Shadow Hills RV Resort

Our last stop in California before heading into Arizona for the rest of the year, Shadow Hills RV Resort in Indio, down the road from Palm Springs:

Shadow Hills RV Resort info

Resort map:

Shadow Hills RV Resort map

Our campsite, before Jenn brought the coach over; it’s a back-in site, with another coach backed in behind. A fairly common style, and not too bad, since the back of the other coach is effectively a privacy wall. Plus these sites have nice large hedges:

Campsite

Our truck and coach in the site:

Campsite

Jenn in the campsite. We also just bought a propane fire pit (just in time to head into even hotter weather), and cushions for our zero gravity chairs:

Jenn in campsite

The office:

Office

While doing my traditional walk around the resort, I spotted a hot air balloon off in the distance:

Hot air balloon

Hot air balloon

This resort has a couple of ponds, with ducks in one; it always makes me happy to see ducks:

Ducks in a pond

Ducks in a pond

Hills in the background, a pond in the foreground, and a glimpse of our coach in the middle:

Hills, our coach, pond

Two ponds:

Two ponds

Pond

Seating areas:

Seating areas

More pond angles:

Pond

Pond

Stream and bridge:

Stream and bridge

Ducks and pond:

Ducks and pond

Bees! We were amused by this sign:

Bees!

Pond and Airstream trailers, available for rent:

Pond and Airstream trailers

Airstream trailers

A cabin, also available for rent:

Cabin

Pool area, that’s actually open:

Pool area

Horseshoes, and our coach beyond:

Horseshoes, our couch

We put out our awning to shade our chairs:

RV awning

RV awning

Me editing a timelapse video outside on my MacBook Pro:

MacBook Pro

Travel from Bakersfield to Indio, CA

We departed the Orange Grove RV Park in Bakersfield, California, and headed to Indio, California (near Palm Springs).

Here’s the map route; a six hour drive in our coach. The default route was down CA-395 to I-15, but when examining the route, I saw very heavy traffic just before I-15 reached CA-138, so we decided to take a different route to bypass the worst of that:

Map route

It was very foggy in the hills after Bakersfield:

Fog

But soon cleared up:

Hills

Paladin sat on the kitchen counter again most of the time, except a few times when he came forward to say how he didn’t enjoy travel days:

Paladin

Hills and wind turbines:

Hills and wind turbines

Hills and wind turbines

Flat desert highway:

Highway

Not so flat desert road, with lots of dips, plus Joshua trees:

Desert road with lots of dips, and Joshua trees

Interesting rock formations:

Interesting rock formations

The aforementioned heavy traffic on I-15 after merging from CA-138; we missed the worst of it:

Heavy traffic on I-15 after merging from CA-138

Hills:

Hills

More wind turbines; going for quantity rather than size:

Wind turbines

Out destination, the Shadow Hills RV Resort entrance:

Shadow Hills RV Resort entrance

Stay tuned for a timelapse video of this drive, with music!

Orange Grove RV Park

Our next RV park was Orange Grove RV Park in Bakersfield, California:

Orange Grove RV Park info

Here’s the park map:

Orange Grove RV Park map

This campground is literally in an orange grove, with orange trees between each site:

Campsite

Paladin watching me from his dash bed:

Paladin

The orange trees were full of fruit, though not quite ripe yet:

Orange tree

Campsite:

Campsite

A nice thing about (some) pull-through sites is we didn’t need to unhook our truck when pulling into the site. In fact we left the tow bar connected overnight:

Tow bar

The campground was rather empty during the week, before the weekend campers arrived:

Campground

Rather than a central septic system, they had a truck pump out multiple systems around the park; a bit unusual, in my experience so far:

Septic pumping

The pool was closed for the season:

Pool

A fun rustic-style maintenance building:

Rustic-style building

Decorations:

Decorations

So many rows of orange trees:

Orange trees

Orange trees

A full moon and campfire:

Moon and campfire

Paladin on his dash bed:

Paladin

Travel from San Benito to Bakersfield, CA

We departed Thousand Trails San Benito Preserve, and headed to Bakersfield, California.

The map route; a six hour drive in our coach:

Map route

Heading into the hills along the CA-152 freeway:

152 freeway

We followed a couple of car carriers transporting Teslas through the pass:

Transporting Teslas

Another couple of views of the very empty San Luis Reservoir:

San Luis Reservoir

San Luis Reservoir

A stop at Love’s for some diesel and DEF (and cleaning the windshield!):

Love's fuel stop

Paladin spent most of the trip on the kitchen counter:

Paladin

He seemed more relaxed about it than previous trips:

Paladin

A rest stop between two other RVs:

Rest stop

A nice thing about a motorhome is we can easily make lunch (and use the bathroom) while at a rest stop:

Making lunch

I put Paladin’s dash bed on the kitchen counter, so he’d have a more comfortable place to sit; he seemed to appreciate that:

Paladin

The I-5 freeway was primarily populated by big rigs:

Trucks on freeway

Bakersfield city limit:

Bakersfield city limit

The Orange Grove RV Park campground entrance:

Campground entrance

Campground entrance

Stay tuned for a timelapse video of the journey today (with music this time!), and a tour of the campground tomorrow.