Escondido RV Resort – Escondido, CA

Escondido RV Resort – Escondido, CA

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Our very first week as full-timers was spent in Escondido, in San Diego’s North County. We rolled back into Escondido 266 days later. We had quite literally gone full circle. Seriously, check out our travel map — we actually went in a full circle, extending as far east as Wisconsin, between our stays at Champagne Lakes RV Resort and Escondido RV Resort. We had 7500 miles, 16 states, and 50 different stops under our belt. We stayed for six weeks, which is the longest we have stayed anywhere. We were looking forward to being in familiar territory — the house we sold that allowed us to buy our truck and Airstream was literally 15 minutes away in San Marcos — and spending time with friends. We were looking forward to California burritos and the ocean and trivia at the brewery and being able to slip back into a normal routine. We were looking forward to having a temporary home base that actually felt like home. And we definitely got all of those things while staying at Escondido RV Resort!

Escondido RV Resort

1740 Seven Oaks Road, Escondido, CA 92026

www.escondidorv.com

  • Full Hookups
  • Restrooms with Showers
  • Laundry
  • Dog Run
  • Pool with Spa
  • Propane Fill
  • Wi-Fi
  • Cable TV
Site 110

As I try to write this review, I keep typing and deleting. On the surface, Escondido RV Resort is a great place to stay. It’s well landscaped, well maintained, and the people who run it are very nice. It’s right off I-15 and one exit north of the 78, which is the main east-west highway in North County San Diego. As we lived in North County for a bit and most of our friends live in North County, we were able to get to where we wanted to go within a decent amount of time. The trade off is that the resort is RIGHT off the 15, which means the sound of traffic is pretty audible most times of the day from most parts of the park. We were lucky with our particular spot (site 110) as it backed up to a tree line that helped buffer the traffic noise. The Wi-Fi was decent but in order to access it we needed to set up a (free) account and reconnect to it daily. They had great HD TV, but in order to use it, we needed to borrow a cable box from them to hook up in our trailer. There is very nice landscaping throughout, but it’s watered every night and the sprinklers tend to be pretty aggressive with their spray field and leave behind hard water spots on the lower half your trailer — so, obsessive trailer cleaners beware. There isn’t one blade of grass in the park, which is understandable as it’s Southern California, but leaves a little to be desired when walking a dog. There are two different dog areas, one on each level (the park is set up on two different levels). The one on the lower level is fenced in, so it’s off leash, but is quite a hike to get to if you’re staying on the upper level. The one on the upper level is small, but doable. Both have wood chips as a base. Rod McLeod Park is located right next to the RV park and is accessible through a locked gate from the upper level of the RV park. It’s a big grassy space with a playground and restrooms, and was a nice alternative for walking Max. However, due to it’s seedier side — people living in cars in the parking lot, a handful of homeless people, and quick transactions of some sort taking place — I didn’t feel comfortable walking Max by myself and would only visit the park when Travis was around. The laundry room was nice and clean and the machines used credit cards instead of coins, which is fantastic. The only issue is that the credit card machines didn’t always work. A few times I had to try multiple cards and one time, the person in the office had to run a special card through the reader in order to get the machine to work. Also while we there, someone tried to steal a bike from someone’s site. Luckily, the maintenance guy saw him and stopped him. The bike was retrieved, but the would-be thief ran off before the cops arrived. Obviously, there is potential for theft at ANY place we stay, which is why we never leave anything of value outside.

With all of that being said, none of those issues are anything that would prevent us from staying there again. But there is one thing — the AT&T signal in that area is terrible. Basically non-existent. Luckily, we also have a phone and hotspot on Verizon, so along with their Wi-Fi, we were able to work without too many issues. We just weren’t able to use our personal phones very dependably, which was pretty inconvenient. 

And our very last issue with Escondido RV Resort was the price. When we first booked our stay there, if was originally for four weeks, so just shy of a month. At that point, we understood why we weren’t getting the monthly rate. But we changed our travel plans and a couple weeks before arriving, we extended our stay an additional two weeks. Six weeks. Which is more than a month. Which means we should have received the monthly rate. But we received the weekly rate. While they were very nice and gave us a nicer site — we were supposed to be on the first level, but they moved us to a larger site on the second level — I didn’t understand their explanation as to why we weren’t getting the monthly rate, and honestly, I don’t even remember what their explanation was anymore. The only benefit to paying the weekly rate versus monthly rate is that electricity was included in our rate and is not included in the monthly rate. We paid about $1900/month with the weekly rate when the actual monthly rate for the spot we reserved was $1100, so yes, we were frustrated. To add to the frustration is what I recently found on their website:

$800 if you’re in an Airstream?!? Must be nice!

I don’t want to sound like a complete Negative Nancy about Escondido RV Resort. There are some really great features too:

  • They make filling your propane tanks very easy. You just set your tanks at the end of your site and they’ll pick them up, fill them, and return them.
  • There’s a small swimming pool and spa that are nice.
  • They have a deal with the nearby LA Fitness where you can get a free 2-week membership.
  • You can have packages delivered there.
  • The close proximity to I-15 can’t really be beat!

Things To Do in the Area

We were pretty busy during most of our stay in Escondido, but most of that entailed hanging out with friends and visiting our favorite restaurants, stores, local sites, etc. However, here are a few things you should check out if you’re in the area:

San Diego Zoo Safari Park

www.sdzsafaripark.org

Pretty much everyone knows about the famous San Diego Zoo, but a lot of people outside of the area have not heard about the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. While the zoo is located down in San Diego, the safari park is in Escondido, just 20 minutes from the RV park. Like the zoo, you’ll find gorillas, tigers, lions, elephants, cheetahs, rhino, giraffes, and a variety of other animals. Unlike the zoo, you’ll find the park’s rhino, giraffes, antelope, wild ass, zebra, and buffalo roaming about in a free-range exhibit called African Plains. From the tram, you’re able to see how the animals interact with those within their species as well as with animals from other species. The newest exhibit, Walkabout Australia, is home to kangaroos, wallabies, cassowaries, and other animals from the Outback. You are able to walk through the enclosure and get up close and personal, sometimes even pet, the resident wallabies. 

A giraffe looks for a snack from one of the Caravan Safaris, which is a tour you can take for an additional cost.
Sisters Joanne and Leslie can be seen playing in the Gorilla Forest
The park’s elephant herd recently added two babies. Pictured here is Zuli, born on my birthday this year!
Tiger Trail is such a beautiful exhibit! On this day, the big cats were enjoying some meaty bones.
A kangaroo strikes a pose in the newest exhibit, Walkabout Australia
Due to being rejected by their mother, the wallabies were hand raised and, therefore, very comfortable with human interaction. This is 11-month-old Laura.
The Safari Park, as well as the Zoo, is also a botanic garden and home to some really beautiful and interesting plants.
I have no idea what this is, but it can be found in the World Gardens section of the park.

Hiking

While staying in Escondido, we went on two hikes. The first hike is kind of a San Diego bucket list hike. Anyone who’s been in San Diego long enough has heard about the hike to Potato Chip Rock. The hike begins at the Mt. Woodson Trailhead along the shores of Lake Poway in Poway, which is about a 20 minute drive from the RV park. It’s one of those hikes that you need to start early, for two reasons: 1) The sun gets blazing hot in this area year round and 2) you want to beat the crowd that makes the journey to get THE shot for Instagram. There’s a parking lot with restrooms and a place to fill water at the trailhead. It’s free to park on weekdays but there’s a $10 fee on weekends. Leashed dogs are allowed on the trail. The trail is 7.6 miles roundtrip and is rated hard on AllTrails, probably due to the 2,000 feet of elevation gain. We hit the trail at 6:30am and were in shade the entire way to the top. Once we made it to Potato Chip Rock, we ate some breakfast while we waited in a short line to get some photos. It took us about 3 hours and 15 minutes, not including down time at the top. The way down started to get hot as we were in direct sun, and we were very glad we started early. Make sure to take water and sun protection!

