This past weekend we loaded up the “Little House on the Highway” aka our Lance 1995 travel trailer and got out of town. I had made another reservation at a Thousand Trails resort trying to get some mileage out of the one year membership I had purchased. I decided on Morgan Hill RV Resort. We wanted to stay close by as Cristy’s mother is aging and we need to be able to get home in a hurry. It’s a short drive over the Diablo Range to get there. About a two hour trip with a trailer in tow. Traffic cooperated and we had no freeway adventures getting there.

We arrived around noon and checked in. It was made easy by the new online check in they are doing now. You show up, give them your name and off you go to begin the great site hunt. THIS is one of my big problems with Thousand Trails (TT). They do not let you reserve specific camp sites. You drive around, find one that’s available and park. We hate the uncertainty of not knowing where we are going within the park. Not knowing which sites are cramped or spacious. We like knowing exactly where we are going. However, the flip side of the coin is you can pick your neighbors.

We drove past a fairly cramped portion of the park and when I would ask Cristy, “What about this spot?” She would noncommittally indicate that maybe we should keep going. Glad I listed because we finally came across a site that was perfect. It was huge width-wise and deep enough that I could leave the truck hitched if I wanted to. Plus we already had neighbors and they seemed pretty quiet. We had already passed up a few areas where there were about 10 people sitting out front of their RV, 5 cars crammed into the site, listening to loud ranchero music. Really? Who comes out to nature and then blares their radio? Seriously, you’re music is not that awesome.

Happily we couldn’t hear their music down where we were. We heard only birds and the occasional ground squirrel chattering angrily. As we were setting up though we had our one and only downside of the vacation. It ended up being very minor but we weren’t sure at first. After I had hooked up our water hose I stepped inside to find Cristy looking under the bathroom sink. She said that’s not something she normally does but for some reason this time she did and how lucky we were that she did! There was a light stream of water squirting from one of the plumbing fittings under the sink!

Oy. I already had a headache from the drive. Now this. I turned off the water and thought maybe the water connection was just loose. As I first loosened it and then was tightening it again I noticed that adjacent to this fitting there was a shutoff valve for JUST this fitting. I closed the valve and turned the water back on to the trailer. SUCCESS! The leak had stopped. This was fitting that plumbed hot water to the outdoor shower. A feature on the trailer we have never used. With no more leaks our camp out was saved. I finally sat down and ate the sandwich Cristy had made me while I was investigating the leak. Then, FINALLY, we were able to truly relax and enjoy our camp site.

The weather was perfect, daytime highs of 82F (28C) and nighttime lows of 52F (11C). We spent the remainder of the afternoon lounging outside and then napping in the trailer. We also took a short walk around the park just to see what was there. There was a nice little creek near by called Uvas Creek. Uvas is grapes in Spanish and it was aptly named as there are a lot of wineries in the area.

The next day we drove into downtown Gilroy and looked around. There wasn’t much to see as most of the business are closed due to the Covid.

We decided to head over to Phil’s Fish Market in Moss Landing. Cristy got an order of cioppino and two oysters, I got a salmon sandwich and a cup of clam chowder. After getting our food we dove to down the street to Moss Landing State Beach. I flipped down the tailgate of my truck and we sat down and ate. Cristy discovered that they had forgotten her oysters and my clam chowder. We finished lunch and then walked back down the beach to Phil’s and they corrected the mistake quickly and without question. We walked back to the truck and decided to save these items for later. We headed back to the campground and read and relaxed for the rest of the day.

Saturday was our last full day camping and we decided to spend it in the campground with no day trips. This was like heaven to me. We took a couple walks around the park and read and watched movies we had downloaded. I also broke out my Blackstone Griddle and cooked BBQ’d chicken and onions for dinner. It turned out pretty good!

That was pretty much our camping trip for this month. We packed up the next morning, dumped our wastewater tanks, and then drove home. This was probably the closest we have come to a perfect camp out and we can’t wait to go camping again!

Post Script:

This will most likely be our last Thousand Trails visit. Given the caliber of people we have run into at these parks, the lax enforcement of park rules, and the hit and miss friendliness of staff at these parks, we have elected to let our yearly pass lapse and just stay in regular paid RV resorts. The customers are generally more likely to follow rules. The resorts are also generally kept up better. Thousand Trails bills themselves as “nature preserves”. And so pass off a lot of the lack of maintenance as “rustic”. Now, they are trying to update their facilities but at this point in time the parks in California are pretty run down. That all being said, for now, we are done with TT.

Snowflower RV Resort is part of the Thousand Trails network of RV parks. We’ve only stayed in one other and it was not the greatest experience. However, we decided to give them another try. Snowflower is located right of Interstate 80 just west of Truckee, CA. It was about a 3 hour drive from our home. We had no problem finding the place but the fun began once we started looking for a camping spot.

Like most campground maps it’s only a rough approximation of the actual streets so we got turned around a couple of times and drove up a road we probably shouldn’t have with only two wheel drive. However, we got back down to where we should have been and started hunting again. Then we got caught in a traffic jam of people looking to park their huge rigs in Snowflower’s modest sized RV spots. It had been going on for 45 minutes at this point and the folks were pretty apologetic but it was apparent they were not going to fit so they finally drove on. A very nice gentleman on a bike told us there was a great spot next to him and that we could fit into it. It was only just up the road and we fit perfectly.

Finally! Camping.

