Where Do We Camp?

Right now we are in Fort Davis, TX at a private RV park selected from a website description. The reviews were mostly very negative but it was in the right place and had a ½ price for Passport America members. We paid about $15 per night for full hook-up. Most of the negative reviews were spot-on.

We started out staying in a church parking lot in Sublimity for $0; overnight at Humbug State Park in OR for $13; overnight at Patrick’s Point State Park in CA for $33. At Joshua Tree National Park it was $5 per night; one night at a rest stop in CA for $0 and another night on the side of a street in a small town for $0.

The bargain price was the $180 for a LTVA permit for any of several desert areas in CA and AZ. We were only there for about two months ($3 per night) but the permit covered September 15 through April 15.

View from our motorhome at Imperial Dam LTVA near Yuma

We stayed a few days in Tucson at Catalina State Park’s overflow area (big parking lot) for $15 per night; and then a week at an Escapees RV Resort in Benson AZ for $50 (a special offer to entice us to join) and that brings us to the present. Our last site was Rockhound State Park near Deming NM where we paid about $17 per night.

Our goal for the entire trip is to average $10 per night. Pearl did the math and says we are currently at about $5 per night.

Our next three nights will be about $20 per night at the Stillwell Ranch near the Big Bend National Park and then four nights in the park itself at $7 per night.

I’m hoping for lots of U.S. Forest Service, BLM, Corps of Engineers, National Parks and other campgrounds offering the 50% discount for us old people to offset the times when we have to use the more expensive state parks and private parks.

Rockhound State Park near Deming NM

Campsites don’t seem to fit the adage that, “you get what you pay for.” My favorite campsites have been those no-hookups-of-any-kind LTVA sites in the desert.  My least favorites include our current private RV park in Fort Davis and the Escapees RV Resort in Benson—both were full hook up. One had all of the amenities of a resort. One was a dusty, run-down place w/ little similarity to the promised resort of the website.

Camping often seems an inappropriate word for an outing in a motorhome. It seems even more inappropriate to describe snuggling up to another RV in a closely packed resort as camping. Even though using a motorhome I think we still like to think we are camping. We have enjoyed the dry camping in the desert so much that when we spent the week in the Escapees resort we didn’t even hook up the electricity!