Spencer Canyon Campground — Hotel in Oro Valley

Spencer Canyon Campground is a nice campground approx. 20 miles from Tucson up the General Hitchcock Highway (often called the Catalina Highway or Mt. Lemmon Highway). It is located approximately 3 miles past the Palisades Visitor Center and the entrance is marked well by a big brown sign as you approach.||||Phill and Denise, the friendly campsite managers will give you advice and suggestions about campsites that suite your needs. The photos attached to this review are from campsite #6, which is close to the Phill & Denise’s camper location and the highway - yes, we did hear road noise. Most campers chose locations deeper in the campground, but we were there on a busy weekend so most of those “deeper” campsites were occupied.||||All sites have a large bear box, concrete picnic table, charcoal grill and an iron fire pit. The picnic area of the site is level but the whole campsite is NOT so pick your location carefully if you want to pitch your tent on a flat, level plot. We did find some firewood left over from prior campers but recommend bringing your own, dry wood if you have room in your rig.||||In my observation, there is a rather nice, vessel toilet house strategically located to serve 6 - 7 campsites. There is also a water faucet to be shared by 6 - 7 campsites. Campsite #6 has its own faucet so others might also.||||There are 60+ campsites throughout Spencer Canyon and I would suggest that those “deeper” in the campground are more desirable. It should be noted that most of the campsites are close together, that is, about 50 -75 feet apart, hence, my “ . . . if you don’t mind company” comment. It should also be noted that Phill & Denise are really nice and helpful, the campsites are well maintained and clean, it is only 22 miles from Tucson and less than 6 miles from the mountaintop hamlet of Summerhaven, and is situated at approximately 7,900 fee of elevation. Thus, Spencer Canyon Campground is a great getaway from the Arizona heat and close enough to Tucson for a 1 - 2...

Now we just needed to get out of this oven we call Tucson for just a few days.So I packed up our camping gear,just a hammock,sleeping bags a pup tent an my hammer/axe/iron mace, just in case zombie's decided to drop in,lol. an filled our ice chest with sandwich fixings,some fruit,chips,trail mix bagged up already , PB an J an bottles of water ,some with sugar an tea bags in them already an Kool aid singles.Picked up three blocks of ice put two in our 52oz circle k mugs an one in the chest. An off we went,we went up the back side of mnt lemon. Never done that before an probably won't do that again unless I'm driving of course. The back side is not for the faint at heart. There's no rails an the unpaved road is very narrow an the drop offs are to die for. But it did take twice as long to get to the top. But when we got there we hit the fudge shop an drove on down to the first camping sight there was. Good thing to cause rose canyon an the other spots were taken. But Spencer canyon was just perfect, lots of cool places to hike an rock climb an at night you can see every star in the universe , it is pitch dark up there so bring a flash light. I brought little solar lights an lined our path to the bath room. The neighbors thanked us in the morning with muffins an coffee. Anyway we had a great time even if it was only a few days. It's not how long your somewhere it's what you do when...

This is a beautiful campground. I went up on a Monday in September, actually just a couple of days ago. Campground was deserted. I’m pulling a 17 foot Casita behind my truck and there were some large crevasses in the road from the monsoon rains I guess. It’s probably me, but I couldn’t quite figure out whether I just should pull my rig into one of the turnouts and camp or whether I was occupying several campsite’s parking spaces. So I just pulled in and hoped for the best. I saw no camp host or anybody else so I couldn’t really confirm my parking was OK and I was a little concerned that I would be accosted during the night For not parking correctly. I was in space number 19 which was lovely but it appeared as though I was taking up the parking for space 18, 19 and 20. I’m not quite sure how it worked but since it was so deserted it worked fine for me. It was beautiful. There is water at the vault bathrooms but no water or electrical hook ups. Hopefully some of the large ravines in the dirt road will be mended soon although my truck and trailer managed them. Really awesome spot I think for...