We stayed at Concrete / Grandy Creek KOA Holiday in Concrete, Washington. (Campground Reviews listing.)

An interesting hybrid park; about half of it has Thousand Trails sites, about half KOA sites. We stayed in a Thousand Trails site, so free for us. No sewer, and only 30 amp, but that’s fine for less than a week.

Dates:

• Check in: 2022-08-16
• Check out: 2022-08-21
• 5 nights

Weather:

• Mostly sunny
• High temps ranging between 77-91°F, lows around 59-63°F
• No significant wind

Noise:

• No road noise or train noise
• A little neighbor noise (kids and dogs), especially at the weekend

Site:

• #23, back in, gravel
• Needed to disconnect toad; parked in front of coach (on gravel)
• Not very level, sloped up at the back
• Smallish site: about 55 feet long by about 30 feet wide
• Partial hookups:
• Only 30 amp power; conveniently located
• 45 PSI water pressure (we boosted from our tank); fairly conveniently located
• No sewer connection
• Picnic table, fire pit on gravel
• Several trees for privacy

Internet (in usage priority order):

• T-Mobile: 40-65 Mbps down, 2 Mbps up, 60 ms ping
• Verizon: 13-28 Mbps down, 5 Mbps up, 40 ms ping
• AT&T: offline (we need a new SIM card)
• Starlink: not used
• Campground Wi-Fi: none

Amenities:

• Garbage dumpsters
• Pool; hot tub unavailable

Here’s our review on Campground Reviews:

Close to North Cascades National Park

We stayed at this park with our Thousand Trails membership. It’s also a KOA, and each site is marked with a green or yellow utility box depending on which “side” you’re on. There are very few 50A full hookup sites allocated for Thousand Trails, and most of them seem to be taken by seasonals, so we were stuck with a 30A site that didn’t have a sewer connection. Most of the sites seem to be electric/water-only. It was in the 90s while we were there, but luckily, we’d recently had SoftStartRV units installed on two of our ACs, so we were able to have them running even with the 30A connection. Between the narrow roads and the large trees jutting out into the roads, it was a little difficult driving and parking our 40′ motorhome. Once we got settled, the trees were nice cover from the heat of the day. They seem to be having severe staffing issues as the camp store was closed the whole time we were there.

On top of not having a sewer connection, the one and only dump station was out of commission for our entire stay. They finally opened up a sewer site (back in) for folks to dump, but what a hassle that would be. We waited until we left and made use of the excellent facilities provided at the next rest area on I-5. We camped at Concrete / Grandy Creek KOA Holiday in a Motorhome.

The RV park map:

Our site:

The site was sloped up at the back, so the front was fairly high with the coach leveled. So I used the accessory step:

An interesting tree on our site:

The utilities — 30 amp power, 45 PSI water, and no sewer (at Thousand Trails campgrounds it’s fairly common to clip the check-out date to the power pedestal):

To help the jacks get level, I added some plastic leveling blocks. The first time I’ve tried them with our coach. They are supposed to be rated to 40,000 pounds, but I’m not convinced:

Somewhat crushed:

The jack pads as we prepared to leave; sometime I’ll try again with a flat topper, to see if that helps:

After visiting North Cascades National Park (see a future post), I added the sticker for it to our slide:

Our National Park stickers for the parks we’ve visited so far:

The entrance:

Entrance ranger station:

Welcome:

Cabins:

Dog park:

Laundry:

Big jump pad for kiddies:

Playground:

Hot tub closed:

Swimming pool:

Mini golf:

Grandy Creek:

Group campsite:

Maintenance barn:

The dump station was closed due to a pipe leak:

Other RV sites:

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:

Map; we were in section K:

Weather:

The entrance:

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

Backing in:

Conveniently placed utilities:

60 PSI water:

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

Our site:

Us working outside in our chairs, with sun shades:

Not a bad view from our site:

Down the hill, some more RVs:

Section M on the hill behind us:

Looking downhill towards our site:

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.

We stayed at Thousand Trails Palm Springs RV Resort, which is actually in Palm Desert, California… though is on the Desert Palms side of I-10. Lots of palm-y places. (Campground Reviews listing.)

We are Thousand Trails members, so this stay was free for us (ignoring the large membership cost!). We were going to stay longer, but the Cummins visit lopped a couple of nights off the start — fortunately it’s very easy to update our reservation with Thousand Trails.