We had beautiful sun rise views on the way up.
While waiting in line, we ate scones, because we fancy.
Tip: Find the most social-media-savvy-looking person in the crowd to take your pics!
Tip: Look at photos on Instagram before you make the trip to find oh-so-clever photo ideas.
There are a lot of fun and interesting rock formations along the trail.
This is a good representation of the quality of the trail.

The second hike is the Lake Hodges Overlook Trail out of the Elfin Forest Recreational Reserve in Escondido. It’s a moderately difficult, 6.4-mile trail that’s about a 15-minute drive from the RV park. There’s a parking lot with small visitor center, water fill, and restrooms at the trailhead. Dogs are allowed. There are actually a number of different well-marked trails within the reserve that lead to various overlooks with picnic tables and shade structures.

Beautiful views!
This photo was taken on a different day we hiked the trail, when the lake and surrounding mountains weren’t shrouded in fog.

Breweries

You won’t have a difficult time finding some great craft breweries in San Diego County. One that you should definitely check out if you’re in the area is Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens, which is about a 10-minute drive from the RV park. Besides being a brewery, Stone offers a full menu as well as wine. The interior of the facility is nice, but the draw here is the outdoor patio and one-acre beer garden, complete with koi ponds and fire pits. It’s a beautiful property and while I don’t have any photos to post, trust me that you won’t be disappointed.

Pechanga RV Resort – Temecula, CA

Pechanga RV Resort – Temecula, CA

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While we were in Lone Pine, or possibly when we were in Bridgeport, we decided to change our upcoming plans a bit. After Lone Pine, we were originally supposed to drive around the south end of Sequoia National Forest, up the west side, and spend a few days right outside Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks. We were then going to spend a night in Bakersfield and then drive to Escondido, where we had booked four weeks. But we were tired and it was going to be a lot of driving in a short amount of time, which wasn’t very appealing at the time. We scrapped the trip to Kings Canyon and Sequoia (there really should be an east entrance into the parks from Lone Pine) and booked a week at Pechanga RV Resort in Temecula. We already had plans to stay at Pechanga for three weeks later in the fall, it looked really nice, and we were familiar with the area, so it made sense to us to stay there.

Pechanga RV Resort

45000 Pechanga Parkway, Temecula, CA 92592

www.pechanga.com/rvresort

  • Full Hookups
  • Pull-Thru Sites
  • Cable TV
  • Wifi
  • Restrooms with Showers
  • Pool with Two Spas
  • BBQ/Grill Areas
  • Community Firepits
  • Gas Station with Mini Mart, Diesel, Car Wash and Propane Fill
  • Horseshoe Pits
  • Fenced Dog Run
  • On-Property Shuttle Service
  • Security Patrol 24/7
  • Walking Distance to Casino and Restaurants

Pechanga is a resort and casino run by the Pechanga Band of Luseño Indians. The resort itself just underwent a 300 million dollar renovation, doubling its size and becoming the largest resort/casino on the West Coast. It really is beautiful and with nine restaurants, a buffet, live entertainment, clubs, lounges, retail shops, a concert venue, a golf course, and a spa — it’s more than just a casino. And if you sign up for a player’s club card, you get a 5% discount at the shops and restaurants.

During both of our stays, we stayed in one of their deluxe sites. While the deluxe site is the lowest level of their sites, it’s one of the nicest sites we’ve ever stayed in. It is a back-in site with an 18’x55′ concrete pad and nice, green grass separating you from your direct neighbor and a tall hedge separating you from the sites behind you. The other more premium sites have amenities such as pull-thrus; sites with picnic tables; sites with a gazebo, grill, and fire pit; and buddy sites, which are sites that face each other so that if you are traveling with friends, you share a large patio area. The pull-thru sites are a little longer at 67′, but otherwise all the sites are the same size as the deluxe sites. Pechanga is probably the cleanest, most well-maintained place we’ve stayed. The pool, laundry room, and restrooms were attended to every day and spotless. Actually, the entire resort/casino property was super clean.

For the most part, things are fairly quiet at Pechanga. However, the weekends can get a little rowdy, especially if it’s a long holiday weekend like we experienced (Thanksgiving). During our four weeks there, there was one incident with one of the guests of the RV park where security had to be called who then called the Pechanga Tribal Rangers, who responded very quickly and handled the situation quite efficiently. Because of the 24/7 security and prompt response from law enforcement, we felt very safe there. I’d also like to note that the Pechanga Fire Department is directly across the street from the RV resort, which is especially reassuring during fire season in Southern California.

Pechanga is part of the Passport America network, which is a discount camping club that gives you 50% off at participating parks. Each property applies it’s 50% off savings differently, and at Pechanga, it’s Sunday through Wednesday on deluxe sites only. Sunday through Thursday has a rate of $50, while Friday and Saturday are $60, unless there’s a holiday which increases the price. The whole reason we got the Passport America membership was because we knew we’d be staying at Pechanga. During our four weeks total that we stayed there, we saved $350 (14 nights at $25 instead of $50), which really made the annual membership fee of $44 worth it.

The one drawback is that guests staying at the RV resort aren’t allowed to use the main resort’s fitness center and pool, which are both sooooo nice.

While you can’t tell from the photo, the deluxe back-in sites are super long and we had no problem fitting our truck.

The pool is very nice with a spa located on either end.

This is Buddy the security robot. He zips around in the lobby of the hotel.

While Temecula is located inland in Riverside County, it’s just north of San Diego County and east of Orange County, at about a 45-minute drive from the coast. It’s location and lower home prices have led to an increase in residents in the past few years. Because of the increasing population, there’s been a building boom when it comes to both commercial and residential properties. It seems as though most parts of Temecula are brand new and everything is beautifully maintained. While every store and/or service you could need is available, the one thing Temecula lacks is the small town, local charm you find in the beach cities of San Diego and Orange Counties — that is until you drive to Temecula’s wine country. Temecula Valley is home to about 50 wineries scattered throughout the rolling hills. You’ll also find a number of horse ranches and the opportunity for hot air balloon rides. The Temecula Valley Balloon & Wine Festival is held each June, pairing the two things the area is best known for. Whether you prefer reds or whites, you’ll find something for everybody at the various wineries — some with just tasting rooms; others with restaurants, gift shops, hotels, and spas.

As we had lived in North County San Diego for a bit, we have visited Temecula a handful of times over the years — it’s always a nice place to take people that are visiting from out of town. During our stay at Pechanga, my sister and brother-in-law were celebrating her birthday in San Diego and drove out to Temecula with some friends to spend the night. Travis was out of town on business, but I was able to join them for an afternoon of lunch and wining. We started our day with a few tastings and lunch at Wilson Creek Winery, known for their Almond Sparkling Wine, and then moved on to Akash Winery & Vineyards, then Oak Mountain Winery’s tasting room, which is known as The Cave. If you’re concerned about drinking and driving, you’re able to hire a car or book a wine tasting tour that will drive you from one place to the next.

Wilson Creek Winery

It was nice to spend some time with my sister who I usually only see once or twice a year!

Akash Winery

All of the wineries are gorgeous and so peaceful!

