Retirement Trip Campground Recommendations

A couple of comments...

While at Arches NP you should consider visiting Canyonlands and Dead Horse State Park, they are on the other side of 191.

When crossing the desert (CA->AZ) be prepared to run the generator and A/C's or it will get too hot inside the RV and it will be hard to cool it down at night.

I would think that your rig is not going to fit in many of the National Park campgrounds, make sure you find out before you get there. Also many (like Trailer Village in Grand Canyon) will be booked months in advance.

There is so much to see in the west that you can't see it all in one trip.

You got to see Monument Valley, beautiful place, must see.

I think it is a great opportunity to spend time and make some great memories with your family. I can only suggest that you might want to stretch it a bit further because that is quite a trip and there are tons of things in these places to see. I try to figure a 'rain day' or an 'I'm tired of driving' day to rest my eyes and replenish my sanity occasionally.
Take lots of photos and label them as you go because you will forget each individual shot as time passes.

DougE wrote:
I haven't picked up on your departure date, but Bridge Bay in Yellowstone closes after 9/1. I liked Madison because it had 4 different eating places, several shopping venues, a Ranger center and was at the center of the figure 8 road system. Nicely wooded campsites and nice showers (2 free showers per day included with the camping fee if memory serves me), too.

Good catch but we will be in Yellowstone in late August. I will keep Madison in mind..

I haven't picked up on your departure date, but Bridge Bay in Yellowstone closes after 9/1. I liked Madison because it had 4 different eating places, several shopping venues, a Ranger center and was at the center of the figure 8 road system. Nicely wooded campsites and nice showers (2 free showers per day included with the camping fee if memory serves me), too.

Campground update, our picks are the following:

Mackinaw City, MI we will stay at the Mackinaw Mill Creek Campground

De Smet, SD we will stay at the Laura Ingalls Homestead

Mt Rushmore area, we will stay at Legion Lake Campground in Custer SP

Devil's Tower NM we will stay at the Devil's Tower KOA near the NM

Yellowstone NP we will stay at Bridge Bay Campground inside the NP

Grand Tetons we will stay at Colter Bay Village RV park inside the NP

Craters of the Moon we will stay at the Lava Flow Campground in the NP

Crater Lake NP we will stay at Mazama Village Campground in the NP

Redwoods State Park we will stay at Giant Redwoods RV Park

Monterey, CA we will stay at Monterey Pines RV park (military only)

Grand Canyon NP we will stay at Trailer Village in the NP

Zion NP we will stay at Watchman Campground in the NP

Bryce NP we will stay at Kodachrome Basin State Park

Mesa Verde NP we will stay at Morefield Campground in the NP

Arches NP we will stay at Devil's Garden Campground in the NP

Dinosaur NP we will stay at Green River Campground in the NP

Rocky Mountain NP we will stay at Elk Creek Campground near the NP

We are still looking for a Campground on the South or West side of Yosemite.

Instead of starting another thread in the roads and routes forum, what does the board think of a 43 motorcoach driving the CA 120 to Groveland, CA?

Luckily for us, we will be arriving AFTER school starts, so if anyone has any recommendations...

Crater of the moon campground pictures

It is a good place to overnight.

Drive through the Badlands NP in SD. You can camp but you can see most in a Hour or two.

Drive through Petirfide Forest NP AZ. If you need a place to stay you can dry camp at the trading post on the south entrance of the NP

2 hours at Meteor Crater near Winslow AZ of of I40.

5 days in YS is a long time. You can see the "main" sites in one or two days. Park the MH at Baker's Hole on the west side (search this forum for Baker's Hole) and use the auto to see the west side of YS - 1 day. Move to east side and camp near Cody and see Cody and the Bear Tooth (1 day).

Dry camp at Gooseneck State park in UT and see the Valley of the Gods.



Leave the MH and take the car to Natural Bridges NP UT, up this road.

Guys thanks for all the suggestions!

NHIrish:
We are absolutely going to spend time at Custer State Park. In fact we might just "base" out of Custer while we visit the area. Definitely one of the best "State" parks we have encountered.
We are also going to take your suggestion and add Bryce canyon. We have wanted to hike the HooDoos for a long time and we are going to look into Kodachrome SP when we stay there.

