Chief, sounds like you might be on a short schedule? If I were you, I'd make Kanab your base camp and see Bryce, Zion, Cedar Breaks and Pipe Spring from there. And the north rim is about 1.5 hrs. to the south-also highly recommended over the osuth rim. We hit all of these while staying at the RV Corral in Kanab-a very nice place. But once out of any CG, you'll find awesome scenery, with multi-colored rock outcroppings everywhere you travel.
Keep in mind that every time you change CG's you lose the good part of one day, so with time limitations one campsite might be preferable to you. From Kanab, it's an easy trip west through Fredonia over to I-15 and on to Vegas. I'd forget going through that Zion tunnel (1.1 mi. long) with the ht. restrictions-even the roads through there are are a bit too hairy for your sized rig.
I also drove by Bauer's along #89 and it looked pretty nice, but you are along a stretch of hwy. with small towns and limited services. I'll check out Ruby's today, but RVParkReviews seemed to have some negatives posted about the place, so I don't know. I'm now staying at the Hitch-N-Post in Panguitch-a very nice little town with good access to Bryce and Cedar Breaks. There's a KOA here and another one north of town that also look nice. Red River Canyon RV Park is closer to Bryce, but it looks a little rugged from the hwy.
2007 Travel Supreme Alante, 45 ft.
2006 Lexus LX470 Toad
Lauren wrote: LOVE Cap Reef! We stayed at Thousand Lakes or something like that - great park.
OK. Zion River - short version. Paid $46 / night GS rate (+ tax). WiFi was extra and not cheap. Pool and hot tub did not work - no reduction in rate. And, if they had been, you had to pay $1 each to shower before entering pools and again if you wanted to shower coming out. Phone calls were $1. No TV. They overcharged my Visa - as compared to their receipt - which I did not realize until I go the statement. They refused to refund me the money. And some staff attitude problems - not all, just some. That is the short version.
We too stayed at Thousand Lakes in Torrey near Capital Reef - nice and beautiful views. Homemade hot muffins every morning, homemade jelly to buy, and they offered a prime rib barbeque while we were there. We'd go back there again!
2006 282TS 32' Komfort
1999 Ford F250 4x4 XLT SD Triton V10 with Tow Package
Prodigy Brake Control
Magnaflow Cat Back Exhaust, FIPK, and TransGo Shift Kit
Hensley Arrow
Dave and Renee plus Champ, Molly (in spirit), Missy and now Maggie Along for the Ride!
We were at Ruby's Inn on May 9, 2003 and we got enough snow to cover the ground (maybe a quarter inch). It melted quickly but there was still some snow when touring Bryce the next day. At least it wasn't the 3-4 inches that we got in Ely, Nevada a couple days earlier.
It probably won't be white in late September but you never can tell.
I recommend Ruby's at Bryce. Not spectacular, but spacious sites, with restaurants, shops and the National Park shuttle bus all a short walk from your campsite. Being at high altitude, Bryce may be cold in late Sept. with a chance for some snow. Weather permitting, take one of the hikes into Bryce Canyon. It is as spectacular if not more so to be down in the canyon as opposed to viewing it from above.
Zion will be warmer. Actually the end of Sept. or early October is ideal there as summer temps are very hot. Zion is a hiker's paradise. I recommend the Watchman campground. It is ideally situated at the beginning of the park right at the visitor center where the shuttle busses depart (no cars are allowed in most of the park but shuttles are frequent & easy to use). Many sites are big, I had no problem here with my 40 footer.
Enjoy it. You are off to some magic places.
Marc, Boca Raton FL
2003 Beaver Monterey 40' triple slide
Blue Ox TruCenter
Acura MDX toad
Unified Tow Brake
Pressure Pro Tire Monitor
Garmin 2610 GPS
Datastorm D3/7000
Sirius Radio
Tivo on board
After driving through Ruby's today, I have to say it looked very good to me. Proximity to Bryce is great and services are also available. A little bit of unlevelness to the sites in some instances, but I like the "natural" setting amongst the trees. Good-sized sites.
The nice thing about this CG is you can go hang out at the RV and zip to Bryce at anytime to catch a Ranger's talk, star gaze or watch the sunset. Plan on spending at least a couple nites there or preferably more. A lot to do and see and a lot of people doing it.
Fwiw, we stayed at Zion River Resort in the middle of winter a few years ago and used it as base to see both Zion and Bryce. The drive to Bryce was ~75 minutes each way. Being in the parks off season meant we essentially had the place to ourselves and could drive our toad into both instead of taking the shuttle. We spent 5 days hiking and saw everything or close to everything. I would stay at Zion River Resort again as the staff was very friendly, sites were large and clean, we had solid power - no brown outs or drops, no frozen water pipes, and propane available onsite. There are many pictures in our photos albums at the link below if you want to see what the parks look like in the winter.
RJ.... + wife + 2 teenage boys (13 & 15) + 2 dogs (1 big & 1 small)
2000 American Eagle 40DS and 2000 Suburban 2500 4x4 aka: super toad (looks small.. don't it)
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