Visit to Zion National Park - Watchman Electric Campground

[Scopegeek]

Cindy and I visited Zion National Park in late September and stayed in our TM 3124KB at the Watchman Electric Campgrounds located near the Park Visitor's Center. As noted in the campground name, this campground has electricity but does not have city water or sewer on the RV sites. Potable water is located at the dump station near the campground entrance. The ater spigots near the restrooms don't have threaded connections for hoses, that's why you need to use the potable water at the dump station. RV campers should fill their fresh water tanks before proceeding to their specific campsite. Most of the RV sites are shaded in this particular campground. These campgrounds must be reserved during the prime season (through October) at least several weeks in advance.

I tried to return to the same campground a couple of weeks later and there were no campsites available and I had to use the Ferber Resort (http://www.zioncamp.com/) at the Quality Inn just outside the Park. This RV Park has full connections to include Cable TV for $27 a night. There are other RV parks between Zion and the town of La Verkin, Utah. Zion River Resort RV Park and Campground (http://www.zionriverresort.com/) is the newest and more expensive.

Below are some photos of some of the lesser known sites at Zion. You can see pics of Zion famous sites by viewing Google Images of Zion National Park.

[Bill]

The water spigots near the restrooms don't have threaded connections for hoses, that's why you need to use the potable water at the dump station. RV campers should fill their fresh water tanks before proceeding to their specific campsite.Uh-oh! Clearly you left home without your water thief!
http://www.campingworld.com/search/index.cfm?action=search&tcode=11&keywords=water+thief&x=0&y=0
I'm surprised at how hard these things are to find, but Camping World (and probably most RV stores) keep them in stock.

Bill

[Scopegeek]

Thanks, Bill. Didn't know there was such a thing. You can bet I'll have one the next time I go out. As you can tell, we are definitely newbies, but learning. Thanks to old pros like you to help us out.

[B_and_D]

I got yelled at by a campground host once for running a hose from an unthreaded outlet to the TM water inlet. He said that they didn't have anti-siphon valves on their outlets and that by putting a hose into our system and having it "connected" to their system that I could contaminate their system. They had actually filed down the water spigot threads so they couldn't be connected to a hose.

[Bill]

Yes, I have heard of that.

Campgrounds with unthreaded spigots generally expect shared use of those spigots. They don't have enough to allow one hose connection per trailer, and they don't want you to permanently connect, probably because easy water would overload the sewage system. What I have done is to pick a campsite that is close enough to a spigot so my hose will reach - I carry an extra 50' of water hose to rustic campgrounds. Once set up, I use the water thief to fill my onboard tank, and then remove the thief and roll up my hose. If you can find such a campsite, it is a lot easier than lugging water in a bucket and filling through a funnel. (By the way, there are much easier ways to fill the tank than with a bucket and funnel!)

Bill

[Scopegeek]

The only water spigots in the campground were near the restrooms, so I wasn't expecting to stay connected. I just wanted to fill my 40 gallon tank. I had experienced this same thing at Yosemite, but the spigots at Yosemite had threads so I could pull up and use my hose to fill my water tank. Without a "water thief" at Zion, I had to pull the TM back out to the dump station and use the threaded potable water spigot there. I've now ordered a "water thief" so I'll be prepared the next time.

[B_and_D]

I wasn't permanently connected, and was using the unthreaded TM inlet, but I still got yelled at. :confused:

Last time we dry-camped we alternated between using our 5-gallon Coleman shower and a 3 liter Shasta Cola bottle that I had washed out to fill up the tank. Those 3 liter bottles have a mouth that is the perfect size to fit into the TM inlet, and they are a lot easier on your back. Plus, I can get even my daughter to do some of the filling up, it takes a few trips but it gets filled up quicker than you'd think.

[Scopegeek]

Since the edit function isn't working, I've added this posting to invite you to see additional photos on Doug W's TrailManor Photo Gallery at http://tmphotos.org/modules/xoopsgalleryv2/index.php?g2_itemId=613. Drop by and give them a look.