Grand Canyon Railway RV Park

We stayed at the Grand Canyon Railway RV Park in Williams, Arizona. (Campground Reviews listing.)

The main reason for staying here was to take a train trip to the Grand Canyon. This RV park is part of a complex that includes a full hotel, restaurants, the train station, pet boarding, and more. Stay tuned for a forthcoming post about our train adventure.

Dates:

Check in: 2022-03-30
Check out: 2022-04-10
11 nights

Weather:

Sunny
High temps ranging between 55 and 71°F, lows around 31-38°F
Occasionally windy

Noise:

Negligible road noise
Nearby train noise; freight train tracks next to park
Mostly quiet neighbors, other than a bunch of kids

Site:

#402, pull-through, asphalt, didn’t need to disconnect toad
Parked truck behind coach
Medium site: about 70 feet long by 25 feet wide
Not entirely level
Full hookups:

50 amp power conveniently located
Low water pressure, 32 PSI water, conveniently located
Good sewer connection, conveniently located

Picnic table on gravel

Internet:

Campground Wi-Fi: available, but not used
T-Mobile: 6-41 Mbps down, 5-33 Mbps up, 40-60 ms ping
AT&T: 8 Mbps down, 6 Mbps up, 47 ms ping
Verizon: 54-85 Mbps down, 25-46 Mbps up, 50-160 ms ping
Some impressive numbers for T-Mobile and Verizon there!

Amenities:

Garbage and recycling dumpsters
Indoor heated pool and hot tub (didn’t use)
The usual other stuff we didn’t use

Here’s the review Jenn wrote on Campground Reviews:

Convenient to Grand Canyon and Route 66

We stayed here in order to take the train up to the Grand Canyon and it was very convenient for that. Check-in was fast and easy before we headed over to our site. Sites are narrow, with a strip of volcanic rock and a picnic table between them. Had a difficult time getting the motorhome level front to back and had to manually adjust, as the automatical levelers could not handle it. Our neighbor’s site was so bad that their front wheels were off the ground. Lots of folks complain about the BNSF freight trains that roll through at all hours. I didn’t notice them most of the time, but there were one or two instances in the early morning (5 am-ish) where the drivers would get a little heavy-handed on the horn. If you’re a light sleeper, be sure to bring earplugs and your white noise machine. We camped at Grand Canyon Railway RV Park in a Motorhome.

The weather forecast for our stay:

Weather

Here’s the forecast after that; we were super glad that we left on Sunday, before the snow and really cold weather on Tuesday:

Weather

The park map, with our site indicated:

Park map

Satellite view of the RV park and hotel, and part of downtown Williams:

Grand Canyon Railway park

A closer view of the RV park:

Grand Canyon Railway RV park

Sign for Grand Canyon Railway:

Grand Canyon Railway sign

RV check in; several lanes for RVs:

RV check in

RV park check in and office:

RV park check in and office

Our site:

Our site

As mentioned, there is a freight train track next to the park; here’s a view out our window of a train going by:

Train

Our site and others:

Our site and others

Other RVs

A similar angle pic from just before we left, it had emptied out quite a bit:

Campground

Back to the campground tour:

Other RVs

Amenities:

Amenities

Laundry:

Laundry

Grill and tables:

Grill and tables

Fire pit:

Fire pit

Playground:

Playground

Games:

Games

There was also a full hotel; here’s the lobby:

Hotel lobby

We picked up our train tickets for the Grand Canyon railway from the on-site station:

Picking up train tickets

A train model outside the station:

Train model

Photo op:

Photo op

Stands for the pre-train cowboy show (see a forthcoming post):

Stands for cowboy show

The Williams train station:

Williams train station

A steam train outside the station:

Steam train

Travel from Verde Valley to Williams, AZ

We drove our coach 95 miles, a bit less than two hours, from Verde Valley to Williams, Arizona.