That was really my only complaint with this park is the free for all in trying to find spots. It’s not just this park either. Most Thousand Trails parks are this way. Other than that the park was beautiful and we had a beautiful lake view. We spent the rest of the day enjoying the views and napping. What a way to spend my birthday!

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Later just before dinner we decided to talk a walk down by the lake. It was really serene and peaceful. This was probably one of the most beautiful places we have camped so far.

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The next morning we decided to drive around the park and try to orient ourselves. We really liked the park so we wanted to take a look at some of the other camping spots and figure out how to find them! We ended up driving up to the “overlook”. It is the topmost part of the park and is just a great spot to hike up to and have a lunch or drive up and spend a few minutes admiring the view as we did.

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After admiring the view we took a drive up to Nevada City. We walked around downtown for a short time but they are still opening up after the pandemic so not much to see. We did find a bistro that was open so we stopped in to have lunch. I had a burger and Cristy had a burger salad.

After lunch we decided to head back to the resort to take a nap and unwind. On the way back we pulled off the highway to check out a meadow I had seen on the way up. I’d love to have a house here… if it wasn’t so cold and snowy in the winter.

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After taking in the meadow views we headed back to the trailer for a nap. After our nap and dinner the weather started to get a little exciting. It started to thunder and drop first sleet, and then small hail. It was enough to make things exciting but not enough to damage the trailer. The largest hail was only pea-sized.

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The storm ended after a couple of hours and we enjoyed a beautiful night sleep. I have to admit that we really enjoyed our short stay at Snowflower RV Resort and will definitely be back. Maybe for a longer stay next time. I really loved waking up to this view…

We’ll be back.

This past weekend we decided we needed to get away in the RV.  We’ve been planning on doing this for a couple of months now but things kept coming up and preventing our planned trips.  This weekend there was nothing to stop us so  planned a trip to Ponderosa RV Park.  Ponderosa is part of the Thousand Trails resort chain.  This was to be our first trip to a Thousand Trails park so we didn’t quite know what to expect.  We’d always heard mixed reviews.  Late last year I bought a camping pass from Thousand Trails which is good for a year.  This means I can stay in any of their parks in this region for free for up to 14 days.   You can bet we’re going to stay in a lot of Thousand Trails parks this year! (That’s what I thought when I got there.)

The drive up to Ponderosa was a little exciting.  I wanted to take mostly back roads and avoid the freeways.  This was a mixed bag.  Most of the backroads were nice but a few got VERY narrow lending some excitement and adventure to the trip.  I ave to admit I’m not a fan of excitement or adventure while towing a trailer.  But we finally arrived (after missing the turn and having to turn around). Check-in was pretty easy.  I showed the gate attendant my membership card and she checked for my reservation.  Gave me my paperwork and sent us on into the park.  She was friendly enough but only JUST friendly enough.  She seemed mostly bored.  Not like the super-friendly welcome we have received at other RV resorts.

Then the great hunt began.  You see, Thousand Trails does not assign you a camping spot.  You have to drive around and find one.  We drove the entire park (not that it was very big) and finally circled back to a spot we had driven past earlier.  It was in a small cul de sac and had no neighbor one side and nothing on the other side of us because this was the end spot.  Nice!  We got set up and then just settled in for a quiet afternoon recovering from the drive up.  Later I set up my Blackstone Griddle and grilled some meat and vegetables that Cristy has prepared earlier and put in plastic bags for our trip.  It was good but let’s just say I need to practice with the griddle some more to really get the hang of it.   We watched some TV on my laptop and then called it a night.  And thanks to the electric heater we brought along…

We slept good.

The next day we drove into Placerville and shopped a bit.  Well, Cristy did.  I mostly just followed her around.  It’s urban hiking after all.  The we had lunch at The Farm Table restaurant.  Always one of our favorites when we’re in Placerville.  The we drove over to historic Coloma, site of Sutter’s Mill where gold was first discovered in California.  Coloma is a town that is a state park much like parts of Columbia.  We walked around and enjoyed the sites for a bit and then headed back to the trailer.  When we got back we discovered a HUGE 5th wheel trailer 20 feet from us which brought 2 parents and 9 kids.  Oy.  There goes our peace.

And that is what we are finding is the downfall of this particular RV park.  If it is like this in the off-season I can’t imagine what it would be like in the summer.  Everyone here is “camping” meaning, the have to put out ALL their camp toys, even if it means completely surrounding our campsite with their stuff.  There are no clear boundaries and there is little to no enforcement of rules.  Again, probably because this is the off-season.  I won’t judge the entire Thousand Trails system by this park, but I certainly won’t be back to this park.

Sunday morning after a quick liquid breakfast I kicked the next-door neighbors’ toys out of the way so I could start packing up and making the trailer ready for travel.  We got everything stowed, the slide pulled in, and everything locked.  Cristy stood guard to make sure no children (who were literally 3 feet away) got run over.  Although there were no sewer sites available there was a dump station on the way out.  We dumped our tanks and hit the road for home.  It turned out to be quite the exciting drive because the winds were 30 gusting to 40 mph.  Luckily for us the winds were mostly at our back coming home so we had incredibly good gas mileage.

So all in all our stay at this Thousand Trails was a mixed bag.  The area was beautiful but the park itself was cramp and noisy (for us).  We’ll try a few more TT trails parks before passing judgement but as of last night those 55 and over RV parks were looking pretty good!