Wednesday, October 10, 2007

RV Camping - Heading South For The Winter

RV Camping - California
We're out of the woods and back searching for great RV camping locations...

Winter may officially be a couple months away, but winter weather can hit just about anywhere from now on. Keeping up on weather forecasts is important to RVers this time of year. I don't know any RVers that look forward to icy road travel, so many folks head south early. But some of us full time RVers don't like spending too much time in one area, and spending 5 months in the Arizona/California desert can get kinda long for some. So how do we avoid going south too early?

Here are some tips we use to help with our seasonal RV travel plans.

Knowing the historical weather averages by month and even day can be very useful. Why? Well...if a big snow storm is heading your way, and you wouldn't leave if the weather was going to be nice, knowing that historically the weather should be quite nice tells you that this storm is unususal, should depart quickly, and the following weather should still be good for RV camping. Of course this method of travel means you travel without schedules. You can find state by state NOAA historical weather links at RV Camping by clicking on the state you wish information for, then clicking on the "Historical Weather" link.

High altitude remote camping this time of year can be problematic. We've camped in snowy conditions numerous times, but almost always in Spring or early Fall when we were confident that the snow would soon melt. Late season RVers can get into big trouble being off the beaten path as the snow may not melt until next summer.

We try and slowly change altitude from summer RV camping at around 9000 feet to winter elevations of a few hundred feet in the deserts of Arizona and California. We typically stay put until night temperatures drop into the upper 20's, then drop a couple thousand feet in altitude and repeat the process. Depending on your planning, it can take a long time to go a couple hundred miles.

Be creative. Go a different route. Take time to research state tourism web sites for travel ideas. Ask other RVers for their recommendations. Go someplace completely different. Once you get where you're headed, volunteer to help BLM, USFS, NPS, USACE, or any other organization that needs people to help out. It will make your time fly!

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