Permissions for the Saguaro National Park

[pix]

Hello,

at the moment we are planning our traversing of the Saguaro National Park and have one question.

For the Saguaro National Park we need two permissions:
a) a permission for camping, when we decide to camp overnight inside of the park
https://www.recreation.gov/activitypass/AP21620

b) a permission for the entrance in the park itself.
https://www.recreation.gov/camping/campgrounds/10028678

The camping permission costs 8 Dollar per person and is valid for 14 days with beginning of the issue.
But the Saguaro National Park Wilderness permits is just valid for one day. That means, we have to know exactly our date of arrival.
Have we understood is correctly?

Thanks for your assistance
Sabine/Germany

[NJH]

No. The park entrance pass is valid for 7 days from date of purchase. https://www.nps.gov/sagu/planyourvisit/fees.htm Your second link is not what you need - that is a camping permit for those who are not hiking the Arizona trail. You will have cell coverage somewhere in the days leading up to the park (don’t remember exactly where).

[pix]

@NJH

Your second link is not what you need

This was the crucial sentence for us.

Okay, we need a Standard Entrance Pass for 15 Dollar per person and that pass is valid for 7 days from date of purchase.
https://www.nps.gov/sagu/planyourvis...ntrance-passes

Cellular coverage is a huge problem for us at the moment, because we do not have any idea where to buy a sim card for our mobil phone and what company features the best coverage for the AZT.

If we do not have a working mobil phone then we could buy a park entrance pass in the shop of Colossal Cave Mountain Park via WLAN (Wi-Fi) or in the Rincon Mountain Visitor Center (East) directly on-site.

Is WLAN (Wi-Fi) available for free of charge in the shop of Colossal Cave Mountain Park ?

Thanks

[garlic08]

...Is WLAN (Wi-Fi) available for free of charge in the shop of Colossal Cave Mountain Park ?
Thanks

When do you plan on hiking? I live nearby and can check next time I go there, probably in the next couple of weeks.

It's been nearly 15 years since I hiked the trail, but I hike in Saguaro National Park often (going there this morning) and have never seen a ranger on the trail. When I hiked I had the same questions as you, and they told me back then that as long as you had a pass and a camping permit, it didn't really matter exactly when and where you camped. I bought my permit (by mail) for Manning Camp and ended up camping at Grass Shack on a different day. I didn't see a single person the entire trip.

On a recent backpacking trip to Manning Camp during AZT hiking season, there were quite a few hikers there and nobody seemed too concerned about a schedule.

[chknfngrs]

It’s been my impression that permits are to limit NPS liability should adventures go wrong.

[pix]

When do you plan on hiking?

We suppose around the week from 04-15-2024.

When I hiked I had the same questions as you, and they told me back then that as long as you had a pass and a camping permit, it didn't really matter exactly when and where you camped.

But you had both - a camping permit and a entrance pass, right?

[garlic08]

..But you had both - a camping permit and a entrance pass, right?

Yes, but as a resident I always have an annual pass for all national parks.

I'm planning bicycle trip to Colossal Caverns soon and will check on the WiFi then.

A little bit of gratuitous history: I day-hiked to Hope Camp yesterday, and walked on the AZT for a mile or so. I remembered when I hiked in 2009, the Quilter trail didn't exist and we had to illegally bushwhack between Grass Shack and Hope Camp. The AZT was not yet a National Scenic Trail and the Park Service did not recognize it. When you filed an itinerary with the park service, it had to be a fictitious hike from a point with a trail head.

[pix]

I'm planning bicycle trip to Colossal Caverns soon and will check on the WiFi then.

Thank’s for your trouble.

[garlic08]

I finally got out there today on my bicycle. Everything is as they say on the AZT website--no charge for holding packages, hiker box, cafe, small supply of food. But they don't have public WiFi. I even offered to pay for access to their system (showed up on my phone), but I got a friendly "no." There is very weak cell service out there.

[pix]

@garlic08
Thanks a lot for your endeavor :-)

[DougWise]

FYI - Looks like a new addition on Recreation.gov for AZT through hikers. You can purchase a through hiker pass and it makes reservations through permit areas a bit easier. Gives you a 14 day window to camp in tow of the camp sites in the park. You will need to pay for entrance (or use a park pass), in addition to this permit.....


https://www.recreation.gov/activityp...r%20reproduced.

[DougWise]

FYI - Looks like a new addition on Recreation.gov for AZT through hikers. You can purchase a through hiker pass and it makes reservations through permit areas a bit easier. Gives you a 14 day window to camp in two of the camp sites in the park. You will need to pay for entrance (or use a park pass), in addition to this permit.....


https://www.recreation.gov/activityp...r%20reproduced.

[garlic08]

FYI - Looks like a new addition on Recreation.gov for AZT through hikers. You can purchase a through hiker pass and it makes reservations through permit areas a bit easier. Gives you a 14 day window to camp in two of the camp sites in the park. You will need to pay for entrance (or use a park pass), in addition to this permit.....

That actually makes sense. That's the way it's been working for years, so they just codified it. Saguaro is just not busy enough to worry about enforcing details.
A decade ago I hiked the PNT and was faced with a similar problem getting a permit to camp in North Cascades NP. I bought a yearly pass for enty, but there's no way I could time my stay, since I was entering the park through almost 200 miles of the Pasayten Wilderness to the East. As luck would have it, the only other person I saw that day was a park ranger. Nice guy--he got on his radio and issued me a "field permit," and then we camped together. His ambition was to thru-hike the PCT, which also traverses the park, and he needed a gear tutorial.