Thousand Trails Soledad Canyon

We stayed at Thousand Trails Soledad Canyon in Acton, California. (Campground Reviews listing.)

A fairly typical Thousand Trails campground, but with a recently renovated 50 amp section with large sites.

Dates:

Check in: 2024-09-29
Check out: 2024-10-06
7 nights

Weather:

Sunny
High temps 89-102°F (!), lows 63-73°F
Negligible wind, gusts to 11 MPH

Noise:

Some road noise
Some train horn noise
Little neighbor noise

Site:

#K-45, pull-through, sand
Didn’t need to disconnect toad, parked behind coach
Mostly level site; high in back and driver side; used hydraulic leveling
Large sand site about 65 feet long by 40 feet wide
Picnic table
A couple of tall trees
Somewhat unclean site, as usual for Thousand Trails
Non-invasive ants

Utilities:

50 amp power, very conveniently located
65 PSI water, very conveniently located
Good sewer connection, a little inconveniently located (2 10-foot pipes needed)

Internet (in usage priority order):

Starlink: 80-95 Mbps down, 15-19 Mbps up, 25 ms ping
Verizon: 5 Mbps down, 1 Mbps up, 35-50 ms ping
AT&T: 2-6 Mbps down, 0.05-0.25 Mbps up, 40-115 ms ping
T-Mobile: negligible service
Campground Wi-Fi: none

Amenities:

Garbage dumpsters
Pool
Package delivery to welcome center for $10/package (didn’t use)

Our review on Campground Reviews:

Decent campground close to LA area

The Gold (K) section has all 50A full hookup sites, so we headed that way first. The sites are mostly pull-through and decently sized. We lucked out and got a site on the last row with a gorgeous view of the hills. These sites also have the advantage of being further from the railroad tracks along the park’s edge. The Platinum (B) section is half 50A but has the extreme disadvantage of being buddy sites. Other sections are 30A or W/E only, so there’s something for everyone. We camped at Thousand Trails Soledad Canyon in a Motorhome.

Campground map:

Map

An interactive map:

Our site:

Our site

Utilities:

Utilities

View out our windshield:

View out our windshield

From outside:

View

Watching baseball on TV while griddling pancakes and bacon:

Watching baseball on TV, griddling pancakes and bacon

A neighbor had a cute outdoor cat that was curious about our truck:

Neighbor cat

Clubhouse:

Clubhouse

Bathrooms:

Bathrooms

Another neighbor site, with lots of space:

Neighbor site, with lots of space

Some other sites were also very wide:

Some other sites were also very wide

It was too hot to walk around to take pictures of other sites, so I flew my drone to get an aerial view; here’s above our site:

Aerial view

This is the 30 amp section, with buddy sites (eww):

Aerial view

Looking back to the 50 amp section where we were:

Aerial view

Heading back down:

Aerial view

We’d be happy to stay here again, though only in the 50 amp section; the rest of the park is 30 amp and buddy sites. Unfortunately, you never know what you’re going to get with Thousand Trails (though they are slowly rolling out a more conventional booking system).

Travel from Dunlap to Acton, California

We drove our coach 223 miles, about five hours of driving, from Dunlap, California to Acton, California.

Here’s a map showing our route, heading south:

Map

An interactive map:

I discovered lots of ants coming up the Starlink cable when packing it up; we were happy to be leaving the invasive ants behind:

Ants

Curvy road:

Curvy road

Cutler water tower:

Cutler water tower

Rest area:

Rest area

Road disappearing into the distance:

Road disappearing into the distance

Pipes and vines:

Pipes and vines

I-5 freeway heading into the hills:

Freeway heading into the hills

There were occasional water signs, for water dispensers for car radiators; hadn’t seen that elsewhere:

Water

Another rest area:

Rest area

Lake Hughes; a rare full lake in California:

Lake Hughes

5% grade:

5% grade

Six Flags:

Six Flags

Overpass from I-5 to CA-14:

Overpass from I-5 to CA-14

Tunnel on Soledad Canyon Road:

