Heading South Down the Coast

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Adrianne taking a picture of Convict Lake in CA on our full time RV adventure.
Convict Lake

 

We have been moving fairly quickly down the coast, at least by our standards. Before we left Chimacum we purchased a Thousand Trails Zone Pass for the Northwest and then added a second zone for the Southwest for $54. We wanted to hang out with our friends who are staying at Russian River RV park and this is a Thousand Trails park with ridiculously high prices if you’re not a member. So, we became members in order to stay for awhile. Doing so would also allow us to stay at a few other Thousand Trails parks on our route down the coast.

We were trying to keep our travel days to 4 hours or less of driving. I mapped out a route that would take us from Chimacum, WA to Seaside, OR to stay at our first Thousand Trails park.  Seaside RV Resort was a nice park, the south park only had 30 amp but it had larger sites.  The north side of the park has 50 amp but the sites are really skinny, they really pack em in over there.  We’ll take more room every time, as long as it’s not too hot out.  (A warning about Thousand Trails parks, get a good EMS Surge Guard if you plan to use these parks, the electrical seems outdated and voltage drops happen regularly.  We recommend the Progressive EMS-PT50X, this is what we use in our RV.)

The RV in our site at Seaside RV resort, a Thousand Trails Park.

From Seaside, we headed to Florence, OR and stayed at South Jetty RV Resort.  We had a little trouble finding a site large enough for us, at least one we could actually get level in.  It was packed there, we thought it was late enough in the season that it wouldn’t be a problem, we were wrong.  Some of the sites were really muddy and the trees don’t allow much sunshine in to dry it out.  We did enjoy our stay here, once we found a suitable site.

South Jetty RV resort in Florence, OR, a Thousand Trails park.Cool old bridge in Florence, OR.

After Florence, we headed to Klamath River, CA. We wanted to tour the Redwoods National Park, go on a hike, and tour the area a bit.  We thought this was a nice park and it wasn’t very busy at this time of the year.  The entrance had a really hard turn to get into the park, we didn’t make the turn and had to unhook the car, then back up in order to make it.  Regardless, we enjoyed our stay were.  Not to mention, the owner was super friendly and very helpful.

Our site right next to the river at Klamath River RV park in Klamath, CA.

Stone bears guarding an old bridge on the Klamath River.

The Big Tree in Redwoods National Forest.

Next we decided to stay overnight at Richardson Grove RV park. This allowed us to take a drive through the Avenue of the Giants.  The RV park seemed a bit run down and we never saw anyone in the office.  Therefore, we were forced us to leave our info on a piece of paper and put it through the mail slot (I’m not a fan of doing that).  Also, don’t pull straight into the first pull thru site if you use a 50 to 30 amp adapter, the post was to low to the ground for us to be able to plug in.  This place could be good for an overnight, that’s about it.  It’s the most affordable option in the area.

Sign for the Avenue of the Giants.Many huge redwood trees lining the road among the Avenue of the Giants.Beautiful moss covered tree among the enormous redwoods.Adrianne standing in front of the Immortal Tree on our tour down the Avenue of the Giants.

Finally, we arrived at another Thousand Trails Park – Russian River RV Resort.  The sites were really narrow here and sites are mostly on hills.  Our friends, Kevin and Carrie courageovercomfort.com even had a meal waiting for us the day we arrived, how awesome is that?! FYI, Kevin makes some damn good chimichangas.

Our RV site at Russian River RV Resort, a Thousand Trails park.

We returned the favor a few nights later with our signature dish, Royal Mee Grob and some freshly made spring rolls. We all took a day trip into Geyserville for some lunch and sightseeing. It was awesome to be able to hang out with friends on a regular basis, we haven’t had that for a long time. We need to do this more often.

Sharing a meal with friends at Russian River RV Resort.

Interesting tree at Russian River RV resort, a Thousand Trails park.
Unique tree that we found on a trail within the park.

PG&E had a precautionary power outage on Wednesday due to the wind storm that was rolling in, so we lost power in the park Wednesday afternoon.  This was shortly before the Kincaid fire had everything ablaze around there. The fire started Wednesday night, we were on alert all day Thursday and ready to leave if needed. The smoke started to roll in, it was raining ash on us, and the evacuation zone was getting larger by the minute. Friday morning we decided it was time to go, so we said our good byes and cut our stay short by almost a week. We hightailed it for the Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains. This route had some of the steepest and windiest roads we’ve seen on our adventure so far. But we made it!

Mono Lake viewpoint as we head into the Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains.
Mono Lake Viewpoint

We stopped at an RV park in Bishop, CA to plug in for a few nights, it would allow us to ride out the high winds and temps down into the teens. Once the storm passed we headed to Alabama Hills.

We're all on a walk in the Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains.

This was a great viewpoint on our way to Horseshoe meadows.

For some reason I think the elevation was getting to us this year, we didn’t have a problem last year on our way North. Although, our day trips this year seemed to be taking us up and down 5000+ft everyday. Which was probably a mistake of our own making, but we were getting headaches and just not feeling top notch. So, after 6 days, we headed for Needles, CA.

 

Our site at Fenders RV resort in Needles, CA.

A tree at Fenders RV resort covered in license plates.

It was a one night stopover on our way to Congress, AZ to check out the Escapees North Ranch park.  We’ve missed the Arizona sunsets, so beautiful!

Arizona sunset picture taken not to far from Congress, AZ.
We drove up a nearby hill for an amazing sunset view.

We’ll be here until close to Thanksgiving, then were heading closer to some family in Phoenix for the Holidays…

2 Replies to “Heading South Down the Coast”

    1. Thanks so much Lynn! This route has some white knuckle areas (especially in a large Class A RV), but it sure is beautiful. We highly recommend taking the 101 South into California, head over to Lake Tahoe, and then take the 395 South down through the Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains. We went from 300 ft to over 11,000 ft in a couple days, what an amazing experience, there is so much to do here!

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