Need advice on Summer RV trips to avoid heat and crowds
HI
We're from Las Vegas and just retired, so took our RV on the road this summer to beat the heat. We stopped at many places on our bucket list of US and Canada and had a great time.
Next summer, we'd like to find places that we can stay for a couple weeks or more. We'd like advice from seniors that seek activities but quiet atmosphere.
Welcome to the RTA Forum!
If you spent the past summer traveling across the country, why don't you look at going back to one or two of your favorite places and spending more time there?
Do you have any other limitations on where you want to go or anything else that can help guide people who would like to help you? If you've got all of the US/Canada as a possibility, it's really going to be tough for people to narrow down the thousands of places with cool temps and lots of things to do.
Wandering.
I agree with Michael, you must have seen and been to places which you found pleasing.
Otherwise, I would just hit the road, and stay at places you chance upon along the way. Why bother planning it all beforehand? Just wandering the highways and byways of North America would find you in many places which to my mind would meet your requirements.
That's the beauty of having stacked on the decades.
Lifey
Not retired yet, but thinking about it. :-)
Our neighbors, after they'd been out on trips in their RV for 2 or 3 years after retirement, decided to start applying for campground host positions at public campgrounds that they had enjoyed. You get a free site, usually with hookups, for 2-4 weeks. You have to "walk the park" to see when it's full, check on disturbances, connect with the park rangers if the disturbances are more than a generator used at the wrong time or a late party, but otherwise, the time is your own. They enjoy the social aspect of chatting with campers, so it does take a personality who gets along with other people pretty well.
Donna
Not all that easy.
I have read on other forums of folk who apply for these jobs, year in and year out, and keep missing out. Apparently there are more takers than jobs. Runs a bit contrary to my experiences last year. Many campgrounds did not have hosts.
Although there never seemed to be hookups, there was always a spot for the host. Sometimes there was an RV, with a note to say that the campground did not have a host. Most of these were in AZ and UT.
Lifey
The ones our neighbors host are up north -- WA, OR, and I think they got one in MT this year. You do have to be very flexible about your dates, and may end up doing a little zig-zagging around. Neighbor says there are always hookups for the host, or at least some sort of honey-wagon service. When I expressed that same comment about those being hard to get, my neighbor shook his head and said, not if you know where to look. So he's got some sort of "in" or "magic wand service" working for him. :-) They're usually gone for 6 months at a time, with their kids (who live behind them) and us keeping an eye on the house.
Donna
RoadTrip Guru & Enthusiast
National Forest campgrounds
As a long-time Road Tripper who has recently re-discovered RV camping perhaps I can offer a few ideas:
Our RV is a hardside A-Frame popup (Rockwood A127TH). It's 19' long and the tow vehicle is also 19', so we're 38' nose to tail. A pull-through is nice, but we can back in to a conventional back-in space such as is the norm at National Forest campgrounds.
In July-August of this year, we spent 3 weeks traveling from NC to Montana and back. The majority of our time in Montana and Wyoming was spent in National Forest campgrounds.
It's fairly rare for a conventional NF CG to have even water hookups and electric is essentially unheard of. There are in some NFs dedicated RV campgrounds which will have hookups of various types, but the great majority of NF campgrounds don't have them. We only stayed at 2 NF CGs which had a camp host.
In one instance, we found a camp host at a NF campground and the couple had a generator to provide some juice. We assumed a honey wagon came by from time to time to tend to the vault toilets and hopefully the holding tanks on the camp hosts RV.
The typical NF CG is along a stream within a forested mountain range. Elevations vary greatly, but in general most NF CGs in Montana and Wyoming are at or above around 4,500'. The moderate elevations provide for generally warm, sometimes hot, daytime temps and cool nights, so running your A/C is not normally necessary. We overnighted at 7,700' in Wyoming and were quite cold on July 28.
Most of the NF CGs had pay-station fee drop-boxes requiring $7 to $9/night fees and posted a 14 day limit.
All of the NF CGs featured gravel driveways and parking pads--no pavement, and every one of them was on along a gravel road. As a result, and obviously depending upon the weather (wet vs dry), they can get dusty.
We found that reviewing the various NF units' websites provided good information as to the location and general setting of the NF's campgrounds. There is a free online locator, as well, and it's provided by a couple who have actually visited the CGs. Some of their reports are a few years old--there are hundreds and hundreds of NF CGs in the Lower 48, after all, but we found their descriptions to be helpful in terms of deciding where to stay.
Lastly, we had a couple of less satisfying nights at BLM and US Fish and Wildlife Service CGs. The vault toilet maintenance at those was not up to par with the NFs' pumpout and cleaning schedule and the settings were less scenic.
Foy
Narrowing it down
Good idea for me to narrow it down. We are looking for quieter places than family parks this year - like the campgrounds that snowbirds enjoy in the winter. We'd also like to have activities that help us meet people, since summer families tend to move a lot and have a lot of attractions to see, so are harder to get to know. The mileage we're looking at would take us to perhaps Oklahoma and Kansas.Originally Posted by Midwest Michael
2-4 week gigs sound nice. Most of the ones that we've seen want a May-October commitment. Any hints on how and where they found theirs?
When my neighbors get back, I'll ask them, but they're not due back for awhile yet.
Donna
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