Winter is in full swing, and if you understand something about me in any respect, you understand I can’t stand to be chilly. That’s why my household and I often head south for the season. There, we discover locations the place we are able to proceed to have adventures with out freezing our toes off, together with one of the best warm-weather nationwide parks to go to in winter.
The excellent news is, there are many great locations to take pleasure in heat(ish) climate and sunshine within the nice open air, proper by means of the coldest months of the yr. Many of those are nationwide parks. Usually, these parks are extra comfy through the winter months than they’re through the summer season, and customarily talking, winter means fewer crowds to take care of.
Listed here are our favourite nationwide parks to go to in winter. Select one in every of these parks in your subsequent wintertime RV getaway!
Large Bend Nationwide Park
This winter we determined to spend most of our time within the nice state of Texas, and one in every of my favourite stops up to now has been Large Bend Nationwide Park.
As a result of we occurred to be there through the winter vacation break, it was a tiny bit crowded in locations, however the park is so large that it hardly even mattered. We loved climbing in Chisos Basin, climbing by means of Boquillas Canyon, wading within the Rio Grande, and even soaking in a pure sizzling spring that we accessed by way of a strolling path.
On prime of all that, we attended two totally different ranger packages. One was a chat in regards to the historical past of the park and was fairly good, however the nighttime “star celebration” was undoubtedly the higher of the 2. At this second speak, we realized in regards to the planets, constellations, and extra. That they had high-quality telescopes arrange and let everybody have an opportunity to have a look at numerous planets by means of them. It was undoubtedly a memorable expertise.
The place to Keep
We stayed within the Rio Grande Village Campground. That is an in-park campground run by the NPS, and it doesn’t provide any hookups on the websites. For that reason, we invested in a conveyable photo voltaic panel and a greater battery financial institution, in addition to an inverter. We had additionally borrowed a conveyable generator from my mother previous to the journey, which helped so much right here. For probably the most half, we didn’t have any bother protecting every part charged and had been very comfy the entire time.
Bogs with flush bathrooms can be found within the campground, as are some potable water spigots (although these aren’t meant for filling tanks, so I like to recommend filling earlier than you arrive) and a dish washing sink (chilly water solely). There are pay showers and a laundry room on the camp retailer, together with necessities corresponding to propane, gasoline, diesel, and a few meals objects obtainable for buy. A dump station is situated close by.
This campground is massive but it surely does ebook up, as do the opposite two in-park campgrounds. For that reason, you’ll both need to ebook six months upfront when reservations open up, or attempt your luck 14 days out to see in case you can snag one of many websites that’s launched then. There are not any first-come, first-served websites obtainable. I used to be capable of get a web site 14 days out, but it surely required being on-line and able to click on proper at 9am central the day the positioning was launched.
Everglades Nationwide Park
Our favourite place to spend the winter is certainly Florida. Due to this, we have now spent many chilly months down within the Sunshine State, with many visits made to the great Everglades Nationwide Park.
This park is fairly unfold out, that means you’ll be able to spend a number of days exploring all of it. I extremely advocate visiting as many customer facilities as you’ll be able to. Every one is exclusive they usually all provide great displays with nice data on the park. I additionally extremely advocate strolling some trails. The Anhinga Path is a favourite of our crew, as it’s a straightforward stroll that lets you see an enormous variety of lovely birds, in addition to some gators. We’ve mates who additionally love biking the Shark Valley Tram Street. We’ve but to attempt it for ourselves although.
One factor we have now tried and beloved is the nighttime ranger speak, which provides you an opportunity to stroll the Anhinga Path after darkish and see alligators transferring round and even looking. Simply ensure that to put on lengthy sleeves, lengthy pants, close-toed sneakers, and bug spray!
The place to Keep
We haven’t had an opportunity to remain within the park itself. The websites ebook up tremendous shortly and I’m simply not quick sufficient. As an alternative, we have now all the time stayed at Miami Everglades Encore RV Resort.
