Campground Review: Escapee's North Ranch RV Park Congress, AZ

I drove about 160 miles east from Craggy Wash to the Escapee North Ranch RV Park which is about five miles to the south of the tiny town of Congress, AZ.  The site is both an RV park and a small community of Escapees who own lots to either park their RV's on in the winter months or to build small homes on them.  I'm an Escapee member so they cut me a lower price than non-Escapees and, seeing a forecast for about six days of nightly temperatures in the low-30's I signed on for a one week stay for $120 ($17 per night!) for a site with full hookups.  The electricity would allow me to run my small electric space heater rather than burning through a bunch of my little green propane canisters that my propane heater runs.

The Clubhouse at North Ranch.

In my previous stays at North Ranch I had visited later in the year but this visit was in "Prime Time" and the park was pretty full, almost congested.

The Tank's site.  The site on the drivers side is actually vacant.

Here's the North Ranch data sheet:

Hookups:                                             30, 50 amp, water, sewer                                           

Fire ring:                                              No (no campfires)                                                      

Water Access:                                     No                                                                  

Fresh Water:                                        Yes                                                     

Trash Service:                                      Yes                                                     

Toilets:                                                Yes                                                     

Showers:                                             Yes                                                     

Dump station:                                      Yes                                         

WiFi:                                                   Yes (Tengo Internet $3/day)                                      

Level sites:                                          Yes                                         

Laundry:                                             Yes                                                     

Store:                                                  No                                                                              

Pool:                                                   No                                                                              

Shade:                                                No                                                      

Verizon reception:                               4G, 3 of 5 bars                                               

Internet reception:                               3 bars                          

Cost:                                                 $19/night (member) $26.50/night (non member)

The streets of the North Ranch community have very little traffic and I got in my three mile daily walks with no problems.  On one walk I came across a nice little park featuring lots of different types of cactus called Saguaro Park.

Entrance to the cactus park the community has built.

Most of the plants have name tags to tell you what they are.

Spring flowering.

A rabbit in the shade, North Ranch had a large wild rabbit population.

If you full time in an RV becoming a member of the Escapees is something you should consider, and not just for the discounts at their chain of RV parks.  The also have a renowned mail forwarding service which maintains my mail address (and legal residence) for only $100 / year.  My plan to dodge the cold nighttime weather worked out great, on my last day at North Ranch the cold front moved on and I decided to move south and boondock again in the Buckeye area.  I'll do a write-up on that next.

Thanks for reading!