Headed to Quartzsite – 2026

15 01 2026

Happy New Year – here’s to a wonderful 2026!

Early January felt very little like winter in southern Colorado, with high temperatures in the 60’s and overnight lows in the 30’s and 40’s.  However, as our departure date approaches on January 10th, it appears that winter will indeed visit with highs forecast in the 20’s and even teens.  So, on January 8th, we hitched up and headed south – and hopefully out of the cold and snow that’s incoming.

Our first night is in Rio Rancho, just north of Albuquerque at the Stagecoach RV – a favorite along this route. It’s still chilly overnight but at least stays above freezing.  With this cold front spread all across the northern tier of New Mexico, we opt to continue south along I-25 versus west on I-40.  Our next night is in another favorite park, the Las Cruces KOA.  We enjoyed two nights here, visiting with a good friend and exploring downtown Las Cruces where we enjoyed delicious pizza at Zeffiro’s Pizzeria.  Offering very unique pizzas, we sampled both their Green Chili Chicken Enchilada and the Potato Rosemary.  We’ll be back!

KOA Las Cruces, NM

Zeffiro’s Pizzeria Downtown, Las Cruces, NM

Our next stop is a quick overnight at the KOA in Benson, AZ.  This is a first time visit for us, but seems better than others we’ve stayed at.  It’s further off the highway, and provides plenty of room in their big sites.  From Benson it’s a short drive to Mesa, Arizona where we join friends at the Encore Mesa Spirit.  As is typical of many of the Encore parks in Arizona – a mix of RV sites and permanent park models.  Mesa Spirt is older, and some of the sites are small.  But, also as typical, the calendar is full of activities and entertainment for residents. Mesa is a great place for resupplying various items, propane, groceries and moving from using the onboard water tank to a fully filtered, soften system now that there is no longer a freezing concern.

KOA, Benson, AZ

Encore Mesa Spirt, Mesa, AZ

Encore Mesa Spirt, Mesa, AZ

2026 Circling of the Montana, Quartzsite, AZ

From Mesa, it’s about 3 hours directly west to Quartzite, AZ.  As in years past, we’re here to meet other Montana Owners, just in time for the opening of the “Big Tent”.  This is the Quartzsite Sports, Vacation & RV Show, one of the biggest RV shows in the world, bringing up to a million visitors to the Arizona desert annually.  The BLM lands around Quartzsite are loaded with RVs this year, and the weather is the best we’ve every experienced.  Comfortable 70’s during day and crisp 50’s overnight.

From Quartzite we’re off to Yuma, and another new park, Del Pueblo RV Resort in south Yuma. More from there…


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Categories : Spring Road Trip 2026

Off to see an Eclipse

8 04 2024

After departing Tucson, we’re planning a relatively quick transit across New Mexico and Texas hoping for clear views in the upcoming eclipse  “Path of Totality”.  We last viewed a total eclipse in 2017 when we were in Douglas Wyoming.  This time we’ve chosen Bandera Texas as our “prime” spot, with an expected totality of just over 4 minutes.

Our first stop after departing Tucson is at Hacienda RV Resort in Las Cruces, NM.  We generally stay at the KOA in Las Cruces, but with extra travelers in our group and eclipse traffic, the park isn’t available.  However, Hacienda works just as well for a couple of nights here.  The full hookup sites are wide and specious. From Las Cruces we’ll spend one night in Van Horn at the familiar Van Horn RV park and one night at Southern Living RV Park in Ozona, TX.  Both of these parks offer bare necessities and are just fine for quick overnights.

Southern Living RV Park, Ozona, TX

We’ve visited Bandera before, but this is the first time we’ve stayed at Riverside RV Park.  The Medina River flows along the southern edge of the park and in warmer weather would provide welcoming shade and calm quiet swimming holes.  From the easy check-in to the personable park hosts, this is a very nice place.  We’re parked in site #77, a wide pull-through site that is mostly shaded by a big tree overhead. The tree is a bit messy, but provides great shade for sitting outside or around the provided picnic table.

