Concrete / Grandy Creek KOA Holiday Thousand Trails

We stayed at Concrete / Grandy Creek KOA Holiday in Concrete, Washington. (Campground Reviews listing.)

An interesting hybrid park; about half of it has Thousand Trails sites, about half KOA sites. We stayed in a Thousand Trails site, so free for us. No sewer, and only 30 amp, but that’s fine for less than a week.

Dates:

Check in: 2022-08-16
Check out: 2022-08-21
5 nights

Weather:

Mostly sunny
High temps ranging between 77-91°F, lows around 59-63°F
No significant wind

Noise:

No road noise or train noise
A little neighbor noise (kids and dogs), especially at the weekend

Site:

#23, back in, gravel
Needed to disconnect toad; parked in front of coach (on gravel)
Not very level, sloped up at the back
Smallish site: about 55 feet long by about 30 feet wide
Partial hookups:

Only 30 amp power; conveniently located
45 PSI water pressure (we boosted from our tank); fairly conveniently located
No sewer connection

Picnic table, fire pit on gravel
Several trees for privacy

Internet (in usage priority order):

T-Mobile: 40-65 Mbps down, 2 Mbps up, 60 ms ping
Verizon: 13-28 Mbps down, 5 Mbps up, 40 ms ping
AT&T: offline (we need a new SIM card)
Starlink: not used
Campground Wi-Fi: none

Amenities:

Garbage dumpsters
Pool; hot tub unavailable

Here’s our review on Campground Reviews:

Close to North Cascades National Park

We stayed at this park with our Thousand Trails membership. It’s also a KOA, and each site is marked with a green or yellow utility box depending on which “side” you’re on. There are very few 50A full hookup sites allocated for Thousand Trails, and most of them seem to be taken by seasonals, so we were stuck with a 30A site that didn’t have a sewer connection. Most of the sites seem to be electric/water-only. It was in the 90s while we were there, but luckily, we’d recently had SoftStartRV units installed on two of our ACs, so we were able to have them running even with the 30A connection. Between the narrow roads and the large trees jutting out into the roads, it was a little difficult driving and parking our 40′ motorhome. Once we got settled, the trees were nice cover from the heat of the day. They seem to be having severe staffing issues as the camp store was closed the whole time we were there.

On top of not having a sewer connection, the one and only dump station was out of commission for our entire stay. They finally opened up a sewer site (back in) for folks to dump, but what a hassle that would be. We waited until we left and made use of the excellent facilities provided at the next rest area on I-5. We camped at Concrete / Grandy Creek KOA Holiday in a Motorhome.

The RV park map:

Map

Our site:

Our site

The site was sloped up at the back, so the front was fairly high with the coach leveled. So I used the accessory step:

Step

An interesting tree on our site:

Interesting tree

The utilities — 30 amp power, 45 PSI water, and no sewer (at Thousand Trails campgrounds it’s fairly common to clip the check-out date to the power pedestal):

Utilities

To help the jacks get level, I added some plastic leveling blocks. The first time I’ve tried them with our coach. They are supposed to be rated to 40,000 pounds, but I’m not convinced:

Jacks

Somewhat crushed:

Jacks

The jack pads as we prepared to leave; sometime I’ll try again with a flat topper, to see if that helps:

Jack pads

After visiting North Cascades National Park (see a future post), I added the sticker for it to our slide:

David adding sticker

Our National Park stickers for the parks we’ve visited so far:

National Park stickers

The entrance:

Our destination

Entrance ranger station:

Our destination

Welcome:

Welcome

Cabins:

Cabins

Dog park:

Dog park

Laundry:

Laundry

Big jump pad for kiddies:

Jump pad

Playground:

Playground

Big board

Hot tub closed:

Hot tub closed

Swimming pool:

Swimming pool

Mini golf:

Mini golf

Grandy Creek:

Grandy Creek

Group campsite:

Group campsite

Maintenance barn:

Maintenance barn

The dump station was closed due to a pipe leak:

Dump station closed

Other RV sites:

Other RV sites

Video

Video: Shelton, Washington to Concrete, Washington motorhome travel timelapse

A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 187 miles from Shelton, Washington to Concrete, Washington. (Departure omitted for privacy.)

