We stayed at Voyager RV Resort & Hotel in Tucson, Arizona. (Campground Reviews listing.)

A huge RV resort, mostly park models (small manufactured homes), with a section for transient RVs. A 55+ age-restricted park; our first, now that I’m 55. And as an Encore park, it’s free with our Thousand Trails membership.

Dates:

• Check in: 2024-11-03
• Check out: 2024-11-10
• 7 nights

Weather:

• Sunny; rainy on arrival
• High temps 62-70°F, lows 35-46°F
• Some wind, gusts to 21 MPH

Noise:

• Distant road noise
• Some distant train horn noise
• Negligible neighbor noise

Site:

• #07-176, pull-through, asphalt
• Didn’t need to disconnect toad, parked behind coach
• Somewhat level site; high on passenger side and front; used hydraulic leveling
• Asphalt driveway about 100 feet long by 10 feet wide
• 13 feet to neighbors on both sides
• Picnic table on 20 feet long by 4 feet wide concrete patio
• Charcoal grill
• Loose gravel elsewhere in the site
• No trees
• Clean site

Utilities:

• 50 amp power, very conveniently located
• 48 PSI water, conveniently located (towards the end of the stay, disconnected due to near-freezing temperatures)
• Good sewer connection, very conveniently located (2 2-foot pipes needed)

Internet (in usage priority order):

• T-Mobile: 165 Mbps down, 14 Mbps up, 20 ms ping
• AT&T: 85-133 Mbps down, 8 Mbps up, 50-75 ms ping
• Verizon: 5 Mbps down, 2-4 Mbps up, 35 ms ping
• Starlink: not used
• Campground Wi-Fi: none

Amenities:

• Residential-style rolling garbage and recycling bins on each site, with pickup on Tuesdays
• Pools
• Restaurant (which we didn’t try)
• Lots of other stuff

Our review on Campground Reviews:

Snowbirding in suburbia

This is a vast 55+ resort with all the amenities you would expect. Most of the sites are full-time residents in park models, with relatively few RV sites. The biggest SNAFU was when we arrived, the gate guard told us to pull up into the waiting area, and someone would bring out our paperwork and escort us to our site. Not so. After we sat there for about 10 minutes, someone came by in a golf cart and told us that the “ladies are waiting for you inside”. So, ignore anything the guy at the gate says and go inside the hotel lobby to check in. After that, we were escorted to our site. We had a decently long pull-through site with decent hookups and a fine stay. We’re not really into the RV resort community vibe, but we’d happily stay here again as it was convenient for anything we’d want to do in Tucson. We camped at Voyager RV Resort & Hotel in a Motorhome.

Campground map:

An interactive map:

Our site:

Very convenient utilities:

Residential-style trash pickup:

Propane delivery:

RV check-in area:

Registration:

Hotel:

Outdoor area:

Mailboxes for residents:

There’s even an onsite library:

And hairdresser:

Fat Willy’s Bar & Grill / Market, which we didn’t try, as we went out pretty much every evening; we were going to try it the first night, but it was raining, so we didn’t want to bother. Maybe next time:

One of the pools:

Lots of pickleball courts:

Shuffleboard:

Hundreds of park models (small manufactured homes):

Other RV sites:

A nice RV park, that really lives up to the resort label, not that we took advantage of any of it, as usual. But we’d be happy to stay here again.

We stayed at Encore Pilot Knob RV Resort in Winterhaven, California. (Campground Reviews listing.)

Across the road from the Center of the World, but kinda in the middle of nowhere. Except lots of freeway and train noise.

This is probably a popular place for snowbirds (people who travel south for the winter) in December and January, but was mostly empty while we were here at the end of October and into the start of November.

Dates:

• Check in: 2024-10-27
• Check out: 2024-11-03
• 7 nights

Weather:

• Mostly sunny
• High temps 72-94°F, lows 49-61°F
• One day of high wind, gusts to 46 MPH

Noise:

• Loud freeway noise
• Train horn noise
• Military helicopters flying over daily
• Negligible neighbor noise

Site:

• #13, back-in, gravel
• Needed to disconnect toad, parked beside coach
• Mostly level site; a little high on passenger side; used hydraulic leveling
• Gravel driveway about 50 feet long by 28 feet wide
• Concrete patio about 20 feet long by 6 feet wide (plus bonus pavers on this site)
• No picnic table (which is fine, we never use it anyway)
• Some trees and shrubs
• Somewhat clean site
• Non-invasive ants

