We’re off to Quartzsite!

After delaying our departure due to extreme cold and snow, we’re finally headed south to Albuquerque on January 17^th.  Our first night is at American RV Resort, just west of downtown Albuquerque.  The park is about as expected, and suffers from highway noise from nearby I-40.  From Albuquerque we’re headed to the KOA Journey in Holbrook.  Some sites here have been upgraded to KOA Patio sites with privacy fences and pergolas. But, located just off of I-40, again this park suffers from constant road noise. Our final night on the road to Quartzsite is at Verde Ranch RV Resort in Camp Verde, AZ.  This is a favorite park of ours with all the amenities of a nice RV resort.  From Camp Verde we transit around Phoenix and make the relatively short trip over to Quartzsite.

Holbrook, AZ KOA Journey

As we did last year, we’re in Quartzsite to meet other members of the Montana Owners Group. With our arrival there are 25 rigs in the “Circling of the Montana’s”.  The big RV show opens the day after our arrival and on Sunday we spend a few hours perusing the booths of RV suppliers from all of the US and touring some of the most recent floorplans in Montana and Brinkley 5^th wheels.  Flooding rains moved into the Quartzsite area, so outside activities were cancelled on Sunday evening and again on Monday.  On Tuesday we pack up our muddy equipment and head towards Palm Springs where we’ll spend the next 8 nights.

February/March, Arizona and California

This will mark our first Spring Trip that includes stops in California.  In addition to Palm Springs we’ll visit Temecula and San Diego.  More from California!

Marina RV Park, Sparks, NV

Marina RV Park, Sparks, NV

Sparks Marina RV Park is a beautiful addition to the new Marina district on the east side of Sparks, NV.  The centerpiece of this retail and residential space is 77 acre Helms Lake situated on a natural occurring aquifer.  At the retail mecca of “The Legends at Sparks Marina” you’ll find outlet stores from Adidas to Nike and Vans (seems like lots of shoes) to the big stores of Lowes, Target and Off Broadway Shoe Warehouse (more shoes) and a foodies delight at Olive Garden, Fuddruckers and Taco Bell.

The RV park gets high marks both on rvparkreviews.com with an 8.9 Excellent and on Good Sam – a triple 10!  With almost 200 sites, this is a large park.  The outside edge provides deep back-in sites with a privacy/security fence to the rear.  These fences are short enough to allow viewing over them from back windows, so they offer a bit more privacy than the 3 center pull-through rows.  Each site is full-hookup with water, electric, cable and sewer.  Each site also has a picnic table set on an island of AstroTurf and a couple of trees.  Our back-in sites also had several more trees and bushes to the rear.  All internal roadways and site pads are paved.  And the WiFi worked well.

Besides the sites themselves, Marina RV has a beautiful pool/hot tub, 24-hour laundry, Clubhouse with full kitchen, BBQ patio, ping pong and pool tables.  A very well stocked retail store, a putting green and immaculately clean dog runs.  For $45/night excluding the Good Sam discount, this is a great value – we’d return to Sparks Marina RV Park again.

Marina RV Park, Sparks, NV

Marina RV Park, Sparks, NV

Marina RV Park, Sparks, NV

Marina RV Park, Sparks, NV

Marina RV Park, Sparks, NV

Marina RV Park, Sparks, NV

Sac-West RV Resort, Sacramento, CA

Sac-West RV Resort

We’ve traveled about 160 miles down I-5 from Redding in northern California and are parked at Sac-West RV Resort, just  west of Sacramento.  This former KOA has it all, a beautiful swimming pool, a huge dog run area, clean restrooms and laundry facilities, 20 tent sites, 10 cabins, about 100 RV sites, and even an on-site food truck.  All sites are gravel pull-throughs and most provide some type of shrubs or a tree for privacy and shade.  We’re parked awning to awning in sites #3 and #4, in the row in front of the office.  In site #1 is the 24 Karat Grill, the on-site food truck (it’s actually a trailer) for breakfast burritos, handmade burgers, wings and a large selection of fried favorites from 8AM to 1PM.

Sites aren’t spacious, some even lack the space to deploy awnings fully.  Our sites in the first row were adequate for awnings and a picnic table squeezed in between the two trailers and trucks parked across the front or rear of the site.  The roomiest sites are those along the eastern edge, 86/99,  While still pull-throughs, these sites have nothing behind them except the driveway and an open area at the edge of the park.  $61-67 per night isn’t a bargain, but they do honor the 10% Good Sam discount.

After enjoying the weekend including a swim in the pool and a Denver Broncos game, we’re going to pack up and head toward Yosemite National Park.  More from Yosemite!

