My X'mas Camping Trip

[Tamid]

I have 11 days off at X'mas and was thinking of hooking up the trailer and driving south to warmer weather.
Problem is I don't exactly know where that is. I live in Calgary and could spend up to 3 days driving south
and 3 days back. That leaves 5 to enjoy and explore where I end up. Our Bigfoot is 4 season and we can easily survive 0C or 32F or slighly lower nights but days have to be in the 70's F or 20-25 C. Can be boondocking or hookup. Love to hear your ideas for my X'mas vacation.

[Chester Taje]

Las Vegas is one place you could go fairly fast.

[Patrick Mc]

I have 11 days off at X'mas and was thinking of hooking up the trailer and driving south to warmer weather.
Problem is I don't exactly know where that is. I live in Calgary and could spend up to 3 days driving south
and 3 days back. That leaves 5 to enjoy and explore where I end up. Our Bigfoot is 4 season and we can easily survive 0C or 32F or slighly lower nights but days have to be in the 70's F or 20-25 C. Can be boondocking or hookup. Love to hear your ideas for my X'mas vacation.

When you say "explore" is that hiking or sightseeing? Do you want or need hook-ups?

If you want what LV has to offer, it's doable. If you want a little more isolation, the St. George, Utah, area is good also and a couple of hours closer. There's boondocking on BLM land and a BLM campground is available a few miles south in the Arizona Strip at the Virgin River Gorge.

Pat

[Tamid]

By explore I mean general sightseeing both country side and in cities or small towns. We only need a place to dump the tanks once in a while and to fill the fresh water. Otherwise, with our generator we are independant.

[Robin G]

I really don't have a suggestion as I haven't done a lot of Winter camping/rving but have driven a lot in winter conditions so I wanted to comment on the drive between your home and Vegas. Vegas is as other have said do-able, but the drive between home and Vegas could be a hairy one if the weather is in question. I checked mapquest which states almost 20 hours, but would say that would have to be with perfect traveling conditions which most likely wouldn't be the scenario. You never know what the weather on Monida Pass will be doing............................................. .... I have driven that in most conditions and can say it can be scary driving experience when white out, ground blizard, fog, black ice conditions exist. Especially when they are all mixed together! (I did that drive one time, never again!) To me that is not a fun start to my vacation but you may find the experience fun.



Vegas has some great Christmas Shows which are fun to see but understand you won't get that holiday feeling everywhere. It's kinda a odd place to be if your a Christmas person. Weather can be great though! And it's not as busy to get around as other times of the year.


St George area could be a wonderful place to explore if you love the great outdoors, but you do have the same driving conditions getting there.

Not sure of the weather in the Spokane area at that time of year but that is a beautiful options as well as many areas of the Oregon coast. Hopefully some of the members from those areas will pipe in and some great ideas. Have a great time where ever you go.

[Adrian W]

Zion Nat'l Park in Utah might be nice at that time, but only guessing. Not sure of the day time temps at that time of year. http://www.nps.gov/zion/planyourvisit/index.htm We have to drive north to get there. Southern California and Southern Arizona can have temps in the 70s at times I am thinking and maybe in Southern New Mexico, get close to that at times, or it could snow. Fickle, weather can be in our area, like so many places. South Texas for sure but you only have 11 days....travel would cut it up for you.
Texas site: http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseacti...25.cfm#23218825

NM & AZ: http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseacti...98.cfm#23164198
Yuma to Tucson Stuff http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseacti.../1.cfm#23291807

New Mexico - rooming: http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseacti...ng/1/page/2.cfm

Like RobinG, I have not done winter camping, yet. But unlike her, I did make some suggestions. She is correct in what she wrote concerning winter driving to get down south.

We are normally in the LA area at that Holiday, visiting my wife's mom, etc. It is normally very nice there.

We stayed at Carpinteria State Park when we wanted to see things around Santa Barbara. These are the options we had in June of 2006: Gaviota SP, Refugio State Beach & El Capitán SB but no dump stations and Carpinteria SB nice one with long beach area & a dump site.