This campground is included in our Thousand Trails membership with the Trails Assortment improve, so we solely pay $20 an evening to remain there. That stated, I’d gladly ebook the place for full value. Both approach, be sure to ebook early; the place all the time appears busy so far as we are able to inform.
The campground is in an ideal location that makes it simple to achieve Everglades Nationwide Park, Biscayne Nationwide Park, or town of Miami. The bathhouses are clear and properly stored, as is the laundry room. There’s a distinctive and well-maintained out of doors play space for the youngsters, and the pool is gorgeous. After all, the full-hookup websites are good as properly.
An alternative choice is to remain on the NPS-run Halfway Campground. This one is situated in Large Cypress Nationwide Protect and doesn’t ebook up as shortly because the Everglades campgrounds. It’s about half an hour exterior of Everglades Nationwide Park. Costs are very affordable, websites embrace electrical hookups, and potable water and a dump station can be found onsite.
Saguaro Nationwide Park
We haven’t spent a ton of time in Arizona. That stated, primarily based on the small period of time we have now spent there, I do just like the state and wouldn’t hesitate to spend the winter hopping across the Arizona deserts. Top-of-the-line locations we’ve visited within the state? Tucson and Saguaro Nationwide Park.
Sadly, we solely had a few days to discover the park. That stated, we totally loved the scenic drives on each side of the park. We stopped to stroll a number of small paths and skim the signage close to lots of the vegetation. We additionally actually beloved each customer facilities, the place we had been capable of study so much in regards to the saguaro cacti, in addition to the world.
If we return, I’ll ensure that to attend a ranger program of some kind. Nonetheless, I don’t remorse our brief go to and I like to recommend going even in case you solely have a day or two.
The place to Keep
Discovering a spot to remain close to Saguaro proved harder than one may think. The issue with RV parks in Arizona (and one of many causes we haven’t spent plenty of time within the state) is that many don’t enable anybody beneath 55. Clearly it is a drawback for youthful individuals, particularly these with children.
There are a few family-friendly personal RV parks in Tucson, however the fee to remain at these was approach exterior of our funds. On prime of that, there isn’t any place to camp in an RV throughout the nationwide park itself. On the time, we had a motorhome with a pleasant photo voltaic setup, so we ended up selecting to boondock simply exterior of Tucson, the place there’s a shocking quantity of government-owned land.
This was an attention-grabbing boondocking expertise for us. The sheer variety of individuals parked within the boondocking space made it really feel like a kind of group. There have been some individuals who clearly stayed far longer than their 14-day restrict, but in addition some vacationers. After all, there have been additionally loads of full timers like us.
It was neat to see how everybody type of got here collectively. Individuals had been having campfires collectively, sharing mills, and there was loads of chatting taking place all around the little pop-up group.
Joshua Tree Nationwide Park
One other park we’ve visited many instances through the winter months is Joshua Tree Nationwide Park. Situated in southern California simply exterior of Palm Springs, this park is totally gorgeous and a favourite of children who prefer to climb. (My children undoubtedly fall into this class.)
We love driving by means of the park and admiring the various rock formations, stopping to climb those that look most interesting—and sure, that is allowed. Personally, I additionally discover the cactus backyard notably lovely and love wandering by means of it, admiring the totally different cacti there. We haven’t carried out it but, however the Fortynine Palms Oasis Path is meant to be superb and is certainly on my to-do checklist for the subsequent time we get to SoCal.
All that stated, our absolute favourite factor to do in Joshua Tree is head there simply earlier than sundown, take pleasure in a picnic dinner whereas watching the solar go down, after which do some stargazing. Like Large Bend, Joshua Tree is an formally acknowledged Darkish Sky Park, that means there’s little or no gentle air pollution there. This makes for some superb stargazing, particularly when you have a telescope. Ensure you go when the moon is new for one of the best view!
