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

Our second stay here; a working date palm farm as a Thousand Trails park. Tricky to get positioned, but convenient once there.

Dates:

• Check in: 2023-03-25
• Check out: 2023-04-01
• 7 nights

Weather:

• Mostly sunny
• High temps ranging between 65-76°F, lows around 47-51°F
• Little wind; one day of 24 MPH gusts

Noise:

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

Site:

• #282, back in, sand
• Needed to disconnect toad; parked beside coach
• Fairly level
• Small site: about 45 feet long by about 25 feet wide
• Picnic table on concrete pad palm trees
• Super difficult to park due to palm trees, light post, and wacky sewer position

Utilities:

• 50 amp power, very inconveniently located
• 50 PSI water, very inconveniently located
• Good sewer connection, conveniently located (1 10-foot pipe needed)

Internet (in usage priority order):

• T-Mobile: 26-88 Mbps down, 60 Mbps up, 35 ms ping
• AT&T: 3 Mbps down, 2 Mbps up, 40 ms ping
• Verizon: 5 Mbps down, 8 Mbps up, 40 ms ping
• Starlink: not used
• Campground Wi-Fi: not used

Amenities:

• Garbage dumpsters
• Swimming pool
• Package delivery to site

Our review on Campground Reviews:

Parking here is not for the faint of heart

This was our second stay, and it was pretty much the same as the last time. The check-in staff are very helpful and informative, giving you a rundown of the park and the best way to wedge your RV between the trees. With a 40′ motorhome and tow vehicle, the best way to find a site is to park your rig by the pool, unhook, and then drive the tow vehicle around to scope a decent site. Not all sites are created equal; some have palm trees that lean more than others, some are quite a bit shorter than others, and some are narrower. Once you find the best site you can, parking your rig in it is a community endeavor. Between the trees and the narrow roads, you may have to enlist the aid of your neighbors to move their vehicles so you can back in. Compromise may be required. I saw smaller rigs than ours balk at sites along our row. But once you get in, it’s very nice under the palms. We camped at Thousand Trails Palm Springs in a Motorhome.

Interactive map:

Campground map:

Our site; it took literally half an hour to get positioned between the trees, sewer, and light pole; the most difficult park to get situated in. But once set up, we enjoy the proximity to Joshua Tree National Park and the desert cities:

The electric and water utilities are at the back of the site, rather inconvenient:

The sewer is conveniently located, though, other than in terms of the palm trees:

Working outside:

We drove our truck around to scout for a site (this being Thousand Trails). This is the site we chose; a little tight between the palm tree and sewer at the rear, and a light pole and another palm tree at the front:

Other sites we considered:

A nice thing about this park is UPS, FedEx, and Amazon will deliver directly to the sites:

For USPS or packages without site numbers, they post a notice on a message board near the entrance:

Other sites:

Cabins:

Entrance:

Swimming pools:

The sky with palm trees:

We stayed at Thousand Trails Lake Texoma RV Campground in Gordonville, Texas. (Campground Reviews listing.)

Another Thousand Trails, more of the state park feel.

Dates:

• Check in: 2023-02-16
• Check out: 2023-02-23
• 7 nights

Weather:

• Some sunny days
• High temps ranging between 49-80°F, lows around 28-53°F
• Some wind, up to 30 MPH gusts

Noise:

• No road noise or train noise
• No neighbor noise

Site:

• #A43, pull-through, gravel
• Buddy site, but on end so nobody facing us (other than the bathroom block)
• Didn’t need to disconnect toad; parked in front of coach
• Not very level front to back or side to side; used blocks to help front jacks
• Medium site: about 80 feet long by about 25 feet wide
• Picnic table
• Fire pit
• Grass & trees

Utilities:

• 50 amp power, fairly conveniently located
• 75 PSI water, conveniently located (disconnected during sub-freezing nights)
• Non-threaded sewer connection, very conveniently located (1 10-foot pipe needed)

Internet (in usage priority order):

• Starlink: 20-55 Mbps down, 1-6 Mbps up, 30 ms ping
• T-Mobile: 13 Mbps down, 2 Mbps up, 28 ms ping
• AT&T: 15 Mbps down, 4 Mbps up, 37 ms ping
• Verizon: 10 Mbps down, 2 Mbps up, 40 ms ping
• Campground Wi-Fi: not used

Amenities:

• Garbage dumpster
• Closed pools

Our review on Campground Reviews:

Older campground, needs some love

Unusually for a Thousand Trails park, the staff knew what sites were actually available and we were able to select one at check-in. We wanted a 50 amp pull-through but unfortunately, all the 50A pull-throughs are buddy sites. I hate buddy sites. We were lucky enough to get one on the end so our living area wasn’t directly on top of someone else, but it did open up to the bathroom block. Scenic! The site was not at all level front-to-back and we had to maneuver a bit to find the most level location. The roads here are more pothole than road, so maneuvering our coach to avoid the worst of them was interesting. If we’d been planning to stay longer, I would definitely get one of the back-in sites tucked in the trees. We camped at Thousand Trails Lake Texoma in a Motorhome.

An interactive map of the park:

The map:

Our site:

Rather close to the neighbor:

Utilities; can’t get any better sewer placement:

The view out the buddy-side window wasn’t exciting:

We used the griddle and ate outside for several meals:

Time to add the Virgin Islands National Park sticker to the coach:

And Virgin Islands stickers and a pin on the board inside:

No, this isn’t another picture of our coach, but a neighboring Tiffin with a very similar paint scheme:

This is the 37AP floorplan, a bit smaller than ours:

On the other side of our site were bathrooms, but separated by some grass, so it wasn’t too bad:

Other RVs:

More buddy sites:

A murky but nice pond and island:

The activity center has a large covered area:

Activity pools:

Lodge:

Lodge pool:

Bridge:

A corner of Lake Texoma:

Sunset:

Not the fanciest campground, but not too bad. We’d probably opt for a back-in if we stay here again.