Tunnel on Soledad Canyon Road

Our destination:

Our destination

Check in area:

Check in area

Paladin on the dash:

Paladin on the dash

Thousand Trails is first-come-first-seved, so we drove around a bit to find a site, and lucked into an excellent one:

Our site

Sequoia RV Park

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:

Map

An interactive map:

Our site:

Our site

We used our Starlink dish:

Our site

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

Utilities

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

Ants

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:

Site number sign with receipt

Sunrise:

Sunrise

Hills and road conditions sign outside the entrance:

Hills and road conditions sign outside the entrance

Entrance sign:

Entrance sign

Mailboxes and outgoing mail by the entrance:

Mailboxes and outgoing mail by entrance

Office:

Office

Bathrooms:

Bathrooms

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

Other sites

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

No fishing, swimming, boating... yeah, not going to be a problem

Travel from Groveland to Dunlap, California

We drove our coach 169 miles, about 4 hours of driving, from Groveland to Dunlap, California.

Here’s a map showing our route, heading south:

Map

An interactive map:

Hills:

Hills

A narrow curvy road; not preferred, but the best route (and it was RV-safe):

Narrow road

Coulterville, a fairly cute little town:

Coulterville

Narrow road

No rest areas, so a brief stop on side of the road, along with a couple of trailers:

Stop on side of the road

Mammoths on a bridge over CA-99, apparently in honor of Columbian Mammoths at the Fossil Discovery Center of Madera County:

Mammoths on a bridge over CA-99

A soft sand parking spot at a TA truck stop:

Sandy lunch stop at TA

Food court at the TA; we had Fatburger for lunch:

Food court; we had Fatburger for lunch

Hills:

Hills

Our destination:

Our destination

Thousand Trails Yosemite Lakes

We stayed at Thousand Trails Yosemite Lakes in Groveland, California. (Campground Reviews listing.)

A fairly typical Thousand Trails park, with choose-your-own-sites. Most sites are only 30 amp; only a few 50 amp sites. Just minutes from an entrance to Yosemite National Park.

Dates:

Check in: 2024-09-16
Check out: 2024-09-22
6 nights

Weather:

Partly cloudy
High temps 60-75°F, lows 43-55°F
Negligible wind, gusts to 11 MPH

Noise:

No road noise
No train horn noise
Little neighbor noise

Site:

#82, back-in, gravel
Needed to disconnect toad, parked beside coach
Fairly level site; high in front; used hydraulic leveling
Gravel driveway about 55 feet long by 10 feet wide
15 feet to neighbors on both sides
Two picnic tables
Fire pit
Tall trees
River right behind our site
Unclean site; small bits of trash (as is common for Thousand Trails; they typically don’t clean sites)

Utilities:

30 amp power, conveniently located
110 PSI water, conveniently located
Loose sewer connection, conveniently located (1 10-foot pipes needed)

Internet (in usage priority order):

Starlink: 80-160 Mbps down, 15-22 Mbps up, 30 ms ping
Campground Wi-Fi: 0.05-11 Mbps down, 1-3 Mbps up, 70 ms ping
T-Mobile: no service
AT&T: no service
Verizon: no service

Amenities:

Garbage dumpsters
Gas station
Close to Yosemite National Park

Our review on Campground Reviews:

Nice riverfront sites, if you’re lucky

If I were a retail customer, I would rate this campground much harsher than I do as a Thousand Trails member. If I were paying the retail rate, I would give this a scathing 1-star review and never stay here again. But by Thousand Trails standards, this place is not bad, and I would’ve happily stayed longer than a week. We did not luck out and get one of the scarce 50A sites by the river, but we did get a perfectly lovely 30A spot on the river that was actually level and decently wide. I’m glad that my navigator/co-pilot does extensive route planning for our travel days, as the correct road to the campground is not the one the GPS would’ve sent us down, so we were prepared for that. The proper access road isn’t great as it is, but going down Hardin Flat would’ve been extremely dicey. Once you get into the campground and start hunting for a site, the roads inside the park are not for the faint of heart or the low of ground clearance. Driving around in our Chevy Colorado was bad enough, but getting the 40′ motorhome around them was a fun exercise in obstacle avoidance. Once we got parked, though, we were delighted. Since our primary purpose was to visit Yosemite National Park, it was a great launching point. You can’t get much closer without staying in the park (which we couldn’t do with a big rig anyway). We camped at Thousand Trails Yosemite Lakes in a Motorhome.

