Escapees Rainbow's End RV Park

What was I thinking? Spending June, July and August in the middle of Texas. OK so the temp is hot. There are lots of trees to cut the sun, a pool, lots of clothes washers and dryers. About the friendliest park I've stayed at. Escapees like to hug when they meet. Close to town with lots of Mexican restaurants. No steak house, what's up with that. I thought I am in Texas. There wifi is fast and an extra cost but worth the cost. Lots of pull through sites. Sites are large for the most part.

The rate above is based on the monthly member rate.

Cell signals were really poor, but boosted everything worked fine.

There are several campsite options. Your options are a stand of oak trees, a stand of pines, or an open field. We were in the oaks in a back-in spot. There are also several pull-throughs. All park roads are paved. Most sites are gravel - only a few are concrete pads.

We really liked that the park seems to attract retired folks (this is an Escapees park and their headquarters). It is clean, quiet, dark, and the people are great. Definitely go get pancake breakfast at the care center if you’re there Saturday morning.

The only negative was the bathroom cleanliness. They weren’t gross enough to avoid, but they could definitely use some more regular cleaning. This almost knocked their score to 3 stars, but there are so many other things going right here that we ended up at 4 stars.

We moved from Washington State, near the Evergreen Coho Escapees park... I guess our first mistake was assuming that the quality of the headquarters location would be similar to that of Evergreen Coho. Instead, it was worse than the worst KOA we've ever stayed at, and that's saying something.

There were a few good things: they have a dog park; they serve breakfast a few times a week at the care center; it is quiet at night.

Now for the bad. First, the site they assigned us was in what they call "the trees." This is code for "the old section that we've allowed to go completely to sh^t and should be ashamed to charge money for." The site was extremely unlevel, and surrounded by long-term (okay, permanent - who are we kidding) residents with RVs that were not fit for human habitation. They could not get us two weeks in one spot so after the first week we were supposed to move to a different one; we walked by it and there was no way our rig would have fit, and leveling would have been impossible. We wound up leaving after only a few days so that wound up being a moot point.

They charge for WiFi. WTH? We used our Verizon MiFi instead and had moderate signal. Useable but not fast.

The bathrooms were small (only 2 showers) and utterly filthy. I showered there once. The second time I went to use the shower I had to bail out because there was a wad of hair and feces in one shower, and dead bugs in the other.

Walking our dog we were almost attacked by a vicious dog who came flying out of his RV's open door. Fortunately his owner had fast reflexes and was able somehow to grab him in time. But, no more walking in that area as they don't enforce their rule against loose dogs.

Need help after 5:15 p.m.? Too bad - they all go home.

The last straw was when our lithium battery alarms went off and we discovered that the shore power had failed so we had run the batteries down to 0. They sent their electrician out and he said that our post was original from the 1970s and that whole section was supposed to be replaced but that it never happened. The problem? The electrical was not grounded. He tried to fix it with the limited supplies they provided but after he left it shorted out again. The office's response was that we should magically produce a 50-foot electrical cord and hook up to another spot's post. Of course we do not carry one, and they didn't have one, so we were SOL. We wound up leaving early and they did not refund us for the remainder of the week.

We may try other Escapees parks but we will never, ever stay here again unless they completely overhaul it. The Livingston park is an embarrassment to Escapees. Friendly staffers are not a substitute for decent sites, clean bathrooms, or safe and functional electric posts. Do yourself a favor and stay at the state park on the lake, or across the lake in Onalaska at the park on the waterfront there - that's where we went and it is MUCH nicer.

I am an Escapee member and find it a good value to join. I am also not so harsh in my Rainbow's End review as others and here is what you get: minimalist services, FHU, some pull thrus, no TV reception, excellent Verizon 4G service and social outlets. We find the park acceptable and keep returning year after year.

FHU's: The water is generally good and sufficient pressure (about 60 PSI) and we use a regulator plus a manual water softener to mitigate and issues. The sewer has no problems we have encountered. The electric power can be an issue with voltage ranges from 103 to 128 VAC 60Hz. We use a Hughes power conditioner Hughes Autoformer RV220-50SP and voltages have been between 116 to 127 VAC fairly heavy loading of two electric heaters (2800W), water heater, microwave, plus all the normal RV functions.

