roadtripper8724551

We're so happy we discovered this brand-new little RV park. The location and the price sold us on making a reservation, and we were not disappointed upon arrival.

This is a basic park -- so no bathhouse, laundry, etc. -- but it has full hook-ups, nice gravel, and some of the friendliest owners we've met in our year and a half of full-timing. The owners live right on the property, so it feels very safe and they are also happy to help with any questions or needs.

There are only 6 spots and they are well delineated by railroad ties (so no questions about whose space is whose like some other RV parks). The park is open all-year-round, which is hard to find in this part of Colorado (or Colorado in general). The price is $400/month plus metered electric, which is far less expensive than any of the other parks in this general area. There are also daily and weekly rates available.

If you are a mountain biker or trail runner -- this park is next door to Phil's World!!! It's about .7 miles to get to the front gate of Phil's World from the RV park -- we typically walk or ride there along the ditch to the side of the 160. It's only another few miles down the road to get to the main entrance of Mesa Verde.

As far as non-outdoors stuff, this park is right on the 160, so while there is some road noise (if you're sensitive to that, beware) but it's also a quick trip to Mancos for food and galleries or even quicker into Cortez for anything you could need (laundromat, grocery stores, great city parks, lots of restaurants, even more trails, etc.). (You should totally get breakfast at the Loungin' Lizard in Cortez, btw.)

If you're looking for somewhere posh with a clubhouse and amenities, this would not be the place for you. But if you came to Colorado to get outside and explore, then this park makes for a great, safe, clean, and affordable base-camp.

P.S. We work from our RV and had no problems working from here, even doing video meetings, by using AT&T and Verizon phones for hot spots. AT&T was 9.43 download and 7.87 upload (with no booster). Verizon was 14.7 down and 7.36 up (with no booster)

We had reservations to stay at this park for a few months. Within the first day, however, we ended up having to make plans to leave because not only were we lied to about our specific reservation, but it also became clear that what the park claimed to offer was all lies, too. First let’s talk amenities and atmosphere, and then I’ll explain how we were lied to before and after making our reservation, and ended up having to leave and were charged a daily rate due to no fault of our own instead of the monthly rate we had booked.

“Blazing fast internet” – Most days we couldn’t actually connect to the internet. On any of our devices, it would bump us off immediately. When we could connect, there was not enough through-put to stream a TV show, much less take a Zoom meeting. We found the internet to be unusable and recorded very slow speeds on both Ookla and Google speed tests. In addition, the cell service in the area on all three providers is very shaky, most likely due to the high number of people in the area. If you are a remote worker, do not think you’re going to come here and have fast internet provided be either the park or by own cell services. You will not.

“Bike paths” and “walking paths” – We asked the manager Tiffany on our first day to point us to the bike paths and walking paths. She told us that the paths don’t exist anymore due to the construction of the new part of the park and we weren’t allowed to walk through any of that part of the property when the construction is going on. She said we were free to walk wherever we wanted to on the grounds otherwise, though there are no paths. She suggested we bike on the county road, which is all of about a half mile long and has traffic. (More on what happens on this dead-end county road later – sneak preview: it includes meth heads and high-speed chases.)

“Ponds” – There is one pond and it is blocked off by construction. We did manage to walk back to it a couple times outside of construction (which starts every morning and goes all day except weekends). When we got to the pond we discovered piles of junk and wood around it. The pond itself is stagnant and full of algae. It’s not exactly scenic. On the path to the “pond” you’ll also find a truck topper and all sorts of other garbage. The whole situation looks NOTHING like the photos on the website.

“Garbage + recycle service” – There is exactly 1 medium-sized garbage dumpster and 1 medium-sized recycling dumpster for the entire park. Most days they are both overflowing and completely disgusting. Supposedly, your garbage can be picked up every day from your site. But in the 13 days we were there, on more than one morning the garbage was not picked up from the sites and left to sit out all day and overnight until finally being picked up the following morning.

“Tranquil” and “space to breathe in nature” – While the jets from the airport are surprisingly quiet here, the frequent low-flying helicopters are not. They are really loud. The highway is also visible from this park and the traffic noise is constant. Also, the construction sound is constant. Oh, and people running power tools on their sites, which happened regularly during our 13 days. Also, many of the residents in the park are construction workers at Tesla and work all different shifts so there is constant idling of diesel trucks at all hours of the night and early morning. Tiffany said she and the owners were unfamiliar with the concept of “workers” staying at RV parks until they all started coming to stay with them which makes me wonder how the owners could have been full-time RVers (as claimed on the website) and never have encountered “workers.” ALSO, the property right next to the RV park burns their trash in their front yard, so if you are on the east side of the park, be ready to have that smell and smoke coming into your spot. Not what I want to “breathe in nature.”

