ArdraF
Well-known member
- Joined
- Feb 12, 2006
- Posts
- 10,695
All,
While in Moab the group discussed a new venue for May 2009 instead of Moab. Portal is still in a state of change. The new portion has all new paved sites which are nice. The sites are spacious and have good electricity. Landscaping is partially completed. They?re putting in the irrigation lines and electricity for that in addition to a swimming pool and bath house with laundry and a small decorative pond. One of the Portal owners said they plan to level the old portion this fall and start putting in new sites there as well as a clubhouse where the pavilion is currently. We were scattered all over the park site-wise. Utah had a hard winter so progress on the new portion was slower than expected and some in the group believe it?s unlikely they?ll have everything done before our rally next spring, especially if they have another hard winter.
With that in mind, we stopped Wednesday night at the Cottam?s Willowind RV Park in Hurricane UT which is in southwestern Utah, just off the I-15 corridor. This was one of the possibilities we talked about. Here?s our initial assessment of this venue.
We all talked about the weather for May 1st. When we arrived at Willowind on April 30, 2008 it was 79 degrees. It was also VERY windy with high wind warnings and gusts up to 59 mph until 11 p.m. Because of the high winds the visibility was poor all the way from Richfield on I-70 to Hurricane off I-15 (we assumed it was dust in the air ? you could barely see the mountains). That night we put our satellite dish down about 9:30 because of the wind causing signal loss. There were still huge gusts that shook the motorhome until well after 12:30 a.m. Typically, this is what happens when a weather system moves in from the Pacific - it?s windy farther north and all the way down into Nevada. Thursday morning the wind had died down and the air was clear with good visibility.
We agree with Phil that Willowind is a very nice and well maintained RV park. The streets are paved and the sites all have concrete pads as well as full hookups. The older middle section has a lot of trees so the sites there are not satellite friendly, however the new section has baby trees so finding our satellites would not be a problem. After driving around the park we believe sites 151-173, 37-49, 64-73, and 22-30 would fit our needs. See the attached layout photo in which Jerry outlined the best sites for satellite usage. Also these are adjacent sites so we could be closer together ? unless the snowbirds have already reserved some of them. We paid $33 for a back-in site. There are a few pull-through sites but they are not satellite friendly and they only have 30-amp electricity. The toad fits in front of the motorhome. Jerry thinks some people may need 50-amp extensions because the electrical boxes are at the rear of the pad and some electrical cords might not reach the pedestal.
The office and recreation center are in a very attractive log cabin-style building (see photo). When we arrived, a man was working on a crossword puzzle and several more were sitting at another table chatting. This was the main ?lobby? area that everyone has to traverse in order to go to the registration desk. In addition to the lobby there are two more small rooms, one upstairs and one downstairs. The available room space doesn?t seem very conducive to either a potluck or a happy hour. There?s a small kitchen but it looked like it?s more for the office staff than guests (you have to go to through the office to get to it. The upstairs room is too small for a large group and the walls angle in because of the steep roofline. The downstairs area is a large screen TV room and it seems like we would interfere with the management?s operation if we tried to use the downstairs ?lobby? area. We didn?t ask about group use but if there are a lot of snowbirds, that might not be viable even if the rooms were larger. The park was pretty full so the snowbirds have not yet taken flight, although the lady did say May 1st is not all that busy or full. Many of the spaces have electric meters because snowbirds rent them long term.
We mentioned that a large group of us were considering coming here next year instead of Moab and because there was a ?No Refunds? sign on the wall we asked about their cancellation policy. They have no problem with cancellations within a week of arrival. This park gets a lot of snowbirds and some people reserve their sites for several months. The no refund policy applies if you arrive after reserving a long-term site and then decide to leave. That seemed fair to us. She explained that one man had a Doberman that had been to training school so its owner thought he should not have to abide by the park?s leash rule. This owner decided to leave rather than leash his dog and he was denied a refund. Again, this seems fair. As she said, anything within reason before arrival. In discussing it she implied that the no refund policy was to prevent snowbirds from tying up a site for several months and then backing out at the last minute, but a group like ours would not have the same issue.
