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

Video

Video: timelapse of coach driving from Cottonwood, AZ to Williams, AZ

A timelapse of driving the coach 95 miles from Cottonwood / Verde Valley, Arizona to Williams, Arizona.

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.

Dash cover

While at the FMCA convention, one of the things we bought for our coach was a carpeted cover for our dash, from Shade Pro.

We just told the vendor our coach model and the color, and they had it ready for us the next day.

It has a grippy back, cutouts for the vents, and a separate piece for the pull-out passenger tray:

Dash cover

Grippy back

ShurGrip

Dash cover

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.

Video

Video: timelapse of coach driving from Tucson, AZ to Cottonwood, AZ

A timelapse of driving the coach 237 miles from Tucson, Arizona to Cottonwood / Verde Valley, Arizona.

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

Foldable wagon

Occasionally we need to lug a bunch of heavy or awkward things, e.g. several packages from Amazon from a campground mail room to our coach. So a recent purchase was something to help with that: a compact foldable wagon:

Cart box

It folds and collapses to a compact size, with a protective cover:

Folded

And unfolds easily, with a telescoping handle:

Unfolded

It doesn’t take up much room in the basement of our RV (under other stuff):

Stored

In use:

In use

While we probably won’t use it very often, I expect it’ll be very handy when needed.

Introducing the Tiffin Allegro Bus 2016-2018 Owners group on Facebook

There are several groups on Facebook for RVers, from general topics like Full Time RV Living and RV Boondocking, to ones specific to our brand of motorhome like Tiffin Motorhome Owners Group, Tiffin Motorhome Lifestyle, Tiffin Motorhomes Technical Forum, and several more… to ones specific to a model, like Tiffin Allegro Bus Owners, Tiffin Phaeton Owners, Tiffin Open Roaders, etc. And even some specific to model and year or floorplan, like Tiffin Phaeton Owners 2002-2012 and Tiffin Phaeton 40IH & 44OH Owners.

We have a 2017 Tiffin Allegro Bus 40SP. While the Tiffin Allegro Bus Owners group covers that model, there have been a wide range of features and changes over the years. So I thought that a more tightly focused group could be useful. While I was tempted to create a group for our specific year and floorplan, that seemed a bit too narrow. And there is a lot of commonality between the coaches released in years either side of ours in the various floorplans, e.g. they all have similar Spyder control panels, furnishings, appliances, finishes, etc.

So, without further ado, I’m pleased to introduce the Tiffin Allegro Bus 2016-2018 Owners group on Facebook.

This new community is focused, as the name indicates, on the Allegro Bus released between 2016 and 2018 (inclusive) by Tiffin Motorhomes, including the 37AP, 40AP, 40SP, 45OP, 45OPP, and other floorplans in those model years.

It’s difficult to start a new community, but I’m seeding it with cross-posts to the Sinclair Trails blog, on topics related to modifications and repairs of our 2017 40SP coach. Hopefully those will be of interest and use to others, and hopefully other Allegro Bus owners will find this group and join, and add their own posts on relevant topics.

Eventually, I hope this community will be a useful resource for discussions of repairs, enhancements, and other topics specific to these coaches. Time will tell!

If you have an eligible coach, or are interested in them, please join the group!

2017 Tiffin Allegro Bus 40SP

FMCA Tucson 2022: RVs for sale

There were a bunch of RVs on display (and for sale) from a few dealers at the FMCA convention.

For people who wanted something small, there were some class B Pluses:

Super-C

Super C

Or something smaller, for people interested in #vanlife:

Van life

More our speed, they had a Tiffin Allegro Bus 35CP; smaller than our coach, but more modern tech:

Tiffin Allegro Bus 35CP

An accessible Winnebago Inspire 34AE:

Winnebago Inspire 34AE

Entegra Anthem 44B:

Entegra Anthem 44B

Entegra Aspire 40P:

Entegra Aspire 40P

Another Entegra Aspire 40P:

Entegra Aspire 40P

A Fleetwood RV with a kitchen island; very unusual for a motorhome:

Fleetwood island

To accommodate the island, the dining table rotates against the wall, which is nice as a desk too:

Fleetwood rotating table

American Dream 39RK:

American Dream 39RK

Also with an island:

American Dream 39RK

An older Newmar Dutch Star:

Newmar Dutch Star

A newer Tiffin Allegro Bus than ours (also longer):

Tiffin Allegro Bus

NIRVC RVs:

NIRVC RVs

A naked RV chassis:

Naked chassis

Most of the RVs on display were class A motorhomes, but there were a few fifth wheel trailers:

Fifth wheels

A side deck would be nice:

Fifth wheel

Finally, a Tiffin Phaeton:

Tiffin Phaeton

Fascinating to explore other RVs. We came to the conclusion that we don’t like any others as much as our Tiffin. Though there were a few features we’d like, and of course we’d like some of the improvements of newer Tiffins.