We are heading out to Tomball Texas sometime in either April or May to visit our daughter. Heading out from Simi Valley, California and want to keep the trip to 12-13 days and spend 2-3 days in Tomball. The wife has never seen the Grand Canyon, so if feasible with our rig I would at least like to make a trip out that way. We have a 28ft trailer with solar, genny and 4wd truck so we do not need hookups and dont mind dry camping or even boondocking. I'm thinking 4 or so days travel time there and then again coming back, can stay a day or so somewhere if we decide we want to, we will probably have up to 16 days off total, but want some recoup time once back.

Moab and surrounding area should be on your list.

While I would love to do that, I think it will put us a little far north to make it feasible in our time frame, but could be feasible if we head north out of St. George. Have to keep that in mind

South of Flagstaff, Sedona & Jerome.

Outside of Amarillo, Palo Duro Canyon, you won’t be disappointed!!  Commercial campground near the gate, camp sites down in the park.

Can't really help with your area, but somewhat related:

Is there a navigation system that is designed for larger vehicles like campers? Maybe for tractor trailers.

Google maps and the Ford navigation will send you down some tiny unsuitable roads for campers.


I would really like to have your problem as I would love to see out west. Sorry to hijack a little

Thats actually a really good question as I was looking at back roads on google maps to connect the dots and was wondering if they would be passable with the camper in tow. I guess we could always bring the cab over and then we wouldn't have any restrictions other than room with the dogs.

You planning to take the I-10 or I-40 corridor?

ETA:  Looks like you've got a 3200 mile trip, with only 10 days of driving for that distance.  That makes for kind of long days.  So unless you're getting out of bed sparrow far, you don't have much time for any kind of sight seeing each day.  At most, you've got a few hours.  

Not quite half your travel is in Texas.  And there's a lot of cool stuff to see between San Antonio and El Paso.  If you wanted to push hard for a day or two, you could spend 2 nights in someplace like Alpine TX.  That would give you a day to hit the McDonald Observatory or fart around in the Davis Mountains.   Lots to do and see around Fredericksburg, TX too.  Lots of wineries in the area that allow overnight parking, so I'm told.  San Antonio isn't awful if you want to see the Alamo and do some wine/dine on the Riverwalk.

Sections of I-10 between El Paso and San Antonio can be fast as shit and boring as hell.  So if you've got a suitable tow vehicle, bust out a couple of long days to allow some walking around time.  

We hate having to pick up and move every day.  But we also hate 300+ mile days.  That's why it took us 12 days to do Big Bend and the 1200 mile round trip from DFW.

Fair warning...  it could be kind of warm in West TX that time of year.

No real trip route planned, was thinking more 40ish rather than the 10, but the 40 is a rather boring route. I was kinda charting it out yesterday on the map and looks like I will need to average 450 or so a day with overnights only. Not quite the vision I had in my head, as it wont leave much time for camp setup and very little time for sightseeing. I will see if I can convince the wife to take a few more days off.

As to weather, I was looking and it looks like it should be in the low to mid 80's. We could push the trip later off in the year, but I think temps will be worse, we may just have to fly back for a few days, then come back and do a 8 day trip or so out to utah/arizona. May be a more fun trip that way and be able to see more things than just highway markers

There are advantages to both routes.  I-10 gives you more interstate time.  The I-40 route only gets you part way here before you start having to pick up "back roads".  But the back roads are more fun IMO.  And in Texas, a lot of them have 70mph speed limits, or even higher.  We don't frequently push the bus faster than 70.  

Balmorhea SP would have been a great stopping point on the I-10 route if Texas Parks and Wildlife hadn't screwed the pooch on that one.  The campground has been closed for 4+ years for "renovations".  4 fucking years.  It used to be a regular stop for us.  I'd say Davis Mountains SP would be another good stop, but it's close to an hour south of I-10 when in an RV.  Beautiful scenery.  Definitely a place to make reservations early.  

The I-40 route I'm seeing diverges from the interstate around Santa Rosa, NM...  takes you down through Lubbock and Abilene.  I can't comment on SH 84, but SH 36 and SH 190 are good roads.  There's Abilene SP just south of town that we've stayed in several times.  If you made it all the way to Abilene, Palo Duro Canyon SP is one of our gems.  In full disclosure, it would probably add 100 miles to the trip.  

One thing to note - unlike a lot of other states, there's not a non-resident fee to visit a Texas state park.  What I pay, you pay.  And if you're in a Texas state park, you can fish at any lake the park touches from shore without a license.  

You might also do some research on some of the campground finding websites (Campendium is the one I've used the most).  We've stayed at city owned "rv parks" in small towns for free on many occasions.  And even the ones that aren't free are usually pretty cheap.

I was even looking  at picking up the 6 out of Albany and taking that down. It looks like a nice cruise through the countryside

I've driven parts of SH 6 in a couple of place, and it's OK.  Most of what I've been on (in and around Meridian) is 2-lane, but I believe it's all 4-lane once you get east of Waco.  

The Dublin Soda Shop would have been a fun stop, but COVID got them.  There's a nice state park just outside of Meridian that we've stayed at and will go to again.  They've got some cool old CCC work there.  I'd probably try to avoid going all the way into Waco (lots of construction), but I'm told the TX Ranger museum there is really good.  It's on my bucket list.  

105 coming out of Navasota is a good road.  249 down to Tomball is also good.  It can get busy on 6 around Bryan/College Station, but the road is mostly set up as a bypass...  mostly.

And maybe check out Spring Creek Park Campground in Tomball.  I just spotted it on the map.

That was actually the place I was looking at. It is just behind our daughters place and she said it is a nice park. The camping is free with reservations and free full hookups.

Looks like a decent app...  I'll give it a try.  Thanks.

If you're going to the south rim, find somewhere in Williams AZ to park the trailer, and drive up from there. Way easier w/out the trailer, and you'll have better luck with parking and stuff like that.

North Rim?? Just head on down!! The road is pretty good when it's open, and we pulled our smaller (24ft) trailer thru there no problem on the way back to Highway 89.

This is what I use, and it's pretty decent.
Lots of filters and gives you everything you might need for planning a trip.