As to the location, it seems to be in the middle of nowhere and will take quite a while to get to any place we might want to see or to do anything we might want to do. The Ruwards and we stayed overnight a couple of times at a place called Zion?s Gate which is also on highway 9. For the Ruward?s benefit and others who knows the Zion?s Gate location, Willowind RV Park is 6.4 miles farther east on highway 9. Going into St. George to restaurants or shopping is 16 miles. Zion National Park is 38 miles east, the Kolob Canyon section of Zion (on I-15) is 32 miles north, and Snow Canyon State Park is 15 miles west. Personally we don?t like to have to drive a long distance to do things such as daily outings. This most definitely would not be a convenient as Portal! In fact, I suspect that one time here would be more than enough for this group. Twice (or maybe even once) would be boring.
Restaurants and eating have always been important to this group. In St. George (16 miles away) we have Red Lobster, Outback Steakhouse, Golden Corral, Ruby River Steakhouse, Chuck-A-Rama Buffet, Ruby Tuesday?s, Olive Garden, and lots of fast food places. We drove into the Red Lobster for dinner and it was 16.5 miles one way. In the GPS I saw a couple of unfamiliar places and one of them is Currell?s Fine Dining, whatever that may have. We didn?t see anything that clearly was on the order of our three Moab favorites Sunset Grill, Red Cliffs Lodge, or Moab Brewery. Hurricane itself has some fast food places, a JB?s, Molly?s (whatever that is), Catfish Charlie?s (listed as fastfood seafood), and a couple of Mexican places. Oh yes, also a Dairy Queen so it can?t be all that bad!
There?s a huge amount of new construction (one explanation for all the dust in the air) and we saw several newer shopping areas. In addition to the outlets along Red Bluff (St., Rd., or whatever) and the Red Cliffs Mall, we saw many scattered areas that include everything from Lowe?s and Home Depot to Dillard?s, Sears, Penneys, Costco, Target, Barnes & Noble, Best Buy, Bed Bath & Beyond, Coldwater Creek and Chico?s (the last two look like they?re brand new). But again all that is at least 16 miles away. There is a Lin?s grocery store near the RV Park (.2 mile) and Jerry checked it out on his morning walk. He said it?s very nice with a bakery, seafood counter, and all the other things we might expect to find in a full-service grocery store. Lorna, there?s a Curves next door and if any of you are aching, next to it is a chiropractor. The nearest ?known? market is Smith?s in St. George. The next nearest ?knowns? are Smith?s and Albertson?s in Cedar City (36 miles). It seems like there probably are others in St. George, just because of all the new houses, but they don?t come up in the GPS. Of course, we were following our noses while roaming around and the streets were so new the GPS thought we were offroading. ?Jill? kept trying to turn us around and we were driving her nuts?.
As to other RV parks closer to St. George, Settlers RV Park on Red Bluff St. (below the outlets) is now defunct and looks like it?s been closed a while. We stayed there once many years ago - guess that explains why it?s not in the campground directory. Zion?s Gate (the one on route 9 between St. George and Hurricane) doesn?t look so great from the highway ? many more semi-permanents than previously. It?s probably still adequate for overnight (think it?s a Passport America park) but not for a rally. The Temple View RV park is still there as well. We passed some others that looked nice, but also more permanent and not in the campground directory.
We?ll probably attend for a couple of days if the group still wants to go to Hurricane, but we can?t honestly say we think it will be as much fun as we have in Moab in terms of activities that are NEARBY such as four-wheeling, hiking, shopping, and dining. Just getting to and from Zion will be a time-consuming 78-mile round-trip drive that detracts from the time we might want to spend doing things there. We like to hike in Zion and can?t see driving there, doing a long and/or strenuous hike, driving back, driving into St. George for dinner, and then driving back to Hurricane. That would be a 109-mile (38 + 38 +16.5 + 16.5) driving day. We even thought of having dinner at the Zion Lodge, but driving back would be 38 miles - from Red Cliffs to Moab is long enough, especially if you?re tired. To us that?s a lot of driving, especially when compared to Moab where everything is so convenient.