The place to Keep
Typically, we go to Joshua Tree when staying at Thousand Trails Palm Springs. This campground is included with our Thousand Trails membership, that means we don’t pay something to remain there, thus making it an important place to hang around through the winter months.
We like this campground and would advocate it to anybody trying to stick with full hookups within the space of Palm Springs and Joshua Tree. Facilities right here embrace bathhouses with showers, laundry rooms, a playground, a clubhouse, and a pool with a beautiful sizzling tub.
That stated, that is removed from the one choice within the space. Many individuals we all know have boondocked free of charge on the BLM land simply exterior of Joshua Tree. Others have stayed on the in-park campgrounds, although it’s price understanding these can solely accommodate smaller rigs. In the event you’re arrange for boondocking and are visiting the world simply to see the nationwide park, this may be the way in which to go.
Now that we have now a photo voltaic setup, we would give a type of dry tenting choices a attempt subsequent time.
White Sands Nationwide Park
Final on my checklist is White Sands Nationwide Park in New Mexico. It is a small park, and actually there aren’t an entire lot of various issues to do right here. That stated, the primary factor to do is exclusive and properly price experiencing.
Our household solely spent a single day in White Sands and we felt that was loads of time. We began on the customer middle, the place we watched the park video (extremely really helpful) and skim some shows about how the large, tender, pure white sand dunes within the park got here to be.
After doing a little bit of studying, we grabbed our sled discs, purchased a little bit of wax, and headed out to the dunes. We discovered the very best dune we might deliver ourselves to climb (that is arduous work), waxed the discs, and went sliding down the tender sand. Our youngsters did this many times. We additionally spent a little bit of time climbing big sand constructions that had been carved by wind and rain however appeared like huge sandcastles.
By the top of the day, we had been all totally exhausted—in one of the simplest ways.
The place to Keep
We wanted hookups through the two nights we had been in Alamogordo to go to White Sands, so we selected to remain at Oliver Lee Memorial State Park. We had water and electrical hookups at our web site, in addition to entry to scrub bogs with heat showers. It’s price noting although that that is the one place our Starlink web had points. I think about it is because the park is correct subsequent to the face of a mountain.
Throughout our keep within the state park, we did discover there have been a lot of individuals boondocking proper subsequent door. I think about that is BLM land, and the truth that it’s proper by the state park dump station is admittedly helpful. This might be a very good choice in case you’re in search of dry tenting close to the nationwide park.
Bonus: Padre Island Nationwide Seashore
So technically, this isn’t a real nationwide park and I’m not going to spend a ton of time on it, however I needed to shortly point out Padre Island Nationwide Seashore. We simply left this lovely park a number of days in the past and we had a completely superb time.
We had been capable of park proper throughout from the seaside, that means we might truly see the water from our RV! There have been a few chilly days whereas we had been there, however more often than not we had been there, the solar was shining and it was heat sufficient for taking part in within the tremendous tender sand. In the future it was heat sufficient—regardless of being in the midst of winter—that folks had been truly swimming within the ocean.
We went to 1 customer middle, which was dated however informative, and the ranger there was completely implausible. He chatted with our youngsters for a strong hour they usually realized all in regards to the issues that wash up on the seaside, the animals that decision the island house, and the shipwrecks that occurred close to the island.
The place to Keep
There are two campgrounds within the park: Malaquite Campground (pronounced “MAL-ah-keet”) and Fowl Island Basin Campground. We stayed on the former choice, and as I discussed above, we had been actually steps from the seaside. There have been flush bathrooms within the campground and cold-water showers had been obtainable. There was additionally a dump station close by.
It’s also attainable to boondock on the seaside, however many say that is dangerous as a result of tender sand and a seaside that isn’t essentially large sufficient to keep away from excessive tide.
These are, in my view, one of the best nationwide parks to go to in winter. Clearly, these aren’t the parks to go to in case you take pleasure in true winter climate, however in case you’re in search of heat climate and sunshine, these are the winter nationwide parks for you!