Utilities:

• 50 amp power, conveniently located
• 50 PSI water, a little inconveniently located behind site
• Loose sewer connection, inconveniently located under coach (1.5 10-foot pipes needed)

Internet (in usage priority order):

• T-Mobile: 65-85 Mbps down, 16-60 Mbps up, 30 ms ping
• AT&T: 77 Mbps down, 35 Mbps up, 32-100 ms ping
• Verizon: 4 Mbps down, 1 Mbps up, 38 ms ping
• Starlink: not used
• Campground Wi-Fi: not used

Amenities:

• Garbage dumpsters by entrance
• Pool

Our review on Campground Reviews:

Decent desert destination

If you want to be close to Yuma but with a bit more rustic vibe, this might be someplace you’d enjoy. The noise from I-8 and the freight trains is unavoidable, but for the most part, this was a good place to stop. Our back-in FHU site was spacious and had a nice little patio area with a palo verde tree and bougainvillea shrubbery. It was pretty empty when we were there, as it was a bit early for the snowbirds, and we enjoyed the laid-back atmosphere. We camped at Encore Pilot Knob RV Resort in a Motorhome.

Campground map:

An interactive map:

Our site:

The sewer connection was under our coach (which also limited how far back we could go), and power and water behind the site. Which is fine for us, but might be inconvenient for some:

Extra big paved area and some nice flowering shrubs on this site; it was probably occupied by a long-term resident many years ago:

The entrance, with the I-8 freeway in front:

Pool and clubhouse area:

Other sites, mostly empty:

Military helicopters went over pretty much daily:

Garden area in the center of the campground:

BLM land with boondockers surrounds the campground:

Not a bad campground; we wouldn’t mind staying here again, though probably not for more than a few days; too noisy.

We stayed at Thousand Trails Palm Springs in Palm Desert, California. (Campground Reviews listing.)

Our third stay here. It can be tricky to get positioned, with lots of palm trees and other obstacles, but it was a little easier this time, as it was much less busy; lots of vacant sites to choose from (first come first served). Though the first site we tried the power didn’t work, an issue that affects many of the sites.

Dates:

• Check in: 2024-10-13
• Check out: 2024-10-27
• 14 nights

Weather:

• Sunny
• High temps 81-97°F, lows 58-67°F (it was a high of 109°F the week before!)
• Little wind, gusts to 16 MPH

Noise:

• Some freeway road noise
• Some train noise, but no horns most of the time
• Negligible neighbor noise

Site:

• #242, back-in, sand
• Needed to disconnect toad, parked beside coach
• Somewhat level site; a little high on driver front side; used hydraulic leveling
• Sand site about 45 feet long by 25 feet wide, including patio
• Zero feet to neighbors on both sides (neighbors patio was under our driver-side slide-out, fortunately the site was empty)
• Picnic table on 12×6 concrete patio
• Tall palm trees
• Mostly clean site
• Some noninvasive ants

Utilities:

• 50 amp power, a little inconveniently located behind site
• 60 PSI water, inconveniently located behind site
• Loose sewer connection, very conveniently located (less than 1 10-foot pipe needed)

Internet (in usage priority order):

• T-Mobile: 150-250 Mbps down, 40 Mbps up, 30-50 ms ping, unreliable
• AT&T: 350-450 Mbps down, 35 Mbps up, 55 ms ping
• Verizon: 5 Mbps down, 5 Mbps up, 35 ms ping
• Starlink: not used
• Campground Wi-Fi: none

Amenities:

• Garbage dumpsters
• Pool
• They no longer allow package delivery to site, boo

Our review on Campground Reviews:

Gone downhill, but still decent

This was our third time and the earliest in the season we’ve stayed here. It was interesting (and a nice change) to have so many empty sites to choose from, but the fact that half the pedestals seem to be out of service isn’t great. The power was out at the first site we tried and most of the row opposite us were also out of order. On the plus side, it meant we didn’t have any immediate neighbors during our two-week stay. The other change for the worse is that they no longer accept mail and package deliveries. You used to be able to get Amazon/UPS/FedEx directly to your site, but couriers are no longer allowed in the park, so you have to get General Delivery at the Thousand Palms post office or use Amazon lockers, which isn’t as convenient. If you’re into social things, they have a lot of activities and events. We tend to avoid such things like the plague, but to each their own. It’s still a good option if you want to stay in the Palm Springs area with a Thousand Trails membership. I would choose other options if I were a retail customer. We camped at Thousand Trails Palm Springs in a Motorhome.

