An Exclusive RV Park? Sounds Weird, but Worth it.

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I have to admit, I was skeptical. We heard about an "exclusive" RV park in Phoenixfrom a friend of mine and the description alone convinced us we needed to check it out. Exclusivity in basically car camping seemed like an oxymoron. In fact, camping always seemed inherently inclusive to me, with the sitting around the campfire and the laying in a crowded tent kind of thing, but I was in for a totally different experience.

We'd been planning a 2 week trip with my family and a couple of old friends for close to two years. Originally all we knew was that we wanted to explore the Southwest and check off a couple of bucket list items while we were at it. We'd talked about renting cars in Las Vegas and dropping them off in Phoenix, but that really didn't sound very interesting. Fortunately at the last minute we were able to borrow a motor home from a mutual friend.

Having never experienced RVing I didn't really know what to expect much less that the word "RV" could be used as a verb, but there we were, embarking on a meandering trip from Las Vegas to the Grand Canyon, down to Sedona, and ending in South Phoenix where we'd drop off the motor home. Fortunately the RV was only a couple of years old and was well equipped with all the bells and whistles.

My wife, 4 year old son and I met up with old friends Jack and Kirsten on the outskirts of Vegas in the town of Boulder City. We'd all been to Vegas before so we didn't waste any time getting in the RV and starting our trip. Taking Interstate 93 south over Lake Mead and then with an hour side trip up to the Grand Canyon Skywalk gave us a chance to observe how man is capable of influencing and expounding upon Nature's beauty. We then backtracked to Highway 40 and over to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. There's already a ton of great blog articles about the Grand Canyon, though, so I'll leave it at that. For the night we stayed at Kaibab Camper Village next to some noisy neighbors. The mixed use of tents, trailers, and RVs gave the park a patchwork quality and a cosmopolitan flair with wall the international tourists camping there. After a rough night of sleep and much back and forth with our campground neighbors we left the park early and set out for a day of hiking.

We slowly made our way over the next few days to Flagstaff and stayed the night at Kit Carson RV park after getting a bad tip from a local. The place was packed! After squeezing in to a spot between a middle aged couple and a group of what looked like college kids in a tents we should have known better than to stay there, but calling around choices were slim in the other parks too. Unfortunately our intuition was right and our whole group spent the night tossing and turning listening to countless groups of people parked very close to us first playing music loud and then about 3am the whole park was awoken by ambulance sirens! It turns out that the middle aged couple on the other side of us were junkies and the girl had gotten really sick in the middle of the night. Not sure the details, but it was a clear warning to us from now on that we shouldn't just stay in the cheapest RV Park we come across. The nice thing about paying a little extra is that staying there becomes a blocker for the local homeless, junkie population and sleeping in a safe quiet space is a much better way to spend your time.

The trip was incredible overall for the scenery and as a life experience, but I learned 2 things about RVing:


• Not every RV Park is the same.
• It's worth paying a little extra for peace, quiet, and good neighbors.


For these reasons staying in an exclusive RV park in a luxury RV is the way to travel. Otherwise, save the money, rent a car, and stay in nice hotels. Life's too short not to enjoy the journey as much as the destinations you aim to visit.

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