Verde Valley RV & Camping Resort is a Thousand Trails resort. We received a free 13 month Thousand Trails membership with the purchase of our RV so we thought, why not, let’s try it out. For those unfamiliar with Thousand Trails it is RV membership club which is somewhat similar to time shares. You pay an annual fee and can camp at any of their resorts or campgrounds for free if space is available. You are limited to 14 days at a time per resort/campground. The catch, as there is always a catch, is that you must select one of the 5 zones (areas) that you can camp for free. You CAN add on more zones for a fee. Hmmm…how do you decide what zone? It was difficult for us and we are pretty much fully booked already for the next year (due to COVID times!!!) so we choose the southwest zone since we are always in that area at some time or another. The other catch is, of course, you have to go to their campgrounds which may not be on your route or in your plans and may or may not be in some obscure places compared to your travel plans. But if you are a full timer and like to stay at one location for a week or 2 then this membership may be perfect for you.
Off we went!
We drove up to Cottonwood with the entire area greener than we have probably ever seen (even in the winter). This is due to all the rain that Arizona has been receiving during Monsoon 2021, thank you!!!
Check in was smooth and easy and they provided us with a list of available sites that we could choose from and then text them with our site selection. The membership comes with 30AMP sites but if you want to upgrade to a 50AMP site and pay for it you can. We didn’t. Our rig is a 50 AMP rig with 2 A/C’s and it was only about 105 degrees F so who needs 2 stinking A/C’s? It was hot!! WIth 30AMPs we ran one A/C and it worked just fine!
Campground: Verde Valley – Section H
Location: Cottonwood, AZ (about 7 miles south of town right off Hwy 260)
Site: H76 (pull thru)
Cost: $0 (with Thousand Trails membership)
Services: FHU (30 AMP)
Comments: A lovely campground with a big variety of different sites and in a beautiful setting in the Verde Valley.
The campground has various sections from A thru M. A, B, and C are the older sections and are down the hill next to the Verde River and the swimming pool. Section M is at the top of the hill with many new large 50 AMP sites along with some 30 AMP sites that looked like they were full with seasonal campers. Some of the other newer sections for 50 AMP are quite large and offer some great views.
A view over the valley 
A view down to Sections A, B, and C 
A great 50 AMP site in section M 
One of the newer 50AMP sections with large sites
Yes, we are wimps. The weather was warmer than what we left in Phoenix so we did not walk around the campground nor did we walk to the nearby winery Alcantara. We decided to drive and we are glad we did. It was stinking hot and humid!!!
Alcantara is a beautiful winery next to Thousand Trails that would have been walking distance if it was not so hot. We drove over there a full 1 mile or so on the road and looked around. We did not do any wine tasting but if it had been a tad bit cooler we would have loved to have sat in their beautiful outdoor patio and enjoyed tasting some of their wines. It is a lovely place.
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