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monkey44's avatar
monkey44
Nomad II
Apr 12, 2014

Death Valley NPS w/FHU now

Just a FYI note -- Death Valley National Park - The NPS Furnace Creek campground now has FHU sites, installed a few months ago.

In the past, only the private resort and Stove Pipe Wells had FHU. The NPS park has about twelve FHU sites and plans on installing more.

The sites are flat, level, some gravel some paved, and will fit any RV including Class A ... Cost $21 w/pass. Fills up regularly.

We've noticed quite a few national parks are installing electric sites now, probably due to the demand created with the RV 'revolution' over the years. Many more RV'ers on the roads now ... and larger.

In many cases, the HU are installed by private vendors, and then priced accordingly - which is a bummer sometimes.

We stopped at Teton and the private vendors installed nearly all flat and level sites with power pedestals and upped the price. And DO NOT honor the AB pass. The FEW remaining sites (required by NPS to remain no hook-ups) are un-level and tough access. Hope that's not the wave of our future in the NPS ... Sometimes nice to have HU, but I'm hoping we're not losing our NPS taxpayer developed sites to private vendors now - that would truly 's...k' ... especially with the senior and pass discount disallowed. Kinda confusing, sell a access and camping discount pass, then disallow it for camping fees.
  • Bigdog's avatar
    Bigdog
    Explorer
    Apr 13, 2014
    A couple of years ago we stayed at Furnace Creek Ranch,but I don;t remember what the price was. It was a kind of funky place and most of the folks there were employess of the resort.I hooked up to cable,but found that it didn't work,but our dish did. The next morning I traced down the cable wires and found a couple of places where it was disconnected and another where it was broken and fixed it with some cable parts I had. They refunded my money for two nights for that.The night before we left,the wind got up to well over 70 mph,so we pulled the slides in and sat in our site behind the slatted chainlink fence and did ok. The next morning as we were leaving,we looked over to the NPS site and saw a couple of rigs that had been blown over by the wind 'cuz it's a straight shot with no windbreaks for 150 miles for the wind.
    Oh and a mile down the road,headed south towards the Furnace Creek Inn,we got hit by a gust of wind that unrolled the main awning.OOppss.
  • monkey44's avatar
    monkey44
    Nomad II
    Apr 13, 2014
    Texas Two Steppers wrote:
    Furance Creek has 19 full hookup sites. Full hookup sites are the same cost as winter rates. $21 with pass, $30 without. Dry camping will be reduced to $6 with pass.


    Correct - whatever the website read, it's not always accurate -- we were just there last week, with AB pass, FHU = $21 that a fact.

    And' Big Bend FHU site is private - a parking lot, kinda ... that is not the NPS campground. NPS campground has no HU, at least as of last year.

    NPS is entering a trend, to provide FHU in many national parks. The NPS run sites stay reasonable, when a private vendor enters the picture, it tries to deny the senior pass and AB pass, sometimes with success, sometimes not. We need to watch this one closely, or we'll be paying large fees for OUR NPS campgrounds in the future if the private vendors get the discounts cancelled.

    I'm all for paying for service, but when a private vendor takes over a taxpayer funded and developed campground, we need to keep it reasonable, and keep the service up as well. I've seen too many vendor run CG's that delete service and cleanliness in the name of profit.
  • Texas_Two_Stepp's avatar
    Texas_Two_Stepp
    Explorer
    Apr 12, 2014
    Furance Creek has 19 full hookup sites. Full hookup sites are the same cost as winter rates. $21 with pass, $30 without. Dry camping will be reduced to $6 with pass.
  • 2gypsies1's avatar
    2gypsies1
    Explorer III
    Apr 12, 2014
    Francesca Knowles wrote:
    monkey44 wrote:
    Cost $21 w/pass.

    :h

    According to this Park Service page, cost to camp at Furnace Creek with full hookups is $18.00 plus a $12.00 utility fee- $30.00 total.


    Mid-April the rate changes and is $12 + $12 utility fee = $24
    If you have the Senior Pass or Handicapped Pass it's 1/2 price on camping $6 + $12 utility fee = $18

    That's for 50amp
  • Community Alumni's avatar
    Community Alumni
    Apr 12, 2014
    "The sites are flat, level, some gravel some paved, and will fit any RV including Class A ... Cost $21 w/pass. Fills up regularly."

    I see this as a positive development. More hookups, at least electricity, will allow more RVers to visit Death Valley when is unbearably hot.
  • agesilaus's avatar
    agesilaus
    Explorer III
    Apr 12, 2014
    That's the way Big Bend FHU sites are, no Access or Senior pass discounts. But it is in the middle of the park and you'll save in fuel the extra you pay for the site. I don't recall whether YNP Fishing Bridge allowed discounts or not.

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