We stayed at Turtle Beach RV Resort in Manteca, California. (Campground Reviews listing.)

A Thousand Trails park, so free for us. Calling it a “resort” is a bit of a stretch, though.

Dates:

• Check in: 2024-09-13
• Check out: 2024-09-16
• 3 nights

Weather:

• Sunny
• High temps 80-92°F, lows 54-58°F
• Some wind, gusts to 31 MPH

Noise:

• No road noise
• Nearby train horn noise
• A bunch of neighbor noise (kids and TV)

Site:

• #C-16, back-in, gravel
• Needed to disconnect toad, parked in front of coach
• Somewhat level site; high on passenger side; used hydraulic leveling
• Gravel driveway about 45 feet long by 8 feet wide
• About 20 feet to neighbor on passenger side
• About 15 feet to neighbor on driver side
• Picnic table
• Some tall trees
• Not very clean site; small bits of trash

Utilities:

• 50 amp power, conveniently located
• 47 PSI water, conveniently located
• Good sewer connection, very conveniently located (less than one 10-foot pipe needed)
• Some sites aren’t full-hook-up, so we were glad to get one

Internet (in usage priority order):

• AT&T: 370-460 Mbps down, 2-9 Mbps up, 40 ms ping
• Verizon: 25 Mbps down, 25 Mbps up, 70 ms ping
• T-Mobile: unreliable service
• Starlink: not used
• Campground Wi-Fi: none

Amenities:

• Garbage dumpsters

Our review on Campground Reviews:

Smaller campground amidst booming suburbs

This is a standard, older Thousand Trails, which is paying the price for deferred maintenance. The sites were fairly basic and rustic, and we were lucky to snag one of the few 50A sites for our short stay. A no-frills park combined with an access road that is not big rig-friendly makes for interesting times. The road is narrow and winding, with lots of trees right up to the edge of the road and growing low over it. That’s after you pass through a gauntlet of new suburban development with every other road closed and detours everywhere. Frequent train horns all day and night keep it from being very restful once you’re there. We camped at Turtle Beach RV Resort in a Motorhome.

Campground map:

An interactive map:

Our site:

Utilities:

Other sites:

Annual sites:

Tent area:

Large unused area:

Walthall Slough:

We stayed at Red Bluff KOA Journey in Red Bluff, California. (Campground Reviews listing.)

A nice campground, except for the road and train noise.

Dates:

• Check in: 2024-09-08
• Check out: 2024-09-13
• 5 nights

Weather:

• Sunny
• High temps 84-98°F, lows 57-61°F
• Some wind, gusts to 32 MPH

Noise:

• Nearby freeway noise
• Regular train horn noise
• Occasional boat noise
• Some gunshots the first night
• Negligible neighbor noise

Site:

• #113, long pull-through, concrete
• Didn’t need to disconnect toad, parked behind coach
• Fairly level site; a little high in the back; used hydraulic leveling
• Concrete driveway about 95 feet long by 16 feet wide
• 15 feet to neighbor on passenger side
• No neighbor on driver side
• Picnic table
• Tall trees
• Somewhat clean site; a few small bits of trash
• Invasive ants

Utilities:

• 50 amp power, a little inconveniently located (two pedestals, but both inconvenient)
• 70 PSI water, inconveniently located (two faucets, equally inconvenient)
• Good sewer connection, inconveniently located (2.5 10-foot pipes needed; two connections, both inconvenient)

Internet (in usage priority order):

• T-Mobile: 65 Mbps down, 20 Mbps up, 35 ms ping
• AT&T: 65-80 Mbps down, 15-22 Mbps up, 65 ms ping
• Verizon: 3-6 Mbps down, 7-18 Mbps up, 95 ms ping
• Starlink: not used
• Campground Wi-Fi: not used

Amenities:

• Garbage pickup from site (and dumpster near our site)
• Pool
• Fresh baked sourdough bread in camp store
• Walking distance to Shari’s and other restaurants
• Package delivery to office

Our review on Campground Reviews:

A bit expensive but convenient

This campground is very convenient along I-5, and we’d probably stay here again for a one-night stop, but for a longer stay, the noise from the interstate is a bit irritating. We had a nice, long pull-through site with plenty of room. The major downside was that we faced our first-ever ant infestation while staying here. They marched up our water hose, into the wet bay, and then into the living area. However, a bait station in the wet bay and a spritz of pyrethrin along the hose deterred them. We camped at Red Bluff KOA Journey in a Motorhome.

Tip for Other Campers: It’s a nice day trip to Lassen Volcanic National Park….

Campground map:

An interactive map:

Our site (which we picked out when booking) was on an edge, with nobody on our driver side (which I prefer):

This site used to be two back-ins, so has two utility pedestals, one at each end. Which is equally inconvenient if parking in the middle of the site. When I first connected the sewer, I used the hookup at the back, which needed three 10-foot pipes plus two 2-foot pipes:

I later switched to the one at the front, which let me remove one of the 10-foot pipes:

Though having the pipe in front of the cargo doors is less preferred, since it gets in the way. Notice also that I used the elbow extenders on both connections, as the sewer ports were too recessed.

While here, we had an invasion of ants; amazingly, the first time we’ve had that:

A fancy entrance:

When checking in, we picked up some sourdough bread that they were selling in the office:

Dog wash:

Pool and clubhouse:

Games area:

Dog park:

Bathrooms:

Group fire pit:

Tent area overlooking the river:

River and freeway view:

Fountains:

Other sites:

Freeway view:

L-shaped sites:

We wouldn’t mind staying here again for a short time, but would probably look elsewhere to avoid the freeway and train noise.