Then we wanted to be near Malibu. Near but not too close to Malibu: Point Mugu SP also nice but small beach, Leo Carrillo SP excellent & with nice tide pools & Wi-Fi Service but small rocky beach. We stayed at Carpinteria and Point Mugu that summer, and have stayed at Leo Carrillo and Refugio earlier years. At Leo Carrillo, it was during Xmas break when we stayed there, I believe. Maybe so? It has been a few years.

Closer to Malibu: Point Dume SB & Zuma County Beach seem to have some camping in or by them if memory serves, we have stopped at Point Dume with its nice sand beach but not camped.

Leo Carrillo's campground and Point Mugu Sycamore campground are in wooded canyons up from the beach areas, Mugu has some beach camping as well off a roadway parking area type. We found Neptune's Net Seafood to have great seafood. The Scene – This glorified roadside shack is situated alongside Malibu's picturesque Pacific Coast Highway. As I remember, it is close to Carillo & Point Mugu. At least it was between Malibu & Point Mugu. Neptune's Site

We also stayed at McGrath State Park between Ventura and Oxnard in 2006. A very nice campground with trees & shade, a wooded, bamboo area with trails. A small river running by not far, not too neat a river. The the real downside, it is a long walk to the beach and the beach is not a nice one at all. It has a nice campground, not bunched up, sadly the beach was dangerous at best, with coarse broken shell-sand and very steep bank/drop off to the water. Lot of sand dunes getting to the beach. No Photos of the beach.

McGarth was a good place to base for seeing Ventura & Oxnard. We enjoyed it there as we did Carp and Mugu. We drove to the Getty Villa from Mugu. But Carrillo might be a nicer place to try of the two. But Mugu is close enough to see Ventura & Oxnard & Getty Villa / Malibu.

Carpinteria State Park has some parking lot like campsites, but have others that are not. The ones farthest back along the park road are nicest, up on a small "bluff".

Nice tital pools off Leo Carrillo's beach, also small scale ones at Point Mugu's small but sandy beach.

This site might help: RV Park Reviews

The Getty Villa is an educational center and museum dedicated to the study of the arts and cultures of ancient Greece, Rome, and Etruria.
Where to Find Us
17985 Pacific Coast Highway
Pacific Palisades, California 90272
Please note that access to the Getty Villa entrance is only from the northbound right-hand lane of Pacific Coast Highway (PCH). Getty Villa is on the way to Malibu on PCH in Pacific Palisades, one mile north of Sunset Boulevard. Getty
What to See
Greek, Roman, and Etruscan antiquities arranged by themes including Gods and Goddesses, Dionysos and the Theater, and Stories of the Trojan War and Roman-inspired architecture and gardens.
Admission to the Getty Villa and to all exhibitions is FREE. An advance, timed ticket is required for each adult. Each Villa general admission ticket allows you to bring up to three children ages 15 and under with you in one car. (This does not apply to tickets for events, such as lectures and performances.) Parking is $10 per car or motorcycle. The Getty Center is near as well, much larger, very neat with a varied art periods. Very worth seeing, if just the buildings & garden. Getty

The Getty Center presents the Getty's collection of Western art from the Middle Ages to the present against a backdrop of dramatic architecture, tranquil gardens, and breathtaking views. Admission to the Getty Center and to all exhibitions is FREE—no tickets or reservations required for general admission. Parking is $10 per car.
The Getty Center is located at 1200 Getty Center Drive in Los Angeles, California, approximately 12 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles. It is located near the intersection of the San Diego Freeway (Interstate 405) and the Santa Monica Freeway (Interstate 10). Take the Getty Center Drive exit from the 405 and follow the signs.
Getty Center is in the Hills above Santa Monica between the 101 or Ventura Freeway and Santa Monica. Getty

There is so much to see at the Getty Center, one can spend the whole day and not see it all. The buildings and gardens are a must see in themselves. There is so much art to see, it would take a week to see it correctly. A double must see. The Getty Villa is smaller but a must see as well. They are many miles apart.

