The Family Campground in White Tank Mountain Regional Park is the overnight for a van trip west of Avondale, at the base of a granite range that climbs over 4,000 feet off the Valley floor. Camp there and the Waterfall Trail is a morning walk, a couple of miles round trip up a narrowing canyon, with Petroglyph Plaza half a mile in where Hohokam rock art is pecked into the desert varnish.
The fall at the end only runs after a winter storm or the monsoon, so count moving water as luck. Look but don't touch the rock art, and skip the rubbings; both wear it down. For a shorter walk, the Black Rock trails near the campground reach another stretch of Hohokam petroglyphs along an old village site, one of the larger collections in the Valley.
Sleeping at White Tank
The Family Campground sits at the base of the range, developed sites with showers and a dump station. Book the night before you book the van. The county opens sites six months out and the October through April weekends are the ones that go, so hold the dates you want and find a van to match. A campervan is the easy fit here; step up to a bigger motorhome and the Arizona RV hub covers rentals statewide.
Estrella Mountain, the closer day hike
Closer to Avondale, Estrella Mountain Regional Park makes the easier day hike, its Sierra Estrella ridge rising over the only grass picnic lawns in the county park system. There's no van overnight there yet. The park keeps phone-booked host sites only while a 50-site campground is under construction through March 2027, so hike Estrella by day and drive back to White Tank to sleep.
Phoenix Raceway and the Superstitions
Phoenix Raceway sits right in Avondale, and its infield fills with rigs and vans on the two NASCAR Cup weekends each year; the race-weekend camping details live on the Phoenix lander. That same page covers Lost Dutchman and the Superstitions, the desert hiking and climbing east of the city that most Valley trips work in.