Thousand Trails

Thousand Trails

We have an Elite Membership in Thousand Trails and stay with them about half the time. Next to boondocking and camp hosting, it can be the least expensive way to live nomadically. In other words, we don’t stay at Thousand Trails because we especially like them, but because we can afford them. For a full discussion of our experience, click to see Why We Chose Thousand Trails.

Below are the Thousand Trails campgrounds we’ve stayed in most recently. Click here to see all the Thousand Trails campgrounds we’ve stayed in since going full-time.


Palm Springs RV Resort (TT) - Palm Desert CA

RATING: ♦♦♦♦
  • Dates: Sep 20, 2019 – Oct 18, 2019
  • Length of stay: 28 nights.
  • Cost per night: $0 for first three weeks + $27 for one week extension.
  • Discount: Thousand Trails Membership.
  • Hookups: 30 amp electric, water, and sewer. 
  • Site number/quality: #152. On main street running down the middle of the park. Several streets, including ours, are newly paved as are the sites on those streets. We also have a nice concrete seating area with a picnic table. 
  • Park Quality: This park is closed during the summer. It just opened back up a few days before we arrived. Almost all the sites were empty in September. But by the beginning of October, it started to fill up. It’s justifiably very popular during the winter. 
  • Access: Easy access off I-10.
  • Connectivity: Verizon – good, AT&T – weak, and T-Mobile -strong. 
  • Return yes/no?: Yes.
  • Notes: The Palm Springs area, which is more properly known as the Coachella Valley, has grown a lot since we first started coming here back in the 1990s. Besides Palm Springs and Palm Desert, the valley contains the cities of Cathedral City, Rancho Mirage, La Quinta, Indian Wells and Indio. According to Wikipedia, the valley has a total population of almost 500,000 in April, declining to around 200,000 in July and rising to around 800,000 by January. There is a large population of wintertime residents, aka snowbirds, that at peak times may surpass 100,000, with another 3.5 million annual conventioneers and tourists. As much as we like it here, there’s just a few hundred thousand too many people here.
  • Website: Palm Springs RV Resort

Soledad Canyon RV Park (TT) - Acton CA

RATING: 
  • Dates: Sep 11, 2019 – Sep 18, 2019
  • Length of stay: 7 nights.
  • Cost per night: $0.
  • Discount: Thousand Trails Membership.
  • Hookups: 50 amp electric, water, and sewer.
  • Site number/quality: #C-113. Pull-through fairly level site on very dirty gravel. Shaded area with picnic table.
  • Park Quality: So sad. Situated in a lovely dry river canyon on the outskirts of Los Angeles, what should be the crown jewel of Thousand Trails is instead the worst maintained RV park we’ve ever stayed in. It’s supposed to be a full hookup park, but many of the sites have no working electric power. In fact, one whole section is closed because of lack of power. Most of the buildings are in poor repair. When we checked in, the clerk informed up that there had been substantial vandalism over the Labor Day weeked to the lodge and pool, so they are closed until further notice. And Mother Nature has also inflicted her share of damage. In the summer of 2017, the usually dry Santa Clara River, which runs through the park, flooded and wiped out a small bridge that connects the upper and lower sections of the park. It has yet to be repaired. On the plus side, the park is close to the big city and all it has to offer. But this closeness also attracts a number people to the park who appear to be one step from homeless camping in very rundown rigs. Los Angeles is in the midst of a serious homeless problem, with 50,000 people living on the street and countless others sleeping in their cars or in derelict RVs parked on the street. We saw many encampments on our visit to downtown LA, especially along the Metrolink rail line.
  • Access: Fairly easy access off CA-14, just north of Acton.
  • Connectivity: Verizon-Weak, AT&T-OK, and T-Mobile-Weak.
  • Return yes/no?: Probably not.
  • Notes: The Metrolink commuter train runs along the side of the park. Thankfully, it’s short and nowhere as noisy as a freight train. We decided to board the train in Acton and take it to Union Station in downtown Los Angeles. From the station, we walked across the street to the El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument, which is the original site of Old Los Angeles. From there, we strolled through the Olvera Street Mexican Marketplace, and then had a wonderful lunch at Philippe The Original on Alameda St. After lunch, we headed back to Union Station, and caught the Red Line subway to Hollywood and back. It made for a fun day without having to fight the LA traffic.
  • Website: Soledad Canyon RV Park


Lake Minden RV Park (TT) - Nicolaus CA

RATING: ♦♦♦♦
  • Dates: Aug 24, 2019 – Aug 28, 2019
  • Length of stay: 4 nights.
  • Cost per night: $0.
  • Discount: Thousand Trails Membership.
  • Hookups: 30 amp electric and water, but no sewer.
  • Site number/quality: #83 in D Section. Back-in site on fairly level gravel pad, with shaded seating area and picnic table.
  • Park Quality: The park seems to be well managed and generally in good repair. It has four sections that surround Lake Minden, which is more of a large man-made retention pond than a lake. Though having a rather artificial feel, the lake causes the rest of the whole park to be more spread out than it would probably be otherwise. Section A is on the south side of the lake, and has smaller sites with full hookups. Section B is on the north side, and has no hookups. Section C is on the southeast side, and has a few sites with water, but most have no hookups. We stayed in Section D on the northeast side of the lake, which has larger sites, but there’s only water and 30 amp electric. There are three dump stations, and the park offers honey wagon service.
  • Access: Easy access off CA-99 or CA-70. The nearest town with shopping and dining is Yuba City, about 15 miles north.
  • Connectivity: Verizon-OK, AT&T-OK, and T-Mobile-Strong.
  • Return yes/no?: Sure.
  • Notes: The park is located in the middle of the very large Sacramento Valley agricultural area. There isn’t that much to do nearby. But the park itself is nice enough, with a beach and fishing docks, as well as a cafe and small camp store. We didn’t really take full advantage of the park due to the extreme high temperatures while we here, which were over 100° each day. Fortunately, our site had multiple shade trees and our air conditioning did its job pretty well, even though we only had 30 amp service.
  • Website: Lake Minden RV Park

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Click here to see all the Thousand Trails campgrounds we’ve stayed in since going full-time.