Monthly Archives: June 2021

Campground Review: Willow Wind RV Park, Hurricane Utah

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Campground Review Summary

  • Name: Willow Wind RV Park
  • Dates of stay: May 22 – June 4, 2021
  • Location: 80 South 1150 West, Hurricane, Utah 84737
  • Type of campground: Private / Independent
  • Cost: $52.83 / night (with Good Sam discount)
  • Additional fees: none
  • Stay limit: none
  • Accepts mail / packages: NO
  • Cell reception: ATT adequate
  • Website: http://www.willowwindrvpark.com
  • Pros: nice amenities and sites, good location
  • Cons: moderately pricey

Full Review

This is our second stay here at Willow Wind. The first review can be found here.

This park is in a great location, right in the small town of Hurricane, UT and near Zion National Park. With its shady sites and beautifully kept amenities, it’s a little oasis spot. The campground is moderately large, with 185 sites plus tent camping area and three teepees for rent.

Our back-in concrete space (#178) was solid, reasonably level and not difficult to get into. There is an intrusive concrete ditch in the road right in front of the office which is a bit annoying, but can be avoided after getting the rig parked by using the other entrance/exit.  The site was just barely long enough to park our rig plus all vehicles. We’re in a newer site, which meant less shade and grass, but it was satellite friendly.

50 amp electric, water and sewer connections worked fine, although we did experience one day of water outage due to some repair work. The staff provided ample notice, so we were able to fill our tank. A water main break occurred during our last stay too, so I don’t know if this is a regular thing, or if we just got lucky!

The provided cable TV worked perfectly, with 40+ clear channels. We were given a code for the free wifi, which worked beautifully. I was able to work, zoom, and even do limited streaming on my ipad. The wifi would momentarily drop from time to time, but overall it was much better quality than I’ve typically found.

It should be noted that this is one of the few campgrounds that does NOT accept mail. Campers are directed to forward mail to general delivery at the nearby post office and pick it up there. FedEx and UPS will deliver directly to your site, so long as the site number noted on the address. I didn’t try to have anything delivered.

The park landscaping and amenities are immaculately kept. The clubhouse is beautiful with lounge space downstairs and an upstairs loft with pool table. There are two bathhouses, one a traditional type, and the other (nearest the office) has individual bathroom units equipped with shower, toilet and sink. I love those, it’s like showering in a home bathroom. All were bright, tiled, modern, and climate controlled. There are two coin laundry facilities and a fitness room equipped with weight machine, recumbent bicycle, elliptical and a treadmill.

The cost was on par with similar campgrounds at a bit over $50/night, up a few dollars from our last stay. Being in town, Walmart, shopping, restaurants, and a movie theater are located conveniently nearby. Zion is only about a half hour away and Bryce Canyon National Park is within day trip distance, about 2.5 hours away. If you’re into ATV-ing, there are miles of trails within 30 minutes. Jeff tells me that several world class mountain bike trails are within 30-45 minutes drive away.

Bottom Line: Great sites, beautifully-maintained grounds and amenities, at a decent price.

Zion National Park / Bryce Canyon National Park

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This is our second visit to beautiful southwest Utah. You can read about our first experiences here.

Our friend Pat joined us for part of our two-week stay here. It gave Jeff a buddy to do some of the more extreme adventures with! Together, they hiked the Narrows — a wading adventure up a narrow slot canyon. They also hiked up Angels Landing, a wild and steep climb up chain-assisted rock scrambles to a knife-edge fin of rock. Yet another day they rented a Razr and took off 4 by 4-ing on the trails. They had a ball!

Together we took a day trip to Bryce Canyon and walked one of my favorite hikes of all time. Descending 320 feet down Queen’s Garden trail takes you through a veritable forest of sandstone hoodoos. Turning onto Navajo trail, you wind along the canyon floor under trees and sandstone cliffs. Then you begin climbing up a slot canyon — Wall Street — and huff and puff up a steep series of short switchbacks to the top. The hike isn’t all that long, about 4 miles as a loop, but the scenery is nothing short of amazing. It’s definitely on my “top five hikes of all time” list.