As for Yellowstone, we are going to try and Bridge Bay Campground in the park, but I will keep Yellowstone Holiday CG in mind if it doesn't work out.
As for cutting off part of the trip, we are going to slice off Mount Rainier to give us some more time. I appreciate your input but I think the driving I am proposing will work. We have driven cross country three times and done at least six major "regional" trips with this kind of schedule. Thanks for the thought.

Minor question on the Beartooth highway--is it RV friendly or is this something done in toad?

RamTX:
Roger we are cutting some of the places short, we could honestly spend our entire 60-65 day vacation in just 3 or 4 spots, but we really want to see more of the country. Generally I have laid out 400-500 mile driving days between a 2-5 day stay at each of our major sites. We have driven cross country three times and done at least six major "regional" trips with this kind of schedule. It works for us.

At each of the major parks / stops we identify at least one "major" hike (4-5 miles) and 1-2 "minor" hikes (2-3 miles) for each day we are there. Everyone sleeps well after 8-10 miles of hiking, daily. Understand your thoughts, but I won't get this opportunity (resources and time) to travel again for at least 15-20 years...

Busskipper:
What an amazing link--cross country trips--those people must be distant cousins of me! I love the organization and their methodology in planning their trips. One of these days I will get that organized on line! I will keep the "Golden" opportunity in mind--thanks for the suggestion.

DougE:

Thanks for the idea about reversing the trip, with regards to the family, but I will be able to get away! I will be staying in an RV--a departure is as easy as turning on the ignition!

Thanks again for your thoughts about Mesa Verde! We visited that National Park several years ago, but my kids have next to no memory of it. We are going to add that into the schedule (besides it augments my daughters homeschooling about early Pre-Columbian American history)!

Yes we do want to see a lot of the country, we could spend an entire vacation in Yellowstone and Colorado, but we would miss so much more!

SkyFree:

Thanks for the suggestion about adding a day to the Tetons. Every trip we have ever made through the Tetons, we have always just spent a day there and wishing we had more. We are adding another day and adding a day to the Redwoods.

We are only staying at Craters of the Moon because it is a "logical" stopping point from the Grand Tetons, enroute to Crater Lake. We did reduce the trip to an overnight only, to allow us to at least drive through the park and maybe walk through the Indian Cave. As far as Crater Lake, we did increase it one more day, I love that place too. We also agreed with you about the redundancy of Sequoia and Kings Grant (compared to Yosemite and Redwoods)--it is an amazing place with lots of animals but we needed some days...so we cut that portion.

sdianel:

Thanks for the suggestion about Collier Memorial State park. We will look into it.

Francescea Knowles:

Absolutely love the 101! Awesome road, I will just have to make sure it is Big Rig friendly--I think I remember driving it with my 5th wheel--I just can't remember. You bring up a good point about Mount Rainier--we love the place but by cutting out that portion of the trip, we can increase our stay at several places and add some others. It turns out Mount Rainier was costing us 5-6 days and we could get some more efficiency out of our trip if we added those days to our Southwest portion of the trip.

Bigred1cav:

Thanks for the thoughts but we are going to have to curtail our Washington portion of the trip. We definitely will be taking advantage of PX / Commissaries along the way. We have a planned stop in the Rapid City, SD area (Ellsworth AFB) and in Monterey, CA (Fort Ord), and potentially in Utah (Hill AFB).

Profdant139:

Thanks for the suggestion about Sequioa--but we are going to cut that portion. I hate doing it, but coming straight out of Yosemite, and with time limiting our trip, we had to cut something. We will probably stay to the south side of Grand Canyon this time, but next trip we want to relook the Northern rim. I remember a lot of really great places when we stayed there in 2007. Thanks about Zion--we added that to the trip--great idea about the bike ride!

Darsben:

Thanks! We will make a few changes but I like your idea about a more indepth trip in the future.

BobR:

Thanks for the idea, but we will keep the family trip in place. We will not get a chance to see family during the holidays and my Dad's health is not the best. Besides, deep in my heart I miss my home state, Michigan (I go as often as I can)!

TexasShadow:

Thanks for the route suggestions. I haven't done any real route analysis yet--thanks for your input. We have stayed at Colter Bay before and agree, that we will probably stay there. As far as Rocky Mountain NP, we will probably camp in the West (Estes Park) and explore primarily the West side of the park with our toad--we think alike.

Finally--all. Thanks for your suggestions. Below is the new and improved route:


Click For Full-Size Photo.

We really appreciated your thoughts. In a few days I will start listing our selected campgrounds.