Here’s the route map, going from bottom to top:

Map route

Instead of the Thousand Trails park, we originally were going to stay at Verde Ranch RV Resort. But we were glad we changed it, not only because the TT was much cheaper, and with a great view, it was also much more quiet, instead of being right next to the freeway:

Verde Ranch RV Resort

A cliff by I-17:

Cliff

A sign warning of elk:

Sign

Hey look, trees! Real pine trees! We’ve been in deserts for months, so haven’t seen real trees for ages:

Trees

Snowy mountains:

Snowy mountains

Arizona divide:

Arizona divide

Paladin was comfy in his safe space next to my chair:

Paladin

Snow by the side of the road:

Snow

Approaching Williams:

Williams sign

A sign for the Grand Canyon Railway depot:

Grand Canyon Railway depot sign

Williams arch, “gateway to the Grand Canyon”:

Williams arch

Our destination, the Grand Canyon Railway RV park:

Grand Canyon Railway sign

The timelapse video for this trip will be coming later today.

Baseball: Mariners Spring Training

We attended a Mariners Spring Training game in Peoria, Arizona.

Spring training for the Mariners is held at Peoria Sports Complex. Here’s a satellite view, showing where our seats were located, right behind home plate:

Peoria Sports Complex

The view from our seats:

View from our seats

A wide-angle view:

Wide-angle view from our seats

The starting lineup:

Starting lineup

As is traditional, the game was kicked off with a singing of the national anthem:

National anthem

Ichiro watched the game:

Ichiro

Play ball!

Baseball

Hit:

Hit

A confused bee thought Jenn’s new Mariners cap looked like a flower (which, fair enough, it does):

Bee

The stands:

Stands

Some more baseball:

Baseball

KC scored a run:

Score

Conference on the mound:

Conference on the mound

Mariners run:

Run

Pitcher warming up:

Pitching

The hydro challenge is a fun tradition:

Hydro challenge

Seventh inning stretch:

Seventh inning stretch

There were some baseball scouts sitting behind us:

Baseball scouts

Run:

Run

2,730 attendance:

2,730 attendance

Baseball

Another run:

Run

Hit:

Hit

Baseball

More hits:

Hit

But not enough; the final score was Royals 11, Mariners 4:

Final score, Royals 11, Mariners 4

The victors:

Victors

Outside the Peoria Sports Complex:

Peoria Sports Complex

Despite our team losing, we enjoyed the game. We may look into attending a Mariners game when we’re in the Seattle region later this year; it’s been ages since we’ve attended a game.

Thousand Trails Verde Valley RV & Camping Resort

We stayed at the Thousand Trails Verde Valley RV & Camping Resort in Cottonwood, Arizona. (Campground Reviews listing.)

Normally with Thousand Trails you choose your own site, but in this park the 50 amp sites are all separately reserved, with assigned sites. Totally worth the upgrade, though; they are also much larger sites, with great views.

Dates:

Check in: 2022-03-27
Check out: 2022-03-30
3 nights

Weather:

Sunny, rain one day
High temps ranging between 58 and 86°F, lows around 41-47°F
Fairly windy

Noise:

No road or train noise
Quiet neighbors

Site:

#K10, back in, gravel, had to disconnect toad
Plenty of room to park truck
Very large site (I normally measure using Google Maps, but the site is too new, and doesn’t appear on the satellite map)
Full hookups:

50 amp power conveniently located, locked with padlock
60 PSI water, conveniently located
Good sewer connection, conveniently located

Park bench
Great view over the valley

Internet:

Campground Wi-Fi: none (maybe some by clubhouses, not used)
T-Mobile: 6 Mbps down, 6 Mbps up, 65 ms ping
AT&T: 6-8 Mbps down, 6 Mbps up, 41-64 ms ping
Verizon: 3-8 Mbps down, 6 Mbps up, 175 ms ping
I gather that the older sites down the hill have pretty much no signal

Amenities:

Garbage dumpsters
Heated pool (closed); hot tub
Rec rooms, laundry, playground, and other stuff we didn’t use
Various outdoor games

Here’s the review Jenn wrote on Campground Reviews:

