CRA -- Colorado
River AdventuresCRA -- Colorado
River AdventuresI strongly recommend that you do not buy a new CRA membership.
If you want a membership, there are many people who would like to
either sell their contract or even give them away.
The demise of the Class A and 5th wheels has caused demand for RV
park contracts to go down while the sales pressure has gone up.
New contracts sound great --
but cost more. If you have a membership, CRA will not permit you
to just abandon it: you must resell it or continue to pay the annual
maintenance fee until you die. Maybe a good lawyer can help.
The CRA sales people are great: they can make black appear white.
Even the CRA sales posters lie: Free shrimp. One hour drive. Etc.
Attempting to transfer a membership will cause extreme CRA pressure
on your buyer to instead obtain a new contract. The membership
transfer fee is high. CRA increases the annual maintenance fee for your buyer over what you
are paying. The remainder of the process is not fun.
After all, you are costing CRA thousands of dollars when you transfer
your membership.. I have offered to give my membership to people
only to have my customer buy a new contract after talking to a CRA
sales person.
If you are interested in selling or giving away your membership, please send me your email address.
If you are interested in a membership for very little money, I can send you the list of these emails.
These lists are not long and are of short duration. If you
have any information in this area, please let me know. I make
nothing on such referrals.
It is interesting to me that years ago you could just drive in and
stay for your two weeks and leave. Now, you must make
reservations and their reservation computer is cruel and will often
tell you that a park is full when it is at least half empty.
Remember that using your membership costs them money.
You can still just use your time but CRA has found ways to add fees
and increase existing fees such that you can often stay at a local
motel for less money. To be fair, the last time I tried to rent a
trailer at 1000 Trails, it was cheaper to rent the motel room.
I have heard that CRA has bought back memberships from people that
they thought were hurting their image. But I think more than a
few web page words are required for this action.
CRA will invite you to a free weekend at any of their parks.
Sounds great. All you must do is listen to their spiel and sign
that you have been there. Oops. What you sign is a note
stating that you will buy a contract only from them. You may not take advantage of their free weekend and then join CRA by buying someone else's contract.
I consider this dirty pool. When you buy a contract, part of
their sales pitch is that you may sell it. CRA already makes it
hard to sell by maximizing the maintenance fee and charging more than
$1,000 for the transfer. Limiting the sale to people who have not
visited the parks is downright dirty.
The Colorado River runs through some of the most beautiful and most
desolate desert in America. This means that the enjoyable season
in these parks is in the winter. KQ Ranch and Cherry Valley are
exceptions: they are not in the desert. The home park, Emerald
Cover is on the river and
quite large. Power boat people live here even during the
summer.
This is a somewhat different group than live here in the winter.
This is a desert. If you come in the summer, some of the parks
shut down. El Golfo and Yuma Lakes, for example, are open but
have none of the facilities working. No
clubhouse activities. In fact, no activities at all. If you
do not bring your own amusement or cannot amuse yourselves, you will
quickly leave. This can mean a long, hot, unhappy drive unless
hot, dry, desert is what you want. We have people who believe the
sales spiel arrive in August and expect free shrimp and lobster.
There is never free anything. There is never lobster. In
season, there are shrimp for sale at good prices. In season, the
park has an activity schedule. Out of season, it is so hot
that
your RV air conditioner will not keep you cool -- and there is no shade.
If you have one of the coupon books for extra stays, they are like cash: lose them and they are gone. When my RV was stolen, so were my books. I requested new ones and they sent me one of the two. CRA claimed the other was no longer issued. I am thankful for the one as I used it every year at El Golfo. They did not have to do this.
CRA will scam its own members. For example, I received a call one day from the home office (Robin). I was informed my contract was invalid and that I must drive to the home office to correct the problem. I was told that this absolutely was not another sales promotion but that I would receive $60 for gas and a TV dish for making the trip. This was after I asked many questions trying to identify the source of the contract problem and why I must go to them to rectify it. So I took a week vacation and drove to Emerald Cove to talk with them. There was nothing wrong with my contract -- the trip was solely to promote the AOR campground association. I listened patiently and requested my money and dish. No money. No dish. When I protested they gave me a $10 certificate for their store and a $20 certificate for the gas station down the street. That price was $1.88 where the price in town was $1.40. Scam the public if you must -- but do not scam your own members.
After that, the CRA RV parks are not parks. They are RV
parking lots. The lots abut each other with no attempt at being part of
a natural setting. At the Lake
Havasu park little old ladies in the office make sure that any
enjoyment you might have found is quickly ruined.
The first year, I arrived at El Golfo with my paid week out coupon
book and my 30 stay coupon book. I had planned to stay for two
weeks but I liked El Golfo so much, I used the books. I used my
two weeks and then the paid week out coupon. I staid that week
and two more weeks on contract. Then I used the 30-day coupon and
then two more weeks. 11 weeks total. Great. I
loved El Golfo. After a few years CRA changed the rules: two
weeks or a coupon. Every year they manage to shrink the contract
apparently within legal limits.
CRA used to be one of the strong supporters of the Coast to Coast Organization. This is history: some CRA parks no longer accept Coast to Coast. This does not impact me since I could not use Coast to Coast at a CRA park anyway: I bought Coast to Coast through my CRA membership.
Cell: Phones work well. Location: 34.0N 117.0W ZIP: 92223
This is a cute little park of primary interest to the Riverside area for weekend getaways. The hookups are good and the park is clean.