As far as the “more amenities coming soon” – the coffee shop is no longer in operation, and the current construction is all more RV spots. There is no bath house or community areas under construction. There is no chance that this park will have any more amenities in the near future.

Now, onto the “rules and policies” and how we were lied to. We have a 44-foot toy hauler that we pull with a truck. We also have a 10-foot cargo trailer that we pull with a second smaller truck. Some parks allow space for this kind of setup and some don’t, so I ALWAYS call ahead before making a reservation to find out the policies. I called and was told in no uncertain terms that we would be fine
We also visited the park TWICE before the day we arrived with our RV and trailer and were told by Tiffany on both occasions that our setup would be fine and that if we couldn’t fit everything on our site, we could just put one of our trucks in the overflow parking by the office.

However, on the day we arrived, we were told a different story. Suddenly it wasn’t allowed to have a second trailer on a spot. She said the rules changed since we last spoke (which was only a week earlier). She said we could try to put it on our spot and see if the owners noticed and complained to her. She told us to put our truck in the parking by the office.

The next day she told us the owners had indeed noticed and wanted the trailer gone. They offered to “valet tow” it to a storage area that you can’t even see from the RV park and that is not secured (again, more on the meth heads in the neighborhood later). We would have no access to our trailer or the things that are in it (we are full time RVers and keep essential things in that trailer). She also said we couldn’t keep our truck in the parking by the office because that was not allowed either, as it turns out. When we pointed out that there were MULTIPLE other RVs with cargo trailers on their sites, she couldn’t really explain why that was okay. She said they were dealing with some of the situations, but multiple sites still had second trailers when we left 13 days later. Some had even arrived AFTER us and were able to have the trailers on their sites, in both short-term and long-term sections.

When we said we weren’t okay with having our trailer parked somewhere out of site and out of reach, and also not safe, then it was made clear that we would not be able to stay at the park. We managed to squeeze our trucks and trailers onto our site and were told it was acceptable as long as we were leaving soon. We couldn’t even get into our cargo trailer because our stuff was so tight on the spot. Tiffany seemed mystified by why we were upset by the whole thing and kept saying she hoped we got over our upset – which is a ridiculous thing for someone to say to us when she had lied to us and forced us into a situation where we had nowhere to go and couldn’t stay at the park either.

I told Tiffany we did indeed want to cancel our remaining reservation. We had only booked this park because the monthly rate makes it a better price (~$33 per night or ~$1,000 per month). She did cancel the rest of our reservation and we left as soon as we could – we stayed 13 nights due to appointments and obligations we couldn’t rearrange so last notice – and we were charged the nightly rate of $55 despite the fact that we were leaving because of the park’s “policy change” that they never bothered to notify us about. We got 1 night “free” for our first week. I couldn’t believe they were charging us a nightly rate since we would never have come here if we were told the truth at any point. We inquired 3 times in advance and were lied to each time. We ended up paying a premium for their repeated lies.

And it would be one thing if the rules were all stated and enforced, but they are not. Smokers are not allowed, and yet people use them. Construction is not allowed, and yet we personally witnessed people using power tools. Three dogs are the limit, and yet we saw a couple walking 4 large dogs on a daily basis for part of our stay. Rig washing isn’t allowed and yet our neighbor told us they all wash their rigs and more than one of the Tesla workers has power washer setups. We were told we couldn’t park in the overflow near the office, but toward the end of our stay there was a car parked there for multiple days, 24 hours a day. There’s no rhyme or reason to the enforcement so you never know if the rug will be pulled out from under you at this place. It’s a horrible way to treat your customers.

This park might be a great fit for you if you work at Tesla and need a convenient place to come home to. If you have kids, there is nowhere for them to play though and if you’re a remote worker, the internet and cell service are not up to supporting work. There are no social activities here or even places for people to gather to be social. It’s just less expensive housing for people who work in Austin or thereabouts. It’s absolutely not a “resort.”

Oh, and don’t let me forget – while we were there (only 13 days, mind you) there was a high-speed chase on the county road. The person fleeing the police ended up crashing at the end of the road, just down from the park. When we went to talk with the police officer about what happened, she told us that the road is a regular problem for them – the people who live just past the RV park regularly complain about strange people parking on the road at night and it’s a known place for meth heads to go. When we looked around, we realized all the homes have security cameras and gates set up. It’s not actually a great neighborhood at all.

We only stayed here one night -- we arrived late and took off early -- but it was just the pit stop we needed and the owners, Pamela and Mike, could not have been nicer. Pamela put up with a lot of questions from me before I even booked, and when I let them know we'd be coming in a little late in the day, they were still ready and waiting for us when we pulled in.

They made it easy for us to get in and out by giving us the very first spot in the front of the park. The spot was level enough that we didn't need to fuss and got right to sleep. I read elsewhere that the showers were nice, but we were too tired to investigate.

