FORT HALL CASINO RV PARK, FORT HALL, IDAHO (POCATELLO AREA)

Our Opinion: Neutral.  Made a good overnight stop just off I-15 near Pocatello.

Date of Stay: September 25, 2010.

Weather During Stay:  Warm, dry afternoon and a cool evening.

Site Description:  The 40+/- sites in this tidy casino campground are all pull-throughs, all reasonably long, and all narrow.  All have FHU with 20/30/50 amps. 

Roads and sites are paved, with the pavement just barely wide enough for a rig.  With the exception of 6 or 7 sites on the far end of the campground, sites are separated from each other by a 4 or 5 foot wide strip of grass, over which slides and awnings extend.  Very tight!  

Between the inadequate width of the sites and the odd placement of the utilities, it would be quite uncomfortable to be sandwiched between close neighbors.

Onsite restrooms with showers, and a large expanse of green lawn for recreational use.  If you drive a big rig, beware of the A row of sites (the first row as you enter the park) - the turn at the end of the row to exit is too right for a large rig, requiring you to back out of your site or drive against the traffic pattern.

Rate:  $20/night for FHU.  Pay the cashier in the miserably smoky casino.

Phone/radio/TV:  Strong Verizon signal for phones and aircard.  No obstacles for the roof-mounted satellite TV dish in most sites (except those behind the single clump of large trees).  No cable TV here, and we didn’t try the antenna.  Local NPR from Pocatello on 91.1.

Elevation/landscape/terrain: Located at around 4,400 ft, with plenty of green grass and many recently planted smaller trees, the park is fairly visually appealing.  Views are of the casino, the adjacent service station, and dry countryside.

Lighting/noise:  Reasonably dark at night.  Noise from nearby I-15, but not overwhelming.

Favorite Sites:  Half a dozen of the sites in the back of the park had much larger grassy areas dividing them from their neighbors, so would be far superior when/if the park was full.

Hiking/Walking:  Nothing pleasant.

Comments:  We wanted to stop early in the day and visit the Costco in Pocatello.  Too hot to dry camp (which is allowed for one night in the gravel lot behind the service station), this park, not half full, worked well for us.  Very convenient access to I-15, but far enough away that the traffic noise was not annoying.

SKY CITY RV PARK, PUEBLO OF ACOMA, NEW MEXICO

Our Opinion: Neutral. A convenient overnight when traveling I-40 (exit 102). Easy in and out. Overpriced. If we wanted to get off the road in this area for an overnight again, we would boondock behind the casino unless we needed an electric hookup for air conditioning.

Date of Stay: April 24th, 2008

Weather During Stay: Arrived in strong winds (gusts to 40 mph) and sunshine with the temperature in the upper 70’s. The wind blew strongly during the night until early morning hours. Low was close to freezing. The strong winds may have affected our opinion of this campground (negatively).

Sites: 42 FHU (20, 30 and 50 amp) sites, all long, level, pull-throughs in several long rows. Sites sufficient for a big rig and towed with no need to unhook. Roads and sites are paved. Sites are separated from each other with wide graveled berms with just-planted, immature native shrubs. Site length and width is superior to most commercial parks. No picnic tables; no shade. Nothing at all to interfere with roof-mounted satellites. Good water pressure and voltage.

Rate: $26/night, which seems high for a no-frills casino RV park. We were given 2 coupons for a $5 slot roll in the casino; it appears you can turn these into cash by standing in a long line in the smoky casino. To avoid the wait in the evening, we returned in the morning before departure. In return for lots of personal information (address, phone number - we used a fake one - and driver's license), we got two free gifts (notebooks) and two $5 vouchers. We took the vouchers to the casino cashier, all the way through the machines, of course, and we each got a $5 bill. Since we kept the money instead of gambling, our overnight cost us $16 and 20 minutes of our time. Boondocking would have been smarter.

Phone/radio/TV: Strong Verizon phones signal; aircard on Broadband, 5 bars. Tried their free WiFi, but couldn't get on the internet (didn't explore it further). Didn’t bother with TV antenna. 89.9 might be an NPR station. NOAA weather radio could not pick up a channel here, which is unusual.

Elevation/Landscape/Terrain: This is a flat park in an area of plateaus, mesas, and mountains about 60 miles west of Albuquerque at 6,140’ elevation. Views are of a few high mountains, the Sky City Casino, and scrubby hills and mesas with sparse trees. It is extremely dry here right now; all the grass is brown.

Lighting: The RV park brochure says “dark skies for star gazers”. Lights are low, on each utility box at each site - so it lit the side of Scoopy. It was too cold and windy to go out to see if we could turn it off.

Favorite Sites: No favorites here - they appear identical. Photo shows Scoopy in site 38.

Hiking/Walking: Not much, just loops around the park or a walk to the casino. RV park guests have access to the swimming pool, spa and exercise room in the casino hotel.

Comments: This is a just-completed park built to serve the Sky City Casino. We stopped here because the wind was howling and we wanted to be off the road. Although we are not going to visit the ancient Pueblo of Acoma on this trip, we highly recommend it and this park would be a convenient base camp. There is also a travel plaza here; diesel was $4.04, the current going rate in the area. Easy access off of I-40 at exit 102.