The major drawbacks are the noise from I-10 (which runs parallel to the park) and the small sites. The noise never stops. The noise reduction wall doesn't.
The sites were built before slides were popular:
it gets really cramped in here. Most sites are level, asphalt,
drive-thrus with full hook-ups. The tiny grass islands with two
picnic tables and large trees are cute but leave people wiggling their
RVs into positions such that they do not step on each others belongings
nor run their awning into a tree. Me, I would rather have the
nice tree than worry about the artificial shade from an
awning. The drive-roads are overhung with a lot of RV tail
ends. Enjoy the pool and the fishing pond and the banana splits.
The park is the only thing here: no local attractions.
There are better places to stay if you are interested in amusement
parks (e.g. Disneyland) or dune buggies. This is a rural area only to those people who are accustomed to
downtown Los Angeles. Many people come here to listen to the CRA sales
spiel. The sales office is not quite honest about El Golfo. Visitors are
told that there is free shrimp -- all you can eat. They are also told that El Golfo is one hour
south of Yuma -- this is actually printed on a large poster in the
sales office window. With all this, I really doubt the remainder of the sales spiel.
Effort has been made to accommodate the lager RVs but with all of
the owned land, the sites are still far too small. The Cherry
Valley park was bought as a contract alternative park when a fire
threatened KQ Ranch. CRA was afraid of contract cancellations.
This is the CRA home park.
The sites are packed so closely that you measure your distance from the
ramada (if you have one) in inches on either side of your rig.
In the summer you need the ramada. Dual ACs will
not keep you cool in this climate after April.
Nothing of value here. Socialize with your
neighbors or drive your high-power boat on the Colorado River.
Trying to hike outside the park is impossible
without Vaseline
for your nose: they septic across the highway: walking into the hills
makes you nauseous.
Boat trailers park in the roadway so that
getting in and out of the sites is impossible without finding a trailer
owner.
Cell: None. Go back to Parker for cell coverage. Location: 34.2N 114.3W ZIP: 92242
I am not a member of this park. I have not been here.
This is a giant gravel parking lot with hookups. There is an adult center in the middle of the park. The park uses both sides of the street but the river side is not so pretty -- they use it for Coast-To-Coast reservations. The river side is really nicer than the member-only side but is sort of run down.
The only reason to be here is to overnight between other parks or visit Lake Havasu.
Lake Havasu is an Arizona retirement community growing very fast after a slow start for the last 20 years. Nothing here but the rebuilt London Bridge and many little shops under the bridge. I understand London wants their bridge back – claim that they misunderstood that it was being moved to Arizona!?
Cell: In town only but service and quality are very poor. Note 1. Location: 34.5N 114.4W ZIP: 86404
Go West of Colorado River on I-40. Exit River Road/W. Broadway. North along river at stop 1 mile to gate. I have not been here.
The CRA directions are a bit confusing. I think I stated it better.
See the off-season description of El Golfo: it is much the same.
Nothing here but a sick lake and lots of sites.
At the CRA park turnoff, go straight instead to
BLM land – you may spend overnights here. CRA calls this
Gilligan's Island.
The BLM land gets crowded and smells during the season. Register at the flag when it is up.
Yuma has historical significance but nobody bothers any more. "People do not go to Yuma -- they get sent to Yuma". The primary entities here are the marine air base and the Ford proving grounds. The original territorial prison is now a museum. Yuma is now the third or fourth fastest growing city I the country. If you like it, buy now while you still can.
The sales tax is confusing in Yuma. The tax gets up to 10.8%. Other places in Arizona get up to 12%.
Algodones: Go west on I-8 to the Algodones exit. South a mile to the Indian reservation parking lot. This is the best Mexico crossing coming north. This is where you go to the dentist, buy glasses or buy drugs. Careful coming back to the USA with drugs. You can park your RV in the park or boondock up the hill. On the hill they will find you,
Cell: Getting there. Location: 32.7N 114.5W ZIP: 85365
Like most CRA parks, life in this park is seasonal. The season is from October to Easter. During that time, the clubhouse and activities are part of the social life. Off season the park is open, the clubhouse is closed and there are no activities.
Off season the holidays get busy with ATV's. Other people come off season just to avoid the crowds and the social life.
This park is the primary (only?) reason to join CRA.
It is not much different than the others in architecture: park your RVs right up next to each other.
The difference is in the environment and the people. The employees are really great people. The whole world is at peace in El Golfo.
Beach front spaces are in high demand but the
corrosive ocean spray will cover the back of your rig. I avoid
beach sites.
The night guard or other workers, wash rigs --
$30 gets you the best wash you have ever had. $30 mores gets your
rig waxed.
El Golfo is on a sand beach overlooking the Gulf of California / Sea of Cortez. The village of El Golfo de Santa Clara is immediately north.
You can buy fish at the stores north of the park. Ask the park management for the preferred store.
You can buy water at the water store across from
the school or in the park. The Park has good inexpensive water
pumps for your 5-gallon bottles.
During the season, trucks stop at the gate with PROPANE, fresh produce, shrimp, and fish.
Cell: Be careful here – many work but you pay a premium rate Internet: WiFi wireless is available. Location: 31.7N 114.5W ZIP: None
DishTV: Az: 167 El: 51 Skew: 94 (Dish and Direct values are posted at the clubhouse)