JGW RV Park- Redding, California (July 2018)

How is it that we were wearing coats and running the heater in the morning in Oregon and then we were greeted by 100+ degrees that afternoon in California? We only traveled 200 miles south and were surprised to see the temperature change to “hot.”

View of Mt. Shasta as we headed to Redding, Calif.

There were several fires in California and Oregon that we drove near that day. We didn’t see the fires, but we could smell them.

The sign at JGW RV Park

Redding, California, was about as far as we wanted to travel in a day and the reviews on AllStays were positive about this park. We were able to “walk in” without any problems. Our choice checking in was to occupy a regular site or one by the river. Since we were there for the night, we elected to save $5 and skip the river sites. That may have been a mistake after we noticed it was cooler next to the river than in the rest of the campground.

The river

It was easy to see that the good reviews on AllStays were accurate. This was a very nice park and a well-maintained one. Also, the individual campsites were larger than those found in most private campgrounds. Of course, all of this comes with a higher than normal nightly rate. 

Here are some specifics about this campground:

• Our site had 20, 30 and 50 amp electrical service 
• Our site had a water connection 
• Our site had a sewer connection 
• Our site had a concrete pad and was level 
• Our site was a pull-thru
• The park had a clean, modern and well maintained restroom and shower facility near our site
• Our site had a basic tier of cable service 
• The park offered free WiFi, but it was terrible. The wireless port was immediately behind Rosie, our 25 foot Airstream trailer, but the service was either painfully slow or our iPads gave us an error message that said the Internet was unavailable. There needs to be a set of standards developed for WiFi connections that inform potential users if the service is good or practically unusable 
• AT&T placed a moderate signal over our site for voice and data

Walking around the campground that evening, we came across an Airstream International in the storage area. We noticed that this trailer was built the same year as Rosie. We also noticed that the license tag expired more than seven years earlier, meaning the trailer had probably sat in that grassy field unused and not maintained for that length of time. This International was in terrible shape. 

The discovery of this Airstream was very sad to us. We kept thinking of the happy times and adventures we were having with Rosie while this trailer was deteriorating in the campground’s storage area. 

Someone once told us that the wheels on an Airstream trailer are designed to be turning and that Airstreams are happy when moving down the road. We felt better when we saw Rosie again. The road grime didn’t matter so much because Rosie had just been on a cross-country trip and was at the center of our current adventure. 

I think that both Airstream trailers and Airstreamers are happy when moving down the road. 

Rosie in the JGW RV Park

P.S. After returning home, we learned about the terrible fire storms that struck the Redding area three weeks after our visit there. While news reports suggest that this campground was spared, many homes around Redding were destroyed. 

We hope that the fires will be quickly extinguished and those affected by the fires quickly recover. 

Rosie at JGW RV Park

Mount Shasta