Showers Point Group Site
We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →
- Right now
- OpenListed open; its database flags it not open
- Sites
- 3All of them booked ahead
- Season
- April 1 – October 31Open April 1 through October 31
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 14 notices
In the agency’s own words
The cool shade of tall ponderosa pines and an overlook of Palisade Canyon from the campgrounds edge make Showers Point Group Site a popular place for groups to spend a weekend or an afternoon. Visitors can relax in shaded campsites, picnic at nearby Rose Canyon, hike and mountain bike on nearby trails or take a scenic drive on Catalina Highway. Keep reading
Recreation
Within easy walking distance from Showers Point is one of the most scenic overlooks in the Santa Catalinas. From this towering bluff visitors can see the lower slopes of the Santa Catalina Range and the Santa Cruz Valley stretching toward Mexico. Tall, pyramid-shaped Mt. Wrightson of the Santa Rita Mountains stands prominent on the horizon. Visitors enjoy hiking through the Santa Catalina backcountry, via the Palisade Trail that departs near the campground. The trail drops down the southwestern slopes of the mountain range to the popular Sabino Canyon Recreation Area. Fishing is also available at the nearby six-acre Rose Canyon Lake. A day-use fee is applicable at Rose Canyon Facilities The three group campsites at Showers Point are well spread out over this spacious location and include large, leveled tent pads and picnic shelters. Each site is tent-only for up to 25 guests. The facility is equipped with water faucets and toilets.
Natural Features
Showers Point Group Campground sits high on the slopes of the Santa Catalina Mountains at 7,700 feet. Because of its elevation, it can be much cooler than the lower-elevation campgrounds in the area. The campsites are spacious and spread out among stands of big ponderosa pines and clusters of Gambel oak. The Coronado National Forest covers 1.78 million acres of southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico. Elevations range from 3,000 to 10,720 feet in 12 widely scattered mountain ranges, or "sky islands," that rise dramatically from the desert floor, supporting biologically diverse plant communities.
Nearby Attractions
Catalina Highway, also known as General Hitchcock Highway and Sky Island Scenic Byway, is the only paved road that leads to the upper reaches of Mt. Lemmon and the Santa Catalina Range. It is one of the most scenic highways in the southwest and provides a popular day trip. Other notable attractions include Saguaro National Park, Sabino Canyon and Colossal Cave. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (520) 314-0069.
What the agency tells you
No hookups available. No Showers
No trailers permitted. Limit 5 vehicles per site
Pack and saddle stock not permitted in campground
Everything else this campground posts · 11
A large area of nearby Pusch Ridge Wilderness is closed to dogs for the protection of desert bighorn sheep; call Santa Catalina Ranger District at 520-749-8700 for more information
This is a high elevation facility; use caution when traveling from lower elevations
Bears and other animals live in the area; all food must be secured and trash disposed in the trash cans provided
The road into the campground off Organization Ridge Road is paved. Organization Ridge Road is an all-weather gravel road and closed in winter.
For short notice availability or to make arrangements for a tour of the facility please call 520-576-1325
Credit cards are not accepted. Only cash and Arizona checks are accepted
Fire Restrictions: Fire restrictions may be imposed at any time due to hot, dry weather conditions, at which time campfires and charcoal fires may not be allowed
Reserved Sites will be held until check out time (NOON) the day following your arrival date. Sites must be occupied by the checkout time of that following day to hold a reservation or the site will be forfeited and released to other guests. Once your reservation start date has begun, neither the Recreation.gov Contact Center nor the campground manager will be able to modify your reservation.
Refunds: Refund requests made through www.recreation.gov will be charged a $10 processing fee. This fee is retained by the reservation service contractor along with the non-refundable reservation fee. All requests for the return of the non-refundable reservation fee and the cancellation fee will be declined by the campground concessionaire as they did not receive these fees (these are the fees retained by the reservation contractor, a different entity).
Don't Move Firewood: Prevent the spread of tree-killing pests by obtaining firewood near your destination and burning it on-site. For more information visit dontmovefirewood.org.
