January 2026 – Buckskin Mountain State Park in the northwestern part of Arizona, is a beautiful park that’s tucked into a sharp bend in the Colorado River. It’s a very popular RV destination, but in all our travels we’d never been there!
As were sitting around enjoying the cozy holiday glow that had settled over our home in the days between Christmas and New Year’s, Mark suddenly said, “Why don’t we take the trailer out to the state parks in Parker and Lake Havasu??”
I LOVED that idea and quickly snapped up some reservations for consecutive nights that were still available at the campgrounds at both Buckskin Mountain State Park (Parker, AZ) and Cattail Cove State Park (Lake Havasu, AZ) in early January!
Buckskin Mountain State Park is embraced by a bend in the Colorado River.
The Colorado River separates Arizona (on its east bank) from California (on its west bank), and both of these state parks are on the Arizona shoreline.
The campgrounds at these state parks offer hookups, paved campground loops, scenic views and glorious hikes, and they are at an elevation similar to that of Phoenix and the Sonoran Desert. So they are temperate in the winter and baking hot in the summer.
Buddy was delighted at the prospect of going camping again, and he couldn’t wait to get out and explore our new surroundings once we got set up at Buckskin Mountain State Park.
Our campsite at Buckskin Mountain State Park
The Buckskin Loop hiking trail starts out as the Lightning Trail near the entrance to Buckskin Mountain State Park.
As we walked to the trailhead, we passed through the pretty Cactus Garden overlooking the Colorado River. This lovely garden features a variety of cacti, including Arizona’s signature saguaro cacti that grow very tall and seem to resemble people holding their arms up.
Down by the water some trees gracefully stretched their limbs towards the water.
The Cactus Garden at Buckskin Mountain State Park has saguaros and other cacti
Trees arched over the water.
Down at our feet I noticed a tiny solitary yellow wildflower in perfect bloom. It was decorated with delicate orange trim.
This tiny little wildflower was right by our feet!
The Lightning Trail goes straight up the side of a very steep hill, right up to the sky. Buddy leapt ahead of us and kept patiently waiting for us to huff and puff up this long staircase of a trail to catch up to him.
Buddy waited for us to climb up this very steep trail!
But once we got to the top and looked around, we were mesmerized by the views. The silvery ribbon of river wound past a row of RV parks backed by mountains on the far shore and then looped around our campground.
The views at the top were sensational.
Water and Beach Fun are what life is all about out here on the Colorado River.
Clouds were gathering and it got chilly, so we headed back down to our toasty trailer. But as the sun began to set we put on a few layers and climbed up that long stair-stepping hike once again to see if we could catch some colors in the sky over these magnificent views.
That second trip rewarded us with such a gorgeous dance of vibrant colors in the sky that we made the hike again on another night.
Sunset was glorious.
Buckskin Mountain State Park campground at sunset – What a place!
Sunset begins over the California side of the Colorado River.
Then the sky turned pink…
And then the sky turned orange.
Buckskin Loop Trail crosses the highway and follows the river, and we enjoyed that hike on another day. But a different scenic walk that followed the shoreline kept drawing us back each day. It was a closed paved road that ran from just outside the entrance of the campground along the river for about a mile.
It was very pretty and peaceful in the mornings with the river glistening on one side of the road and towering cliffs rising up on the other.
We loved walking along a closed road that paralleled the river.
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The views down by the river were as lovely as the ones from up on the mountain.
The road wasn’t widely used, but we did see see a few people jogging and walking, a few accompanied by their friendly pups.
While the canine set introduced themselves with eager tail wags and sniffs, we enjoyed a few engaging conversations with fellow RVers from distant states.
Buddy paused for a quick photo op.
Buckskin State Park is close to the town of Parker, so one morning we hopped in the truck and headed that way.
In one of our last years of full-time RVing when Buddy was just a puppy, we stayed near Parker at the Blue Water Casino. We had many happy memories from our days there, so we just had to go back and check it out.
Blue Water Casino is right on the river and has a small boat marina behind a barrier island as well as a Mexican cantina on the property. The memories rushed back as we strolled the grounds.
I had taken one of my favorite photos of Buddy leaping in the air right over there, and right after that he’d fallen into the lake when he leaned over too far to get a drink…right over there. His charming puppy exuberance at simply being alive had been totally infectious. We should all live and see the world that way!
When Buddy was 6 months old, I caught him flying in mid-air, four paws up, right here!