Social: There are Amateur Radio, quilting, sewing, "tasting" events, Ice cream socials, Holiday events and meals, Volunteering groups, a good DVD library (some VHS), several group rooms with TV's. If you are here for a while, the Library lets you check out eBooks and hard copy ones too.

Shopping: 7 miles away is a Walmart, Lowes and many eating establishments ( some are pretty good). Huntsville is 42 miles away and they have a good HEB, Harbor Freight and many other shopping opportunities.

If you stay here make you you are in the main lot by the office ... in that area the sites are very cramped but at least clean. We were supposed to stay a week but the site they put us in in the “hills and trees” area was right next to a long term resident who’s trailer and tent were covered with mold and the whole site smelled like ammonia. I’m not sure if the smell was from dog urine as there was a dog pen. The sites were large there yet we could smell his property issue at ours. We ended up not being able to stay at that site even for the night it was so strong. We did stay 1 night in the main lot in a pull through site by the office and it was a clean area. It seemed very clear this first neighbor was a know issue so I am very disappointed they wasted our time. At least they were willing to refund.

Rainbows End is the national headquarters for the Escapees RV Club and also contains their mailing service. It is a park designed to help the full-time RVer at a reasonable price. It is not a destination campground nor a high-end RV resort. It does not have many amenities for children and instead focuses on adults and their needs. There are several laundry rooms and dog parks as well as a walk-up window for getting one's mail. UPS and FedEx also deliver to campsites. I noticed several different mobile RV mechanics working in the park. Prior to the pandemic there was a full schedule of adult social events throughout the day, though those had been paused during our stay.
I would estimate that 60% of the RVs seem to be there for the long-term as they may have a set of wooden steps and storage sheds beside them. The remainder appear to be full-timers passing through the area needing to conduct business. The more permanent residents appear to keep their areas quite clean. Cleaner than many other RV parks I have been to. This may well have to do with the demographics which skews older.
There are three sections to the park: The newer Rainbow Oaks section has gravel and a few parking pads with a small strip of grass for the picnic table. There are a few trees here, but largely it is a sunny location. A laundry room and dog park are close by. The Hills section is again open and sunny with some grass beside the gravel parking pads and the laundry room right there. The Trees section appears to be the oldest section and as the name implies, has a number of trees so that you will get shade for a portion of the day. There is very little grass on the sites here, but I found the shade to be a reasonable trade off. The sites in this section are suffering a bit from reduced maintenance, but nothing too bad and I preferred to stay in this section as it is farthest from the highway and therefore the quietest.

We stayed one night driving from New Orleans to Athens Texas. Nice mid-way stopover. Easy access and manuvering. Only stayed one night so didn't get to explore, but park looked nice and the staff was definitely very friendly and helpful. Would stay again if in the area. We stayed on a class A motorhome and didn't need to unhook our tow vehicle. We camped at Rainbow's End - Escapees Rainbow Park in a Motorhome.

If you are an Escapee and want to pick up your mail, make sure you are there when the mail room is open. We arrived on Saturday thinking we'd pick up our mail and learned the mailroom is closed weekends. Bummer for us.

For $22 we had full hookups in a quiet site that was shaded by trees. We came to establish our Texas domicile with the help of the Escapees club and were surprised how nice the campground was.

Our site was in the treed area where more of the perminate residents lived. While some have complained about these units, I just saw people living their best life. Everyone we met was friendly and one nice neighbor even let us borrow her printer.

I removed one star as the sites are not easy to back in, especially for someone new to her travel trailer. We had reliable 3 to 4 bars of Verizon 4G.

There are two dog parks, the one in the permanent resident area being more shaded. I did not use the bathrooms as I prefer to use my own. Overall we enjoyed our stay and will come back again.

We stayed here to get our registration and drivers licenses situated after going full time. The site we were assigned was extremely tight, the roads are uneven and rutted, and when it rained, it turned into a huge mud bog. But, it was convenient to get what we needed to get done.

Rainbow’s End is the Escapees headquarters for Texas. The location is about 7 miles from town. For those establishing domicile in Texas, it’s a convenient place. The sites vary, but are mostly small gravel. Power, water, and sewer all good. It’s very quiet.