Introduction:
If you desire space, privacy, and nature, this is not the place for you. If you desire nice grounds, lots of activities, and hot springs, you will love it.
Click here to read about our criteria for campground reviews.
The Basics:
Overall Rating: 2.3/5
Price per night / Discounts: $26 / The park offers 50% off up to 7 nights with Passport America.
Campground website: Sky Valley Resort
Our Site #: 945
Privacy Rating (how spacious and private do the sites feel):
1/5: Privacy here was absolutely terrible. This is basically a full time retirement community full of park model homes. The RV sites are mixed in among the permanent homes and appear to be on sites that will eventually be sold to people who want to build homes. What that means is the RV sites are mixed in among the houses on very tight streets not meant for RVs. We were sandwiched between two houses leaving us with a view of a wall down our driver's side and a bit of open space and another house on our patio side. There was a cement pad on the patio but no picnic table, grill, or fire pit. It is simply not the place you are going to sit outside and enjoy a nice evening. There were some RV sites that were a bit more open than ours, but nothing we saw changed our overall opinion that this place was not built with RVers in mind.
Location Rating (accessibility to points of interest or to major highways):
2.5/5: The location isn't bad since you have reasonable access to the city of Palm Springs, Joshua Tree National Park, and several other local parks. On the other hand, it's about an hour's drive to JTNP and a half hour to Palm Springs, so not exactly close. If you're looking to get away and want to relax in the pools and have access to these other places, it's not bad, but if you're in the area to sight-see, you might be better served by finding something closer to these other places.
Site Quality and Big Rig Accessibility Rating (utilities and accessibility of campground hook ups):
1/5: Pretty lousy.... Our site was dirt, un-level, and offered a useless cement pad on one side that only served to make it difficult to get into the space. There was no picnic table on it or anything else, so I have no idea why it was even there. We had a hell of a time getting into our space because of a tree on one side, the raised cement pad on the other, and the fact that the neighborhood simply wasn't built for maneuvering large RVs. I will say we did see several other sites in the park that would have been easy to get into, but ours was very difficult. Additionally, when we finally did get into the site, we found that the electricity wasn't working. We called the front desk and maintenance was able to replace the electric box, but it was just another ding on the place. Finally, the utilities were all at the very back of the site (probably because they were designed for houses, not RVs) requiring the use of all our extender hoses to reach the sewer. Overall, big rig accessibility was pretty bad.
Technology and Customer Service Rating (online resources, reservations, and staff):
3.5/5: I had to call to make a reservation and, apparently, the person I spoke with screwed up and gave me a PA discount for longer than she was supposed to. When someone else realized the mistake, they changed our reservation in their computer system, but never notified us. Therefore, when we arrived, there was a lot of confusion about our reservation and what rate we would have to pay. To their credit, they eventually decided to honor the price they'd originally quoted to us, but it was kindof a mess to get there. With that snafu and all of our other dealings, the front desk people were very nice.
Internet Availability Rating (Verizon coverage or campground wifi):
3.5/5: Wifi was up and down and pretty typical for campground systems. At popular times of day, it would crap out. Later in the evenings, it was pretty good. Our hotspot worked fine.
Summary:
Overall, we did not love our stay here because of our site, but we can certainly see how some people would like it. If you stay at the park, you have access to all the mineral hot spring spas and pools, tennis courts, the gym, etc., and the common grounds are nicely maintained. However, if you are looking for a more relaxing natural environment, this is not it. Most of the RV spots are sandwiched in between permanent homes, there is little to no private space, and there are no sidewalks or yards in the community, so it all just feels cramped. We had a hell of a time getting into our particular campsite because of the way it was laid out, and once we did, we got to stare at our neighbor's wall the entire time we were there. On the other hand, with PA, it was a relatively cheap FHU place to stay, and it wasn't a bad location for visiting places like Palm Springs and JTNP. Plus, some people absolutely love the hot springs in the area. It really just depends what you want. We didn't love it, but some folks might.
