June 2, 2023 - Andiamo to Verde Valley

Since we could only book two nights at the Buckskin State Park, we thought we take in another Thousand Trails RV Park here in Arizona. So we added a bit more time to our journey with staying the one night at the TT Verde Valley, the only Thousand Trails in Arizona. 

Although longer this drive was one of the most scenic since driving down the west coast. The cactus are all in bloom with presenting us with the most interesting and unique flowers, just spectacular.

Our route from Buckskin State Park was down the 95 out of Parker, and then a left onto hwy 72 towards Bouse, when 72 met hwy 60, we again turned left onto the 60, then the 71, 89, 169 which led us to the I17 ending at the Verde Valley and the Thousand Trails RV Park. This is the only TT Park in Arizona and we are very happy to have checked it out. The only unfortunate thing is that we only have the one night here, this area and specifically this RV Park could easily be a four day or even a week or two. We thought the Seaside Park was one of the best, well this one can give it a run for its money. Mini golf, to ping pong, to billiards, to a swimming pool and hot tub to all the fantastic well kept grounds and trails there is easily a weeks worth activity here. I think we will be dragging our heels on the way out tomorrow.

A cactus, dust whirlwinds all day…



Many of the cactus in bloom. I didn’t realize that cactus actually bloom - just beautiful 

















TT Verde Valley











Home is where you park it…



Almost a full strawberry moon.









Convection Microwave. Found the Bake feature. Not bad at all.

Nice pool…



A second rec room lodge area… Too bad only one night.

May 31-Jun 1, 2023 - Andiamo to Arizona

We once again watched the clock caress the noon hour before leaving the beautiful Emerald Desert RV Park in Palm Desert California. We were on a very busy, semi truck infested, highway 10 heading east which was our route out of town towards Arizona. These trucks with their four way flashers take up both lanes with the truck in the left lane may be going two miles an hour faster than the truck they are passing. These very slow passes causes massive line ups in both lanes as people wait for the turtle like passing to end. So as we chill in the right lane there are many times that we are completely boxed in by semis, okay, but just not fun. The congestion finally cleared as we hit the summit and then really cleared up when our GPS took us to highway 62, we felt like we were driving in middle of the desert with this two lane highway. I will mention that this highway, in the most part, has been recently re-paved. There were many fun dips as we roller coasted into Arizona.

Three hours later we pulled into Buckskin State Park which in located just across the state line between California and Arizona. It is the Colorado River that separates the two and this state park is conveniently located on a horseshoe bend in the river, so we have rivers on both sides of us. We were originally booked in site 17 but upon entering the park, the Ranger, Zoe, highly recommended that we change sites. She indicated that site 17 was right next to the wastewater treatment plant and there is commonly an odour that hangs in the air at both that site and the next. She recommended the shady site down much further in the park, fine by us - #61. I later walked by site 17 and yikes, I’m surprised they call that a site. Our site had a beautiful old tree offering us an abundance of shade throughout most of the afternoon. The two days we had in this park gave us a great excuse to just relax and enjoy the surroundings. For a state park, the wifi was amazing, we could almost live stream Netflix, almost.

There are several campgrounds on both sides of the river and I can see it getting very busy here. We were only allowed 2 nights as the weekend was booked, yes, probably even site 17. This area seems to be a water toy playground, from jet skis, to Sea doos, ski/wake boats, jet and pontoon boats. The water was surprisingly warm considering that this is a river. So it looks like many bring their shade covers and set them on the beach area with their watercraft sitting only feet away ready for the next run up or down the river. A very nice spot here for our two days, our next stop is a one nighter just outside of Flagstaff before settling into our 5 day stay at the Grand Canyon.

Some pics of our time here…

The Colorado River



Water was not too bad







K9 Hitching Post

Cactus Garden along a very walkable path.

















Our spot, number 61.

















We all went in the slow flowing river to cool off.