Another part of Temecula to explore is Old Town. Old Town is the historic center of Temecula. It has an Old West vibe and offers restaurants, shops, museums, and a community theater. The area is becoming more modernized with some great, modern restaurants (1909 has great food, cocktails and beer) and new condos being built.

I didn’t take many photos of our time in Temecula because to us, it’s not a new place. That’s why it’s also a little difficult for us to give an objective review of our time at Pechanga. It’s a great RV resort and we would stay there again, but definitely for a shorter amount of time.

Literally on the Road to Financial Freedom

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This post will discuss all of the financial aspects related to RVing full time, including initial costs, static bills, cost of gas, lodging costs, and the amount we’ve been able to save over the past year. This is an account of our personal financial experiences with regards to full-time travel — other people’s experiences may vary. There is A LOT to cover, but first…

A Little Background Info

Different people choose the full-time RV lifestyle for different reasons. There was not an ‘aha moment’ for us that made us decide to trade our life of living in a rented condo in La Jolla, California for life on the road in an Airstream. We had recently sold our home in San Marcos, which is in San Diego’s North County. We had no need to or set plan; it was just a really good time to sell as we were able to make a healthy profit from when we purchased three and a half years earlier. We moved to La Jolla, enjoyed ocean sunsets from our balcony, and took advantage of living in the walkable Village of La Jolla.

We had talked about full-time RVing at different times during the previous years, but there was always a reason not to. We owned a house. We had a dog with a lot of health issues that needed regular access to his vet. We had finally established a good friend group after years of living in the San Diego area with only knowing a handful of people. Travis has to travel fairly often for work and we didn’t know how easy it would be to fit that in. But all of a sudden, those reasons fell away. We sold the house. Our sweet golden doodle had passed away. We’d be able to visit our friends whenever we wanted and they could meet us somewhere on the road as well. And planning business trips would just have to be part of the route planning process, making sure we were near airports at certain times.

When the option of full timing started to creep into our conversations again, we decided to look at what RV options are available and what they cost. We visited a place in San Diego that sells Airstreams as well as every other type of RV — fifth wheels, travel trailers, motorhomes, etc. Travis had always been stuck on an Airstream, but I wanted to make sure we explored all options. Of course, we ended up deciding on an Airstream. This particular dealership didn’t have the exact layout we were interested in, so we scoured the interwebs for both used and new in the length and layout we wanted. After looking at a used Flying Cloud, we decided we definitely wanted to buy new and we definitely wanted an International. We found what we were looking for at Airstream Orange County. To read more about the buying process, check out our post Buying an Airstream.

How We Make Money on the Road

Before I get into specifics about what we paid and what our monthly expenses are, I should explain what we do for work. We own an ERP consulting business. I won’t get too detailed about what that is exactly, but the basic gist is that we install, upgrade, and customize a particular software that manufacturing companies utilize. We owned the business for six years before hitting the road full time. We typically work remote from home, but depending on what projects we’re currently working on, Travis might travel to visit a customer on site once or twice a month. As far as work was concerned, we were already living a lifestyle that made transitioning to full-time travel easy. If you’re interested in more information about our business, check out our website here: Bird Rock Solutions

Initial Expenses

There are two major expenses when choosing to travel full time — the Airstream and the truck to pull it. As stated above, we purchased our Airstream brand new from the dealership. This is definitely NOT necessary. Used, almost new Airstreams can be found if you have enough patience. Some people sell their trailers after only using them a handful of times. Now that we know what to look for, we would feel confident buying used. While Airstreams do hold their value pretty well, it’s definitely cheaper to buy used. Many people buy vintage Airstreams and renovate them, which is definitely a cost saver, but you need the right skills, a lot of time, and a good work space — three things we did not have. We ended up purchasing a 2017 27fb International Signature. We had the dealership install solar panels, Maxxair vent covers, and a Blue Ox weight distributing and sway control hitch. The total cost for the trailer with the add-ons and tax was $87,612.11.

Next, we had to buy a truck that could tow the trailer. We knew NOTHING about towing or trucks, so we did a lot of research. We ended up purchasing a 2017 Ford F-150 XLT 4×4 Supercrew with a 3.5L V6 EcoBoost engine with complete tow package. It was a demo vehicle with 249 miles, so it was considered ‘used’ which helped with the price. There was a rebate if we financed, so of course we did that, but we paid off the loan when the first payment came due. The total price for the truck with tax, which we absolutely love and has every feature we need, was $47,138.56. To read more about the truck buying process as well as it’s features, read our post Choosing a Truck.

All in, we paid $134,750.67. That’s a big number. Huge. Thanks to the proceeds from the sale of our house, both vehicles are paid off, so we own our ‘home’ outright. Again, this aspect of the full-time lifestyle can be done for much cheaper. We bought both vehicles brand new — many people buy used. We bought an Airstream — many people by SOB (some other brand) because they’re less expensive. We had decided that because we planned to full time for quite a while, we wanted to start out with two vehicles that we would know the entire history of. We would know the maintenance. We would know about any damage or malfunctions. Everything would be clean and we would be the first to use it, sit in it, sleep in it, shower in it, and use the bathroom in it.

Static Monthly Expenses

Just like anyone in a bricks and sticks house, we have monthly bills. Our static monthly bills consist of the following:

RV Insurance ————$112.20

Truck Insurance ———-$92.40

Life Insurance ———–$219.58

Disability Insurance —–$76.92

Health Insurance ——-$480.46

Storage Unit —————-$59.00

TOTAL:                     $1040.56

You’ll notice that phone and internet are not included in our monthly bills. Those items are paid for by the business, so I don’t include them in personal expenses.

Cost of Gas

This is going to greatly depend on how much you travel, your vehicles gas mileage, how much weight you’re pulling, and what speed you drive. When they first start out, many full timers spend a lot of time moving from one place to the next. We did. It’s exciting to be out there, exploring, being able to go anywhere you’d like. But it’s also expensive. And time consuming. And exhausting. We hit the road January 15, 2018 and as of November 24, 2018, have spent about $3,040.00 on gas while towing. That’s just while towing — gas used while exploring or living our everyday life is not included. We also put on over 7500 miles. Again, those are just towing miles. While towing, we generally drive 60mph and we get about 14mpg.

Lodging Costs

For lack of a better term, lodging costs include the cost of the actual site where we park the Airstream, but also reservation fees, taxes, pet fees, electricity, and park entrance fees. We’ve paid anywhere from $0/night to $75/night. There are so many options when choosing where to stay. We’ve stayed at private RV parks, KOAs, city parks, county parks, state parks, national parks, casinos, Army Corps of Engineers (ACOE) campgrounds, and on a family friend’s farm.

Private RV parks usually offer nightly, weekly, and monthly rates. Staying somewhere for a month is a good way to save on monthly costs; however, where the park is located is very important. We’ve paid $340 for a month in Pahrump, NV, but have also paid as much as $1900 for a month in Escondido, CA (San Diego County). While city, county, state and national parks don’t offer different rates correlating with your length of stay, they also don’t raise prices for weekends and holidays like private parks and KOAs do. For example, we’re paying $85/night for the Thanksgiving weekend at a casino RV resort, when it would usually cost $50 for the Thursday night and $60 for the Friday and Saturday nights. In contrast to that is our four-night stay in Death Valley National Park over the New Year’s holiday. The campground in Death Valley is always $36/night, regardless of day of the week or if it’s a holiday.