Sac-West RV Resort – Office

Sac-West RV Resort – 24 Karat Grill

Sac-West RV Resort – Pool

Sac-West RV Resort – sites 86/99

Sac-West RV Resort – Tent Area

Sac-West RV Resort – Fishing Pond

Emerald Forest Cabins & RV, Trinidad, CA

Trinidad, CA Beach

We’ve arrived at the Pacific Ocean!  We’re parked at Emerald Forest RV park in Trinidad, about 20 miles north of Eureka.  The RV and Tent sites here are scattered through the forest of massive, tall redwood trees.  Darkness comes early and shadowy dawn lingers long past 10AM – making for some great sleep-in opportunities.  We’re in the first row of about 12 sites that back-up to Patrick’s Point Road.  There are about 10 additional RV sites in this front section along with about 10 cabins.  In the back part of the property (closer to highway 101) there are about 20 additional RV sites, both pull-through and back-in and about 25 tent sites.

Full hookup sites, including cable TV are $46 for back-in and $48 for pull-through.  The office has a good selection of local craft beers, some RV items and lots of maps and advise about what to see and do in the area.  We’ll be in Trinidad for 4 nights to tour up and down the coast including the small town of Trinidad, Redwood National and State Parks and Patrick’s Point State Park.  We also plan to do some shopping in Eureka and drop-in at the Lost Coast Brewery.

Emerald Forest RV Park

Emerald Forest RV Park

Emerald Forest RV Park

Emerald Forest RV Park – Site #6 & 7

Emerald Forest RV Park – Site #20

Trinidad, CA Beach

Inn Town Campground, Nevada City, CA

Inn Town Campground, Nevada City, CA

Happy Labor Day from Nevada City, CA – our first stop on the new route which will take us south of the fire that has closed highway 299.  We’re parked in sites 16, 17 & 18 at the Inn Town Campground, just off of highway 20.

These sites provide water and electric and we’re able to find some OTA TV during nighttime hours.  Once the sun comes up, these channels fade off into pixelation.  The campground WiFi works well.

This is a large complex of 18 RV sites, about 30 tent sites and 21 “glamping” sites. These glamping sites consist of a fully furnished tent with outdoor porch, fresh linens, heated bed mattress and electric lighting.  The campground also provides a beautiful common area with library & kitchen, a small camp store, a refreshing outdoor pool and a few shower houses scattered throughout the complex.  With all these amenities, the prices are higher than average here, about $60 for an RV site, up to $150 for a glamping tent and up to $50 for a tent site.  Our 3 sites overlook the nearby Narrow Gauge Railway Museum – a worthwhile stop for those with rail preservation interests.

On an outing for fuel and a few groceries we discover the historic old downtown area of Nevada City.  In a short excursion we also check-out the nearby Scott Flat Lake Park. This park would provide ideal camping for smaller RV’s or tents since many of the sites overlook the beautiful Scott Flat Lake.

After two nights in Nevada City we’ll continue across Highway 20 toward Nice, CA.  More from Clear Lake country…

Site #16, Inn Town Campground

Inn Town Campground

Site #17, Inn Town Campground

Inn Town Campground

Inn Town Campground

Inn Town Campground

Inn Town Campground, Nevada City, CA

Inn Town Campground

Inn Town Campground

Inn Town Campground

Silver Sky Lodge RV Park, Eureka, NV

Continuing across Utah and into Nevada, about the only highlight of this route is that it passes near Great Basin National Park.  Beyond the mountains of the National Park, the drive seems to be a series of pass crossings (around 7000’ each) and straight line roadways until the next pass.  Just before reaching the center of Nevada, we’ve stopped at Silver Sky Lodge RV park, about a mile west of Eureka, NV.  With around 15 sites, this park provides a gravel parking lot and well positioned full hookups for $25/night.  We parked awning to awning for more privacy and shade.  Our site has one of the few plastic picnic tables and a small 4×8 “pad” of artificial turf – a nice touch on the gravel.   There are a few OTA TV channels available, no park WiFi, but T-Mobile and Verizon both worked fine.

This is a no-frills park, but we’d not hesitate to stop here again on the Loneliest Road in America. Tomorrow we’ll continue west on Highway 50, with our next stop just east of Reno, NV.  More from there….

The Loneliest Road in America

The long, long road…

Silver Sky Lodge RV Park

The Friendliest Town, Eureka, NV

California Bound

We’re California Bound, expecting to arrive on the northern California coast in about 10 days. Once across Utah and Nevada, we’ll spend 2 nights at Susanville, CA, then 2 more nights near Lake Shasta at Redding.  We’ll cross over to the coast for 4 nights at Trinidad, CA then 3 more nights at Crescent City, CA before starting the return “loop” through southern Oregon.

Our first stop after leaving home is the KOA in Silt, CO.  A favorite KOA, we’ve watched as the owners opened to torrential rains and a muddy mess of a campground about 3 years ago. Now nicely landscaped, we enjoy the spacious riverside sites the best.  Our second night finds us back at Green River State Park.  We visted this park last year and would note that it still suffers from over watering and a fly/mosquito problem.  But, for a quick overnight – the cottonwood treed oasis is just fine.  Tomorrow we’ll continue to western Utah at Delta.  More from there…