Campground map:

Map

An interactive map:

Our site:

Our site

South Fork Tuolumne River runs right behind our site:

South Fork Tuolumne River

Sitting by the river:

Sitting by the river

Ducks in the river:

Ducks in the river

Utilities:

Utilities

The electrical pedestal only has 30 amps, so we used a “dogbone” to adapt it to our 50 amp plug (and watched our power usage; fortunately it wasn’t too warm, so we avoided AC use most of the week):

30 amp to 50 amp plug dogbone

After visiting Yosemite National Park, we added the sticker to our coach (gonna need to use a stepladder for future stickers):

Adding Yosemite sticker

There was no cellular service, so we used our Starlink dish. There were some obstructions, but the dish could see enough of the sky to have only occasional disruptions:

Starlink obstructions

The campground has its own gas station:

Gas station

Other sites:

Other sites

No, this isn’t our coach; a similar model:

Other sites

Some buddy sites:

Buddy sites

Tent sites:

Tent sites

South Fork Tuolumne River:

South Fork Tuolumne River

Bridge

Clubhouse:

Clubhouse

The welcome center in the background, and a bus stop for the park bus; people without a tow vehicle can catch the bus into the park:

Bus stop

Mini golf:

Mini golf

Playground:

Playground

Cabins:

Cabins

Travel from Manteca to Groveland, California

We drove our coach 95 miles, about two hours of driving, from Manteca, California to Groveland, California.

Here’s a map showing our route, heading east:

Route map

An interactive map:

Thank you for visiting:

Thank you for visiting

Lots of low trees scraped our roof:

Low trees

Narrow road and roadworks:

Narrow road and roadworks

Milk plant:

Milk plant

Oakdale:

Oakdale

CA-120 East:

CA-120 East

Yosemite reservations required weekends:

Yosemite reservations required weekends

CA-120 East

Don Pedro Lake:

Don Pedro Lake

Pipes:

Pipes

Curvy highway (check out the video for this journey with a picture-in-picture of this part):

Curvy highway

Groveland:

Groveland

Thousand Trails gas station:

Thousand Trails gas station

Campground office:

Office

The site we chose:

Our site

Turtle Beach RV Resort

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:

Map

An interactive map:

Our site:

Our site

Utilities:

Utilities

Other sites:

Other sites

Annual sites:

Other sites

Tent area:

Tent area

Large unused area:

Large unused area

Walthall Slough:

Walthall Slough

Travel from Red Bluff to Manteca, California

We drove our coach 194 miles, about four hours of driving, from Red Bluff, California to Manteca, California.

Here’s a map showing our route, heading south:

Route map

An interactive map:

Rice field:

Rice field

Rest area:

Rest area

U-Haul towing a U-Haul:

U-Haul towing a U-Haul

Yolo:

Yolo

Another rice field:

Rest area

Bridge over rice field

Rest area:

Rest area

Paladin sat on the dash for a minute:

Paladin on the dash

Sacramento:

Sacramento

Lots of tomatoes on the side of the road:

Lots of tomatoes on the side of the road

From trucks like this:

From trucks like this

Sharp curve:

Sharp curve

Roadworks; what kind of crazy road designers would make such narrow main roads? No room for bike lanes or expansion:

Roadworks

Lots of low trees scraped our roof:

Low trees

Arriving at Thousand Trails Turtle Beach:

Thousand Trails Turtle Beach

Info sign, with arrival packets; someone came along and told us an available site, too:

Info sign

Our site:

Our site

Red Bluff KOA Journey

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:

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):

Our site

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:

Utilities

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

Utilities

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:

Ants