roadtripper1430321

This is a five mile dispersed camping area off of Tinkham Road. Take Exit 47 off the I-90. (Not to be confused with the Tinkham Campground which is Exit 42. Denny Creek is also Exit 47, but it is on the north side of the I-90.) The FREE camping area we are reviewing is on the south side of the I-90. Yes, there is some highway noise, but it is more like white noise compared to most campgrounds near a highway.

The spot we stayed: 47°23′28″ N 121°31′10″ W - We stayed here with friends, so we had three RVs in this area.

The forest rangers are extremely nice and helpful! We have talked to several, as there is a bear in the area.

The road and sites are gravel. The site areas have fire rings. Most of them are very private and secluded. Star gazing is amazing! There are plenty of hiking trails nearby. Forest setting with lots of hemlocks, firs, foxgloves, etc.

Cell Reception:
Verizon - 2 bars LTE - 2.64 mb download, 1.3 upload
AT&T - 2 bars HPSA+ - .5 mb download, .25 upload
T-Mobile - 2 bars LTE - .2 mb download, 1.2 mb upload

This little gem is tucked away one block from the bay! Nearby, about a mile away, is beach access to Windmark Beach. Cannot beat the location! While this park is small, it has everything you need. The park is clean, quiet, and well maintained.

The WiFi was amazing - 28 Mbps download 4.5 Mbps upload.

Two of our favorite places to eat in the area: Joe Mama's Wood Fired Pizza and Provisions Restaurant. Both of these have takeout and we took them to Frank Pate Park and watched a sunset.

This is a great place to use as your home base to explore Bryce National Park! It is probably the closest free camping to Bryce. When you turn on 1173 there is a paved parking area and then there is a dirt fenced parking area. This area would be a great place to unhitch and go explore the farm roads to find your spot as the pavement quickly ends. Overall the roads were good, some had large ruts. Of course, this will vary on weather.

There is more than one farm road. The main road you travel down is 1173 and you'll cross over cattle guards. Some people parked off 1175. We found an awesome spot taking the second left after the cattle guards.

Some spots had rock fire rings, they were mostly level, and surrounded by pine trees. It was very quiet, we had two cars go by the whole time we were there.

We have a small camper that we pull with an SUV and had no trouble getting around. We saw a handful of tents and other trailers (up to 30 feet). If you have a big rig, you might be able to park somewhere before the cattle guard.

Cell reception greatly varied within this area. If you need connectivity choose your spot accordingly. Verizon flipped back and forth between 3G and 1x extended. T-Mobile would flip over to roam on AT&T. AT&T looked like the winner in this area.

Be on the lookout for wildlife!

Great views of Engineer Mountain, Spud (Potato) Mountain,Twilights, and West Needles. The area is about 2 1/2 miles north of Purgatory Ski Resort.

Locals told us this used to be the main highway years ago. It is a dirt road and is fairly well maintained to the camping sites. Getting off Highway 550, there are two ways to get on to this road. One is steep and the other is longer and more flat. This also seems to be a dirt "parking" area for people doing local hikes. You could unhitch in this area if you want to check out the sites before taking your RV further. Then you'll pass signs that say, "no parking on the road." Further up on the right are two dirt roads with several fire rings. We feel that almost any size RV could get to the first set of fire rings on the right (37°39′14″ N 107°48′14″ W). The sites are mostly level on grass and dirt, but could vary depending on weather. It may not be the best place to camp if there was severe rain recently.

If you continue down the road (after what appears to be the main camping area) there are a handful of residences and beyond them we found one campsite, which appeared to be for a tent. There came a point where the road became much worse and we were not able to travel beyond it.

Cell reception at our campsite:
Verizon 2 bars LTE = 4.21 MB download and 1.2 MB upload
AT&T Mobiley 2 bars LTE = 13.5 MB download 1.08 upload MB
T-Mobile averaged 1 bar LTE = 3 MB download to 0 -.24 MB upload

An elk was spotted and we saw the largest coyote we have ever seen. We were told that during hunting season this is a busy place.

We have a fondness for cozy campgrounds. This is a little gem tucked away on a beautiful mesa with awesome lake and mountain views!

Price reflects the Passport America rate. Amazing water and mountains views + full hook-ups + PA rate = a REALLY good value!!

This small well-kept campground has 12 full hook-up sites. The sites are on grass, dirt, and some gravel, each with its own picnic table. Nearby there is a multi-purpose building with a clean restroom, shower and one washer and dryer. The owners were helpful and provided excellent customer service.

Blue Mesa Escape also has cabins, some that sleep four and others that sleep six. We decided to stay in one of the cabins and complete a project on our camper. The cabin was cute and very comfortable, featuring a living and dining area, a kitchen, a full bath and a separate bedroom. We had a great view of the water.

We picked this area for a weekend visit, because our research showed a lack of both cell service and Wi-Fi. This is not a reflection on this RV Park, it is an area wide situation. If you need good cell reception and/or strong WiFi to work, this park and this area would not be a good choice during the week, so save it for the weekend. Blue Mesa Escape's Wi-Fi was enough to be able to check email and social media from time to time.

As for celluar connectivity:
T-Mobile was non-existent
Verizon varied from 4 bars of Extended 1x to 3 bars of Extended 3G
AT&T was the most consistent and “fastest” with 5 bars of HPSA + and data speeds of .23 Mb up and down.

Friendly helpful staff, well kept campground, and shaded pull-thru sites. Great location near Bozeman.

