Snow Birding

Are you interested in private RV parks, state and national parks, booddocking?

Gold Canyon RV Resort

We spent several winters at this Resort and it meet all of our needs.

Leave before the snow.

Take your time and see the sights.

I prefer small town campgrounds.

I love to boondock.

All I can add is, do it while you can. Don't put it off. You don't know what life will hand you tomorrow.
Travel the side roads and see America. Enjoy your roaming retirement.

We like Apache Junction (east valley) located on the outskirts of Phoenix. We stay at the Rock Shadows Resort but the area has so many. lots to do if you want to go into the big city or golf close by.

We snowbirded in AZ for five winters before moving to Wickenburg last year. We reversed our lifestyle so we could stay put in the winter and travel north in the summer.

You didn't tell us what your interests or activity level was so I'll just give you what we did for five winters staying anywhere from a week to a month in various places.

Lazy Days KOA in Tucson is over the top nice. Lots of amenities. Lousy part of town but safe and gated. Tucson has Mexican restaurants on every corner. Museums of every description. Titan Missal Museum, Saguaro Desert Museum, Pima Air and Space. Copper Mine tour, Tumacacori National Historic ParK, Wisdom's Cafe, San Xavier del bac (Sistine Chapel of the west) on the Papago Reservation.

Apache Junction has too many RV parks to list. Gold Canyon is over the top for social geezers and just a nice park. Lost Dutchman State Park is over the top if you like to hike. Most AJ is just a big ugly busy suburb of Phoenix.

Yuma is a great place. We stayed at the Palms which is another snowbird heaven with full amenities. If you have Jeep or ATV there is at least a 1,000 miles of trails in the area. Go across the boarder for cheap teeth cleaning, drugs and glasses. Don't miss the museum at the Proving Grounds and watching the parachute jumpers at the jump school.

McDowell Mountain Regional Park in Fountain Hills is one of the nicest places we have stayed especially if you have a mountain bike or like to hike.

We settled in Wickenburg because we are avid UTV drivers. The first year we drove over 1,500 miles in four weeks. A Jeep will get you many places as well. Several RV parks but pretty limited. We stayed at Desert Cyprus. If you like to boonedock it is over the top. Huge winter snowbird population and the cowboy team roping capital of Arizona.

If you following any of our suggested tracks you should make your reservations now if you can. If you wait until later many places will already be full for prime winter time.

If possible it might be a good idea to stay one month at each of several places before committing to several months at one place. Emphasis on the `if possible'.

We found Casa Grande reasonable and could day trip to casinos and sites. Son lives in Tucson and the CG off of 10 was nice but a little to yuppie for us. Did Yuma close to Mexico but little to do in the area. I agree with Dick B be fluid for the first few years go everywhere but don't get locked down till you have been there done that. We currently like central Florida as Old Mill Stream is an hour from the beaches and the area around Mt Dora is not stupid crowded. Good Luck as you are about to learn and have fun with no restrictions.

We spent several years in Arizona doing a couple of weeks here, a couple of weeks there, trying to find an area that hit all of our must haves for a place to spend several months each winter. That really is the best way to do it since everyone has different likes/dislikes (I can't imagine being in Yuma for the whole winter, others love it) and each area has different advantages/disadvantages. We settled on the Mesa, AZ area and then spent several winters doing longer stays at different parks before we settled on our current one where we bought a Park Model for the winter. Put the motorhome to bed in a storage area, and spread out for the winter. When it starts to get hot, motorhome comes out and we hit the road again!

We have stayed in most of the RV parks mentioned by Thunder Mountain above and those parks are good, we stop at the Tucson KOA on our way to and from California each winter and we enjoy it. We found Yuma a little busy for our liking, you may also want to explore site rentals in the Yuma foothills area,they were going for $300 a month and up, we rented there for a month one year.