In addition to the nightly, weekly, or monthly rate, you may find yourself also paying for:

  • Reservation Fees – Expect to pay a reservation fee at state or ACOE parks. The reservation fee is the same price whether you stay one night or ten, so this is something that can add up if you move around too much.
  • Electricity – Electricity is generally always included unless you are staying a month or longer somewhere. When you stay a month, expect electricity to be an additional charge.
  • Pet Fees – Some places charge them; some places don’t. Since January 15 until today, we’ve paid $32.00 in dog fees, so it’s not a very common thing.
  • Taxes – This is another one that can sneak up on you. Some states don’t have taxes. Some places include the tax in the rate. But some places tack on the tax at the end and you end up paying quite a bit more than you thought you were going to.
  • Park Entrance Fees – Another thing to consider when making a reservation is if your site is within an area that requires a daily entrance fee. National parks, national recreation areas, and state parks are definitely places that have daily entrance fees. Sometimes it makes sense to just pay the daily fee; sometimes it makes sense to pay for an annual pass.

From January 15, 2018 through November 24, 2108, we paid a total of $13,236.46 for all lodging costs. That’s an average of $42.29/day or $1268.67/month. That’s definitely higher than we would like and we’re going to work on lowering that number next year. We have about 5 and a half months worth of reservations booked next year already and we’ve been able to lower the number to $33.63/day or $1008.90/month.

There are a number of memberships that will help lower your lodging costs; these are the ones we use:

  • AAA – Many RV parks give a 10% discount. Member rates vary.
  • Good Sam – Many RV parks give a 10% discount. $27/year. I can’t even calculate the amount of money we’ve saved with our Good Sam membership; hundreds, probably.
  • KOA Value Kard Rewards – 10% off at all KOAs. Earn points that can be used as discounts on stays. $30/year. We’ve saved almost $100 this year with our membership. Additionally, we’ve earned enough points to get $25 off our next stay.
  • Harvest Hosts – A network of wineries, breweries, farms, museums and similar locations that allow RVs to park one night overnight on their property for free. Currently $49/year; increasing to $79/year 1/1/19.
  • Passport America – Save 50% at over 1800 campgrounds/RV parks across the country. $44/year. We’ve saved $410 this year with Passport America alone.
  • America the Beautiful National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Pass (aka Interagency Annual Pass) – Free entrance into federally operated national recreation sites (such as national parks). Free entrance for up to four individuals at National Park Service sites where per person entrance fees are charged. If you are camping in a national park, you will need to purchase either a weekly pass or annual pass specific to that park. Prices vary from park to park. The other option is to purchase an Interagency Annual Pass for $80. Because entrance was free our Interagency Pass, we’ve visited a number of national monuments we wouldn’t have otherwise visited.

Our Current Financial Situation

Our average monthly cost to date for lodging and gas is $1560.04. This amount includes water and electricity. Pre-Airstream life, we were paying $3400/month for rent for our 2-bedroom condo in La Jolla, not including utilities. Obviously, our basic living expenses have decreased dramatically. Thanks to our lower monthly expenses and the fact that we’ve had our busiest year to date business-wise, we’ve been able to concentrate on building our savings, investments, and retirement accounts. Our business is set up as an S-Corp, allowing us to have a SEP IRA to which we can contribute up to 25% of our gross salary, which we were able to do this year. We’ve also been able to save about 16.5% and invest about 15% of our gross income. We don’t have any loans and we don’t carry a credit card balance. We are truly in the best financial state we have ever been in and the only reason we’re able to save and invest so much is because we live in our Airstream full time. While some people live the full time life in order to lower their expenses so they can work less, we plan to work the same amount for the foreseeable future in order to continue to contribute to our financial future and set ourselves up for true financial independence.

Besides the financial benefit, full-time Airstream life has allowed us to see places in our country that we would have otherwise not seen. There have been amazing places, there have been some not-so-amazing places. Every person we’ve met, every city we’ve traveled through — everything has helped us understand and have more compassion for our neighbors. Except maybe our current neighbors who allow their dogs to poop in our site and don’t clean it up.

 

 

Boulder Creek RV Resort – Lone Pine, CA

Boulder Creek RV Resort – Lone Pine, CA

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After Bridgeport, we continued south on the 395 to another equally interesting location — Lone Pine. Lone Pine, California is best known for the numerous Western movies and TV shows that used the unusual rock formations of the Alabama Hills and the peaks of the Eastern Sierras, including the lower 48’s highest peak — Mt. Whitney, as their backdrop. John Wayne, Gene Autry, Errol Flynn, Roy Rogers, Cary Grant, Bing Crosby, Humphrey Bogart, Clint Eastwood, Steve McQueen, and Mel Gibson all starred in Westerns shot in and around Lone Pine. As the Western era died out, the filming in Lone Pine slowed, but didn’t stop. Kevin Bacon’s Tremors, Kevin Costner’s The Postman, and Russel Crowe’s Gladiator all shot at least partially in Lone Pine. Over 400 films, 100 television shows, and countless commercials have used Lone Pine and the Alabama Hills as filming locations.

Lone Pine is also home to the Eastern Sierra Visitor Center, which is run by the US Forest Service, National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, and Eastern Sierra Interpretive Association. The center provides visitor, wilderness, and highway information for the Eastern Sierra, including the Inyo National Forest, Death Valley National Park, Manzanar National Historic Site, Sequoia and Kings Canyon Parks wilderness, Alabama Hills & BLM Bishop Field Office public lands, and Owen Lakes and Los Angeles Department of Water and Power public lands. Panamint Springs, located on the west side of Death Valley NP, is 55 miles from Lone Pine, while Furnace Creek on the east side is 100.

There are a handful of restaurants, a small grocery store, a hospital, an airport, a golf course and numerous services, including a car and RV wash, located in Lone Pine.

Boulder Creek RV Resort

2550 S. State Hwy 395, Lone Pine, CA 93545

www.bouldercreekrvresort.com

  • Full Hookups
  • Pull-Thru Sites
  • Cable
  • Picnic Table
  • Fire Pit
  • Laundry
  • Restrooms with Showers
  • Swimming Pool & Spa
  • Fenced Dog Run
  • Playground
  • Cabins
  • Dump Station
  • Mini Mart
  • Propane Fill
  • Horseshoes & Basketball

We stayed at Boulder Creek RV Resort for three nights. It’s a very nice resort, with trees for shade and the largest dog run we’ve ever seen at an RV resort. It was quite hot during our stay, so we explored during the mornings before the temperature got too high, worked during the day, and spent a lot of time at the pool and hot tub in the late afternoons and evenings. They serve muffins and coffee every morning in their clubhouse, which for some reason is home to birds and baby tortoises — you’ll find the adult tortoises outside in an enclosure.

Site 28 with a view of Lone Pine Peak

Site 28 is on the end of a row of pull-thrus, so we had a nice ‘patio’ without the view of a neighbor’s sewer hose!

Things to Do Around Lone Pine:

As stated above, Lone Pine has been the backdrop to numerous film and television shows. The Museum of Western Film History can be found in downtown Lone Pine, just a short drive from the RV resort. The museum is a very comprehensive, very interesting collection of Western film and television memorabilia that also contains exhibits from more recent pop culture movies that also filmed in the area. There is no entrance fee, but a $5 donation is recommended (I think this helps keep their non-profit status). And leashed dogs are welcome!

Museum of Western Film History

The Plymouth Couple from High Sierra, the 1941 film that made Humphrey Bogart a star.

Russell Crowe’s training school costume from Gladiator. The landscape of Lone Pine was used for Maximus’s camp.

In the movie The Trail of San Antone Car, Gene Autry’s character (Gene’s stunt double) jumped this Buick Roadmaster while on horseback.

