Desert Shadows RV Resort — Hotel in Phoenix

We stayed here for 6 nights in mid-April. Despite being only a few blocks away from I-17 and the 101 loop, there is almost no road noise, which was a nice change of pace after our last few campgrounds. The layout of the campground follows the same pattern as many of the private campgrounds in the Phoenix metro area (most of which are 55+ campgrounds; this one is not): most of the sites are back-in sites with a gravel pad and a concrete patio area, and they are mixed in with permanent trailer homes. However, because the busy season ended with the conclusion of spring training, we were able to get one of the pull-through sites along the entrance road. Like the back-in sites, the pull-through sites have a large stone gravel surface and a concrete patio, but they are also outfitted with a park bench.

Most of the back-in lots seem a bit small, maybe too small for a 40+ foot rig, and parking a dually into the parking area next to the patio would probably leave you very little room on the patio. But the streets themselves are fairly wide.

The entrance road leads right up to the large building that contains the office and all of the indoor activity rooms. If you have a reservation and arrive after hours or on a Sunday (like we did), the office will be closed but a site map and your site assignment will be waiting for you just inside the door. The entrance to the auditorium is next to the entrance to the office on the front side of the building, while the entrances to the other activity rooms (the library, the gym, the card room, etc.) are on the back side of the building. The bocce ball, shuffleboard, and pickleball courts are also located behind the building, along with an artificial turf putting green and the indoor swimming pool.

There are recycling dumpsters near the office, but the only trash dumpster is located at the back end of the campground. Most residents simply put their trash out on the curb on Tuesday and Friday mornings, and resort staff come by and collect the bags.

There are four fenced-in dog parks within the resort. The two along the street at the front of the resort and the one by the dumpster contain trees that shade most of the park; the remaining one has no shade. All of them have a sandy dirt surface that our dogs found comfortable. There are no other places in the resort to walk dogs, as everything else is paved and landscaped, so we also occasionally walked our dogs along the dirt curbsides outside of the park.

You can’t see any of the mountains that surround Phoenix from the campground, but if you’re up just after dawn you will sometimes see hot air balloons in the sky, usually off to the west. That is also the best time to see some of the rabbits and quail that hang out in the park.

In terms of cell service, the best speed I got on my Verizon Jetpack with MIMO antenna during our stay was about 30Mbps down and 20Mbps up. There were times when the Verizon connection was slow or would drop, but most nights we could stream video with occasional buffering and pixelation. The one speed test I did with my AT&T phone showed 61Mbps down and 16 up.

We would stay here again if we were in the area and couldn’t book one of the...

“I hope your stay was fine.” We’re the last words spoken as we checked out. “Fine” would be the best adjective I could think of to describe this park and that is being generous. ZOMBIELAND is a more accurate description.

We have been RVing for over 20 years and we have never been in such an unfriendly place. We’re not asking for lifelong relationships but just saying hi or raising a hand to acknowledge someone you pass while walking would be nice....on a rare occasion did this ever happen. Three months in this place and it never got better.

Where to start? DOG PARKS ... apparently, even if you have nice dogs, it is not ok to enter one of the dog parks if someone else is in there. There is a large contingency of late afternoon dog park squatters that consume the park with their little yappy dogs, red hats and adult trikes still sporting Trump signs (with Pence blocked out) in MARCH. We took to calling them “The Comrads” as it was clear we weren’t welcome in the first day of our arrival. Some even got up, walked out and waited across the street for us to leave! There are four “dog parks” that we aptly renamed “litter boxes” after being rejected once again to enter, this time after asking if it was ok to enter. Or there was the time when a woman rolled up with her leashless dog on the back of her golf cart....the dog wanted in the litter box that we were already using. The dog was having nothing to do with getting back on the cart to go to a different litter box so she finally opens the gate and never even acknowledges that we are standing there with our dogs. I could go on, but I won’t.

The only thing well kept about the park was the fact that it seemed very important to make sure no gravel was on the sidewalks. So important that a guy went around on his golf cart sweeping it every day. Never mind that in the weekends the trash would pile high NEXT to the dumpster or the fact that months after a huge windstorm blew the roof off of the pool it still hadn’t been repaired.

The neighbors that wouldn’t talk to us were ridiculously nosey and the rules seem to only apply selectively. Daily there was power equipment running before and after quiet hours yet we were warned our lease wouldn’t be extended if we didn’t stop running power tools well within quiet hours. Our daughter came for a 4 day visit and was picked up by a date and suddenly the bathrobed hermit living next to us wanders out to see what is going on. It was so bad that she was afraid to enjoy the Arizona sunshine and stayed hunkered down in our trailer to wait next time.

These are just a few of our experiences in this unfriendly place. We spent our last day in PHX searching for a different place to stay next year. PS. The Hispanic maintenance guy...

If I only rated this park on its amenities, I would give it a 5 star. The sites are what brings the rating down. This is more a park model resort than an RV park. The RVs are in "lots" instead of "sites" and are squeezed in between park model homes. The lots are very unlevel, tilting towards the street. We needed to use several levels of leveling blocks under our front wheels in order to level the coach. They are also very close together. If our back window opened up, I could reach out and shake hands with the people behind us. And with our living room slideout extended there is only about a foot between it and the pickup truck belonging to the person next to us. Free cable and wifi are available at the office complex only. In order to get cable at your site, you have to contact the cable company and pay their rates. Same for wifi. We don't need cable and have our own wifi hotspot so it didn't really bother us. They don't accept credit cards for monthly stays, only cash or check. I suggest you pay the deposit for the back gate key so that you can get to a traffic light if you want to make a left turn on the highway. The amenities are another thing altogether. The laundry room is large and clean, with plenty of room on the tables to fold your clothes. Washers cost $1.25, dryers are $0.50 for 20 minutes. There is a sitting area with a tv and magazines in the laundry room. There's a large, heated indoor pool and hot tub. Outside are shuffleboard courts and bocce ball courts. An extensive library also has two tables for jigsaw puzzles and several computers. There are also a billiards room, card room, exercise room, etc. There is always some activity going on...