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We are meeting up with our daughter in the Seattle area at the end of July. We are trying to locate a good spot that will work with a 38 foot fifth wheel with slides on both sides that will work well as a home base. So far, we aren't doing so well on our own so we would appreciate any recommendations.
Lake Pleasant in Bothell (RV Park Review of Lake Pleasant) is about the best place in the area if you don't mind being on the north end of Seattle. East of the city there are a couple OK places - Blue Sky east of Issaquah (RV Parks Reviews in Issaquah) and Snoqualmie River Campground in Fall City (RV park reviews in Fall City). South I don't know the choices (the KOA is way out of line price wise) until you go all the way to the Puyallup Fairgrounds and West of Seattle is water, unless you like a ferry ride every day.
-- Edited by bjoyce at 20:42, 2008-04-07
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Bill Joyce, 40' 2004 Dutch Star DP towing an AWD 2020 Ford Escape Hybrid Journal at http://www.sacnoth.com Full-timing since July 2003
Thanks Bill. Those three parks were on our short list but not having been in the area before, we weren't sure which direction to go. Your input is very much appreciated.
If anyone else has an opinion, we would love to hear from you.
We are currently in the Blue Sky RV Park, right off 90 and about 25 miles East from Seattle. It's one of the nicer parks in the Puget Sound area and is nestled in the woods. Lots of permanent rigs here but park is clean and well maintained. http://www.blueskypreston.com/rates.html Parks are very few and rates are high, especially in the summer. There are two other parks (and I use the work park very loosely) right off I90 in Issaquah. They're only about 5 miles closer to Seattle than our park and are little more than big expensive parking lots. Here's the link to one of them. http://home.earthlink.net/~issaquahrv/ We also stayed in North Bend when we first started fulltiming. It's another 11 miles East on I90 so isn't the most convenient, but is a nice area and might be a good fall back if you can't get into a park closer to Seattle. http://www.norwestproperties.net/
Our manager said he's getting lots of cancellations on reserved sites thanks to our tanking economy and rising fuel prices. That just might work in your favor though.
The park in Bothell and ours would be my top picks.
As a side note, traffic in Puget Sound is horrendous so try to plan your sightseeing around the commute hours.
I hadn't looked at Blue Sky before so I can believe it is better than the "OK" I gave it. A few years we stayed one night at the KOA in Kent, a tight space for $47/night, so we have not gone back. Today we will be arriving at a membership campground we have stayed at multiple times, WHR Tall Chief in Fall City (really between Fall City and Redmond). We will be moving to another membership campground, LTR (Thousand Trails company) Thunderbird in Monroe just before Memorial Day Weekend for a total of 3 weeks in the Seattle area. That will give us enough time for doctor, vet, family and friend visits and a wedding. It will also give us enough time to have teriyaki more than once, the local cheap fast food, and maybe some nice seafood. After living here for multiple years we figure 3 weeks will be enough time to deal with the traffic. We will be in Western Washington state much of the summer, just not Seattle metro.
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Bill Joyce, 40' 2004 Dutch Star DP towing an AWD 2020 Ford Escape Hybrid Journal at http://www.sacnoth.com Full-timing since July 2003
Bill, you will be in Seattle just in time for Copper River Salmon. Should be arriving daily beginning next week for about 3 or 4 weeks. It is pricey but it is the best tasting salmon we have had. We look forward every year to its arrival.
Enjoy yourself here in God's country this summer. We are traveling for about 7 weeks, then back home when summer is offically here beginnin on July 5!
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Joe in Seattle/Indio
2006 45' Newmar Essex
2003 Honda CRV toad
RUFINIT: Some of the Costco's already have some Copper River salmon. But the best salmon I had was in Alaska itself, a great place to spend the summer.
We visited a friend who has a monthly site at Lake Pleasant and he has nothing but good things to say about the place and management. He said the monthly rate works out to $13/day plus electricity but in summer they are all on the daily rate of $36 (he is in a 50AMP pull-through site). There are a group of yearly sites but those have a waiting list. We have stayed at Lake Pleasant ourselves and like it.
Winters in the Pacific Northwest are depressing, wet and dreary. We are both Western Washington State natives and have lived on the dry side (Pullman, Kennewick and Richland) also. In spring and summer it is a great to be in Western WA but somewhere towards the end of September the rains come and we are glad to be gone. We definately do not miss the Seattle area traffic, if we decided to settle again we would look at Olympia area (my home town) or Eugene, OR area.
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Bill Joyce, 40' 2004 Dutch Star DP towing an AWD 2020 Ford Escape Hybrid Journal at http://www.sacnoth.com Full-timing since July 2003