Dates:

• Check in: 2022-03-02
• Check out: 2022-03-06
• 4 nights

Weather:

• Sunny, a little drizzle
• High temps ranging between 67 and 85°F, lows around 47-55°F
• A few days with some wind

Noise:

• Negligible road noise, being towards the back of the park
• Some kids and dogs, but generally quiet neighbors

Site:

• #333, back in, diagonal, sand, had to disconnect toad
• Asphalt toad parking, though too close to RV space, so had to park diagonally
• Medium-sized, about 55 feet long by 25 feet wide
• Full hookups:
• 50 amp power in back-left corner, so needed full length of cable
• 50 PSI water, again in back-left corner, so hose only just reached it
• Good sewer connection, well positioned right below wet bay (though not well aligned with trees)
• Picnic table on cement pad (would have preferred not, as could have moved it and parked truck there)

Internet:

• Campground Wi-Fi: none (some by clubhouses, not used)
• T-Mobile: 1-5 Mbps down, 1-5 Mbps up, 40-140 ms ping
• AT&T: 3-5 Mbps down, 3 Mbps up, 40-140 ms ping
• Verizon: 1-5 Mbps down, 4-8 Mbps up, 40-50 ms ping

Amenities:

• Garbage and recycling dumpsters
• Mail room
• Heated pool; 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:

Nice oasis in Palm Springs

I feel like you either accept the eccentricities of this resort and love it, or you just have certain expectations and can’t deal with a curveball (or a curved palm tree, in this case) and hate it. First, the potential negatives: Yes, the palm trees in the middle of the back-in sites are annoying. You either need to have a small trailer (in which case, it’s rude to take a 50A site when a 30A would do), or you have an excellent spotter to help get you situated. Either way, you can forget about getting perfectly parallel inside the suggested site boundaries. Next, the utility pedestal is on the opposite corner from usual, so you need to make sure you have really long power and water connections, or you should bring extenders. The sewer hookup, on the other hand, is super close. Pro tip: If you don’t need to run more than one A/C unit and are skittish about back-in sites, head left to the large 30A pull-through sites. If you want a 50A connection or feel confident in your backing skills, learn to love your mirrors and your spotter and head right to the 50A back-in sites.

And now for the positives: The resort is conveniently located to anything you could want to do in the Coachella Valley/Palm Springs area. The sites are level, and the amenities are excellent. The pool and spa were warm and inviting after a long day on the road, and the Pickle Ball courts were very popular. The palm trees that made it so annoying to get into your site are really quite lovely once you’re situated. And the staff are just amazing. Check-in was so friendly and efficient, it just made the whole experience. Every staff member was pleasant and helpful.

As for the sand? It’s the desert. Deal with it. We’ve stayed in several resorts in the area and there is nowhere you can escape the sand when the winds pick up. If you don’t want to have to dust and sweep/vacuum every couple of days, may I suggest that the desert should not be your destination? We camped at Palm Springs RV Resort in a Motorhome.

Park info cover:

Here’s the park map:

As Jenn mentioned in her review, and you can see on that map, about half of the park are 30 amp pull-through sites, and half are 50 amp back-in sites.

It’s also worth noting that Thousand Trails parks work a bit differently than most: there aren’t assigned sites, you just roam around and pick any empty one you like (so long as it doesn’t have a long-term reservation). Which can be nice, in that you can pick a site you like, but can also be frustrating, having to hunt for one. The rangers know which sites are vacant, so it’d be more convenient if they provided a map with those highlighted, to help narrow the search. That’d be extra logistical hassles, of course, and it really isn’t too hard to search, if we’re able to do so in our truck.

Here’s a Google Maps satellite view of the park, obviously captured in the summer when the park is closed (it opens on September 15, and closes on May 15, to avoid the worst of the hot months):

For comparison, an Apple Maps satellite view when the park is open (with our approximate location circled):

Yes, there are a lot of palm trees! 805, apparently. I read somewhere that it is actually still an active date farm, so probably not much hope that they’ll remove some trees to make access easier.

When checking in, they provided pull-through and back-in instructions, something we haven’t had elsewhere, showing that they know it’s a bit confusing:

A screenshot of the weather during our stay:

Our site, #333:

That tree next to the coach looks pretty close, eh? Yeah, real close, just an inch or two of clearance:

The sewer was convieniently located, as seen above, but the water and power were just about as far away as they could be; both our water hose and power cord were fully unwound:

Better seen in a wide-angle shot:

Here’s the site next to us, after the occupant left. Looks fairly spacious?

Until you realize that the palm tree is pretty much in the middle of the site; here I’ve drawn red lines indicating the site boundaries:

You can see that the fifth wheel to the left is over the boundary; they have to be, to be able to squeeze into the site, as does anyone going into this site.