Travel from Shelton to Concrete, Washington

We drove our coach 187 miles, about 5 hours of driving, from Shelton, Washington to Concrete, Washington.

The map route, heading north (exact start omitted for privacy):

Patial map route

A narrow road:

Narrow road

Paladin on the dash, unusual for him when driving:

Paladin on the dash

On the dash in front of Jenn isn’t acceptable, though:

Paladin on the dash

Freeway:

Freeway

Joining I-5:

Joining I-5

A bridge over I-5 in Olympia, the state capitol:

Olympia bridge

Paladin on the back of my chair:

David and Paladin

On the dash again; he seems to be getting more comfortable with seeing the traffic outside:

Paladin

While driving through Tacoma, a semi truck got too close to us and clipped our mirror with theirs, shattering the upper mirror glass:

Shattered mirror

Tacoma Dome:

Tacoma Dome

We stopped at a rest area for lunch:

Rest area

The SeaTac northbound rest area is rather nice, with a dump station and separate RV parking:

Rest area

I got out to inspect the shattered mirror; more on this in a future post (I should be able to replace just the glass):

Shattered mirror

Lunch for us and my Pokémon buddy:

Lunch with Pokémon

(My trainer code is 5198 7224 2799 if you play; my referral code is BT9H6KRBC, if you don’t but want to start.)

Pokémon trainer code

Paladin on my lap:

Paladin on David's lap

Boeing Field:

Boeing Field

Seattle:

Seattle

The freeway goes under downtown buildings:

Under buildings

Paladin on my lap:

Paladin

And sleeping on the back of my chair:

Paladin and David

We stopped at another rest area, and used their dump station:

Dump station

RV at dump station

Dump station

There was a handy map of rest areas and dump stations:

Map

Our exit:

Our exit

Paladin on the floor between us:

Paladin

Highway:

Highway

Our destination:

Our destination

Half-bath door hinges

The door for our half-bathroom was sticking. I investigated, and determined that the issue was that the hinges were bent; here’s an old hinge after being removed:

Old hinge

So I removed the door to replace the hinges:

Removed door

The old hinges were non-mortise, i.e. designed for surface mounting. But I determined that there was enough room for regular hinges, so bought some of a similar size (with a removable pin, for safety):

New hinges

An installed hinge:

Installed hinge

The half bath door works much better now:

Half bath door

Washingtonians

We have been Oregonians since moving from New Zealand to the US in 2001, but now that we’re traveling the country, we have fewer ties to Oregon. We decided to move our domicile (i.e. where we vote and have as a home base) to Washington state, since we have family there, so more of a connection.

The first step in officially changing our domicile was to get new driver licenses, and re-register our truck and coach. Here’s the old Oregon truck license plate:

Oregon truck license plate

And the new Washington truck license plate:

Washington truck license plate

The old Oregon coach license plate:

Oregon coach license plate

The new (and very expensive!) Washington coach license plate:

Washington coach license plate

I guess we’ll need to remove that “heart in Oregon” sticker now; Washington is now our home base.

We have a new mailbox service in Washington, to forward mail to us as we travel. We’re working on changing bank accounts and my Dejal company registration. We’ll change doctors and dentists when due for our next checkups. And more. There are lots of things to update, so it’s certainly not something we do lightly.

Video

Video: Eatonville, Washington to Shelton, Washington motorhome travel timelapse

A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 84 miles from Eatonville, Washington to Shelton, Washington. (Arrival omitted for privacy.)

Travel from Eatonville to Shelton, Washington

We drove our coach 84 miles, about 2.5 hours of driving, from Eatonville, Washington to Mom’s place near Shelton, Washington.

