This is my first visit to an Escapees park.  Nice quite friendly park.  The only bad thing is the smell if the wind blows in a certain direction.  Are all of the other parks a first come first serve?  In talking with another member he said that some parks like ones in CA can be hard to go to visit unless you know the owner of that lot.  Is this true?

thanks

We've been to all of the Escapees parks, both Co-ops and Rainbow, from Texas westward except for Jojoba Hills in Temecula, CA.  We've never had a problem getting a lot for our visit.  Some of the parks, like North Ranch in Congress, AZ have an actual RV park for visiting members.

That has not been our experience. Many of the parks now accept reservations and we always found that a call to the office would let us know just how busy the park is. I believe that all parks in either the co-op group or the Rainbow Parks will provide you with a place to dry camp if you should arrive when no spots are available. 

  On 1/1/2019 at 1:53 PM, rynosback said:

 In talking with another member he said that some parks like ones in CA can be hard to go to visit unless you know the owner of that lot.  Is this true?

I'm not sure about the comment "unless you know the owner of that lot".  I don't recall that the lot owner can let you get in easier.  You have to go through the front office to see if a lot is available..... unless things have changed.

rIt has been so long since I stayed there I may be wrong but the CAL park up at Coursgold when I stayed there was full and I stayed in the "dry camp" area and it was on an asphalt parking lot but it was the nicest asphalt I ever stayed on I think.  It was convienent to the club house with the showers and laundry and the people there were great.  I stayed at Yuma once for several days and got one of the few spots available.  In both cases it was kind of at the end of the season when the majority of  site holders tend to be there.  I have never been to JoJoba but I seem to recall at one time they had a one week limit. I don't know if that is still true.

Last 3 times we tried to get in at Rainbows End, we couldn't. But it was when the snowbirds were here.

  On 1/2/2019 at 12:22 PM, GlennWest said:

Last 3 times we tried to get in at Rainbows End, we couldn't. But it was when the snowbirds were here.

There are quite a few snowbirds here, even though the days have been in the 30’s and nights in the high teens.

We just stayed 4 nights in Park Of The Sierras  in Coarsegold, CA. We made a reservation a couple of months ago. It all went to plan. $26 a night for 50amp and the Best Wifi I've ever experienced in an RV park.  Super friendly people. The clubhouse is very nice with a Boutique, Pool room, laundry, restrooms/showers, and a huge library, etc... We really enjoyed our visit there. The New Years eve bash was pretty good as well. Lots of planned activities.

There is a casino a few miles away with fuel prices well below the California average. Grocery stores not far away. Lots of restaurants.

The sites are big and level. The only issue is the windy roads if you have a long rig. Also I never seen so many golf carts outside of a golf course. LOL.

We will definitely go back but probably in a warmer time of the year.

  On 1/1/2019 at 1:53 PM, rynosback said:

Nice quite friendly park.  The only bad thing is the smell if the wind blows in a certain direction.

Yes! We found this park to be very friendly. So much so that we extended our first (cheap) week to another week. Also that smell you smell when then wind blows a certain direction is "the smell of money" since that is what beef on the hoof is in reality.

We have also stayed at a couple of other Escapees parks and have found them all to be friendly and we have never had a problem getting into one, even in the one that took no reservations.

We really liked The Ranch, and actually talked about getting a lot there, but opted for Hondo instead. We only got to stay at Hondo for a few nights last year, and when we tried to get in this year we were told that there were few open lots as all of the owners were there for the winter. Hondo does NOT take reservations. If they are full you can either boondock or go elsewhere.

The no reservations makes no sense to me.  With reservations they can keep the park much fuller of setting the costs.  I HATE traveling hours not knowing that I have a spot.  It really makes me look at other CGs that I can get a spot held for me.  I full time so I need a spot every night of the year.

  On 1/16/2019 at 2:19 PM, rynosback said:

I HATE traveling hours not knowing that I have a spot.

If you have a cell phone, just call ahead when you are an hour or two away and they will tell you. There are many reasons why Escapee parks never used to accept reservations but the Rainbow parks have gone to accepting reservations. Since that change, the cost has also been increased to offset the work involved in tracking them. Each co-op park makes its own rules which come from the board of directors that is elected by the member/lot owners. 

I never used Escapees RV parks prior to reservations because I like to know where I am going to stay well in advance. I always thought that it was a bit primitive to not accept reservations. Taking and tracking reservation is part of the RV park business. I need to know where we will stay before we leave because we don't do boondocking, have a large fiver and don't want to drive much more the 300 miles per day.

As much as we like having a reservation so we're sure we will have the hookups we need for my wife's medical equipment, we don't appreciate being told a requested site will be available, only to arrive and find we've been switched to a less desirable site. They do say specific sites are not guaranteed, and we are aware of that, but then why tell us a specific site will be available? After that happened three times in a row, we've pretty much left the Escapees parks out of our itineraries for more than overnight stops in favor of state parks that do honor specific site reservations.

There are many RV parks that will not honor specific spot reservations. Most of the ones that I use will give you a pull thru if you reserve one but not the one you may have wanted.