to get properly settled. Other than that, it was a great site with plenty of room behind the motorhome, a stone picnic table, BBQ. They even rake the ground to keep the site extra nice looking.

After getting settled in our site we hiked the Waterfall Trail which wasn’t much of a waterfall, more like a small pond where water was dripping into (not entirely unexpected given the time of year). We started about 2:45 pm in the afternoon and the majority of the trail was in the shade and flat/easy (the first 0.50 miles were paved). On the way back to the car we hiked Black Rock Long Loop. Our total hike was around 3.20 miles and we caught a great sunset once we got back. We could actually see the silhouette of downtown Phoenix skyscrapers against the backdrop of the sky and also saw some deer and cows in the campground that were not very afraid of us at all. The next day we rode our bikes about a mile down the road to the Mule Deer trail which is a 3.5-mile moderate hike where we had our lunch before coming back. On the third day, we did an easy loop directly from the campground on the Ironwood and Ford Canyon trials. This park is very popular for groups too it would seem as if there was a huge group camping in the group area with a live band or DJ that played well into the evening (we think maybe it was a wedding!).

Lake Pleasant Regional Park

The entire area at Lake Pleasant was very cool with a huge lake reservoir popular for boating and several high-quality campgrounds around the perimeter. We camped in the Roadrunner Campground site #63 high up on a hilltop so we had a great view of the entire area around us. Campsites were especially nice with covered picnic areas, firepit, and bbq. We were right next to a cell tower so there was great internet and we streamed the Super Bowl outside, made burgers, and let Tinkerbell hang outside with us in her playpen. Our neighbors in a big Prevost motorhome were very friendly and we spent some time talking to them about RVing adventures since they were Escapees board members. Hiking was limited since many areas were still closed for maintenance and some roads and trails are inaccessible due to the high water level. We still checked out what we could including the marina which was totally dead at that time. At the marina, there is a floating restaurant and small grocery store we wanted to check out, but they close early in the off-season. We imagine this place is very busy in the summer months due to watersports and boat rentals, fishing, etc.

Usery Mountain Regional Park

At Usery Mountain, we camped in site #57. After getting settled into our site we decided to ride our bikes 1.35 miles to the Wind Cave trail. This trail was 3.15 miles round trip with the highlight being the Wind Cave at the top. This spot supposedly had a great sunset view and it really delivered. After finishing our hike we had to ride our bikes back to the campground which was more difficult as it was uphill. While camping at Usery Moutain, if you find yourself making a trip into Tempe we recommend you check out Adventurous Stills. Jeri found this Groupon deal, and we had a great time tasting their hand-crafted spirits and we took the Peralta Bourbon to go to make old fashioneds out of later. We wanted to stay longer due to cold weather, but they were nearly full already and even though Chris got up early the last day to wait in line at the office for a spot, there were only a few sites with openings so we had to move on. Usery Mountain is that popular!

We recommend you check out the regional park in the Phoenix area. Just make sure you book way in advance since these parks are so busy. Check out the Maricopa County park website for a complete list of parks. Next time we are in the area hopefully we can stay at Cave Creek and McDowell Mountain.