Southern Winter Trip

Hello,

My partner and I are planning a road trip from NYC to Portland, OR going south then up the CA coast. Our route includes Kentucky, Tennessee, Louisiana, Texas (Austin straight through to El Paso), New Mexico (straight up to Santa Fe), Arizona, then up the coast from Los Angeles. I've done most of this trip in early spring when it was nice and hot but not miserably so. Do to when we will be ready to leave the city job-wise, we would like to do this trip in Nov. We will be driving a conversion van and plan on sleeping half at friend's homes along the way and half camping out of the van. Mainly, we plan on camping during the stretches from Western Texas to LA and then maybe from San Francisco up to Portland. Probably a stop in Kentucky as well. I'm looking for some advice on the weather and if it will be comfortable to camp at that time of year. We COULD put it off until spring but the idea of sleeping under the stars instead of being stuck in the snowy city is too appealing!

Sounds like a lovely trip for spring, but often times, campgrounds are closed for the winter. Those that are still open, may have severely limited facilities, such as "the water's turned off". I would also see what the livability of your conversion van is like in really cold weather.

Believe it or not, western Texas (along I-20, I-10, and the US routes east-west) and southern NM often get below freezing. My mom and dad had to pull off the road in a snowstorm in March one year, into an RV park near Van Horn, TX. No hookups were available except electricity, and that was 15 amp only (their rig required 30 amp). It was really cold that night.

Donna

Thanks, Donna. That's pretty much what I wanted to hear (or I guess, wanted to NOT hear haha!). It was hard to tell from looking at the average November temperatures in these places. We definitely have some things to look in to!