That?s all we had time to check but hope it?s useful.
ArdraF and JerryF
While in Moab the group discussed a new venue for May 2009 instead of Moab. Portal is still in a state of change. The new portion has all new paved sites which are nice. The sites are spacious and have good electricity. Landscaping is partially completed. They?re putting in the irrigation lines and electricity for that in addition to a swimming pool and bath house with laundry and a small decorative pond. One of the Portal owners said they plan to level the old portion this fall and start putting in new sites there as well as a clubhouse where the pavilion is currently. We were scattered all over the park site-wise. Utah had a hard winter so progress on the new portion was slower than expected and some in the group believe it?s unlikely they?ll have everything done before our rally next spring, especially if they have another hard winter.
With that in mind, we stopped Wednesday night at the Cottam?s Willowind RV Park in Hurricane UT which is in southwestern Utah, just off the I-15 corridor. This was one of the possibilities we talked about. Here?s our initial assessment of this venue.
We all talked about the weather for May 1st. When we arrived at Willowind on April 30, 2008 it was 79 degrees. It was also VERY windy with high wind warnings and gusts up to 59 mph until 11 p.m. Because of the high winds the visibility was poor all the way from Richfield on I-70 to Hurricane off I-15 (we assumed it was dust in the air ? you could barely see the mountains). That night we put our satellite dish down about 9:30 because of the wind causing signal loss. There were still huge gusts that shook the motorhome until well after 12:30 a.m. Typically, this is what happens when a weather system moves in from the Pacific - it?s windy farther north and all the way down into Nevada. Thursday morning the wind had died down and the air was clear with good visibility.
We agree with Phil that Willowind is a very nice and well maintained RV park. The streets are paved and the sites all have concrete pads as well as full hookups. The older middle section has a lot of trees so the sites there are not satellite friendly, however the new section has baby trees so finding our satellites would not be a problem. After driving around the park we believe sites 151-173, 37-49, 64-73, and 22-30 would fit our needs. See the attached layout photo in which Jerry outlined the best sites for satellite usage. Also these are adjacent sites so we could be closer together ? unless the snowbirds have already reserved some of them. We paid $33 for a back-in site. There are a few pull-through sites but they are not satellite friendly and they only have 30-amp electricity. The toad fits in front of the motorhome. Jerry thinks some people may need 50-amp extensions because the electrical boxes are at the rear of the pad and some electrical cords might not reach the pedestal.
The office and recreation center are in a very attractive log cabin-style building (see photo). When we arrived, a man was working on a crossword puzzle and several more were sitting at another table chatting. This was the main ?lobby? area that everyone has to traverse in order to go to the registration desk. In addition to the lobby there are two more small rooms, one upstairs and one downstairs. The available room space doesn?t seem very conducive to either a potluck or a happy hour. There?s a small kitchen but it looked like it?s more for the office staff than guests (you have to go to through the office to get to it. The upstairs room is too small for a large group and the walls angle in because of the steep roofline. The downstairs area is a large screen TV room and it seems like we would interfere with the management?s operation if we tried to use the downstairs ?lobby? area. We didn?t ask about group use but if there are a lot of snowbirds, that might not be viable even if the rooms were larger. The park was pretty full so the snowbirds have not yet taken flight, although the lady did say May 1st is not all that busy or full. Many of the spaces have electric meters because snowbirds rent them long term.
We mentioned that a large group of us were considering coming here next year instead of Moab and because there was a ?No Refunds? sign on the wall we asked about their cancellation policy. They have no problem with cancellations within a week of arrival. This park gets a lot of snowbirds and some people reserve their sites for several months. The no refund policy applies if you arrive after reserving a long-term site and then decide to leave. That seemed fair to us. She explained that one man had a Doberman that had been to training school so its owner thought he should not have to abide by the park?s leash rule. This owner decided to leave rather than leash his dog and he was denied a refund. Again, this seems fair. As she said, anything within reason before arrival. In discussing it she implied that the no refund policy was to prevent snowbirds from tying up a site for several months and then backing out at the last minute, but a group like ours would not have the same issue.