I really appreciated this park for its thorough and helpful customer service, and would recommend this place to anyone making their way through this part of Utah.

Note: Be aware that cell phone signal isn't really a thing in Bluff or the surrounding area. Pamela was kind enough to test her WiFi for me and reported that she was getting 12 down. We ended up getting in late enough and leaving early enough that we didn't try to do any work at this park.

We had a great month in Shiner at Boggy Creek RV Park. Jane, the owner/manager, is so incredibly helpful and also works at the Shiner Chamber of Commerce, so she knows an incredible amount about what there is to do and see in Shiner and the surrounding areas.

All the spots are pull-throughs and easy to access. We stayed for a month and paid $350, which included electricity. The laundry facilities are newer, very clean, and large capacity. The park is very quiet at night (except for some coyotes and cows LOL). There are some kids in the RV park, but they are all very well behaved.

Across the street from Boggy Creek RV Park is Green-Dickson Municipal Park which has a playground, running/walking trails, stocked fishing streams/ponds, and picnic facilities. It is very well cared for and is a great resource to have right next door.

Shiner itself is an adorable town with very friendly people. Make sure you stop by Howard's for $2 beers and friendly neighbors. Also free beer and tours at Spoetzl brewery and amazing meet at Maeker's.

We would definitely stay here at Boggy Creek again. The facilities are nice, clean, and affordably priced, and Jane is a wonderful manager. We definitely recommend this place and this town if you are traveling through Texas.

We've never seen so many RVs at a Walmart before. The parking lot was full by sunset, so don't get there late if you want a spot. You can park anywhere -- just park lengthwise across the spots. You'll see some lines are white and some are yellow, but that has to do with employee parking and doesn't mean anything about where RVs can park (we asked a manager about this). The employees are SUPER friendly but there's like...3 of them...total. The store is woefully understaffed because they can't compete with the oil companies. There was 1 cashier and it took us over half an hour to check out. Many many empty shelves and stacks of products in the aisles because they have nobody to unpack the boxes and load the shelves. Kinda bizarre. We like to stop at Walmart to stock up, but literally couldn't do that here because of the lack of products. That said, the employees were nice, it was strangely quiet for a Walmart parking lot, and we felt super safe.

This is both an RV park and a motel -- but there is absolutely nothing creepy or strange about the hotel, as someone mentioned in another review. At least not during the month we stayed here (Sep 20 - Oct 20, 2018).

The motel and RV park grounds are both kept very neat. We regularly saw the groundskeeper out raking up pine needles and taking care of the landscaping. We were in spot 16, which is right next to the main laundry/bathhouse, but actually is quite nice for not having a neighbor on one side. The park is easy to navigate, but has no pull-through spots. We always pick back-in spots so this was not a problem for us.

The laundry room was impeccably clean and although the machines are a little expensive ($2 to wash; $2 to dry), they are also large capacity and work great. The showers in that same main building are fantastic -- big, clean, and endless hot water. We normally shower in our RV, but we made an exception at Mountain Landing and used their showers about half the time.

The management is matter-of-fact but also helpful, informative, and very caring. During the month we were there, we experienced the management go out of their way to help locate a package and to find the owner of an errant dog. When we had a food service delivery, they even called us as soon as it arrived since they were worried about it being food that might go bad.

Verizon worked great here; AT&T worked okay. Both were good enough to do online work, but we switched to Verizon when streaming video for work meetings.

The park is super quiet at night. It is in the Pagosa Lakes district, so not right in the mix of the "old town" part of Pagosa Springs. But it's only a few minutes to drive into town. I wish there was a way to bike or walk into town, but they haven't finished the planned path that will allow that and it will probably be a few more years. That said, Mountain Landing is a good middle spot to be in if you're interested in heading out to the San Juan National Forest AND interested in going into Pagosa Springs. We were in town to mountain bike and found it to be a good central location. You're also closer to Walmart, City Market, and those kinds of things.

Be aware that if you book a stay here, you will be required to pay in full up front. They also use PayPal as their credit card processor and will pass along all fees to you. They do not disclose their cancellation policy either. When we had to cancel we were informed there would be a $35 fee, which is pretty typical. But then when I looked at our "refund" we were charged much more because they also passed along their transaction fee to us and had not told us this would happen. And since they charge in full, that amount ends up being a lot. We also have not actually received our refund because the owners refunded it to a nonexistent PayPal account -- because they use PayPal as a processor, but you don't have to sign in to pay. I messaged the owners about all this. They say they don't know anything except that they hit the refund button and have now stopped responding. I would not recommend risking staying at this park based on this experience.

