Palm Springs Area

Post covers: Nov 12 to Nov 18, 2016

We left Reno for a week long stay in Palm Springs. We decided to break up the trip into a couple days. We left on Saturday and drove to Lone Pine, CA for a one night stay at Boulder Creek RV Resort. We picked it after looking at reviews of the places around Lone Pine. When we got there the staff was helpful and friendly as we checked in. We got settled into our space and Kim immediately met some of our neighbors that also had a couple of weenies and then also met some other neighbors that travel with three Saint Bernard mixes. Some times we think we are a bit crazy traveling with all our kids and how we treat them so it's nice to see others are just as committed to their four legged kids as we are. We had a nice relaxing evening in and left early Sunday morning for Palm Springs.

After reading about others experiences with Thousand Trails and looking at the type of places we like to stay at we decided to buy an annual zone pass and see how it goes using their campgrounds for the next year. They specifically mention that they are dog friendly and don't state any limits on numbers. As with all multiple campground companies, you are best to check with each individual campground you will be visiting to make sure they don't have different rules than the main rules. If anyone needs helpful information on Thousand Trails and their options, I would recommend going to the RVLove.com blog and looking at their page on Thousand Trails. They have some great information on their experiences and what they have learned about Thousand Trails. They even have a recommendation on who to talk with when buying a membership and their recommendation to talk with Jim Randell was right on. He was helpful, get us the deal we wanted and got us into the Palm Springs campground for the week after we signed up.

When we got to the campground, which is actually in Palm Desert, we got checked in at the front gate and learned that sites weren't preassigned.

The staff suggested we park the motorhome and take our toad and drive around to pick out the space we like. We haven't had this option at anything but some government campgrounds. We found the spot we like and got backed in. The campground is full of palm trees which adds to the ambience but you do have to watch out for the them when getting into your site. Later in the week I watched someone back into a palm tree with their bus before any of us could warm him he was close. Luckily I don't think he hurt anything. The campground is incredibly dog friendly and it looked like 75% of us there have furry kids. With their fur-friendly attitude there was no issue with setting up the pens for the babies.

This is the desert so creatures do show up at all times!

This little roadrunner came by one morning to say hi. He didn't mind the babies even though they certainly wanted to get out of their yard to go say hi. The only wildlife we founded issues with were the burrs around the area. The babies got them in their paws several times and we tracked inside as well and had to check the floor to make sure none of us would find some by accident.

Next door to the campground is Holland Motorhomes. We are always looking at options so visited the lot after getting settled in and toured some motorhomes before they closed. I'm working on a whole post on that adventure and will update our RV Saga page so standby for that.

We enjoy this area as there are so many things to do in the area. We spent one day visiting the Joshua Tree National Park area and the old west motion picture set town of Pioneertown. When we visit national parks with the babies, we have to plan carefully since there are not many places that they are allowed. They did enjoy walking down Main Street of Pioneertown though as hardly anyone was around so we had the run of the place.

We were in Palm Desert for the full moon and the moon rise was gorgeous from the campground:

On the last night before we started our next big adventure we had a date night at Palm Springs Village Fest. The town closes several blocks of Palm Canyon Drive and all types of vendors set up. We found everything from a block of farmer's markets items, to all kinds of food vendors, to artisans selling everything from all types of art work, soap, candles and everything else we would want to look at. Since most items aren't an option we settled for getting some fresh bread, flour tortilla chips and homemade dips for the chips. Dinner was a nice Italian place with outside seating, Sammy G's Tuscan Grill. We would recommend it and the calamari appetizer was in the top 10 of ones we've had. Also their house made Sangria was tasty.

Next up our adventure and then on to San Diego for Thanksgiving with family.