As to the location, it seems to be in the middle of nowhere and will take quite a while to get to any place we might want to see or to do anything we might want to do. The Ruwards and we stayed overnight a couple of times at a place called Zion?s Gate which is also on highway 9. For the Ruward?s benefit and others who knows the Zion?s Gate location, Willowind RV Park is 6.4 miles farther east on highway 9. Going into St. George to restaurants or shopping is 16 miles. Zion National Park is 38 miles east, the Kolob Canyon section of Zion (on I-15) is 32 miles north, and Snow Canyon State Park is 15 miles west. Personally we don?t like to have to drive a long distance to do things such as daily outings. This most definitely would not be a convenient as Portal! In fact, I suspect that one time here would be more than enough for this group. Twice (or maybe even once) would be boring.
Restaurants and eating have always been important to this group. In St. George (16 miles away) we have Red Lobster, Outback Steakhouse, Golden Corral, Ruby River Steakhouse, Chuck-A-Rama Buffet, Ruby Tuesday?s, Olive Garden, and lots of fast food places. We drove into the Red Lobster for dinner and it was 16.5 miles one way. In the GPS I saw a couple of unfamiliar places and one of them is Currell?s Fine Dining, whatever that may have. We didn?t see anything that clearly was on the order of our three Moab favorites Sunset Grill, Red Cliffs Lodge, or Moab Brewery. Hurricane itself has some fast food places, a JB?s, Molly?s (whatever that is), Catfish Charlie?s (listed as fastfood seafood), and a couple of Mexican places. Oh yes, also a Dairy Queen so it can?t be all that bad!
There?s a huge amount of new construction (one explanation for all the dust in the air) and we saw several newer shopping areas. In addition to the outlets along Red Bluff (St., Rd., or whatever) and the Red Cliffs Mall, we saw many scattered areas that include everything from Lowe?s and Home Depot to Dillard?s, Sears, Penneys, Costco, Target, Barnes & Noble, Best Buy, Bed Bath & Beyond, Coldwater Creek and Chico?s (the last two look like they?re brand new). But again all that is at least 16 miles away. There is a Lin?s grocery store near the RV Park (.2 mile) and Jerry checked it out on his morning walk. He said it?s very nice with a bakery, seafood counter, and all the other things we might expect to find in a full-service grocery store. Lorna, there?s a Curves next door and if any of you are aching, next to it is a chiropractor.
The nearest ?known? market is Smith?s in St. George. The next nearest ?knowns? are Smith?s and Albertson?s in Cedar City (36 miles). It seems like there probably are others in St. George, just because of all the new houses, but they don?t come up in the GPS. Of course, we were following our noses while roaming around and the streets were so new the GPS thought we were offroading. ?Jill? kept trying to turn us around and we were driving her nuts?.As to other RV parks closer to St. George, Settlers RV Park on Red Bluff St. (below the outlets) is now defunct and looks like it?s been closed a while. We stayed there once many years ago - guess that explains why it?s not in the campground directory. Zion?s Gate (the one on route 9 between St. George and Hurricane) doesn?t look so great from the highway ? many more semi-permanents than previously. It?s probably still adequate for overnight (think it?s a Passport America park) but not for a rally. The Temple View RV park is still there as well. We passed some others that looked nice, but also more permanent and not in the campground directory.
We?ll probably attend for a couple of days if the group still wants to go to Hurricane, but we can?t honestly say we think it will be as much fun as we have in Moab in terms of activities that are NEARBY such as four-wheeling, hiking, shopping, and dining. Just getting to and from Zion will be a time-consuming 78-mile round-trip drive that detracts from the time we might want to spend doing things there. We like to hike in Zion and can?t see driving there, doing a long and/or strenuous hike, driving back, driving into St. George for dinner, and then driving back to Hurricane. That would be a 109-mile (38 + 38 +16.5 + 16.5) driving day. We even thought of having dinner at the Zion Lodge, but driving back would be 38 miles - from Red Cliffs to Moab is long enough, especially if you?re tired. To us that?s a lot of driving, especially when compared to Moab where everything is so convenient.
That?s all we had time to check but hope it?s useful.
ArdraF and JerryF