A Graboid (sandworm) from Kevin Bacon’s 1990 film Tremors

Robert Downey Jr.’s suit from 2008’s Iron Man

The Dentist Wagon from 2012’s Django Unchained

Seven miles north of Lone Pine is the Manzanar National Historic Site. Manzanar was one of ten war relocation centers built during World War II to temporarily house people of Japanese ancestry following FDR signing Executive Order 9066. Between March of 1942 and November of 1945, more than 10,000 men, women, and children lived at Manzanar — most of them U.S. citizens. While almost no original structures remain, there are re-creations of barracks, a mess hall, and a latrine. The visitor center features exhibits about the camp and area history. There’s also an informative film and a pretty comprehensive bookstore and gift shop.

Manzanar is a National Park Service site and entrance is free, but we made sure to buy a couple of things in the gift shop in order to support the site, which is a very important, yet sad, part of US history. Dogs are allowed in all outdoor areas.

Manzanar was in operation from Spring 1942 until November 21, 1945

When Manzanar closed, a significant number of prisoners refused to leave because they had no place to go after losing everything when they were incarcerated. They once again had to be forcibly removed from their ‘homes’.

Manzanar held 10,046 incarcerees at its peak, and a total of 11,070 people were incarcerated there.

These gorgeous watercolor portraits hang in the visitor center, honoring some of those incarcerated at Manzanar. “I’ve always believed in the principles and promise of our country.”-Rose Matsui Ochi

Manzanar was arranged in 36 blocks. Each block contained 14 barracks, a men’s latrine, a women’s latrine, a laundry room, a mess hall, an ironing room, and a recreation hall. In most blocks, up to 300 people crowded into the barracks. Everyone ate in the mess hall, washed clothes in the public laundry room, and shared latrines and showers with little privacy. The ironing room and recreation hall offered spaces for classes, shops, and churches. Over time, people personalized their barracks and most blocks evolved into distinct communities.

Exterior of a Barracks

Interior of a Barracks

Interior of a Latrine

Interior of a Mess Hall

Within a couple years of closing, all the structures had been removed, with the exception of the two sentry posts at the entrance, the cemetery monument, and the former Manzanar High School auditorium. There are signs throughout the 6200-acre property marking what used to stand in each spot.

The kanji on the obelisk in the cemetery means ‘soul consoling tower’.

The Mobius Arch Loop Trail is the most hiked trail in the Alabama Hills Recreation Area, which is well known for free, dispersed camping with interesting vistas. The trail is accessible by driving Whitney Portal Road from Lone Pine and turning right on Movie Road. Obviously, Movie Road is so named because this is where many of the areas movies and television shows were filmed. The Lone Pine Chamber of Commerce has a great self-guided tour on their website that guides you to some of the more well-known filming locations. There is a parking area and signs at the Mobius Arch Trailhead to let you know you’re in the right place. The trail is only 0.6 mile long and is a nice, easy hike with beautiful views.

The roads in this area are gravel and can be quite rough at times. There are a number of small roads that branch off from the main roads, and while you can never truly get lost because Mt. Whitney is always in view and acts as a compass, it would definitely be possible to lose your way just a bit. Do some research before heading out into the Alabama Hills and know that summers are very hot and there isn’t much shade to be found.

From what I’ve read, Mobius Arch Loop Trail is the only trail that’s well marked.

Mobius Arch

Dogs and horses are allowed on the trail and throughout the recreation area.

Mt. Whitney makes an appearance at the right interior of the arch.

Heart Arch

The rounded rocks of the Alabama Hills are a stark contrast to the jagged peaks of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, but both were shaped during the same uplifting occurring 100 million years ago.

Looking back at Lone Pine Peak (12,949′) and Mt. Whitney (14,505′)

Of course, the main attraction to the area is Mount Whitney itself. The most popular route to the top is the Mt. Whitney Trail, a 22-mile out and back trail with about 6500′ of elevation gain. It can be done in one day, but you must start early (like, really early) and it takes 12-16 hours. You can also spend a night on the trail at various camps, the most popular being Trail Camp, located at about 12,000′. This helps you acclimate to the elevation, but means you have to pack more gear; however, most hikers will leave their extra gear at camp while they complete the trail to the summit and pick it up on the way down. Permits are required any time you hike Mt. Whitney and there is a daily quota from May 1 to November 1. To find out more information about permits and summiting the highest peak in the contiguous United States, check out recreation.gov, AllTrails, and this blog post by the Hiking Guy.

Zephyr Cove Resort – Lake Tahoe, NV

Zephyr Cove Resort – Lake Tahoe, NV

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We loved Zephyr Cove! This is such a beautiful campground and we are already looking forward to the day we can return. It’s also a very expensive campground, the most expensive to date for us, but we treated our five nights there as a mini vacay and that helped us justify the price ($75/night). We were in site 134, which is a nice, long pull-thru. We were so glad we got a pull-thru due to the roads being narrow throughout the campground and the smattering of trees everywhere, which made getting into sites very difficult, especially for larger rigs. Our site was considered a ‘standard’ site, though I’m not sure what the difference is from the ‘premium’ sites, most of which are back-ins. We watched many Class A motorhomes and fifth wheels struggle with both getting in to and out of their sites, so even though the website says they can handle 40+ feet, I’d say this is not a big rig friendly campground.

We pulled into Zephyr Cove on Labor Day, so it was very busy, but really cleared out the next day. The week was peaceful, with the campground filling up again on Friday night — Zephyr Cove definitely seems like a summer weekend destination.

Zephyr Cove Resort RV Park & Campground

Address: 760 US Hwy 50, Zephyr Cove, NV 89448

Phone: (775) 589-4906

Amenities:

  • Full Hookups
  • Pull-Thru Sites
  • Cable TV
  • Tent Sites
  • Airstreams for Rent
  • Restrooms with Showers
  • Laundry
  • Store
  • Dump Station
  • Propane

There are three Airstreams available for rent. Looking at the Zephyr Cove website, they look to be 30′ International Signatures.

The RV park and campground is across the street from the main lodge of the resort. The resort offers cabins, a restaurant, a gift shop, a beach on South Lake Tahoe with beach bar and volleyball courts, lake cruises, marina with rentals, and horseback riding. We spent a lot of time at the beach relaxing and enjoying the amazing weather. The lake is so clear and refreshing!

Heavenly Village is a short drive from the RV park, and has shops and restaurants as well as the Heavenly Mountain Resort Gondola. The gondola, which only operates on the weekend during summer, offers panoramic views of Lake Tahoe as it carries you the 2.6 miles to the top. There’s an observation deck, cafe, and gift store at the first stop of the gondola. Continue to the top of the gondola for the Tamarack Lodge, where you can get a typical ski lodge lunch that’s of average quality and overpriced. Bar 9150′ is also located there. During the winter, Heavenly Mountain offers 96 different ski trails. During the summer, visitors can enjoy climbing walls, ropes courses, zip lines, a roller coaster, tubing and hiking trails. You can also take the chair lift further up the mountain to get better views of Lake Tahoe and access more hiking trails.

Depending on where you are on the mountain, you’ll find yourself in one of two states.

Our time in Tahoe was all about relaxing. We enjoyed sitting by the fire every night (buy your firewood before getting to the campground where it’s $$$). We also enjoyed meeting up with fellow full-time Airstreamers Marc and Paola (Instagram’s Cruising Slow). The weather was perfect and the only thing we’d change is how long we stayed. We wished our stay had been longer at Zephyr Cove, which will definitely happen during our next visit!

