One of our “bucket list” entries has been to hit as many National Parks as possible. It just so happens we were hop-scotching in a southeasterly direction and wouldn’t you know it, Rocky Mountain National Park happened to be smack-dab in the middle of our  path. It being the middle of the summer season, we found it a great challenge to find an RV park with FHU’s and availability. Reservations have become more and more of a necessity, anywhere from weeks to a year in advance. Lady Luck found us space at another KOA (yuck) in Wellington, CO. This was the closest we could find to the NP and was still an hour’s drive away from the gate. We jumped on it for a few day’s respite while we hit Rocky Mountain National Park.

Our day came to visit the NP. This park is still plagued with entry limitations for whatever reasons they have. There is a limited timed-entry system you have to go on-line (recreation.gov) and get a permit for entry during a specific time frame. I am continually frustrated with all these on-line systems and searches that are messed up. I went on line and found they offer (2) types of passes, the Park Access and the Park Access+, the plus giving exclusive access to certain parts of the park, like the Bear Lake area. I clicked on the Park Access+ button, completed a purchase ($2), then upon arrival the ranger lady said I only had the non-plus Access Pass. I guess we didn’t want to see that section of the park…

Rocky Mountain National Park is overwhelmingly geared toward hiking trails, some miles and miles and miles. Entering from the Beaver Meadows gate outside of Estes Park, we found the bulk of “sight-seeing” along the (48) miles of park road to Grand Lake is best from Estes Park up to the Alpine visitor’s center (the 12,000+’ elevation level of the park). After that there are not many stops other than trailheads along the rest of the park road to Grand Lake. The mountain views were very nice, a touch of snow here and there. On this trip we got critter time with herds of deer, a small “herd” (5 or 6) of bull elk, a couple of bighorn sheep, a hungry marmot chowing down on some tundra grass, and another marmot sunning itself on a cliff edge. We left the flatland (relatively speaking since we were in an area of Colorado commonly referred to as being “mile high”) of Wellington with projected day’s temperatures in the 90’s. In the area of the Alpine visitor’s center we found the winds were blasting ice-cold air, air I might add was pretty thin for breathing.

National Park visit completed, it was southbound and down. We did an overnighter at the Las Vegas (New Mexico) Elk’s Lodge, then landed at “The Ranch”, the Escapees co-op park in the “bustling hub” of Lakewood, NM. It just so happened that The Ranch had a couple of lots for lease with no waiting list. We made the command decision to jump on one of the available lots and become official leaseholders to a location we can now call a “base camp” for our full-time RV lifestyle. At the risk of boring you (even more than I may have already), I’ll explain the Escapee co-op system. 

There are 11 parks of 19 that are considered SKP co-op parks, scattered in a Nike swoosh pattern from Washington to Florida. Co-ops are parks that make individual lots available for lease to members of Escapees RV Club. Most parks have waiting lists of prospective leaseholders, some of those lists are estimated to have wait times of several years. The individual parks establish a set dollar amount + a minor processing fee for members to be placed on the wait list. The processing fee is non-refundable, the rest is rolled over once the lease is established. The leases consist of a lease amount, plus yearly maintenance fees, and then are subject to additional assessments for specific park upgrades/expenses as may arise at any given time. Once you establish yourself as a leaseholder, there is no set term or term limit, you can remain a leaseholder as long as you abide by the all the rules, regulations, and by-laws established by the corporation. For example, a park may have a lot available for the lease “price” of $14K. That park may have yearly maintenance fees of $1,400. Assessments vary dependent on the improvements needed. Parks occasionally need to upgrade or repair water/electric/septic systems, interior roadwork, clubhouse/facililities repair or upgrade, etc. So, out of all of that, the maintenance fees are non-refundable. The initial lease “price”, plus any approved improvements a leaseholder may perform on their individual lot, plus any assessments that leaseholder has incurred during the life of their lease are all refundable upon the leaseholders termination of lease. In this example, the leaseholder’s bottom line: it costs $116 per month to maintain the lease on the lot (add in the metered power usage, of course). You can see the savings opportunity of being a leaseholder when using the lot as a base stop for several months out of the year, particularly since we are currently encountering an average of about $50 per night in RV park rates.

We are still going to continue the full-time lifestyle despite holding the lease here. Things will just slow down a little for us as we spend a little more time here off and on over time. That also translates to these blog posts may become a bit sporadic. Or shorter. Or both. Time will tell. I’ll leave you with the “before” photos of our newly leased RV lot. Our improvements, particularly to the casita TBD. Until next post…