Great Base Camp for Central Arizona

We paid for the 50A premium site and it was well worth it. If all Thousand Trails had reservable upgraded sites, I would happily pay the $10/night every time. Our site was huge and had a beautiful view of the valley. I kind of wish it was a pull-in instead of a back-in so we could soak up the view through our window, though. The facilities were all kind of far from our site so we didn’t get to check them out. I do think this would be an excellent use case for e-bikes as there are a lot of hills and distances involved within the park. All the staff we interacted with were friendly and helpful. This was a great base camp for exploring the surrounding area, including several national monuments and historic towns. I only wish we had been able to stay longer so we could see more of the area and explore the local wineries. We will definitely be back! We camped at Verde Valley RV & Camping Resort in a Motorhome.

Info cover:

Info cover

Map; we were in section K:

Map

Weather:

Weather

The entrance:

Welcome center

We went down the hill to unhook our truck, and I drove it up to our site; here it is before the coach arrived:

Our site

Backing in:

Backing in

Conveniently placed utilities:

Utilities

60 PSI water:

60 PSI water

50 amp electrical, with a combination padlock to prevent non-authorized people from taking the site:

50 amp electrical

Our site:

Our site

Us working outside in our chairs, with sun shades:

David and Jenn

Not a bad view from our site:

Laptop and view

View

Down the hill, some more RVs:

RVs

Section M on the hill behind us:

RVs

Looking downhill towards our site:

RVs

This place was so spread out, and we were only there for a short time, so I didn’t explore as much as usual. We really liked it, though, and wished we could’ve stayed longer. We’ll likely be back in the future.

Travel from Tucson to Cottonwood, AZ

After the FMCA convention, we drove 237 miles, over four hours, from Pima County fairgrounds just south of Tucson, Arizona to Verde Valley, Cottonwood, Arizona.

A longer drive than we prefer, but not too bad. We try to keep drives to about 200 miles or three hours where feasible. We like to follow the 2/2/2 rule: drive no more than 200 miles in a day, arrive by 2 PM, stop every 2 hours, and stay for at least 2 nights (so the rule really should be 2/2/2/2, but some people omit one of the middle clauses). There’s also the 3/3/3 rule, with the obvious variations, but that seems a bit much to us.

Here’s the route map, going from bottom to top:

Map route

On departure day from the convention, there was a pretty constant stream of RVs leaving the fairgrounds. Here are two Tiffins departing:

Tiffins departing

We noticed once on the road that I had neglected to remove the Magne Shade from the small side window, so we pulled off on the side of a freeway onramp to remove it:

Magne Shade

Passing Picacho Peak again; such an interesting pointy bit:

Picacho Peak

A couple more Tiffins:

Tiffins

We liked the quote from the Lord of the Rings: “Not all who wander are lost”:

Not all who wander are lost

Since this was a long drive, we stopped at rest areas where available:

Rest area

Paladin sitting between us:

Paladin

Passing by downtown Phoenix:

Phoenix

Overpasses

Overpass

Paladin in his dash bed, briefly; I still hope he’ll get comfortable enough with travel days to sit there while we drive:

Paladin

Cacti:

Cacti

Yay, gusty winds; super fun in a high-profile vehicle; fortunately not too bad:

Gusty

We passed through several hills, including this 5% downgrade:

5% downgrade

Hill

I was amused by the sign for Bumble Bee and Crown King:

Bumble Bee Crown King

Another hill:

Hill

A stop at Love’s for fuel:

Love's fuel

And DEF:

DEF

Chips and sandwich for travel lunch:

Lunch

On another hill, a runaway truck ramp; a deep gravel upward slope to stop a truck that loses its brakes:

Runaway truck ramp ahead

Runaway truck ramp

6% grade:

6% grade

Quite the view from the hill, though:

View

The Cottonwood exit:

Cottonwood exit

There were several traffic circles:

Traffic circles

Another nice view:

View

Our destination:

Destination

FMCA Tucson 2022: the convention

After the RV driving classes, we moved to our campsite for the FMCA “Sunsets + Saguaros” annual convention.

