Mountain View RV Park, Van Horn, TX
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Site Quality: Gravel pads and roads. Our site was long enough for our rig and truck.
Type: Commercial
Access: Easy access from Interstate 10 about 2 hours east of El Paso.
Staff: The manager we checked in with was very friendly and helpful.
Amenities: There were Restrooms with showers and laundry facilities but we didn’t use them. Ice and filtered water machine on site.
Cellular/WiFi: Verizon and AT&T were very good. The park had WiFi but we did not use it.
Restaurants: At the recommendation of the park hosts we went to RJ’s Grill in town. Having been hailed as the best place in town to eat we were a bit disappointed. The food was acceptable but nothing special. There is a restaurant at the El Capitan Hotel that looked pretty good but it was pricey for a 1-star hotel. The hotel is historic within the town and looked better than 1-star to us but we decided not to spend the extra money to eat there.
What we liked: Ease of access along I-10. Full hookups during the winter. Nice views of the nearby mountains. Large park with some permanent residents and quite a few empty sites so it was easy to get in. We were given a range of sites and told we could pick whichever one we liked best.
What we didn’t like: The park is gravel and it rained most of the time we were there. Water puddled during the rain but it did not become muddy. The owner said they hadn’t had rain until then in months and it does tend to become dusty without rain. There is a train track nearby but noise was minimal and they didn’t seem to blow their horn going through town. There isn’t much to do in town – maybe a museum or two. This was a good place distance wise for us to stop overnight and we were able to get the trailer’s yearly inspection done at Virdell Tire and Tow in town. Typical for small towns, the guy dropped the job he was doing and quickly checked the trailer and had us on the way.
Verdict: We weren’t sure what to expect before we arrived. The park looked decent on their web site but we’ve seen many of those that just aren’t what the pictures portrayed. Mountain View was an exception. The park was clean and well laid out. Although gravel, it did not turn to mud in the rain. We were pleasantly surprised and would stay here again when passing through.
Exploring Old Mines
While staying in the Elephant Butte Lake RV Resort we met several of our neighbors and they were all into exploring the trails around New Mexico with their Side-By-Side ATVs. We were lucky enough that Doug and Susan, our next door neighbors, had a 4-seat unit and they invited us out for a couple of trips into the desert and mountain areas around Truth or Consequences and Caballo in the Rio Grande river valley.
…Raton KOA Journey, Raton, NM
Rating: ⭐⭐
Site Quality: Dirt/gravel pads and roads. Our site was long enough for our rig and truck.
Type: Commercial
Access: Easy access from Interstate 25 just south of the New Mexico / Colorado boarder.
Staff: The manager we checked in with was friendly and helpful although we had to wait for her to return from an errand. Once before we came here to get propane and the office was also closed during the day when it was supposed to be open.
Amenities: There were Restrooms with showers, laundry facilities, and a dump station but we didn’t use them. I believe they may have all been closed in winter when we were there. Propane on site.
Cellular/WiFi: Verizon and AT&T were decent. The park had WiFi but we did not use it.
What we liked: Ease of access along I-25. Full hookups during the winter. Nice views of the mountains west of Raton. Propane is available on site.
What we didn’t like: The park is mostly dirt and could be very muddy – luckily although there was still some snow on the ground the mud for the streets was not bad. There was some mud near the entrance to our rig. There is an alley that separates the front of the park from the back.
Verdict: The Raton KOA is good for a short stopover on the way to or from Colorado along I-25.
Cherry Creek State Park, Aurora, CO
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐1/2
Site Quality: Concrete pads with asphalt roads. Our site was long enough for our rig and truck.
Type: State Park
Access: Easy access from Interstate 225 a few miles east of Interstate 70.
Staff: We visited the park in the winter and only one loop with 16 sites was open (although we found out that normally two of the sites were not available). During the summer there are 6 loops with about 140 campsites. With a confirmed reservation you could skip the office and go straight to your site. Unfortunately, when we arrived someone was still in our reserved site and they were two hours away. We agreed to take one of the two “unavailable” sites and were happy with that.
Amenities: Restrooms with showers, laundry facilities, dump station (closed in winter). There are numerous hiking trails in the park but we didn’t use any of them due to the winter weather.
Cellular/WiFi: Verizon service was weak and only 1 bar on our phones. Our data rate was between 2 and 20 Mbps depending on the day. AT&T through our wireless setup was fast at about 30 Mbps. The park had WiFi but we did not use it.
What we liked: Ease of access along I-225. Full hookups during the winter. Nice views of the lake and some of the Denver skyline and mountains west of the park.
What we didn’t like: Sites are expensive for a state park and on top of that you need a daily or yearly vehicle pass which just adds to the cost. Since they weren’t expecting to use the site we were in, they had not cleared snow from a major storm about two weeks prior from the site. There was still quite a bit of snow left right in our pathway from our truck to the RV.
Verdict: Cherry Creek is a very nice park with a lot to offer with camping, hiking, boating and fishing to name a few. For us, we would stay here again but it is about 40 minutes away from family in the area so it is a bit far. In the winter while Chatfield State Park is much closer, it does not offer water and sewer so it is a trade off between being close and having full hookups.