Click here to learn more about Coronado National Forest
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 3 · 3 tent-only, 3 group
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- 1
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
Facilities
- Toilets
- Yes, the record doesn't say what kind
- “The facility is equipped with water faucets and toilets.”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…25 guests. The facility is equipped with water faucets and toilets. Natural Features Showers Point Group…”
Full this Saturdayread 15:57 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
3 campgrounds have sites open within 30 miles, read 16:17 UTC. See them
OpenBookedNot reservable
Every one of the 3 sites on offer is taken this Saturday. 3 are free on Tue, Oct 20. read 15:57 UTC Why the weekend fills and the week doesn’t
Watch for a cancellation
Watch this campground
One email when a night opens, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We read recreation.gov once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time a site in your window is free for the nights you asked for.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
Tell me when the season opens
Watch for the season to open
One email when the season goes on sale, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time the agency has that season on sale.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 12
What you actually pay
Who keeps the booking fee
The agency’s own policy text says the reservation fee and the cancellation processing fee are “retained by the reservation service contractor”, and that a campground concessionaire will decline to refund them because “they did not receive these fees”. Recreation.gov is run under contract by Booz Allen Hamilton. What share of your booking fee the contractor keeps isn’t published in any federal dataset we can read, so we print no number for it. Our reporting on the contract →
How we know this receipt · 5
Open within 30 miles this weekend · 3
Sites the agency is offering this Friday and Saturday that nobody has taken, nearest first. read 16:17 UTC
- Sabino Canyon Recreation Area Cactus Ramada 2Coronado National Forest · 8.3 mi · 1 of 1 site-night open
- Sabino Canyon Recreation Area Cactus Ramada 1Coronado National Forest · 8.3 mi · 1 of 1 site-night open
- Saguaro National Park Wilderness PermitsSaguaro National Park · 17 mi · 22 of 40 site-nights open
recreation.gov availability, read 15:57 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
3 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 3 mapped sitesAll 3 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 3 of the 3 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 3 of the 3 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
Measured shade is NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC) read at the site’s own coordinate, 27% canopy or more, and only for the sites the agency gave no Shade value. It never changes the agency’s own shaded count beside it.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions
Where it is
Palisades Ranger Residence CabinCoronado National Forest · 0.3 mi
Whitetail CampgroundCoronado National Forest · 0.7 mi
Sollers Cabin (AZ)Coronado National Forest · 0.8 mi
Spencer Canyon CampgroundCoronado National Forest · 1.3 mi
Rose Canyon CampgroundCoronado National Forest · 1.4 mi
Rose CanyonCoronado National Forest · 2.0 miFrom Tucson, Arizona, go northeast on Catalina Highway approximately 30 miles from Tucson until just before Milepost 20. Turn left on Organization Ridge Road and travel 1.2 miles to Showers Point.
The weather
the next four days
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Willow Canyon, AZ
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it · a letter you can send
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Showers Point Group Site is in Arizona’s 6th congressional district. Its representative, Juan Ciscomani (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →
Who can change it · 3
Two offices, two different asks. The draft to the agency asks it to set aside a published share of the sites here for whoever drives up. The draft to Congress asks why that share is zero and presses for a published minimum at the campgrounds it funds.
- The member who votes the moneyJuan CiscomaniU.S. Representative · Arizona’s 6th district
- Your senator, on the same appropriationMark KellyU.S. Senator · Arizona
- Your senator, on the same appropriationRuben GallegoU.S. Senator · Arizona
No contact form we could verify, so that link is their own site. Contact is inside it. Washington office: 202-224-4521.
Read the draft, or change the wording
For the camper who turned up, or tried to book, and couldn’t get in. Every draft is written from this campground’s own record (its agency, its unit, its site count and its own weekend) and the buttons above copy whichever wording is selected here.
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Showers Point Group Site, Coronado National Forest, Arizona
Dear Juan Ciscomani, I’m a constituent in Arizona’s 6th district. I tried to camp at Showers Point Group Site, Coronado National Forest, Arizona, and couldn’t. All 3 sites at Showers Point Group Site are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 3 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Showers Point Group Site keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Showers Point Group Site. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Showers Point Group Site (Coronado National Forest, Arizona) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Showers Point Group Site, Coronado National Forest, Arizona
Dear Mark Kelly, I’m a constituent in Arizona. I tried to camp at Showers Point Group Site, Coronado National Forest, Arizona, and couldn’t. All 3 sites at Showers Point Group Site are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 3 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Showers Point Group Site keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Showers Point Group Site. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Showers Point Group Site (Coronado National Forest, Arizona) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Showers Point Group Site, Coronado National Forest, Arizona
Dear Ruben Gallego, I’m a constituent in Arizona. I tried to camp at Showers Point Group Site, Coronado National Forest, Arizona, and couldn’t. All 3 sites at Showers Point Group Site are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 3 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Showers Point Group Site keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Showers Point Group Site. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Showers Point Group Site (Coronado National Forest, Arizona) via campanac.com