Riverside RV Park, Bandera, TX

Riverside RV Park, Medina River, Bandera, TX

As eclipse day arrives on April 8th, so do the clouds across the Texas Hill country. However, all preparations continue with huge tripods of telescopes and camera lenses positioned towards the sky all around the campground.  Around 12:30 through partially cloudy skies, we’re able to see the “bite” out of the sun.  As totality time at 1:30 approaches, the lights flicker on, birds are quieted and an eerie hush settles over the park.  Complete darkness lasts for 4 minutes and 4 seconds in this part of Texas, and very quickly the sun starts to reappear in the now mostly cloudy skies.  Not exactly the presentation we’d hoped for, but unfortunately it seems like most of Texas and many other places across the US experienced the same cloudy conditions.

Riverside RV Park, Bandera, TX – “Totality”

While we’re here primarily for the eclipse, we have a great time exploring Bandera and the surrounding area.  During an excursion to Kerrville, we check out the new Howdy’s Bar & Chill, formerly the Wild Ass Hey Barn.  Back in Bandera, we found a new favorite eatery – the Trail Boss Steak and Grill.  Located off the main street, this new restaurant offers a wide selection of steaks, seafood and burgers, combined with a full bar and excellent, attentive staff.  A special shout-out to Conner who serviced us during both of our visits – thanks for a great job! And, of course we had to check out the famous Cowboy Bar of Bandera!

Howdy’s Bar & Chill, Kerrville, TX

The Cowboy Bar, Bandera, TX

After Bandera, we’ll spend 3 nights at one of our favorite KOA’s, the San Antonio/Alamo KOA.  The park is east of town and provides easy access to the Historic Pearl development on the grounds of the former Pearl Brewery, the downtown Riverwalk and some of the historic residential areas in between.  We once again enjoyed the Black Laboratory Brewery and tasty Mexican food at Rosarios, now in their beautiful new location.

Historic Pearl Brewery, San Antonio, TX

Rosarios San Antonio

From San Antonio we’re headed to South Padre Island after a brief stop in Harlingen.  More from SPI…


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Categories : Spring Road Trip 2024

Spring Road Trip – off to Quartzsite, AZ

20 01 2023

Butterfield RV Resort & Observatory, Benson, AZ

We’ve opted for a due south departure route this year after cold temps followed us all the way through the south western corner of Colorado and into central Arizona last year.  Our first night will be in Albuquerque, at the Isleta Lakes and RV Park.  We’ve stayed at this park in the past.  It’s quite convenient to I-25 and nestled in a nice park-like setting around a couple of lakes along the banks of the Rio Grande.  There are two improvements to note since we last stayed here in 2019.  All of the sites to the south have been converted from their former gravel base to concrete pads next to a nice pavers patio.  The northern sites are still pull-through gravel sites.  Pick your option at check-in.  When we stayed the concrete sites were a $5 premium.  Also of note, the parks WiFi system has been upgraded.  Our tests showed the download runs along at well over 100MB and the upload at about 30MB.

From Albuquerque we’re headed to Las Cruces and one of our favorite KOA parks.  We’ve been in this park many times, however since new owners took over a few years ago, major improvements are always apparent.  Currently they are working on several new premium sites just at the front of the park.  They have also upgraded the office/store area and the WiFi.  They offer both a 2G network which struggles along from our site #19, and a 5G network which is capable of video streaming.  We spent 2 nights in Las Cruces, but wind and rain kept us indoors for much of our stay.

Butterfield RV Resort & Observatory, Benson, AZ

Leaving Las Cruces, we’re bound for Benson, AZ exactly 220 miles straight across I-10.  Setting the truck’s navigation system it says “make a left turn in 220 miles”!  We’re at the  Butterfield RV Resort in Benson, AZ.  This park reminds me of the Lost Alaskan in Alpine, TX with a pine tree at nearly every site.  Also rather unique, they have an observatory.  Unfortunately with heavy cloud cover, it’s doubtful that they will open this evening. Butterfield RV provide a outsourced WiFi service.  The “free service” includes up to 1MB speed and 2GB limit in any 7 day period.  The upgrade to “premium access” is $30/month, for a single device, regardless of how long you are staying.  In testing, we found 2.4 MB down and .8MB up.  And, with a single night stay, we didn’t come close to the 2GB limit. So, all in all it worked fine.  Most likely we’d have to upgrade to more bandwidth on a stay over 2 or 3 days.