Here’s a satellite image of the Pima County Fairgrounds, with our dry camping location marked by a grey pin on the left of the map, and our convention site marked by the same pin on the right of the map:

Pima County Fairgrounds

Here’s our coach, as I was following Jenn to our site:

Coach

The goatheads were just as prevalent over this side, including sticking in the tires:

Goatheats in tire

We really lucked out with our site, on the end of the row, so nobody next to us on the door side:

Site

Sunset:

Sunset

This site had 50 amp electricity, but no water or sewer. So since we’d already been dry camping for four days by this point, we signed up for the septic pumping and water refill service for a couple of days later:

Signing up for septic and water

Our site again (with a Tiffin Allegro Open Road behind us, and a Tiffin Phaeton next to our Tiffin Allegro Bus, and another Tiffin Allegro Bus further down; there were a lot of Tiffins nearby, among others:

Our site

Looking down the row of RVs:

RVs

The Phaeton next to our coach:

Tiffins

Someone put a note warning of some ground-nesting baby birds:

Baby birds

We attended the session for first time attendees:

First timers session

I attended a “Don’t Call a Tech” talk on easy RV fixes:

Don't Call a Tech talk

FMCA offered mail service, and we got several deliveries:

Mail

On the appointed day, we put out the septic and water signs:

Septic and water labels

We didn’t really need it, since we still had 20% water, and our waste tanks weren’t very full, but it was more comfortable not having to worry about it:

Water gauges

The truck turned up late that evening; here’s our coach, with the ceiling accent lights visible through the Magne Shade, and the blue ground effect lights and under-slide lights on:

Coach at night

The septic truck:

Septic truck

Septic pumping:

Septic pumping

They filled our water tank via the gravity fill port:

Water fill

Happy gauges:

Water gauges

A cute tiny trailer behind a scooter:

Scooter trailer

We attended a talk about emotions and “positive intelligence” with RVing:

Sorry for what I said while parking the camper talk

Gyros food truck:

Gyros food truck

Gyro and Greek fries:

Gyro and Greek fries

A long line for the ice cream social (which we didn’t bother with):

Line for ice cream

A talk on boondocking (by podcasters I listen to, StressLess Camping); before the talk, they complimented my beard, and I complimented their podcast:

Boondocking talk

A bunch of exhibits (I didn’t take any photos inside):

Exhibits

Mariachi band:

Mariachi band

They held a “Mr Whiskers” contest for beards and mustaches, which I stayed away from, since I don’t like public attention… and I clearly would have won, so nice of me to let some lesser beard have a chance:

Mr Whiskers contest

Finally, an aerial photo published by FMCA, showing the hundreds of attending RVs (we were over on the right side; see the map above):

Aerial photo

Having attended two rallies so far (Xscapers and FMCA), we are coming to the conclusion that rallies aren’t for us. We’re not into the socializing or partying, and the talks are generally low value. It is nice to have easy access to a bunch of vendors, though, and to look through RVs from multiple dealers.

We have another couple of rallies coming up this year: a Tiffin rally in June, and the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta in October. So we’ll see how those go. Next year, we might not bother with rallies, or might go in with different expectations and goals.

Travel from Picacho to Tucson, AZ

We attended the FMCA “Sunsets + Saguaros” annual convention in Tucson, Arizona, so we drove 69 miles, just over an hour, from Picacho, Arizona to the Pima County fairgrounds just south of Tucson, Arizona.

Here’s the route map, going from top-left to bottom-right:

Map route

There was a tumbleweed by the side of the road, just before getting onto the freeway (made me think of CGP Grey’s excellent video on tumbleweeds):

Tumbleweed

Heading down I-10, with mountains in the distance:

I-10 and mountains

Picacho Peak:

Picacho Peak

Paladin squeaked once, then settled down in his safe space next to my chair (barely visible here):

Paladin

Trucks passing trucks passing trucks:

Trucks

I enjoyed the artwork on overpasses along this route:

Overpass artwork

Passing downtown Tucson:

Tucson

Half of a manufactured house; we moved over to avoid the wide load:

House

Approaching Pima County Fairgrounds:

Pima County Fairgrounds

Our exit:

Our exit

The road to the fairgrounds:

Road to fairgrounds

RV driving school sign:

RV driving school sign

Arriving:

Arriving

We dry camped here for the classes, before heading to our electric-only site for the convention. Stay tuned for more on the lessons and convention!

