Thunderbird Resort Thousand Trails

This was our 3rd visit to Thunderbird. It is located along historic Highway 2 corridor and close to Seattle and the Puget Sound. It is a modest campground but feels more like a community than any other Thousand Trails we have visited and the only one that we can say that we know the entire year round staff -they are very friendly and willing to go above and beyond.

Pros
• Big rig friendly
• Higher % of FHU sites then most Thousand Trails we have been to
• View of River with lots of wildlife watching and Bald Eagle nest
• Close to Services
• Lots of tourism activities within 1 hr drive
• Popular with Families
• Regular trains go by on the other side of the valley (4-8 a weekday), our boys love this!
• Just upgraded all water and electrical throughout the park
• Grounds are well maintained
• Great Membership Specialist

Cons
• About ½ of the FHU sites are on hill side/slipped sites
• Room/building with pool table was closed for maintenance
• Gravel and unpaved roads
• I am struggling to come up with more cons….

Local Restaurant Recommendations
• Kami Teriyaki & Sushi
• Golden City Buffet (Chinese)
• Ixtapa Restaurant (Mexican)
• Sultan Thai Restaurant

Local Attractions
• Sultan playground (large with good ADA options)
• Lots of events at ‘The Evergreen State Fairgrounds’
• Reptile Zoo (one of the best we have visited with lots of hands-on for the kids and large variety)
• River Kayaking and Fishing
• Bird Watching

Local Shopping
• Groceries: Safeway, Fred Meyers and Walmart
• Lowe's Hardware
• Coastal Farm and Ranch (and camping/hunting)
• Tractor Supply (best location for propane in town)
• Ben Franklin craft store
• NAPA Auto Parts

Regional Attractions
• Hiking, backpacking and skiing up Hwy 2
• Discovery Park
• Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park
• Imagine Children’s Museum
• Many more

Stayed here for 2 nights on the river side. Had W/E only, with a newer 50 amp pedestal. Site and road was gravel, but lots of green grass between and behind sites. Sites with adequate space between them, most of the nice useable space is behind the RV. While it is close to the road, noise was not an issue. Did not get OTA or satellite from site. Did not use amenities. Only complaint is that dump station drains SLOWLY!

Join us on a tour of Thousand Trails RV Campground and a tiny camper. Thousand Trails Thunderbird RV Campground is located near Monroe Washington. In this video, we provide a walking tour of the Thousand Trails Thunderbird RV Campground. We show you campground amenities and provide insight into how to snag a scenic campsite upon arrival. Plus, a new Thousand Trails Member gives us a tour of their tiny camper. Verizon cellular service clocked in at 51.8 Mbps download speed and 16.9 Mbps upload speed. T-Mobile cellular service clocked in at 22.8 Mbps download speed and 0.51 Mbps upload speed. A speed test for AT&T cellular service failed, and AT&T cellular service was not reliable throughout our stay at this location.

We've been members since this was Leisure Time (30+ years), and used to come all the time tent camping with the kids. They're all grown now, and we come once or twice a year now that we're full-timers - summer and Xmas - to spend time with the kids and grandkids. To correct a few of the incorrect reviews, it's the Skykomish River, not the Snohomish. The north side of Ben Howard Rd, and therefore the north part of the campground and next to the river, is 50-amp and no sewer. The south side of the campground, where all the amenities are located, is 30-amp and FHU. At this time with the COVID restrictions, all the amenities are closed except restrooms and laundry.

Arrival was easy, we go into the day-parking lot, turn around, and walk to the ranger station next to it, because we're so big it's difficult to turn around to get back out of the main campground area if we go up to the ranger station like you would normally. The turns are tight in the main section, and there are only a couple spots we would fit it, one of which is handicapped, which we are not, and the other has been turned into an annual site. We already know that we'll fit in the west section river sites, 77-98. All sites are back-in, and sites 60-76 in the east river section are difficult to back into because of our length and the narrowness of the access "road". We pull our 45' toyhauler with a Freightliner, so we need a bit of room to maneuver the truck if the sites are too 90-degree square to the roads, like they are in the main campground. They're at a better angle in 77-98.

In the winter when it's rainy, this place is a mudhole. Nothing is paved, so it's mud, gravel, wet grass, you get the picture. In the summer when it's dry, it's pretty pleasant. The river is floatable from the campground down to the Monroe bridge, where there's great access with parking.

Ben Howard road is narrow, hilly, no shoulders. The one improvement we noticed is that they've lowered the speed limit to 25 in the vicinity of the campground, which is nice since you have to cross the road to get from the river side to the main side where the restrooms are located. Whether people observe that new speed limit or not seems to be hit or miss, but at least it can now be enforced if the county so chooses.

There is new management the past year or so, and things seem a little better, but this campground is so old that many things are in serious need of upgrading. It doesn't appear that Equity Lifestyle Properties (the overall owner) seems to spend much money on anything here, including regular maintenance. One toilet at the shower bathroom has been removed from the floor and was out of order the last time we were here nine months ago. Seems to me that kind of work should be done immediately. Perhaps it's COVID-related this time, but there's always at least one out-of-order each time we visit.