Palm Creek RV Resort, Casa Grande, AZ

From Benson we’re headed to Casa Grande.  Before checking into Palm Creek RV Resort, we opt for a truck and trailer wash as the local Blue Beacon.  For around $65, Blue Beacon does a great job of washing the winter grime off the vehicles and their RainX treatment seems to help keep things clean.  We first visited Palm Creek in 2021 and met friends that were staying here last year.  We’re parked in site #56, a back-in on the far east side of the park overlooking a field and I-10.  This is a huge resort with over 2200 sites – both RVs and Park Models.  There’s nearly any amenity you can imagine, which come at a price – per night rates are from $87-$92.  Add about 11% sales and hotel tax and these sites are pushing close to $100/night.  However, book a month and the rates fall to around $45/night.  We enjoyed our 2 nights at Palm Creek, but to really take advantage of the amenities, you need to spend more time here.

Circling of the Montana’s – Quartzsite, AZ (Aerial Photography courtesy Scott Zenonian)

From Casa Grande we’re headed to our first scheduled destination, Quartzsite, AZ.  We’re meeting other members of the Montana Owners Club on the Plomosa Road BLM land for 4 days of dry camping.  At full capacity, our “Montana Circle” contained 21 rigs.  We enjoyed daily happy hours, a pot-luck dinner on Sunday and great conversation, knowledge sharing and fun around the campfire.  On Saturday we joined a group trip to the Desert Bar, aka Nellie E Saloon located just north of Parker, AZ.  This off-grid bar and grill is similar to the Bunker Bar we visited last year near Lake Havasu City.

Nellie E Saloon, Parker, AZ

Nellie E Saloon, Parker, AZ

On Sunday we walked the “big tent”, talked with some of the vendors on the midway and viewed a few new-model Montana and Grand Design RV’s.  From Quartzsite we’re headed to Havasu…more from there.


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Categories : Spring Road Trip 2023

Across Southern New Mexico & West Texas

15 03 2020

Our View at the KOA, Las Cruces, NM

From Bisbee the original plan was to make a stop in Deming, NM.  We enjoyed staying at Rock Hound State Park outside of Deming in 2016. However, after a fairly early departure from Bisbee, we’re in Deming by around 2PM, and make the decision to continue another hour to Las Cruces, home of one of our favorite KOA’s.  We end up in interior site #55 which works just fine for an overnight stay.

From Las Cruces, it’s a short trip over to Alamogordo, where we’ll spend 3 nights at Boot Hill RV Resort.  From Alamogordo we make an overnight stop at Van Horn RV Park and another overnight at Ft. Stockton RV Park.

Boot Hill RV Resort, Alamogordo, NM

Van Horn RV Park, Van Horn, TX

After this quick transit of New Mexico and West Texas, we’re planning a week long stay in the Texas Hill country, at one of our favorite RV parks, By The River.  More from Kerrville…


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Categories : Spring Road Trip 2020

Las Cruces & Albuquerque

15 05 2019

We’ve left Texas and the central time zone behind as we transit north of El Paso and into Las Cruces, NM. Here we’re parked in site #13, the same beautiful back-in premium view site we occupied 2 years ago.  This is one of our favorite KOA’s and we’ve been here 3 years in a row now.  And, just as last year we enjoy wandering around the old Square in Mesilla and a cocktail or two at the Imperial Bar at the Double Eagle.  Can anyone name this beautiful desert plant that was in full bloom in Las Cruces?

Beautiful Las Cruces Flower

From Las Cruces we’re headed north toward Albuquerque.  We’ll spend two nights at the Isleta Lakes & RV Park just south of town.  Isleta Pueblo, home of the native Tiwa people, occupies about 210,000 acres along the Rio Grande, 15 miles south of Albuquerque.  The RV park is next to two stocked fishing lakes and just across the street from the Isleta Casino.  Amenities at the park include a clean laundry room and a small bait/snack shop.  A new “yet-to-be-opened” club house promises free coffee and donuts on weekend, a small workout area and a couple large screen TVs.   Sites are gravel with full hookups and covered picnic tables for around $35/night.  The only downside of this park is the nearby rail line.  During the week, the commuter Rail Runner train calls on Isleta Pueblo 14 times, each time whistling it’s arrival and departure.  After dark, unknown number of long, fast freight trains use these rails as they rubble north or south along the Rio Grande.

