Sleep at E.I. Rowland, the developed loop inside McDowell Mountain Regional Park, and the trailheads start a short walk from the pad. Ride the Pemberton loop or take the shorter North Trail and you barely leave camp to reach one. The sites face the McDowell ridgeline to the west, which is the view you get with coffee.
Rowland takes tents and full-size rigs, with a dump station on the way out, and a site runs $40 a night as of August 2026, per the county fee schedule, with a 14-night limit. Individual sites open six months ahead on the county system and you pay in full at booking, per the reservation policies, and the good weekends go the morning that window opens. Hold the campsite first and sort the van second. If a van feels tight, the Arizona RV listings size up to trailers and motorhomes that still fit the developed loop.
Tom's Thumb, the granite knob on the skyline above all of this, you hike from the McDowell Sonoran Preserve on the Scottsdale side, no camping and no fee, open sunrise to sunset, per the City of Scottsdale. It is a morning out from wherever the van is parked, not a place to sleep.
Bartlett Lake, up past Cave Creek
When you'd rather have water than trail, drive up Cave Creek Road to Bartlett Dam Road and camp on the sand at Bartlett Flat, small rigs pulled onto shoreline pads below the yellow-hued cliffs. There are vault toilets and no hookups or drinking water, so roll in self-contained, and the last half-mile down to the water is unpaved, per the Tonto National Forest.
You'll need a Tonto Daily Pass on the dash, $8 from a vendor as of August 2026, per the forest pass page, and the shoreline stay limit is 14 days. Summer holiday weekends are the crowded ones, so aim for a weekday or the cooler months.
Superstitions, Sedona, and the South Rim
In summer, when the desert floor is too hot to camp low, the trips run north and east. The Superstition Mountains and Lost Dutchman State Park stand about 40 miles east, per Arizona State Parks, with Phoenix the closer base, so start from the Phoenix campervan lander. Sedona's red rocks and Oak Creek are a couple hours up I-17, laid out on the Sedona lander. Keep going and the Grand Canyon's South Rim is the payoff, with Flagstaff as the overnight.