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Thousand Trails - Russian River
Tosha Tingey • Jul 04, 2019
Russian River was our in-between park to split up the drive between Yosemite and the Redwoods. The highlight of this RV resort was the river!
The Thousand Trails campground, Russian River
was just a half way stop near Santa Rosa, CA and we were pleasantly surprised with what this RV campground had to offer!
Things We Did Not Love
1. The location
This place was in the middle of nowhere. Cloverdale has a gas station, a Taco Bell, a Starbucks, and maybe a few other businesses. Oh and there’s a grocery store a way in too. But there’s just not much to do. Santa Rosa is about 30 min away.
2. Lack of staff and activities
We were only here 3 nights but we only saw staff at the front gate and just didn’t see much of a community effect. Which was just a big difference coming from Yosemite where they had a large staff and a lot going on all the time. So, it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing since we were looking to just get work done here, but that’s something you may be looking for in your campground. Although I did see a signup sheet for weddings and vow renewals so… ;)
Things We Loved
1. The river!
We went to the river every day we were there! The water is a refreshingly cold temp and has lots of rocky shores to play on. We went tubing down the river a lot and that was definitely my favorite part about our stay. I think the pictures speak for themselves about how much we enjoyed tubing down the river.
2. The lodge
This was the first lodge we have seen with a pool table and tons of toys and games! They have an outdoor area with a grill and also has movie nights there on the weekends. It was pretty nice and we enjoyed spending an evening playing games and letting Addie play with the toys. They have a little store and a place where you can rent tubes.
3. Cellular Service
For people who work and go to school completely online, this is always a big plus! We had great service with both Verizon and T-Mobile at our campsite and was able to get a lot of work done while we were here.
When you're on a cruise it can be difficult to experience the island or country you are in when you only have a few hours. The other challenge we had was finding an excursion that our entire family could join. And by entire family I mean my parents, my sister's family with four kids, and our family! So when we found Chukka Caribbean's excursion that included Zip-lining, River Tubing, ATV ride, lunch, and a bird aviary - it was the plan for a perfect day!
If you’ve ever gone to Rocky Mountain National Park, you most likely came through Estes Park. It’s pretty well known but from now on when we go to the National Park we will be going to Granby. Granby is on the western side of Rocky Mountain National Park. We found an AMAZING campground to stay at that has so many amenities and the area all around is packed with fun things to do!
I always want to be real with anyone reading this blog about full-time travel, tiny living, Airstream life… all of the above. So I want to share some of our hardest moments that had us either wanting to quit or had us seriously questioning, “what are we even doing?” So here we go…
Glacier National Park is one of those National Parks that you hear about and just KNOW that it is going to be amazing. And it was. Right upon entering the park it felt more like home and less like a tourist attraction. The park itself is huge but upon arrival, it feels like you’re entering a little town with an ice cream shop and café, boat rentals, and a small visitor center. After going to the visitor center we headed to get our kayak inspected. The inspections are free and pretty basic. You will have to rinse it off if it’s wet or dirty but that’s about it. If you aren't bringing your own gear you can rent for a good price right across the street from the lake. Life jackets are required to be worn by children and adults must have them in the boat with them or worn. After that, we went right to the dock next to the Village Inn and set sail! The pictures can show just how gorgeous this place was better than I could ever describe.
Pike’s Place Market place is the longest-running farmer’s market in America! The hype and the buzz of the atmosphere is palpable. You have flowers lining one side and the most unique crafts, food, art, jewelry, anything you can think of on the other! On the lower level, you’ll find shops dedicated to vintage prints, toy cars, magic shops, and more unique products! And of course, the famous fish throwing vendor will not leave you disappointed. I usually get anxiety in large crowds and people trying to sell me stuff. But the vibe here was so family-friendly. The crowds felt less annoying and more like I just found the after party of Seattle. Just a short stairway away is the somehow popular and extremely gross, gum wall. This alleyway is just covered in gum on the walls and it looks really cool, just don’t think about it too much.
As with just about anything in life, you can only prepare so much until you are actually living it. We have been living in a 150 sq ft Airstream for the past 3 months and here are 3 things we love and 3 things we don’t.
1. Self-Cleaning Vacuum We have a little hidden cubby where we keep our Deebot (googly eyes not included). This almost didn’t happen and I am SO glad it did. I learned within one day how dirty our floors get. It’s awesome to run the little robot vacuum while we are gone or asleep or packing up and have it do all the work.
Pacific City RV Resort had so many amenities and the biggest, most private campsites we've ever had! It's across the street from the beach and lives in the beautiful small coastal town of Pacific City, Oregon.
The Thousand Trails campground, Russian River was just a half way stop near Santa Rosa, CA and we were pleasantly surprised with what this RV campground had to offer!
The Yosemite Lakes campground was actually the one that got us interested in a Thousand Trails to begin with. This campground is chuck full of amenities in the campground itself, and it’s 10 min away from the Yosemite National Park entrance. And I’m apologizing in advance, we were enjoying it so much that we forgot to take pictures until we left! So I only have a few but hopefully it’s better than nothing.