The Lewis and Clark expedition of 1803 to 1806 roughly followed what is today an Interstate highway and passed through Livingston on July 15, 1806. Livingston was also a gateway to Gardiner where the north entrance to Yellowstone National Park both during the days of steam engine trains and today as automobiles make their way down US-89 and into the park. As you might guess, there is a lot of history in the area and we hope to come back here in the future to spend more time investigating all there is to see.

Park Review – Livingston / Paradise Valley KOA Holiday

Rating: 
Site Quality: Asphalt roads with gravel pads. Each site had a picnic table and fire ring. We had a deluxe site and it also included a patio.
Type: Commercial
Access: About 10 miles south of Interstate 90 from Livingston, MT south on US-89. Turn left on Pine Creek Rd. for about 1 more mile and the park is on the left. Pine Creek Rd. is very bumpy so go slow!
Staff: The staff at check-in was nice and friendly. The office was closed until 2PM which was check-in time although that may have been just the day we arrived.
Cellular/Wi-Fi: AT&T was pretty good at about 13.5 Mbps download and 1.33 Mbps Upload. Verizon was about the same at 19.7 download and 1.36 upload. The park had WiFi but we didn’t use it.
Restaurants: Montana’s Rib and Chop House – After about a month in places that mostly had bar food, this was a welcome return to “civilization”. Although it’s a chain restaurant and the prices were pretty high we managed to get a really nice dinner. Fiesta En Jalisco | Mexican – This place is right across the street from the Livingston Depot Center (the old train station) and served up decent Mexican food somewhere between Authentic Mexican and Tex-Mex. Although it wasn’t like what we get in Texas, it was still good.
Nearby parks: Yellowstone’s Edge RV Park is about 9 miles south of the KOA. It looked very nice if not a bit crowded. Most sites can also see the Yellowstone River. Would be worth looking at next time – this time it was fully booked when we checked about 7 or 8 months out.
What we liked: Smaller park, quiet, fairly level sites. Deluxe sites 58-61 are all on the Yellowstone River but they may be too short for us. Even though we still had to endure the smoke from California wildfires it did give us some nice sunsets.
What we didn’t like: Typical KOA, a bit pricy for what you get. Only a few sites long enough for us (1, 2, 3 and maybe a few others).
Verdict: We would stay here again assuming we could book a site we fit into.

Other than going into town to vote, get our mail, fill one of our propane tanks, and hike a few trails we spent most of our time visiting with family and friends. My sister Jan and her husband Chris were staying on a nearby site (they also officially live in Livingston while full time RVing) as well as friends Tammie and Peter who live nearby in the Houston area come for the week as well. Friends from Round Rock, Chad and Mary Kay also joined us late in the week for a few days. Each of us contributed to each evening meal and we ate VERY well. It was great spending time with everyone and enjoying evening campfires. We also had a great visit with friends Steve and Martha who drove in for a few hours.

The park is very nice however longer sites are very limited so book early! We stayed in site 25 in the Yaupon loop which is the longest site in the park at 74 feet. That site is our preferred one as we got satellite from our rooftop antenna and we also had a large area on our door side for larger groups to hang out. The next door site is a bit close, particularly their picnic table but in this case they were friends Tammie and Peter so that worked out well.

If site 25 is not available, site 34 should work at 69 feet particularly if we could hang over the back a few feet. Sites 8 or 14 might work at 64 feet each assuming we can hang over the back of the site far enough (8-10′). If in site 14 we probably couldn’t use the fire ring if we extended in the back as the fire ring is right behind the pad. All of these are also in the Yaupon loop.

11/6/2020: Although we have a few more new places we plan to camp this year, they will all be one night stops. Longer term spots are places we are returning to to visit family and we have already blogged about. We will post reviews of the one night stops but will likely turn off the email notifications that get sent out since I think the park reviews are mostly interesting to us. This means you probably won’t hear much more from our blog until 2021. We hope that COVID-19 will allow for a more normal travel situation but right now that isn’t looking to positive either.

Park Review

Rating: 1/2
Site Quality: Asphalt pads and roads. Our site (25 in Yaupon loop) was long enough for our rig and truck but it was the longest site in the park. There are only 3 other sites potentially long enough for us but only if we can hang over the back of the site. Each site had a picnic table, lantern hook and fire pit.
Type: State Park
Access: Easy access from US highway 59 to the east or US highway 190 to the north. There are several two lane country roads to get to the park but they were all fine for our rig.
Staff: The staff was very friendly at check in but that was our only interaction with them. We did speak to a park police officer one night and the next morning after someone tried to steal bicycles from my sisters site. He was nice enough to take a report although there was likely little he could do.
Amenities: There were Restrooms with showers but we did not use them. There were also numerous trails throughout the park.
Cellular/WiFi: Verizon and AT&T were both good.
Restaurants: We didn’t eat out while staying in the park.
What we liked: We were sad we couldn’t fit into a site along the lake shore where we could have seen the sunsets but after being there those sites got a lot of cold wind. Our loop didn’t have much wind due to the trees. From site 25 we got satellite reception from our roof mounted dish. Many other sites would likely not have had coverage. All sites we could fit are full hookup.
What we didn’t like: The front gate is not secured at night and we did have an attempted theft incident while in the park.
Nearby Parks:
Wolf Creek Park – Recommended by Kay and Darrell is on the West side of the lake and run by the Trinity River Authority. Closed November 30th to March 1’st and reservations can only be made 60 days in advance. We are told they have longer sites than the state park.
Rock’n E RV Park – Has good reviews but not on the lake, commercial
Verdict: We would stay here again although there are only about four sites we could potentially fit into. Of those site 25 in the Yaupon loop is best.

We stayed here for a week in November so we could vote and take care of some business at the tax office. This is the national headquarters for Escapees where our official residence is located so it was good to spend some time here.  While here, we also took a tour of the headquarters including the mail center. We saw our “official” street address and learned that the Escapees mail center handles more mail than does the US Post Office in Livingston. Mail goes directly to Escapees from the Houston mail distribution center.  We also took time to get our truck and trailer weighed using their Smartweigh system which measures the weight at each wheel. We found that we were about 1350 lbs. overweight in the trailer although they had us weigh with full water which we normally do not travel with. That made up about 600 lbs. of the extra weight. We will need to work to remove as much as we can of the remaining 750lbs. 

The park itself is set up for full timers which is the primary mission of Escapees. The park includes standard full hookup 30 and 50 amp sites as you would find anywhere else. It also includes deeded sites that you can purchase as well as many deeded lots which typically have a small house and storage for an RV. People live in these and travel like other non-fulltimers do. There are also a few long term standard sites. Finally there are about 40 Care Center Sites where people who need short or long term care can stay for longer periods.

While here we also took some time to visit a few friends in the area. One is a former co-worker and his wife, Steve and Martha, who bought a ranch nearby and should be doing that full time when he retires. For now Martha is managing the property and their cattle 4 days a week. Pretty good for a former “city” girl! We also saw our good friends Tammie and Peter who just moved into a new home near Houston. It was gorgeous and close to a lot of stores and restaurants.