Picacho/Tucson NW KOA Journey

We stayed at Picacho/Tucson NW KOA Journey in Picacho, Arizona. (Campground Reviews listing.)

Dates:

Check in: 2022-03-12
Check out: 2022-03-18
6 nights

Weather:

Sunny
High temps ranging between 78 and 87°F, lows around 43-52°F
Little wind, other than one afternoon

Noise:

Quite a lot of freeway and train noise
Quiet neighbors

Site:

#50, pull-through, gravel, didn’t need to disconnect toad (though did, since staying several nights)
Toad parking behind coach
Large, about 85 feet long by 30 feet wide
Full hookups:

50 amp power conveniently near the coach
45 PSI water also conveniently positioned
Fair sewer connection, a little loose and too high for perfect drainage, also far from the wet bay, so I needed three segments of drain hose (first time I’ve needed my spare)

Nice wooden deck with rocking chairs, table and chairs, and bench, plus a fire pit
Screening fences on both sides

Internet:

Campground Wi-Fi: apparently slow (not used)
T-Mobile: 11 Mbps down, 10-15 Mbps up, 55 ms ping
AT&T: 8 Mbps down, 6 Mbps up, 75 ms ping
Verizon: 4-7 Mbps down, 14 Mbps up, 58 ms ping

Amenities:

Garbage dumpster
Mail accepted
Heated pool (not very warm, kinda dirty)
Rec room (looked closed), laundry, playground, and other stuff we didn’t use
Various outdoor games

Here’s the review Jenn wrote on Campground Reviews:

Trees in the Desert

They had very friendly and efficient check-in and then guided us to our site. We had a deluxe pull-through site with a deck that had rocking chairs, a patio table with an umbrella, a bench, and a fire ring. Pretty much every site had a mature tree to give some shade, which is very rare in the desert. We really enjoyed eating dinner on the deck and listening to the birds in the trees. There was some freeway and train noise, but it was all just white noise to us and didn’t affect our sleep. The pool area was a bit small and they might need to upgrade the filter and pump system as it had quite a few dead bugs floating in it, but it was still very popular with families. We camped at Picacho / Tucson NW KOA Journey in a Motorhome.

Here’s the park map:

Map

A screenshot of the weather forecast for our stay:

Weather

We were guided to our site:

Guided to our site

Putting down the jacks:

Putting down jacks

The water pressure is about 45 PSI; the pressure regulator is set to 60 PSI, so a little low:

About 45 PSI water

As mentioned above, I needed to break out my spare sewer extension:

Sewer extension

Here are the utility hookups; power and water are well placed, but the sewer was rather far, and the pipe is a little too high out of the ground:

Hookups

Some more pictures of our site:

Our site

A nice deck with rocking chairs, table and chairs, umbrella, and bench:

Deck

Also a fire pit:

Bench and fire pit

Deck

Deck and coach

We ate our dinners outside, including hot dogs and beans:

Hot dogs

And home-made pizza; the first time I’ve used the Ooni oven since we started this adventure (I just hadn’t been in the mood to make pizza for a few months, but made two during this stay):

Pizza

Paladin peeking out a window:

Paladin

I flew my drone briefly; here are some aerial views of our site:

Aerial view of site

And other sites:

Aerial view of sites

The freeway and a railway beyond it were pretty close, resulting in quite a lot of noise:

Aerial view of sites

Let’s walk around the park, starting with the KOA Journey sign — KOA is Kampgrounds of America, a large chain, and their Journey campgrounds are designed for short-term stays, so mostly pull-through:

