By:
Submission
This area of Mt Lemmon camping is located at the head of a shallow, forested canyon a short distance off the Catalina Highway. Spencer Canyon faces the city of Tucson and the Santa Cruz Valley, both of which are visible as a distant panorama through openings in the forest canopy. Spencer Canyon Campground has 66 sites. Each site has a concrete table, firepit, B-B-Q and bear box for food storage. A beautiful night view of Tucson can be seen from several sites. Spencer is rugged, rustic in layout and close to the hamlet of Summerhaven. Each camping area has clean, stocked vault toilets. Campground hosts live on site. Firewood may be purchased from the hosts. The Catalina Highway is paved, but it can be snow covered in winter when chains and/or 4-wheel drive may be required.
From Tucson, E. on Tanque Verde. N. on Catalina Highway. Drive 4.2 miles to the Forest boundary (Mile Post 0), then continue 21.5 miles to Spencer Canyon Campground on the left (west) side of the road.
We loved our stay at Spencer Canyon Campground! We stayed on a Wednesday through Monday in the cool pines and hated to come back down to the desert. The camp hosts were friendly and helpful. They cleaned the toilets daily (twice on the weekend!): these were the cleanest, best-smelling pit-toilets I have EVER experienced!
The road in is a bit rough (unpaved dirt), but our low-clearance camper van handled it slowly. Finding a level spot is also a challenge, but not unexpected for the area.
The best thing about my stay at Spencer Canyon Campground was the camp hosts, Mark and his wife. They kept the place very clean and were always friendly. Having clean smelling bathrooms was a great surprise while camping. As others have said, some of the sites are very close together but some allow for more space. The views from the higher number sites, 45+ are amazing as you overlook Tucson. From most of the sites it is a little walk to get to where you can park but a few are closer. I had a relaxing and restful stay.
Overpriced compared with other campgrounds in Tucson area. Campground heavily littered with fallen trees, branches, and campground firewood. Free firewood, rather than the requested $8 would help clean up the area and make for a more beautiful setting.
Absolutely the nicest campground hosts, and cleanest bathroom! The location is super easy to get to. Perfect for a nice getaway! We took our dogs as well, they were leashed the whole time.
I just wanted to come and give and huge shout-out and appreciation review for Carol and Jerry, who were the park rangers who attend this campground. Camping sites are first-come-first-serve and we arrived when every site was already taken. We drove around for 1.5 hours and we're about to drive back toward Phoenix when Carol tracked us down and told us about a campsite that just opened up. She and Jerry showed us where it was and our boys didn't have to leave disappointed. I will forever remember that complete act of kindness. But besides that, they engaged every camper, got to know everyone's names, and made sure they were able to give us each a send off and goodbye as we left.
