A few days ago, Wandering Willy wrote a blog about the places he stops for the night on his annual migration to Mexico. He said, that for the last few years, he has been heading south through Boise, ID and Nevada instead of taking I-5 all the way south as we do. But, he covered a bit of the I-5 route south as well and posted a few pictures of places that are very familiar stops for us as well. So, I thought I’d show our readers where Paulette and I stay on our way south – just in case you’re not familiar with the route and are looking for a nice place to rest for the night.
The Midway RV Park in Centralia, WA is spotless, has pull-thrus & great free WiFi
For our first day on the road, we have three basic objectives – get off Vancouver Island, get through U.S. Customs at the border and then make it through Seattle before the afternoon rush hour. If we get the 7:45am B.C. Ferry, that gets us over to the mainland and down to the U.S. border by about 10:30 and from there it’s just 2 hours to Seattle, so it’s not too bad as we’re usually through Seattle long before 2:00 when the real bad traffic begins.
Our first stopover is the Midway RV Park in Centralia, WA, which is 195 miles from the border crossing so we usually pull in here around 3:00 which, although early, seems like a long day given the early morning ferry ride. Midway is one of those perfect places for a stopover – it’s off of I-5 so it’s quiet, it has paved roads with pull-thru concrete pads, it’s spotless, full-serviced sites and has free cable service and a great WiFi network. It’s the kind of park where we would like to stay longer but have no real reason to in Centralia.
Seven Feathers RV Resort – a real “5 Star” RV Park
Day 2 on the road is a pretty easy drive covering 295 miles down I-5 to Canyonville, OR and the beautiful Seven Feathers RV Resort. If they gave “5 Star” awards for RV Parks, Seven Feathers would definitely be near the top of the list. This is an absolutely quiet, spotless and beautifully landscaped park with nice, wide and level concrete pull-thru’s large enough to handle the biggest rigs on the road. The park has all the amenities one could ask for – free wi-fi, cable tv, an indoor pool/spa and a free shuttle bus to and from the Seven Feathers Casino just across I-5.
Scattered snow on top of the Siskiyou Summit but I-5 was clear and dry
We like Seven Feathers for another reason too – it’s location. Just south of Canyonville is where I-5 begins its winding ascent up over the Siskiyou Summit, and this is pretty much the only place we really have to worry about snow on I-5. Luckily, it’s only a 3 hour drive over the summit to Redding, CA and so Seven Feathers is a good spot to stay for an extra day or two if the weather turns ugly in the mountains. All we need is a 3 hour window to get over the summit and out of trouble, so once highways gives the “all clear” it doesn’t take long to make it through and then down into the valleys of California with its sunshine and warm weather.
Our first year, we traveled with Paulette’s brother and two other couples
Not far past Redding, CA, we stop for the night at the Rolling Hill’s Casino in Corning, CA which is 265 miles from our previous night’s stay in Centralia. Unlike Seven Feathers, the RV Park here is a no-frills, check yourself in type place. There’s a ticket dispenser at the entrance to an open, paved roads park, where for $25 you can park in any of the full-service sites available. The free Wifi, from the nearby casino, work pretty good too, but that’s about it for amenities although you can use the spa in the Casino if you want to.
A typical rest stop south of Sacramento, CA on I-5
Our big reason for staying at Rolling Hills, however, isn’t the RV Park, even though it’s just fine for an overnight stop, but rather the Casino’s Buffet! It’s simply the best we’ve ever been too! The first time we visited, it was their seafood night and they served an amazing selection of both fresh seafood and many other entree’s - prawns, crab, fish, lobster, NY steaks, Cajun steaks, prime rib, seafood lasagna, assorted pastas etc. etc. etc. The desserts covered everything imaginable and it was all just great. Rolling Hills is now on our “must stop here” list just because of the Buffet.
Parked amongst the Orange trees in the Orange Grove RV Park in Bakersfield, CA
And finally, our last stop before the short drive to Desert Hot Springs, is the Orange Grove RV Park in Bakersfield, CA. This is another really nice, clean park with paved roads and smooth gravel pull-thrus. The big attraction here, especially in January, are the oranges – the park is literally carved out of an Orange tree orchard. Both times we’ve stayed here we’ve parked right between 4 trees just loaded with fresh oranges and the owners encourage you to pick as many as you want. They even supply long ‘picking poles’ and baskets so no one will try and climb the trees and get hurt.
My only complaint about the Orange Grove park is the rather spotty WiFi service – it’s free, but it’s not great and you have to be quite near the clubhouse to get any kind of reception. That won’t matter this year though as I fully expect to have our Verizon air card by then.
Note: Dec. 16/09.. I have been advised by the management of the Orange Grove RV Park that they too were dissatisfied with the performance of their WiFi system and have now upgraded it to provide better service to their customers.
Our final travel day from Bakersfield to Desert Hot Springs and our destination at the Sands RV & Golf Resort is a piece of cake – just 218 miles! So, that’s how we get from our home on Vancouver Island to Palm Springs each January. I have no problem at all in recommending any of the above RV Parks to any RV’er looking for a nice place to stay while on the road.
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