KOA Journey sign

The office and arrivals:

Office and arrivals

The pool was heated, but not very much, and kinda small and dirty. We did swim in it, but not for very long:

Pool

Playground:

Playground

Heh, a Wi-Fi hot spot:

Wi-Fi hot spot

Dog park:

Dog park

Tent camping area:

Tent camping area

KOAs often have cabins, but this one only has one:

Cabin

Other RVs:

Other RVs

They’ve been doing some nice upgrades, e.g. this patio site with its own dog run:

Patio site with dog run

A deck site somewhat similar to ours:

Deck site

A deck site with a large dog run:

Deck site with dog run

Another site with a dog run:

Site with dog run

Other RVs:

Other RVs

A rather interesting RV, looks like a modified horse trailer:

Interesting RV

A path and garden:

Path and garden

Back to our site:

Our site

A nice campground; we’d recommend it and would stay here again.

Saguaro National Park

We visited Saguaro National Park near Tucson, Arizona.

In fact, it’d be more accurate to say that this park surrounds Tucson. It is split into two parts, west and east, on either side of the city. Here’s a map from the NPS site:

Saguaro NP map

The Google map better shows Tucson between the two parts of the park:

Saguaro and Tucson map

We visited both parts, starting with the east one. Here’s the entrance road; a not very clear picture of the Saguaro National Park sign:

Saguaro National Park entrance

A fairly small visitor center:

Visitor center

Outside the visitor center was a nice botanical garden; we had a picnic lunch in a shelter near the garden:

Garden

An info sign, showing a map of the one-way loop road in the park:

Info sign

We drove the loop road. A warning to “brake now” before a steep hill:

Brake now

Curvy road:

Curvy road

Lots of interesting cacti to see:

Cacti

The road was popular with bicyclists:

Bicycle

Cacti

Info sign

Cacti

Flowers

Cacti

A stop at Javelina Rocks:

Info sign

Rocks

Rocks and cacti

Flowers

Looking downhill

Jenn and David

Cacti

Rocks

Cacti

We passed through Tucson to the west part of the park:

Saguaro National Park

It has a larger visitor center:

Visitor center

Info sign:

Info sign

We were amused by the “sus picnic ground”:

Sus

The visiter center bookstore was limited to 10 people at a time (but no masks required), with numbered tickets for entry:

Limited entry

A cacti forest and hills behind the visitor center:

Cacti

While we waited for our turn, we walked along a path behind the visitor center:

Cacti

Visitor center and cacti

Tomorrow, a timelapse video of driving through both parts of the park. (Actually, it’s live now; if you’re a subscriber to the YouTube channel, you would have been notified as a sneak peek.)

Making a multi-year route map

On January 1st I published a post on 2021 travel, that included a map of our travel stops and route for last year. A month later I followed up with an update on our planned route for 2022.

I recently had the idea to combine the maps into one, overlaying the routes from 2021 and 2022, so we can see everywhere we’ve traveled in our coach, plus last year’s Yellowstone trip in a rental trailer. To keep them from being too confusing, I changed the colors for each of the three routes.

I made the combined image wide, to use as the header on the Sinclair Trails Facebook page:

Route map

Here’s a cropped edition:

Route map cropped

And cropped some more, to only show the parts of the country we’ve explored so far, or plan to this year:

Route map cropped more

I made this by taking screenshots of the excellent RV Life Trip Wizard web app, which we use to plan our routes, then combined them in Acorn, my favorite image editor for macOS:

Route map in Acorn

Here’s the base map of the US, obtained from the Trip Wizard by combining multiple screenshots:

Route map USA

Each route is in a separate layer, with extraneous content lassoed out, and the hue altered to give each one a unique color; here’s 2021:

Route map 2021

The Yellowstone trip:

Route map 2021 Yellowstone

2022:

Route map 2022

The combined result again:

Route map cropped more

I think this is fascinating to look at, and a useful reference. I plan to update it as we plan future stops (the 2022 route only covers till October). What do you think? Interesting?