Another angle of the site; that is the sewer connection next to the red stick, which marks the edge of the site:

You can see wheel tracks indicating how often people go over it:

Anyway, let’s tour the park, starting from the entrance:

A tip for people staying here; there’s an untoading area behind the pool area, where one can disconnect the tow vehicle and go scout for a site:

Heated swimming pool and spa pool; we enjoyed both, very refreshing after a drive:

A message board near the entrance alerts people of mail:

A package pick up notice:

The mail room:

The rec room seemed popular:

Laundry facilities (we have a washer and dryer in our coach, so never use such facilities, but nice to have for people who do):

Dog park and playground (we also don’t care about those, other than a place for kids to play away from us!):

Pickleball courts:

Horseshoes:

Rental cabins:

Other RV sites:

We considered this site when searching for one, but were glad we kept looking; the one we decided on was nicer:

A view of our site from the next lane over:

It was warm enough to sit outside in the evening:

Stars:

We were on Hoot Owl lane:

Finally, a trio of Tiffins; our Allegro Bus, a Phaeton, and a Wayfarer class C:

We had concerns about staying here, since we read several reviews saying how tight it was with all the palm trees, and while we don’t disagree with that, we enjoyed our stay here, and will likely be back in the future.

Our next campground, Thousand Trails San Benito RV & Camping Resort in California.

Thousand Trails is a camping membership organization, where you can buy some level of membership, and stay for free for some number of nights at some of their campgrounds. There are several membership levels, and classes of campgrounds; it can get a bit confusing.

We started out with just the base level membership, allowing us to stay free at parks in the southwest area of the US, plus an add-on that includes a bunch of other parks around the country for a small fee. At that level, we could stay for 14 nights, then had to go out of the Thousand Trails system for a week. And we could only book a couple of months out.

This campground is fairly large and sprawling. Here’s the map:

Thousand Trails entrance:

We parked the coach inside the entrance, unhooked the truck, and went exploring to find a site. One interesting feature of Thousand Trails parks is you can pick your own site, first-come-first-served. Which can be frustrating if you can’t find a site you want, but can be nice if you luck out:

We found this nice empty campsite backing onto hills, but it turned out it was reserved; while short-term sites are first-come-first-served, people can pay a few thousand dollars to book a specific site for several months — something we didn’t know about beforehand, and rather annoying, since the best sites are taken with long term reservations:

Our second choice site was still very nice; a wide site, backing on to an RV storage area; not quite as nice as the hills, but at least there’s nobody living back there. It’s a back-in site, our second one:

We put out our rug and chairs again:

Hookups:

I went for a walk around the campground:

In addition to RV sites, there are lots of tent sites and rental cabins:

A scary narrow bridge, that we had to take the coach over:

Dog park:

Trees:

There are lots of deer in the park:

Gnome house:

Another narrow bridge, that we used when leaving:

The pool area is closed for the season:

There are hundreds of ground squirrels all over this park:

I also saw a cat:

Jenn tried playing a game on the outside TV (the first time we’ve used it), though the controller didn’t work well through the walls:

The following morning, we were greeted with two issues.

The first was the power was out to the campground, which is more of a minor inconvenience, since our batteries and solar will support pretty much everything, other than air conditioners, and we can run the generator to recharge.

The second was that the nice spot we were in apparently had a long-term reservation (like the first one we liked), though no marking as such, and the ranger that checked us in wasn’t aware of it. The person who had booked it showed up to let us know, then later the campground manager and a ranger arrived to ask us (very politely) to move. They helped me find an alternative site, and offered compensation (though we didn’t bother with that).

Annoyingly, the first spot we liked was vacant the whole time we were here, and the person from the second site also left a day or two later, perhaps due to the power outage.

But the alternative site was actually a bit nicer, with shady trees and a nicer view. So yes it was a hassle to have to move, but only took a few minutes.

Jenn driving our coach to the new site:

Our truck and coach in the new campsite; still plenty spacious:

Hookups:

We used our Blackstone griddle:

 A peek of the hill from the front door:

The power outage turned out to be quite significant; it was local to the campground, and they couldn’t get it repaired for several days. So for four days, we ran our generator for an hour each morning and evening, to recharge our batteries, and give us power for cooking and such:

Our three solar panels contributed a little throughout the day, though not much:

Charging:

Running the generator was a hassle, not something we expected when staying at a large campground. Especially one that is part of a large network.

Another frustration with Thousand Trails is that many of the parks are restricted to age 55+, especially in the Arizona area, where we’re spending this winter. I’m almost there, at 52, but not quite. While that may not be strictly enforced (I certainly could pass for 55+), we wouldn’t want to risk it.

But despite those caveats, we liked it enough that we have since purchased a premium membership, so we can book up to six months in advance, and go from park to park within the Thousand Trails system if we want. Plus our membership gives access to more parks at a significant discount, too.

We’ve calculated that if we stay at least half a year at TT parks, the membership will pay for itself within two years, then subsequent years will be gravy. Assuming we’re still doing the RV lifestyle in two years — we don’t have an end date, we’re going to keep doing it until we want to do something different. (And when we do stop, we can sell the membership, recouping part of the cost.)

A lot more text than usual in this post! Was it interesting? Let me know!