It's a great location for us because our kids live nearby, but if we had a better option we'd take it. I'm sure we'll be back, because no one is building new RV parks anywhere nearby.

Our favorite thing about this campground is the location near our family, and the river. We see eagles, and there's just something about the water that makes everything else bearable.

We got here March 31 st, just as Covid 19 was shutting the state down. We were only going to stay 16 days but the state issued a stay in place order so we ended up staying into May. The manager here, Kim Brunskill was an angel. She updated us directly whenever she got new info or instructions. The clubhouse and pools were closed by state order but they have a clean laundry area with 6 washers and 6 dryers. They also do propane refill here on Sundays through Thursdays during limited hours. The campgrounds are about 7 miles from Monroe which has a Walmart, Fred Myers, and Safeway. All the restaurants were closed for sit-in dining but some were open for takeout. There are dozens of drive-thru coffee shops so if that's your thing, your covered. This are es a small campground on the side of a hill and one does have to work at getting level but it's doable. Big rigs have some difficulties but they seem to manage as there are a number of them here. The campground on the north side of the road all have FHU, save one while the 2 campgrounds south of the road are water and electric only but are on the lovely Skykomish River. To the east are the Cascade mountains.
You're in the forest here Skyview with a dish is hit or miss and there is zero over the air TV reception. However, our Verizon coverage (using a booster) as just fine and we had no trouble streaming movies. We will stay here again.

We took one of the interior sites instead of waterfront (which look amazing) because there is no sewer by the waterfront. If we were only here for 7 days, we'd take the waterfront in a second.

The interior sites range from not bad spacing to kind of tight for a big rig. Site 58 is one of the tighter ones and with our 43' rig we found the fire ring unusable. It was too bloody cold for us anyway, being early October, so no loss. There were lots of sites available shortly after noon on Sunday, but the park was almost full again by 4pm.

There is no 50 amp service in our site, but there are quite a few 50 amp sites in the interior loops. Waterfront is all 30 amp. The water from the spigot is clear and the sites are mostly flat, even going up the steep little hill on the far end. The roads could be better as even at 5 mph you will feel the pot holes. Staff is friendly has all heck and they try to make things right for you. They fill LP tanks on-site and there are several 24 hr gas stations that swap the smaller tanks.

No TV reception with our little HD antenna, but Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile are great. Unlike some locations, when we select a show on Hulu, it starts within seconds.

The road to the campground is in good repair, but very narrow with tight corners and narrow to nonexistent shoulders; I suspect it's a 35 mph road for that reason. Watch the corners as some of the electric poles are literally up against the road.

The whole area is one big beautiful park-like setting and Seattle is just 30 minutes away. There are nice grocery stores, hardware, and tons of local restaurants within 20 minutes. We plan to be back here in 2021 and will make this a three-week stop during early August.

The obligatory railroad is far enough away so it won't affect anyone except the very light sleepers. Traffic noise is a non-issue as it's a tight, little country road.

This was our first time staying at Thunderbird with our Thousand Trails pass. They were booked up on the website, but I called and the wonderful gal in the office (Cheryl, I think?) was able to piece 2 full weeks together for us. We were so grateful.

Tech Specs (WeBoost + Omnidirectional Antenna) -------
Verizon - our Verizon hotspot battery swelled up, so we weren't able to test Verizon this time.
AT&T - 13.6 mbps download | 1.29 mbps upload | 70 ms ping

Note: AT&T was spotty around the park. We were fine on data with our WeBoost, but struggled with phone calls if we weren't standing right beside the booster.

The Good --------
- The staff is super friendly and helpful
- Sites on the sewer side of the park are well shaded and fairly spacious (we admittedly had one of the better spots!)
- Activities are all close to the sewer campsites (playground, pool, mini golf), so I felt okay letting our kiddo play at the playground by himself.
- Pool was excellent (regular pool, "quiet pool", kiddie pool, and hot tub
- Monroe shopping is only about 10 minutes away, so it was super convenient to go to Safeway (free pickup!) and several restaurants nearby.
- River nearby is beautiful and crystal clear. Lots of folks floating in tubes and playing in the shallow areas.

The Bad --------
- If you don't get a sewer site on the "main" side of the park and have to camp on the river side, you have to cross a road to get to the pool, office, playground, etc. That would have been really inconvenient with kids. It's not the kind of road I'd want my kids crossing alone.
- On the sewer side, the men's bathroom only had one functioning shower (looks like they are remodeling), but the pool bathroom has 3 showers.

We loved staying here, not as much private space but everything was really nice, it was memorial weekend that we stayed through and they had alot of really nice activites for the kids, the adult and kids pool were nice and clean, the staff was really nice, and the had alot of really nice amenities. If you're looking for glamping then this isn't the place but most thousand trails aren't this is a nice place and they even give you an option to have in home wifi for a small price really awesome! We really enjoyed staying!