Campground map:

An interactive map:

Our site:

It’s always a challenge getting positioned here, fitting around the palm trees:

The sewer is very conveniently located, but the water and power are behind the site (which is fine for us):

We got out the griddle, and had several griddled dinners:

Sand gets everywhere in the desert, including in the wheels:

Industrious ants excavating a nest (fortunately they kept to themselves, rather than invading our coach):

We used to be able to get packages delivered to our site in this campground, but they don’t allow that anymore, unfortunately. So we used a nearby Amazon locker and General Delivery to a post office:

We originally pulled into this site, #240:

But when I tried to hook up the power, I couldn’t turn it on; the electrical box was busted (and very sketchy-looking):

So we moved a couple of sites over, after checking its power; site #242 has a newer pedestal. This issue affected a lot of the sites here; many are blocked off or marked as only having 30 amp power, despite having 50 amp plugs.

The site next to us had such a sign, plus a rope blocking it, probably being a seasonal site; it was nice not having anyone next to us on both sides:

A windy sunset:

And day:

Our row was mostly empty most of the time:

Other sites:

Despite the challenges of the palm trees and other obstacles, and the dodgy power, this is still one of our favorite Thousand Trails parks, if only for its proximity to Joshua Tree National Park (though still over an hour away), and us just liking the Palm Springs area. No doubt we’ll be back again (planning to come again next year).

We stayed at Sequoia RV Park in Dunlap, California. (Campground Reviews listing.)

The closest RV park to Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks, with nice large spaces.

Dates:

• Check in: 2024-09-22
• Check out: 2024-09-29
• 7 nights

Weather:

• Sunny
• High temps 88-95°F, lows 65-70°F
• Negligible wind, gusts to 14 MPH

Noise:

• Some road noise
• No train horn noise
• A little neighbor noise (kids)

Site:

• #68, back-in, asphalt
• Needed to disconnect toad, parked beside coach
• Fairly level site; high on driver side and front; used hydraulic leveling
• Asphalt driveway about 50 feet long by 10 feet wide
• About 40 feet to neighbor on driver side
• About 90 feet to neighbor on passenger side
• Picnic table
• Fire pit
• Some tall trees
• Unclean site; small bits of trash
• Invasive ants

Utilities:

• 50 amp power, somewhat conveniently located (at rear of site)
• 35 PSI water, inconveniently located (at rear of site)
• Loose sewer connection, inconveniently located (at rear of site; 3 10-foot pipes needed)

Internet (in usage priority order):

• Starlink: 45-140 Mbps down, 12-15 Mbps up, 30 ms ping
• T-Mobile: 5 Mbps down, 3 Mbps up, 35 ms ping
• AT&T: 14-16 Mbps down, 1 Mbps up, 60-1,000 ms ping
• Verizon: 1-5 Mbps down, 0.02-1 Mbps up, 400-600 ms ping
• Campground Wi-Fi: not used

Amenities:

• Garbage dumpsters
• Near national parks
• Package delivery to manager’s site (didn’t use)

Our review on Campground Reviews:

Closest RV park to Kings Canyon NP

The nightly rate is a bit much for what it is, but you’re really paying for the location. If you have a big rig, there isn’t anything closer to the entrance of Kings Canyon NP. You could get closer to the Sequoia NP entrance, but not by much. It was easy to identify the overnight sites and find one that worked for us. We’d printed the email confirmation, so all we had to do was attach it to the post, and we were good to go. The biggest drawback was that we had our second ant infestation ever while staying here. Little bitey red ants found their way inside by way of the Starlink cable and the water hose, so that was fun. We camped at Sequoia RV Park in a Motorhome.

Campground map:

An interactive map:

Our site:

We used our Starlink dish:

The utilities were at the back on the passenger side, so three sewer pipes were needed:

There were biting ants that invaded our coach via the water hose (and later other routes):

In three years of this RV lifestyle, this is only the second time we’ve had ants invade, both in the last month.

The site number sign with a receipt clipped to it; when we arrived we just picked a site and attached the receipt (that we had previously printed out); no human interaction required:

Sunrise:

Hills and road conditions sign outside the entrance:

Entrance sign:

Mailboxes and outgoing mail by the entrance:

Office:

Bathrooms:

Other sites; a mix of overnight sites and seasonal/annual sites:

“No fishing, swimming, boating”… yeah, not going to be a problem:

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.