Catalina State Park

April 3 - 4, 2014:

This was a short one overnight RV Trip to Catalina State Park in Oracle Valley, Arizona.  It’s a large campground with very easily accessible campsites and is very popular.  We would have stayed longer, but campsites were not available for a longer period.

  https://azstateparks.com/catalina?utm_source=Google&utm_medium=Search&utm_campaign=fy24stateparks&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwir2xBhC_ARIsAMTXk869Fb3sw1mDCkhHyA7-ng6UD_9xpC7w0ubCNJwDMm9dXYrSyTB6adgaAleyEALw_wcB

The view from the Odyssey

The State Park and campground is unusual in that the entry road turns off busy Oracle Road across from a shopping center and within minutes you enter the campground in view of the Santa Catalina Mountains.  This is a very popular time of year as many of the spring wildflowers are now in bloom.   Also, there was rain a couple of days ago, and as a result, the larger washes are flowing but are easily crossable, in fact the cold water feels really good.  The desert vistas and the mountain views here are always beautiful.  We did a wildflower loop trail shortly after arrival seeing many giant Saguaros and interesting wildflowers.

  

The trail behind the campground

The wash is flowing steadily

Walking on the wildflower loop trail

There are several huge Saguaros 

In the morning, we hiked the Romero Ruins Interpretive Trail.  We had to cross a swift but shallow wash to get to the trail which was very scenic.  The trail has many interpretive signs highlighting the remains of a Hoboken Indian village dating back to 500 AD.  Also located along this trail is the Romero Homestead, home to an early settler. The views along this trail of the Santa Catalina Mountains were most impressive.  There are several other longer trails connecting to this area that I would like to do sometime in the future when time allows.  On this day, we had to vacate the campground by noon so our time was limited.

https://www.archaeologysouthwest.org/explore/romero-ruin-catalina-state-park/

     

The view is special

The poppies are special too !

Don't know them, but there're pretty

Another great view

Another

The cholla cactus are looking especially healthy

It was a good story ?

Romero ranch ruins

This ranch was a remote, wild place to live

What will future generations discover in our  trash ?

Hohokam Pit house village existed here from 500 - 1150 AD

Yet another great view

The small flowers are sometimes referred to as weeds, but are beautiful

This was the first time we connected the RV to campground water, electrical and try out the Air Conditioner.  We also used the dump station on exiting the campground, all system worked fine.