Oops! He reached out too far out to get a drink and fell in…and mastered the Dog Paddle in record time!
But on this day eight years later it was cold and wintry, and the clouds made magnificent patterns in the sky. The casino hotel overlooks the river, a small marina, and a Mexican cantina. The water in the marina was like a mirror.
Blue Water Casino Resort Hotel casts beautiful reflections
in the glassy water of the marina.
The patio at the Mexcian Cantina is a great spot for a cold beer on a hot day!
I loved the colors of the sky and water with the palm trees.
During our previous visit we’d watched some exciting drag boat races on the river, all based out of this marina. There were no formal races today, but one boat did zoom by.
A solitary speedboat zipped by.
After leaving Blue Water Casino we continued towards the town of Parker but had to stop when we saw an alluring sign that said “Pirate’s Den.” It turned out to be a restaurant and an RV park, and there was a fabulous pirate ship moored at the dock!
A pirate ship docked by The Pirate’s Den lured us off the highway for a closer look!
A concerned looking pirate captain was at the helm while one of his peg-legged crew lagged on shore chugging a bottle of rum!
“Thar she blows! All hands on deck!”
“Yo ho ho, and a bottle of rum”
There were a few bewitching wenches standing around the outdoor bar patio too, their ample bosoms tumbling out of their bodices, while a blue and gold macaw looked on from his perch.
You can’t have a Pirate’s Den without wenches…
…and a parrot!
Buddy wandered into the gift shop and tried on a pirate hat.
“Ay matey, I’m a salty dog!”
Out on the grounds of the restaurant and RV park, dark storm clouds continued to swirl overhead, but the palm trees and beach sand spoke of those wonderful sunny days that fill the spring and fall in these parts.
It was cold today, but in a few weeks this place will be bathed in true beach weather.
We were amazed to find that many of the waterfront RV sites at Pirate’s Den RV Resort have their own private cabana that’s big enough for several couples to enjoy sundowners together in the afternoons. What fun!!
Many RVs in the waterfront sites have their own private cabanas. How fun!
We stopped by the Pirate’s Den RV Resort office, and found out you can rent a waterfront RV site with a cabana for $480 a week ($450 without one) for up to 3 weeks (as of January 2026). If you don’t mind being in the second or third row of rigs, it’s as little as $425 a week or $695 a month.
In the past, the waterfront sites could be rented for the entire winter, and some long-time guests were grandfathered in to be able to stay in “their site” all winter long, even now. We’d noticed that the campsites closest to the office had signs with the names of the resident RVers, and their beach cabanas were full of patio chairs, tables, patio lights and flags reminding everyone that “It’s 5 o’clock Somewhere!”
What a blast! And how nice that they have shortened the stay limit so more people can enjoy these wonderful beachfront campsites with private cabanas.
Pirate’s Den RV Resort looks like a great place to park an RV for a few weeks!
But there’s also something to be said about the more spread out campsites at Buckskin Mountain State Park. Unfortunately, Arizona State Parks raised their camping rates to $50/night this year for a site with hookups (Buckskin has full hookups). But it’s a beautiful park with good sized sites, and perhaps because of the higher prices we were able to make reservations just 10 days before our trip.
If you have a smaller RV and you don’t mind foregoing the hookups and being lined up cheek-by-jowel in a parking lot next to the beach, that option is also available at Buckskin Mountain State Park for $25/night. Only one or two of these dozen or so dry parking lot style campsites had a rig (or tent) in it when we were there, so you may get more space and privacy than expected!
The RVs are in full hookup sites. The dry sites are diagonally striped parking spaces on the water in the upper left of the image with just one truck camper parked there.
We had a great stay at Buckskin Mountain State Park, but when our time was up we were excited to continue on to Cattail Cove State Park just a few miles down the road.
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More info about Buckskin State Park and Pirate’s Den:
- Buckskin Mountain State Park – Official website
- Pirate’s Den RV Resort and Restaurant – Official website
- Where these places – Google Maps
Other blog posts from the area:
- Balloons and VW Buses in Lake Havasu AZ
- Drag Boat Races in AZ – Top Speed FUN on the Colorado River!
- Havasu Springs Resort, AZ – Lucky Break!
- VW Microbus Mania in Lake Havasu Arizona!
- Waterfront Dining in Arizona – Scorpion Bay & River’s Edge Cantina
- Wild Burros of the Colorado River – A Puppy’s View!
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