I stayed at this park for three weeks, and really enjoyed it. Personally, I prefer parks that are off the beaten track and this one definitely is. It's two miles from the tiny settlement of Why, Arizona, and completely surrounded by open desert. The park is on the highway, but there is so little traffic that noise wasn't a problem. Don't expect a lot of amenities out here. I understand there are activities planned for the winter season, but in general it's the sort of place where if you have to ask "what is there to do here?", you probably wouldn't like it for more than an overnight. I spent a lot of time hiking and wandering in and around the desert hills behind the park, and the solitude and wide open spaces were wonderful. The park is also a fine gateway to Organ Pipe National Monument. The managers are as nice as they can be and very interesting to talk to. The rates are typical for this type of park ... you can hardly beat $85/week. All sites are level and long enough for big rigs, with concrete patios on every one ... only a few pull-thrus, though. Many sites have mesquite trees, which are pleasant even if not really big enough to provide much shade. The laundry has new equipment (four of each). The reason I didn't give a higher rating is because the bathrooms could have been cleaned more frequently. It's true there were only a half-dozen occupied RV's in the park at the time I was there and the bathrooms didn't get much use, but as far as I could tell they were only cleaned once in my entire three weeks. And then there are the wild burros, who wander through at will. The burros cause no trouble to campers and are fun to watch, but be aware you might hear them braying at all hours of the night. More serious, there was a range bull that I twice saw lumbering through the park. Burros are one thing, a bull quite another. The managers called in a cowboy from the Tohono Reservation to round him up, but I would say a fence is needed. The Wi-Fi was adequate, although it did drop offline a number of times for an hour or two at a time. I'm pretty sure this was a problem with the provider, however, and not the park. I would definitely come back to this park. You don't find peace and quiet like this in very many parks, and managers as nice as these are worth their weight in gold if you're staying for a while. The closest town other than Why is Ajo, but there isn't much there ... a smallish grocery store and a couple of restaurants. The closest serious shopping and restaurants would be Tucson or Casa Grande, both about two hours away. We camped here in a Motorhome.
This place was what we all needed: would have gotten a higher rating but no TV and the restrooms need some work: and they are working on them. Quite, scenic, trails are in good shape. The manager and his wife are great people. We camped here in a Fifth Wheel.
The first thing that struck me about this park was how typically desert it was – wide open spaces, austere, some cacti and desert vegetation and a view of the surrounding hills. The second most impressive feature was the Hosts – friendly and willing to help beyond the call of duty. A particular site was recommended by Ray (the host) because I wanted good access to the Wi-Fi (to upload some files) BUT it turned out our sewer hose was not long enough and Ray quickly found us a longer hose to accommodate the situation. Hickiwan Trails is a smaller park owned by the Hickiwan District of the Tohono O’Odham Nation people and stands adjacent to the Golden Has’an Casino that is owned by a different District. You will find some long-term guests here; RVers who use the park as a base to explore the surrounding areas (close to Organpipe Cactus National Monument; good bird watching and hiking); and short term visitors like ourselves. There is a casual open atmosphere in the park and everyone we came in contact with was exceedingly friendly. According to some of the folks I talked to, the park has improved greatly since Ray and Marsha took over the management. There are now periodic activities which there hadn’t been before and the facilities are upgraded and cared for. They recently had a Mardi Gras celebration and about 80 people came to enjoy the food and camaraderie. I heard different reports about the facilities. One guest said that she found the showers fine, but the other bathroom facilities (toilets and sinks) could have been cleaner. Another fellow reported that the showers were great. I found there was plenty of hot water and the water pressure was very good. There were four washers and dryers in the Laundry – all worked well and seemed fairly new, well maintained and clean. The rates are reasonable: $16.00 / day; $85.00 / week; and $285.00 / month including electricity and taxes BUT the park seems to be a hidden treasure. Road signs to its whereabouts are very limited and need to be expanded. We were very pleased with our stay here and there is no doubt we will return when we are in this area. We camped here in a Motorhome.
It's a fairly popular place for snowbirds with a monthly rate of about $260 including electricity. There are not that many 50 amp sites. If this place was full, it would be a little tight, but I'll guess it was maybe 60-70% full in the peak of the season when we were there. We could pick out our own site in the "C" section, so we didn't have any space issues. It's an okay place, out in the boonies and pretty quiet at night except for the coyotes howling and yipping and the burrows braying. The sounds of the country don't bother us - we much prefer the critter noises to trucks and horns. This is a pretty laid-back place, so don't expect a four-color park map or an escort to your site :-) The little casino on the property (and gas/diesel station/convenience store) had maybe 50 slots and the payout seemed extremely stingy - we left after spending a total of $12 in the 2 cent slots (no penny slots and the minimum bet I think was 40 cents) over a 15 or 20 minute period. (We're NOT big gamblers and do not go out of our way for this activity - die-hards might love this place.) Latitude and longitude for the driveway entrance to the little casino is N 32.243406, W 112.726928 (the RV park is set back to the East of the casino - look it up on Google Earth). We camped here in a Motorhome.
My husband and I spent from December to April at Hickiwan and loved every minute of our stay. The sites were clean and sewer, water and electric were adequate. The campground hosts and are absolutely wonderful. They keep the shower immaculate and are extremely caring that your stay is a wonderful experience. The area surrounding the campground is beautiful and makes for good hiking. Lovely cactus and beautiful mountains. They had a Christmas Dinner for the residents as well as a Mardi Gras celebration. At Christmas, the campers and Ray and Marcia got together and did up stockings for the Indian children of the the area. It was fun putting them together and seeing the looks on the children and "elderes" as they received their gifts. What a great place to stay and God bless them for the work they do there and with the Indian communities. We camped here in a Travel Trailer.
A nice, basic campground. Level gravel sites and roads with small concrete patios for each site. Small trees scattered around the campground but too small to be considered "shade." Cable TV was not working on our visit but we were able to pick up one analog TV channel from Tucson. Satellite TV would work well here. The web site says they have Wi-Fi but during our visit they had antenna problems and Wi-Fi was only available at the laundry and baths. We were able to connect to the Internet via our Verizon cell phone without problem. Very soft and good tasting water which they make themselves using reverse osmosis. Clean park, rest rooms and showers. Not much to do here for kids - no swings, no pool, no kid toys - if they need those things they will be bored. Open on east to the Sonoran desert which provided a great place to walk the dog; but, it also allows things to wander in the other way. We had wild burros wander through - they were fun to watch and were not a problem. We saw wild horses and heard coyotes. Great place to stay when going to visit Organ Pipe Cactus National Park. We were going to stay in Ajo as this park was hard to find on the web and we weren't certain what we would find when we got here. Glad we didn't stay in Ajo as this was much more convenient to the Park. This park is great if you just want a nice, clean place to park. If you must be entertained you won't like it. But for the lack of things for the kids to do, I would have given this park a 9 even with the broken Wi-Fi and non-working cable TV system. We camped here in a Motorhome.