Bordertown Casino and RV Resort – Reno, NV

Bordertown Casino and RV Resort – Reno, NV

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Bordertown Casino and RV Resort

Address: 19575 Hwy 395 North, Reno, NV 89508

Phone: (775) 677-0169

Amenities:

  • Full Hookups
  • Pull-Thru Sites
  • Cable TV
  • Laundry
  • Restrooms with Showers
  • Dog Run
  • Propane Fill
  • Gas Station
  • Casino with Restaurant
  • Dump Station

This is a great little RV park with 50 sites; all but two are pull-thrus. It’s a couple hundred yards from the California/Nevada border, hence the name, and a 20- to 25-minute drive into downtown Reno. The sites have long, level, concrete pads with beautiful green grass. The laundry and restrooms are a little dated, but are clean and get the job done. Upon checkin, we were each given coupons for the casino for $5 in slot play, a free drink, and a $1 off food at either the deli or restaurant in the casino — and we happily used them all. The casino is small with all slots, a bar, a deli counter and a busy restaurant with phenomenal prices. The people that run the RV park are very nice and extremely accommodating and all of the other guests were very friendly. While there isn’t much to do in the immediate area, we would definitely stay here again — it’s clean, quiet, and convenient to the highway.

 

Lassen Volcanic National Park and Hat Creek Hereford Ranch

Lassen Volcanic National Park and Hat Creek Hereford Ranch

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Staying at Hat Creek was our biggest and most costly mistake to date…

When we left the NorCal Coast city of Trinidad, we headed inland. We had booked two nights at Del Loma RV Park in Big Bar, but as we were driving, we were feeling pretty good and like we could handle a couple more hours. I called Hat Creek Hereford Ranch, which was our next destination, to see if we could add two more nights to our stay. We were able to, so we kept on driving to Hat Creek. We hadn’t paid a deposit at Del Loma, so canceling was easy and free. We should have known we were going to have an issue when we went for a stretch of almost three hours during our drive with no cell signal. When we arrived at Hat Creek, we had no signal on our AT&T phones. Before checking in, we should have checked our Verizon phone and hotspot, and tried all of our phones with our WeBoost, but we didn’t. When I checked in, the young woman at the counter mentioned that we were staying a long time – originally 7 nights, now 9. We were staying so long because we wanted to explore nearby Lassen Volcanic National Park and Burney Falls. And though we usually travel on weekends, we chose not to this particular upcoming weekend because it was Labor Day. Anyway, I made the comment we were only staying if we could get a strong enough cell signal to be able to work, seeing as we work full time. She said nothing. I paid our remaining balance and we went to our site.

After getting set up, we realized we had no cell signal with either Verizon or AT&T, and our WeBoost did nothing for us. We tried using their wifi, but that kept dropping and wasn’t even strong enough to open web pages. We were in a pickle. Seeing as it was a Sunday, we were going to stay put for the night because we didn’t need to get online for anything. After talking through our options, we decided we needed to move on the next day. There was no way we would be able to last more than a week without a cell signal. That evening, we drove up the road a bit where we noticed we had gotten a bar of signal earlier in the day when we had driven to the grocery store. We parked on the side of the road, in the darkness, and surfed the web to find a new place to stay for the remainder of the week and the holiday weekend. We found a place in Reno where we were able to cobble together two different reservations in order to cover most of the time, and then we adjusted our next reservation in Lake Tahoe to arrive a day earlier.

The next day, we explored Lassen Volcanic NP for a few hours and stopped at the tiny post office where we had had our mail sent. We headed back to Hat Creek Hereford Ranch to pack up, hitch up, check out, and hit the road. We were already fully hitched up and parked in the driveway when I went into the office to check out. The same young woman was working, along with an older woman who I assume is the owner. I told them we had to leave because there’s no signal. They seemed a little befuddled, but I explained that we work full time, and there’s just no way we could stay. The older woman asked if we had tried their wifi, and I said we had, but it was pretty slow and kept kicking us off. She explained how their wifi used to be great, but a recent wild fire caused an electric surge that basically blew up their previous setup. The internet company had replaced the equipment, but the speed wasn’t nearly as strong or fast and it would be getting fixed soon. She tried talking me in to staying a few more days, but I said that we were already hitched up and had reservations elsewhere. She then got a little defensive, saying, “Everybody knows there’s no signal here!” I explained we weren’t from the area and did not know that, but it was our fault for not doing better research. This is when I found out their refund policy, which is they don’t do refunds. If you cancel more than seven days before your reservation, they’ll refund the deposit. If you cancel within seven days of your reservation, they keep your deposit. If you’ve already checked in and paid, they refund nothing. I tried arguing that technically we hadn’t checked in yet for our original reservation, so I should get a refund minus the deposit, but it was a no go. We had nine days booked at $44 per night (plus a $5 reservation fee), for a total of $401. Yikes. She felt bad, so she did refund $100 and credited us with two free nights to use in the next two years. Seeing as we had stayed one night and were checking out late on the second day, we counted it as two nights. When subtracting the refund, the two credited nights, the two nights stayed, and the reservation fee, we ended up eating $120, or about three nights. Of course, that’s if we end up using the two nights of credit.

Lesson Learned: Do better research – on both cell signal and refund policy.

Honestly, I don’t know what happened with this one. We ALWAYS check the cell signal; both with Campendium/Google reviews and the Open Signal/Coverage apps. We totally dropped the ball. In the future, we’ll keep to weekend stays for non-signal areas.

It’s also important to note that we’ve lost money on canceling reservations before. We lost a night’s stay worth once and multiple reservation fees, but altogether it probably adds up to about $60 or $70. We do our best to avoid cancelations, but sometimes we book far in advance at national or state parks, because you have to, but then change our minds. It’s just part of the full-time lifestyle.

Hat Creek Hereford Ranch RV Park & Campground

Address: 17855 Dory Road, Hat Creek, CA 96040

Phone: (530) 335-7171

Amenities:

  • Full Hookups
  • Pull-Thrus (but not really)
  • Laundry
  • Restrooms with Showers
  • Tent Sites
  • Picnic Table
  • Fishing/Swimming Pond

The park itself is nice and quiet. Farmland borders it, so there are happy cows and goats out your window. It’s peaceful and quaint and rustic. The layout is a little haphazard, with sites in odd locations and directions, and nothing that delineates one site from the next. Above, I mentioned that there are pull-thrus, but not really. We were able to pull into our site easy enough (after relocating the fire ring made of rocks and driving up an incline), but at the front of our site was a retaining wall. In order to drive out of our site, we had to drive at an angle down an decline. We didn’t have any neighbors, so we were able to get in and out of our site easy enough, but if we did have neighbors, neither would have been very easy. We were there for such a short amount of time that we didn’t use any of the facilities, so I can’t comment on those.

Site 3 – The four picnic tables in the photo show how close together the sites are.

The surrounding area is a beautiful country setting.

The location is pretty remote, with the small city of Burney a 22-minute drive away. That’s where you’ll find a Safeway grocery store, a Rite Aid, a post office, a few places to eat, and a few hotels. The Burney Falls Visitor Center is a 25-minute drive and the Subway Cave Lava Tubes a 20-minute drive – neither of which we had the chance to visit.

Lassen Volcanic National Park is about a 35-minute drive. If dry camping is your thing, there are plenty of places to stay outside the park (National Forest campgrounds) and within the park itself. Lassen is a mostly-unknown, little-visited National Park that has all the best stuff: Volcanoes, mountains, lakes, mud pots, sulfur springs, steam vents, waterfalls, and enough trails to satisfy every hiker from novice to expert! We’re really looking forward to a return visit to explore the park more fully like it deserves.