Zion is a beautiful place to visit, but trying to access the popular canyon drive during COVID was a frustrating mess. Access is permitted only by shuttle, and during our first week here, a very limited number of shuttle tickets were made available the day prior, at 5 pm, on the recreation.gov website. You’d log on and frantically click on time slots, while the website bogged down and kicked you out due to the overload of folks all trying to make reservations at the same time. In 5 minutes, all of the tickets would be gone. Through persistence, we were able to procure tickets, but not always on the day or time desired. By Friday, the park unexpectedly dropped the reserved shuttle ticket requirement, with no warning. With the Memorial Holiday crowds all queuing for overpacked shuttles — I’m not sure which system was worse! This park is definitely a victim of its own popularity at times.

During the second week of our stay, the weather turned unseasonably hot, with temperatures reaching and exceeding 100 degrees. We had already seen many of the things in the area that we had wished to, so mostly hunkered inside and out of the intense sun. It wasn’t supposed to be this hot, but we’ve found in our travels that the weather never seems to be “average!” It gave us a chance to catch the movie “Dream Horse” at the local theater. A fun, feel-good movie — and such a pleasure to be able to enjoy a movie day again!

Next up we are headed toward the Utah mountains and — hopefully — cooler weather!

Campground Review: Oasis Las Vegas RV Resort

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Campground Review Summary

  • Name: Oasis Las Vegas RV Resort
  • Dates of stay: April 22 – May 22, 2021
  • Location: 2711 W. Windmill Lane, Las Vegas, NV 89123
  • Type of campground: Private / Independent
  • Cost: $41.39 / night plus electric (monthly rate)
  • Additional fees: none
  • Stay limit: none
  • Accepts mail / packages: yes
  • Cell reception: ATT good
  • Website: www.oasislasvegasrvresort.com
  • Pros: Great location and amenities, moderate price
  • Cons: none

Full Review

There’s no place like Las Vegas! Although I find staying ON the Las Vegas strip to be wearying, staying just off strip in this lovely RV resort proved delightful. Oasis RV resort is located just a few miles south of the Strip — too far to comfortably walk, but only a short drive away. It proved to be a peaceful haven away from the frenetic Strip activity.

Oasis is a fully-featured resort, with a plethora of amenities including a pool, hot tub (closed for COVID during our stay), putting golf course, store, fitness center, restaurant, dog runs, bath houses and laundry facilities. The grounds are attractively and immaculately landscaped.

We opted for a “big rig” site, which was essentially two regular sites in length. The paved pull through site was fully long enough for our bus and vehicles. The big rig sites are limited and popular, so book early if you need one of those. We saw a few of our “sister” Entegra rigs, in fact at one point there were three of us side by side!

The normal sites are half this length. Depending on your rig size, the regular sites could find the back of your rig just inches from the back of your neighbor’s. We had friends stay in a regular site, and they weren’t happy with such close proximity. 

Our full hook ups worked perfectly. The sewer line was a bit of a run, but it was (mostly) downhill. The site included a robust cable TV package, over the air channels were abundant, and our site was satellite friendly for Direct TV use. We did not lack for entertainment options. Being inside a large city, our ATT signal was strong, and the campground wifi was quite usable.

We were so busy having Las Vegas fun, we didn’t utilize many of the park amenities, such as the onsite restaurant or pool. The bath houses offered spacious individual bathroom units (unisex), 6 bathrooms per bath house. I did find the water temperature to be variable at times, but otherwise they were clean, modern, and functional.

This is a very large and busy campground. There seemed to be a steady stream of RVs in and out daily. I observed some obvious long term RVs, but the majority appear to be vacationers hopping in and out of Vegas for a few days to a few weeks. Daily rates are pricey for big rig sites ($90-ish), but the monthly rate brought the daily cost down to a reasonable $42/night. The monthly rate does not include metered electric which, for our stay, added up to a whopping $244! Granted, it was getting hot and we ran the AC quite a bit, but that was the highest electric bill we’ve seen at a campground. Still, the electric only brought our nightly rate up to about $50/night which isn’t bad, all things considered.

During our last trip to Vegas, we stayed at another RV resort that was quite a distance off strip. Staying closer to the heart of the entertainment district was much more convenient. There are also grocery stores, restaurants, an outlet mall, and other shopping options conveniently located within 10 minutes or so.

Bottom Line: Great resort in the heart of Vegas. We’ve already made reservations for our return next year.