From Albuquerque we’re headed home.  We’ve stayed at 12 different parks and resorts and covered about 2600 miles in 38 days.  As always, a great time with friends and family in some our favorite campgrounds and RV parks across New Mexico and Texas!

Spanish Peaks – Back Home!


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Categories : Spring Road Trip 2019

Las Cruces, New Mexico

13 03 2018

Las Cruces, KOA Site #19

We’re parked in Site #19 at one of our all-time favorite KOA’s – the KOA of Las Cruces, NM.  We spent time here last year and really enjoyed the “view-sites” with their gorgeous views across Las Cruces and the Organ Mountains in the background.  And, Las Cruces is a good resupply stop, the KOA has great laundry facilities, and friends here always make our stay a good time.  This is an nice, oversized site even more spacious than #13 where we were parked last year.

OTA TV includes 20 or so locals in the Las Cruces/El Paso market.  The park’s WiFi system works well and T-Mobile provides full 4G LTE service.  The Post Office is 5 minutes away, Walmart is 15 and there’s even a Camping World about 50 miles away in Anthony, TX – just outside the El Paso metro area.  All in all, very convenient.

While in town we enjoyed dinner out in several of the charming Old Mesilla Village restaurants. Sunday we’re at La Posta de Mesilla, a huge old sprawling complex just off the historic Plaza.  La Posta offers what is some of the best Mexican food and beverages we’ve ever had.  Next time, we need to try brunch!  On Tuesday we’re back to Mesilla to find a patio for after-work beers and snacks. Starting at The Dog House, this is a patio, take-out, brewery extension of the Andele! Restaurant, a long time establishment in Old Mesilla.  From the Dog House we explore the Double Eagle, “the crown jewel of Historic Old Mesilla”.

While nearly every building in Mesilla probably has some interesting history, the Double Eagle is perhaps the most unique.  First constructed in the late 1840’s, the building has witnessed many events including the Mexican-American War of 1846, the declaration of Mesilla as the Capital of the Arizona Territory in 1861 and the jailing and subsequent trial of Billy the Kid in 1881.  The Imperial Bar, where we belly-up, is 30 feet of exquisitely hand carved oak and walnut. Behind, the mirrored back bar is lighted by two 5 foot high Imperial French floral Corones, each with 23 lighted brass flowers, 10 of which have blue crystal rosette shades.  Overhead hang two classic French Baccarat chandeliers that are 7 feet tall and 3 feet around.  Above, the ceiling is highly decorated pressed tin, accented with 18 karat gold.  A bit over the top?  For sure – but amazing none the less!

And, what old building wouldn’t be complete without stories of love, murder and ghosts?  Here is the story of lovers Inez and Armando!


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Categories : Spring Road Trip 2018

Las Cruces, NM

15 03 2017

Las Cruces, NM KOA

We’ve arrived in Las Cruces, NM – the second largest city in New Mexico after Albuquerque, followed by Rio Rancho, Santa Fe and Roswell.

We’ve opted to spend our 2 nights at the Las Cruces KOA – PARK MAP.  Located on a bluff west of town, this park overlooks the city and beyond to the Organ Mountains to the east of town.  We’re in site #13, a “View Site” which backs-up to a short rock fence and the amazing views beyond.  These premium sites are $48/night after our Value Kard discount.   Most of the parks sites are large, somewhat reminiscent of one of our favorite RV parks in Taos, with lots of native cactus and plants between sites.   There’s even a small public-use gazebo in the corner, providing extra space between sites #12 and #13.

Las Cruces, NM KOA

All of the facilities are top-notch, including a very clean laundry facility with about 6 commercial top-load washers and 3 or 4 very large commercial front-load dryers.  Washers are $2.00 and dryers are $1.00 for 30 minutes, in quarter increments.  The park offers good WiFi (made better with our WiFi booster) and there’s plenty of cellular coverage too.

If there was any downside, it was the hookups.  All located near the front of the site, the electric was far enough away that we needed to use our extension.  And, the sewer port was slightly above grade, making for a bit of an inconvenience.  But, all in all – a KOA we’d return to.


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Categories : Spring Road Trip 2017