 

 

Azalea Glen RV Park and Redwood NP

Azalea Glen RV Park and Redwood NP

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After spending more than four weeks on the Oregon Coast, we moved on to the California Coast. Trinidad, California is a beautiful little city with sweeping coastal views, shops, restaurants, and a population that consists mostly of vacationers.

Views at Tepona Point

Sunset at Trinidad State Beach

Azalea Glen RV Park

Address: 3883 Patrick’s Point Drive, Trinidad, CA 95570

Phone: (707) 677-3068

Amenities:

  • Full Hookups
  • Pull-Thrus
  • Restrooms with Showers
  • Laundry
  • Cable TV
  • Dog Run
  • No Smoking
  • Recycling

Azalea Glen is a small, quiet RV Park with just 38 sites. About half are permanent residents and are clean and well kept. The owners of the park seem to be amateur horticulturists, as there are beautiful flowers throughout the property, as well as a small green house. Azalea Glen is located about 10 minutes from downtown Trinidad, right across the street from Patrick’s Point State Park, and about 15 minutes from Redwood National Park’s Kuchel Visitor Center.

Site 21 is a Private Back-In Site

Site 21 Viewed Through Pull-Thru Site 38

The Office is Surrounded by Beautiful Flowers

The Greenhouse

Sites that back up to the pond also have decks, but these sites looked fairly short and don’t leave room to park a tow vehicle.

Patrick’s Point State Park is home to a rocky coastline with barking sea lions and interesting tide pools. There are a number of trails that wind through the park and down to Agate Beach. Sumêg Village is a recreation of a Yurok village that is used for cultural and educational activities that preserve the heritage of several neighboring tribes: Yurok, Karuk, and Hoopa. There are three campgrounds within the park with a total of 120 sites. A day pass is $8 and there’s a nice visitor center with information and souvenirs. Patrick’s Point is shrouded in fog much of the year. During the summer, sometimes fog does not burn off for several days at a time. Clear days appear most frequently during spring and fall. Rainfall averages more than 60 inches a year — most of it falling between November and April. Temperatures are moderate much of the year, with only about a 10-degree difference in average temperatures between summer and winter. Summer highs average 62 degrees, with winter lows to 38 degrees.

The View from Wedding Rock

Agate Beach

I found the rocks on Agate Beach to be very interesting.

A Family House in Sumêg Village

Redwood National and State Parks represent a cooperative management effort of the National Park Service and the California Department of Parks and Recreation. This includes Redwood National Park, Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park, and Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park. This was the most oddly laid out National Park we’ve been to, with each of the four parks situated along the 101 in about a 50-mile stretch. There’s really no entrance/exit, at least not in Redwood National Park. We have a National Parks Pass, so entrance is free to us, but we never saw a pay station. We assume that one is supposed to pay the entrance fee at one of the visitor centers.

The Tall Trees Trail is a 3.5-mile loop trail that is accessible by permit only. Permits are available at the Kuchel Visitor Center, are free, and are limited to 50 per day. We stopped in at 10:30 on a Wednesday morning and had no issue getting one. The trailhead, which is a 45-minute drive from the visitor center, is at the end of Tall Trees Access Road, which has a locked gate. Disclaimer: The road is rough — I’d recommend a high-clearance vehicle, although there were plenty of cars that made the trip. When you get your permit, they also give you the combination to the lock, which changes daily. This trail is not the most spectacular part of the park, but due to its remoteness and limit on visitors, it’s very quiet. We only saw about ten other parties in our time on the trail, which was about an hour and forty minutes. FYI: There’s a pit toilet at the trailhead.

I would recommend to anyone visiting the Redwoods area, whether you have a few days or only a few hours, to visit the Lady Bird Johnson Grove Trail. It’s a 1.25-mile loop that’s absolutely breathtaking. It’s also the most popular trail in the park, but Redwood doesn’t seem to get nearly as much love as other parks, so you won’t be fighting through crowds. We visited Lady Bird Trail a little after 5pm and there were only a half dozen cars in the parking lot. It was a clear day and the light was perfect!

There is a plaque that stands in Lady Bird Johnson Grove where Presidents Nixon and Johnson joined Governor Reagan in 1969 to dedicate this 300-acre grove to Lady Bird Johnson and her campaign to preserve America’s natural beauty.

We really enjoyed the time we spent in the Trinidad area. It’s a beautiful part of the country that we look forward to revisiting at some point.

The Oregon Coast – Part Two

The Oregon Coast – Part Two

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Our original plan after Winchester Bay was to make our way to Crater Lake for the Crater Lake Rim Run. Because of a wild fire burning in the northeast corner of the park, we had been keeping an eye on the air quality conditions, which got worse everyday. A few days before the race, we decided to pull the plug on the trip. We didn’t want to drive all that way to see beautiful Crater Lake in a smoky haze and we didn’t want to put our health at risk by running the race. We were disappointed about canceling a trip that we had been looking forward to for four months. Months worth of our route had been determined by this trip to Crater Lake and this became a learning experience for us — DO NOT plan things so far in advance. Anyway, with Crater Lake out, we had to figure out where we were going to stay. It was a weekend, in summer, on the Oregon Coast, with three days’ notice — not easy conditions. We called around and checked online for more than two hours for anywhere along the coast from Coos Bay to Florence, and I happened upon one site available at Jessie M. Honeyman State Park for the three nights we needed.

Jessie M. Honeyman State Park

Address: 84505 Highway 101 S, Florence, OR 97439

Phone: (541) 997-3641

Amenities:

  • Full Hookups
  • Yurts
  • Tent Sites
  • Hiker/Biker Sites
  • Restrooms with Showers
  • Picnic Table & Fire Ring
  • Firewood for Sale
  • Dump Station
  • Water Fill
  • Playground
  • Lake with Boat Rentals and Swim Beach
  • OHV Access to Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area

Check in isn’t until 4pm, which was a little tough for us because we came from Winchester Bay, 35 minutes away, where check out was 11am. We pulled over in a turnout on the way to kill time, but we still got to the campground around noon. Since I pre-registered, they basically checked us in at that time and said we could drive past our site to see if the previous people had left yet (check out is 1). We drove through, scraping our sway bars on every single gigantic speed bump along the way and saw that the people had not left yet. Per the check-in person’s advice, we drove back out and pulled into the day use area to wait. There is a lot of parking in day use, including some RV spots. We ate lunch and explored the area a bit until 1, and then headed back into the campground – after we removed our sway bars. This time the people were gone and we didn’t scrape any speed bumps.

We stayed in site H381, which is one of the shortest sites throughout the huge campground. When we pulled up to it, we weren’t sure we’d be able to back into it, as it was at the opposite angle in regards to the direction of traffic and it was small. Even the camp hosts right across from us were certain we wouldn’t fit. We inched our way back and forth until we got in and once we did, we noticed the site was much longer than the labeled 31 feet, just difficult to access. We had an electric and water hookup, but as this was a short stay, we only hooked up electric and used our full freshwater tank (which we filled at our last place) for the duration. This is a huge campground (over 400 sites) and its main draw is the access to the dunes right next door. Because we were in H Loop, the loop directly next to the dunes, all we heard all day long was the engines of the various OHV vehicles, but beggars can’t be choosers.

Cleawox Lake is located within Honeyman Park. The Lodge offers a swim beach, restrooms, and boat rentals. We rented a kayak for an hour ($10) one morning and paddled around the lake a bit. The lake isn’t huge, so an hour is really all you need.

Honeyman State Park is a few miles south of Florence, one of the nicest little towns you’ll find on the Oregon Coast. There’s a Historic Old Town district home to restaurants, shops, and art galleries. We ate at three different places in Florence, and Bridgewater Ocean Fresh Fish and Zebra Bar was by far the best! We also did some shopping at a great little store in Florence called Artêfacts.