The Norton Simon Museum is another really great museum to see in the Los Angles area. It is located at 411 W. Colorado Blvd. in Pasadena on the corner of Orange Grove and Colorado Boulevard at the intersection of the Foothill (210) and Ventura (134) freeway, is a great smaller art museum with the most significant collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art in Southern California. Reflections of modern life captured by Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Edgar Degas, who alone is represented by over one hundred works of art, are displayed alongside the vibrant palettes of Vincent van Gogh, Paul Cézanne and Paul Gauguin. Complementing these works are Auguste Rodin’s monumental bronze sculptures, which are displayed in the Museum’s front garden. Paintings by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres and Francisco de Goya mark the beginning of the 19th century and lead to superb examples of mid-century Realism executed by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Gustave Courbet and Édouard Manet. Outstanding paintings by Édouard Vuillard and Pierre Bonnard carry us right to the doorstep of 20th-century Modernism. A must see!
NortonSimon

The Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific is another neat aquarium to see. LongBeach
The Queen Mary is also in Long Beach, not far from the Aquarium.
QueenMary
We ate at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. Restaurant and Market after our visit to the Aquarium. Good food, good service, maybe a little more pricey than some of the other places I have listed. There is a Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. on Cannery Row in Monterey by the Aquarium as well.

More on Trip Along West Coast .

As Robin mentioned, Washington & Oregon might be ok at that time as well. Not to over look Vancover, BC and Vancover Island which I believe get fairly mild winter weather for being up so far north. http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseacti...61.cfm#23157161

http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseacti...62.cfm#23242062

Good luck, in your quest.

If you make it down give us a report, ya' hear!

[Robin G]

Good Calif options Adrian! Many of which were my old hang outs...................... Back when you could build a bonfire on the beach and party with a bottle of Tickle Pink or Spinata wine or the big Schlitz Malt liquor beer (gag, why we drank that stuff I will never know, I guess a cheap, quick drunk LOL.) Oh to be young again! Not so much! LOL...............


But another Calif option would be Cyucos CA, Sorry don't have any campground suggestion there but I know the weather can be glorious there at that time of year.

[Tamid]

Adrian, that is terriffic information. Thanks.

I will not drive though mountain passes in the winter pulling a trailer. I bought the Bigfoot
in Feb of this year in Vancouver and had to pull it back to Calgary. Over the passes, snowing.
night time and very icy. I was lucky not to have any incidents especially on the downward
swithbacks. But the front of the trailer got a beating from the road gravel.

Spokane is not one of our more favorite places. I used to go there twice a year to compete
with my dog and we spent one X'mas there about 3 years ago.

I would really like to get into warm weather if at all possible. Perhaps it's not possible.

[Raya]

This may be way off the wall, but I wonder if you could "pre-plant" the trailer in warmer climes now, and then fly/drive to join it during mid-winter?

Of course this would probably be more cumbersome and expensive than just driving down, but it may be an option.

Raya

[Chester Taje]

This may be way off the wall, but I wonder if you could "pre-plant" the trailer in warmer climes now, and then fly/drive to join it during mid-winter?

Of course this would probably be more cumbersome and expensive than just driving down, but it may be an option.

Raya

I know of some places in Canada that you can do that. Make reservations for certain dates and your unit can be stored in Campgrounds storage area which are normally secure, till you arrive.

[Raya]

Oh that's interesting - I didn't know about that. I was thinking a friend's yard or maybe a storage locker or etc. What a nice idea for some campgrounds to provide that service.

[Robin G]

Well if you don't like winter driving conditions on passes I recommend staying off Monida Pass all together during the winter, it's not that it's major grades or twist and turns, it's just a steady climb or decent. But it's miles and miles of open areas where wicked wicked weather can create it's own weather conditions.................. Head down thru Oregon, you will find warmer climates. There is nothing more beautiful than the Calif/Oregon border on the coast! Don't know the winter weather there but can't imagine it's to bad.

[Adrian W]

Tamid, I would think getting over to the west coast would be difficult as you said. Going south for you would seem the least difficult. Here is what I could find on following I-15 down.
http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseacti...12.cfm#23207712

Like always, it all depends on the weather at the time you would be traveling. Good luck in getting down to some sunny weather with some heat in it.