The parking lot at this Walmart is nice and big, which is great. We stayed toward the south end (the side toward the Sam's Club parking lot). We parked lengthwise, across a number of car parking spots. As long as you don't park too close to the curb, it's pretty darn level on that end of the parking lot. We were able to put our jacks down and slide out with no problem. There were two rigs in front of us along that same side. We saw a number of other RVs go in and out over the 16 hours we were there, but they didn't stick around. Getting in and out of the parking lot is simple. You will be quite a distance from the "cool" parts of Roswell, though.

The people in front of us ran their generator. We put out our satellite dish. Nobody seemed to mind any of us getting comfy in our spots.

The vibe of the area isn't great, though. Lots of sketchy activity after dark and some noise on and off during the night, including music. Also, bright lights in the parking lot, which is to be expected. Even though we chain up our satellite dish, we put it back into our tow vehicle when we went to bed because we were feeling nervous.

In addition, we had just a crappy experience purchasing things in the Walmart thanks to New Mexico's ridiculous laws...about everything. And Roswell wasn't nearly as fun or cool as we had imagined it to be. So we bugged out at about 6:30am in the morning.

The reviews here on Campendium get a little confusing with all the campgrounds WITHIN the New Mexico State Parks. Sometimes I'm not sure they're all posted on the right campgrounds.

We stayed at Quail Run (at Elephant Butte State Park) for 13 nights. We have the NM annual camping pass, so we only paid $4/night for water and electric hookups. The electric went out at one point for a few hours (due to crazy winds, which are everywhere in NM in winter), but we just switched to our batteries and it all seems to have been fixed within hours.

Quail Run is located right next to Desert Cove and there is a dump station right between the two campgrounds. Desert Cove is reservation only (unless you want to just do 1 night and then you can stay in the unreserved spots for 1 night only). Quail Run is first-come-first-serve. We got there about 10-11am on a Sunday and there were probably 3-4 spots open. Everyone has to check out by 1-2pm, so there's a lot of mid-day movement if you want to find a spot. Like all the NM state parks, Quail Run has a 14-day limit and we saw the campground host a lot and he was keeping track of everybody on a clip board.

Each site in Quail Run has a ramada, table, and fire pit/grill thingie.

The cell service at our site was AH.MAY.ZING. 5 bars of high speed AT&T and Verizon. This is not the case all over Elephant Butte, so have your phone out checking as you're driving around. It literally changes from spot to spot.

Quail Run is nice 'cause it's as little tucked in from the wind but you can walk all over from there. Tons of paved road, marked walking trails, and beach is easily accessible. And QUAIL by the thousands. No lie. You're allowed to feed them, FYI. They are the fattest quail we've ever seen. LOL Lots of doves, road runners, sparrows, squirrel, etc., too, and we saw one coyote right behind our rig in broad daylight (also heard them at night) so watch any small pets.

We don't have a big travel trailer, so we fit fine in our spot and got down the campground road okay, but I think it's probably a tighter experience for big rigs. There are some pull through spots and some back in. The back in spots have more space and a nice desert "backyard" view. They also seem to be more level than the pull through spots, though pretty much everyone had levelers under one side of their rig throughout the campground.

You won't have a great water view from Quail Run, but you also won't get stuck in the sand like every other person seems to in the dry camping area. The rangers told us they spend all summer helping trucks and RVs get un-stuck.

There are dumpsters for garbage and they empty them regularly, but they're in a super annoying spot so you have to basically walk a whole loop of the campground to get to them if you're in the back-in spots.

Showers were decent - nothing new or fancy, but lots of hot water.

The main gate has a "take one-leave one" library, in case you need a book or need to make space in your RV.

UPDATE 07/10/2018

We have been informed that the person(s) in question is/are no longer at North Ranch. Updating my star rating to what it would be without this portion of our stay: 4 stars. We are now very excited to be returning to North Ranch this coming winter!

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The campers and long-termers here are both great. The pickle ball court is great. The laundry rooms are nice. The community events are a lot of fun. The people in the main office are very intense, though, and have made it such that we won't stay here again.

We've been here for two months. All was well for quite a while, but this last week, we've been approached and yelled at twice. Both times we were accused of illegal usage of the dumpsters even though we are staying in the campground and have every right to use the dumpsters. This second time we were also threatened to not have our site renewed (even though there are many empty here). So we're being threatened to be kicked out for using the dumpster.

The managers are very angry and seem to not realize they approach people with a great deal of anger and yelling. I tried to respond and give constructive feedback this second time and encourage a conversation but I couldn't get a single sentence off and then the manager just drove off. He literally followed us around the park to come find us and accuse us of this illegal garbage dump use. It's creepy and way too aggressive and I no longer feel any comfort staying here -- the took the fun right out of this place.

I'll never stay here again and I won't recommend that anyone else ever stay here.