Heceta Head Lighthouse is located 12 miles north of Florence. Of all the Oregon lighthouses we visited, and we saw 6 of 9, this one probably has the most picturesque location. First illuminated in 1894, the 56-foot tower sits 205 feet above the ocean. There’s a half-mile, uphill walk from the parking area, which has a day-use fee of $5, which was free for us with our State Park campground pass. There’s also a network of trails around the lighthouse, including one that connects to the popular Hobbit Trail. The lighthouse is currently closed to tours due to restoration. Also on the property is the old lighthouse keeper’s house, which is currently used as a bed and breakfast.

The beach in this picture is adjacent to the parking area. The bridge is Hwy 101.

You’ll notice a white curtain is drawn inside the top of the lighthouse. When a lighthouse is functioning, the lens around the lightbulb is constantly in motion. When the lens stops turning and sits still, there’s potential for a fire to start by sunlight passing through the lens, which is basically a very strong magnifying glass. The curtain is drawn to prevent this from happening.

While we were grateful to find a place to stay somewhat last minute, we wouldn’t stay at Honeyman State Park again unless we had to. It was too loud and too busy for our liking; although, being in Florence was really nice.

 

Bastendorff Beach County Park

Address: 63379 Bastendorff Beach Road, Coos Bay, OR 97420

Phone: (541) 888-5353

Amenities:

  • Water and Electric Hookups
  • Tent Sites
  • Cabins
  • Restrooms with Showers
  • Playground
  • Dump Station
  • Picnic Table and Fire Ring

While the address for Bastendorff Beach County Park says Coos Bay, a more accurate location is Charleston, a small fishing village eight miles southwest of Coos Bay. Because of this location, the campground is a 20-25 minute drive from what Coos Bay has to offer. The campground shows its age and we wouldn’t stay here again, but it did the job. There is no area to check in, but I always put the information (confirmation number, site number, hookups, balance owed) in my calendar on my phone, so I knew where we were going. Our site was very private, though just barely long enough to park our truck in front of the Airstream. The campground was pretty quiet, except for the distant fog horn that sounded every 20 seconds or so throughout the night. Access to the beach is a half mile down the main road. This was the only beach of all the beaches we visited in Oregon that was gross. Garbage. A man peeing. Excrement that was possibly human. Apparently, up until very recently, people were allowed to sleep on the beach. Sounds dreamy, right? The area was more of a homeless tent city than a nice family getaway, so the city put the kibosh on that. We spent five nights here, and as it was only water and electric hookups, we had to conserve water usage so as not to fill the grey and black tanks. We made it through the week, but did end up dumping a grey tank that was at 100% capacity.

A few miles south of Bastendorff Beach is the Cape Arago Lighthouse. It is currently owned by the Confederated Tribes of the Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians. There is no (legal) public access to the lighthouse, but there is an overlook just south of Sunset Bay State Park. The fog horn that sounds through the night comes from the Cape Arago Lighthouse.

There are three State Parks just south of Bastendorff Beach: Sunset Bay State Park, Shore Acres State Park, and Cape Arago State Park. Oregon has 36 state parks along the coast. The main purpose of these parks seems to be to preserve the land, as opposed to preserving a historic interest, recreational potential, or a natural wonder, as you find in other state parks. These coastal parks are generally trees with some trails that lead to one of the many beaches. Don’t get me wrong — I love that Oregon has set aside all of this land for public access! It’s just that so far, the many state parks we had visited in the previous four weeks on the coast had all been the same without much excitement. Shore Acres State Park was a little something different than the usual.

Shore Acres SP was a delightful and unexpected little park. It was once the grand estate of pioneer timber baron Louis Simpson, and features a beautiful botanic garden. There’s a formal garden, a Japanese-style garden with lily pond, and two rose gardens. Of course, there are also trails, one of which leads to secluded Simpson Beach. There’s also an observation building, which sits where the Simpson mansion once stood, to protect you from the elements as you view the ocean. We were lucky enough to see a lone grey whale just off shore.

This is a nice little park if you’re in the area. FYI: No dogs allowed. They are not allowed outside of vehicles. Also, there’s a $5, cash only, parking pass fee. There’s an onsite gift shop that does accept credit cards.

The Coos Bay and North Bend area is the Coast’s largest urban area and you’ll find more restaurants, shops, and services here than most anywhere else along the Coast. We visited 7 Devil’s Brewing a couple of times while staying at Bastendorff Beach and I’d recommend a visit if you find yourself in the area.

 

Humbug Mountain State Park

Address: 39745 Hwy 101, Port Orford, OR 97465

Phone: (541) 332-6774

Amenities:

  • Pull-Thru Sites
  • Water & Electric Hookups
  • Tent Sites
  • Hiker/Biker Sites
  • Restrooms with Showers
  • Picnic Table with Fire Ring
  • Dump Station
  • Firewood for Sale
  • Short Trail to Beach

This was a really nice little campground with 90 sites; two-thirds tent, one-third RV.

There is a short trail to the beach from the campground, and seeing as through the campground is the only way to access the beach, it’s very unpopulated.

There are a couple of trails within Humbug Mountain State Park. One is the Humbug Mountain Trail, which is a moderately difficult 5-mile loop. The other trail, the Old Hwy 101 Scenic Trail, is 2.6 miles one way and is part of the 425-mile Oregon Coast Trail. We did a portion of the Old Hwy 101 Trail.

This gate is off to the right as you drive into the main part of the campground.

Some portions of the trail were black top, some gravel.

There are wild berries everywhere!

There are some pretty great views!

Port Orford had some of the prettiest coastal views we had seen up to this point, including the views from Battle Rock City Park right in town.

We visited one last lighthouse while in this area — Cape Blanco Lighthouse. It’s the oldest standing lighthouse on the Coast and is the westernmost point in Oregon. Just up the road from the lighthouse is the Hughes House, a restored home of an early settler (whose son was a lighthouse keeper at Cape Blanco for 37 years). The views from the lighthouse are gorgeous, but the wind, a calm 22 mph while we were there, is something else. This is not somewhere I’d like to experience a winter!

Humbug Mountain in Port Orford was a great place to wrap up our stay on the Oregon Coast. We ate at a couple of restaurants in Port Orford —  we’d recommend The Crazy Norwegians. We also hadn’t been at a place with laundry facilities for a bit, so we hit up Busy Bubbles, which is a (very clean) laundromat AND a self-serve car wash (which has a bay large enough for an RV). There are a few places we wish we would’ve had time to explore, the city of Bandon being one of them, but we’ll definitely be back!

Off to the Redwoods!

 

Hood Park – Burbank, WA

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As we drove from Spokane to the Oregon coast, we stopped at Hood Park for one night. This is an Army Corps of Engineers campground that is located on Lake Wallula. Our National Parks Interagency Access Pass gave us 50% off the $24 nightly fee, though there is a $10 reservation fee, which means we paid $22 for the one night. All sites have electric hookups and there are water spigots available throughout the campground.  There are restrooms and showers, neither of which we used. There’s also a small amphitheater where they show kids movies on Saturday nights during the summer.

Address: 592 Camp Circle, Burbank, WA 99323

Phone: (509) 547-2048

Amenities:

  • Pull Thrus
  • Electric Hookups
  • Water Fill
  • Dump Station
  • Restrooms with Showers
  • Amphitheater
  • Playground
  • Gate Locked from 10pm-6am

Site 20 – Nice and Level with Shade