Possible Cons: sites may not be level, some back-in sites get full sun (a great sunset view though), some train noise, and cell signal greatly varies (we had some work calls drop).

AT&T - 27 Mbps download, 6.54 upload
Verizon .72 Mbps download, 3.73 upload

Oh, and Instacart will deliver to your campsite.

This is a beautiful Upper Sonoran Desert lakeside campground. We stayed in the Coati section, which is for RVs under 30 feet and tent campers. There are several other sections for larger RVs. Each site had a covered picnic table and a fire pit. Handicap sites are also available. Coati had several bathrooms with flush toilets. The bathrooms near the camp host had four showers and a handicap accessible shower. There is a playground for children. There were paths throughout Coati for scenic hiking.

There are not any hook-ups at the sites, but there were water spigots to fill up containers at several places throughout the campground. Trash cans are available in the bathrooms. Windy Hill does offer two dump station on certain days (see picture).

A Tonto National Forest pass is required to camp. The daily pass is $8. There are two places locally to purchase these near the campground: Spring Creek Store and the Tonto Basin Ranger District. Maximum stay is 14 days.

Cell reception varied within the campground, at times we were limited to 3G and other times we topped out at 2 bars of LTE on Verizon.

If you have stayed at other Thousand Trails properties in Washington, the site size and layout reminds us of Birch Bay/Blaine or Oceana/Ocean City. It is overall a typical Thousand Trails Washington experience. The park is older, bathrooms could be updated, and sites are on the small side. The staff is very nice and we have seen them very busy with upkeep getting ready for the upcoming busy season. The bathrooms are clean. The big plus about this park is the proximity to the ocean! There is a trail from the park to the beach. We enjoyed an amazing sunset from Long Beach!

Less than two miles away is Cape Disappointment State Park. Also less than two miles away is Salt Hotel and Pub. Great place for "pub grub" of a more gourmet nature. Scott had the best Cubano Sandwich he has ever had (and he has had a few). It has a nice water view of the Port of Ilwaco.

WIFI and Cell Phone Signal:
TT Long Beach WiFi
10.2 download and 2.05 upload at
Verizon 3 bars LTE
19.8 Mb down 6.01 Mb down
Sprint 2 bars 3G
0.5 up and 0.5 down
AT&T 2 bars LTE
9.5 Mb download 1.75 Mb upload

The rate reflects our annual 2 for 1 Zone Thousand Trail Pass membership. This property is also on Passport America.

4 stars reflects our love for the beach!

Pros:
Walking distance to a beautiful beach!
Super nice and helpful camp host!
Most sites appeared level and well maintained for an older park
Clean restrooms
Good value for a property this close to the ocean (with a TT or PA membership)
The bridge is fixed (we have heard it was under construction for 16 months)

Possible Cons:
Sites are close together
Not all sites have FHU ~ if they do not have FHU they have water and electric and there is a dump station
Does not have a pool or some of the amenities that other TT properties have (but, hey, there is an ocean!)

It has laundry facilities in a repurposed vintage RV, but we did not use them.

We liked the area over the bridge closest to the ocean path, which are not full hook-up.

We stayed on a Friday night and there was the typical weekend noise.

Cell reception:
AT&T 1 to 2 bars of LTE 2.5 Mb down. 006 Mb up
T-Mobile no service
Verizon range from two bars of 1x to one bar of LTE .45 Mb down .25 Mb up

Zion Canyon Campground will not guarantee you a river front site, but you can request one and we got one!! Yay!! The river front sites only have water and electric and they are on the opposite side than most hook-ups. Thankfully, we had some extra long hoses and cords. The campgrounds are a bit rustic. As another reviewer stated the sites are a bit close together. The entrance to Zion National Park is about 1/2 a mile away and you can walk to most of Springdale. You can take the shuttle bus into Zion from near here. The one surprise here was when one of those Rotel (Rolling Hotel) buses showed up. They parked the bus next to the bathroom and it was hard to get into the bathrooms or showers without waiting and after they left there was no toilet paper left and the bathrooms needed cleaning. The people from the bus also would walk onto our campsite to look at the river. Thankfully, they were just there one night. They give you coins for 6 minute showers when you check in. As for cell reception, it varied, but overall it was rather good…2 bars of LTE on Verizon and 4G T-Mobile. During the day the Wifi was enough to work, at least most of the time. At nights, like most busy RV parks, you can forgot about trying to use it.

Although we normally prefer to boondock, this has been a great basecamp for the area! We also stayed at the Zion River Resort about 14 miles further from Zion entrance. For me, even though I love heated pools (which the River Resort had), if I came back to stay at an RV park in the area, I’d go with Zion Canyon Campground. It cost less, has river views, better cell reception and Internet, is walking distance to town, and super close to Zion. Oh, and I forgot to mention the amazing canyon views!

Be sure and visit the Koloab Canyons while you are in the area!

Nearby (easy to walk to from campground) good eats:
Whiptail Grill ~ Probably closest place to eat next to the campground. They make their own sauces and salad dressings. Despite its gas station-ish curb appeal, this is indeed a hidden gem. Probably the best food we had in the area!!
Spotted Dog Cafe ~ $8.99 buffet breakfast, great to stop for a quick breakfast on the way to Zion. They also serve dinner.
Cafe Soleil ~ Local and organic ingredients. Great place to pick up something on the way to Zion. Breakfast and Lunch.