The map route, heading northwest (exact destination omitted for privacy):

Map route

Jenn driving our coach:

Jenn driving our coach

Paladin:

Paladin

Windy road:

Windy road

We turn around our knife block to prevent it from falling over while driving… but forgot this time, oops:

Knife block fell over

I picked it up while we were driving down the road; Paladin watching me, plus the GPS on the TV:

Paladin

A water tower:

Water tower

Not a huge fan of tight roundabouts in our coach:

Roundabout

Entering I-5:

Entering I-5

Paladin on the dash; unusual when driving:

Paladin

Shelton exit:

Shelton exit

Shelton sign:

Shelton sign

Not a huge fan of this narrow bridge in Shelton, either:

Shelton bridge

Paladin on my lap:

Paladin

Not a huge fan of the narrow roads near the destination, too:

Narrow road

But happy to arrive at Mom’s place. Here’s our coach and truck in their driveway:

Coach and truck at Mom's place

Slides in:

Coach and truck at Mom's place

Slides out:

Coach and truck at Mom's place

While “moochdocking” at Mom’s place, we hooked up the coach to an electrical outlet in the house. Our coach has a 50 amp cord, so we used an adapter to convert the 15 amp house plug to a 30 amp connector, and another to our 50 amp cord:

15 amp to 50 amp connectors

Not enough power to run ACs, but it keeps the fridge going, plus lights and such.

Me in the backyard:

David in backyard

We spent a week at Mom’s place, sleeping in our coach to keep Paladin company, showering and hanging out in the house during the day. It was great to spend time with Mom and Mike. Thanks for putting up with us!

Mount Rainier National Park

We visited Mount Rainier National Park in Washington.

The entrance arch:

Entrance

Entrance ranger station:

Entrance

Park buildings, with a glimpse of the mountain:

Park buildings

Glimpse of mountain

Park building

Ancient log:

Log

Museum:

Park building

Museum

Park building

Picnic lunch:

Picnic lunch

Waterfall:

Waterfall

Mt Rainier:

Mt Rainier

River and trees:

River and trees

Top of a waterfall:

Top of waterfall

Mt Rainier

Paradise visitor center:

Visitor center

Relief map

Building

Mt Rainier

Selfie

Flowers:

Flowers

Selfie

Mt Rainier

Alder Lake Park Rocky Point Campground

We stayed at Alder Lake Park Rocky Point Campground in Eatonville, Washington. (Campground Reviews listing.)

A delightful lakeside view.

Dates:

Check in: 2022-08-07
Check out: 2022-08-09
2 nights

Weather:

Sunny
High temps 90°F, lows at 58°F
No significant wind

Noise:

Next to a highway, so a bunch of road noise; no train noise
No significant neighbor noise

Site:

#423, pull through, asphalt
Didn’t need to disconnect toad; parked behind coach
Not very level, sloped down from the driver side
Smallish site: about 60 feet long by about 25 feet wide
Partial hookups:

50 amp power conveniently located
55 PSI water pressure; conveniently located
No sewer

Picnic table, fire pit on gravel
Several trees on the driver side for privacy

Internet (in usage priority order):

T-Mobile: 55 Mbps down, 22 Mbps up, 55 ms ping
AT&T: 1 Mbps down, 4 Mbps up, 682 ms ping
Verizon: 8 Mbps down, 3 Mbps up, 25 ms ping
Starlink: not used
Campground Wi-Fi: none

Amenities:

Garbage bin

Here’s our review on Campground Reviews:

Lovely view of the lake and close to Mt Rainier

We stayed at the Rocky Point campground in site 423 and had the best view of the lake from our site. However, getting to the site was a little gnarly with our 40′ motorhome, as the road inside the park is very winding and narrow with many overhanging trees. The site was one of the few pull-throughs in the campground and just long enough for our motorhome and tow vehicle. There wasn’t a camp host on duty, but it was pretty easy to just go to our site and get settled. A ranger came by while we were at Mt. Rainier the next day and left our check-in paperwork under our wiper. There’s easy access to the day use area next door, so it was nice to cool off on a warm afternoon. The only limiting factor to this campground is the lack of a sewer connection at each site; otherwise, we would have happily stayed for much longer than two nights. We camped at Alder Lake Park in a Motorhome.

The RV park map:

Map sign