Park Volunteers
On-Site Park Volunteers
Whether you want to live on-site and help visitors during our busy seasons or only have a few hours each week to volunteer, you can make a difference for Arizona State Parks and Trails! We can’t run our parks without the thousands of volunteers who selflessly give their time and talents to improve the parks for our visitors. We offer many different volunteer activities at our parks and recreation areas across the state. Check out the list of roles below for more information, and fill out a Volunteer Application today!
Campground Host
The campground host volunteer’s primary responsibility is to assist park visitors. This includes greeting visitors, helping them get settled, answering questions, receiving comments, communicating park rules and regulations, and possibly collecting fees. Campground hosts are also expected to observe activities in the park that require immediate attention by staff and/or outside emergency support. Hosts provide their own lodging (camper, trailer, motor home) and are provided a free campsite, most often with utility hookups. The park manager or his/her designee will approve specific scheduled hours and other assignments. Individual or couple camp hosts are required to actively put in a minimum of 25 hours per individual or 40 combined hours per couple each week in the camp host position. Any volunteer who lives onsite at our parks will be categorized as a camp host. These volunteer duties may be different than the information provided above, but the same minimal hours and professionalism is expected. (The following parks offer campground host opportunities.)
- Alamo Lake State Park
- Buckskin Mountain State Park
- Catalina State Park
- Cattail Cove State Park
- Dead Horse Ranch State Park
- Fool Hollow Lake Recreation Area
- Homolovi State Park
- Kartchner Caverns State Park
- Lake Havasu State Park
- Lost Dutchman State Park
- Lyman Lake State Park
- Patagonia Lake State Park
- Picacho Peak State Park
- Red Rock State Park
- River Island State Park
- Roper Lake State Park
Visitor Services
Visitor services volunteers will assist parks in a variety of clerical and administrative functions. These could include typing, filing, park store support (inventory control and customer assistance), entry station support (fee collection, disseminating information to visitors), answering the phone, research, and other administrative duties as designated by the park manager or his/her designee.
Maintenance Services
Maintenance services volunteers will assist parks with general maintenance and small construction projects. Examples include trail work, painting, plumbing, weeding, planting, or other projects as designated by the park manager or his/her designee. Volunteers will not be required to perform any extensive maintenance or repairs, especially to equipment and vehicles without supervision unless appropriate training and certifications have been documented.
Interpretive Services
Interpretive services volunteers support an array of educational and recreational programming. These could include development and presentation of environmental programs (interpretive hikes, school presentations, etc.) historic programs (guided tours of historic houses, brown bag lunch presentations, etc.) and recreational programs (campfire talks, special demonstrations, etc.).
Museum and Historic Preservation Services
Volunteers in this category assist with collection research and management, curation, exhibit development and installation and other appropriate projects as designated by the park manager, his/her designee and/or the ASPT curator.
Research Inventory and Monitoring Program (RIM)
Volunteers in this category work primarily as field researchers, collecting data related to natural and cultural resources at our parks. In addition, volunteers assist with data recording, data management and data analysis.
Special Projects
Special project volunteers account for individuals or groups that assist the parks in accomplishing a specific one-time project or a short-term ongoing project. These projects may include, but are not limited to: Creating interpretive displays, research, gardening, clean-up projects and trail work. Scout groups, service learning and non-paid internships typically fall into this category.
