This is our fifth day at Sam’s Family Spa and so far we’ve done almost nothing…well nothing worthy of a blog post that is. Most of our days have been filled with work, laundry, cleaning and after remembering that Christmas is rapidly approaching, ordering some online gifts. Oh…and soaking in the hot pools. Sooo much soaking in the hot pools. Sam’s has four mineral spring fed hot pools of varying temperatures. The last few days we’ve been soaking after dinner when the sun disappears and the temperatures drop down into the lower 60s. The hot water and the cool air is an unbeatable combination.
Hot pools, Outdoor pool at night, Outdoor pool & palms in the day
Sam’s also has an amazing outdoor pool surrounded by mature palm trees. Between soaking in the hot pools we’ve spent quite a bit of time here enjoying the “cooler” 80 degree water. Not many other people seem to take advantage of the outdoor pool so we usually have the entire thing to ourselves.
So many empty chairs…
The spa area is definitely the main draw of Sam’s. The campground itself is pretty basic and probably not somewhere we would stay without the added benefit of a luxurious hot springs and pool area. The sites are gravel with concrete patios, picnic tables and very little vegetation. Luckily it’s a big place with lots of open sites so we chose a spot far in the back with a mountain view away from all the other campers. The most popular sites appear to be in the front of the park near the spa so I don’t think anyone is likely to occupy one of these empty spots near us.
View at our site- lots of empty spots
There may not be much vegetation in and around the sites, but there are lots of Palm trees all over the park. And if you point the camera high enough you can even get a shot of them with no RVs in view.
Palm tree skyline
We decided to take advantage of our extended stationary position to do a little Christmas decorating. I’m usually all about the decorations this time of year, but since I had to leave my multiple boxes of ornaments, mini trees and sparkly garlands behind, this year will be a little different. Honestly I thought I would be more sad about it than I am. Every year of my life I’ve had a real live Christmas tree and up until a few months ago I was pretty sure Christmas would cease to exist without this tradition. Well it turns out that since it’s 75 degrees and sunny everyday it doesn’t feel like Christmas anyway, so I’m not all that inspired to decorate. In the end we settled on a string of lights, a sparkly bow outside near the front door, and a little indoor display with this cool airstream decoration that my dad sent us last year and my favorite tree that traveled across the country with us.
Christmas decoration round-up
In between soaking in the hot springs and decorating the airstream, we pulled ourselves away from the campground long enough to go on a little hike in the hills across the street. I learned from Nina over at the Wheeling It blog that somewhere over there is a trail that leads to the top of Flag Mountain. It sounded like a good hike, but at ~6 miles that’s too long for our old man dog so we ended up making our own alternate route. Lately we’ve been hiking without Phineas most of the time. I always feel guilty leaving him behind, but I know that letting him rest in the airstream is better than dragging him up a mountain and exhausting the poor old guy. We wanted to take him yesterday though because the only exercise he’s gotten since we arrived has been some short walks around the park and he was getting antsy.
Here is is looking rather distinguished in the morning light
So instead of climbing the mountain we made our way across the scruby desert and over to the bottom of the hills where we hiked up one of the small foothills. It ended up being a 3 mile hike which is pretty good for a dog who’s almost 13 years old!
Desert view
That about wraps up our first half a week at Sam’s. We’ll be here for another week and are very excited that Tim’s mom will be joining us for a visit starting on Tuesday. I have a huge list of fun places to go and things to do in the area so the next blog post is sure to be more exciting. Till then, we’ll be at the spa…
3 comments
So happy you guys are enjoying the spa. Most of the time we end up doing nothing and just hanging around in the hot pools too…it’s just soooooo nice! Cheers for the mention too.
Nina
Hi, I came across your blog when I was searching for camper makeovers. I have started from the beginning of our blog and I’m loving it.
We are just part-timers, mostly weekends at the lake and other close to home places, but I was wondering if you might have any helpful hints when traveling with pets. We have a 1 1/2 year old lab that will be joining us this year – she also LOVES the water like Phin – can’t keep her out of little puddles, lol ! I was just wondering if you have come across any good products or ways to keep the doggies cleaner and the camper cleaner also?
Hi Leslie, I don’t have any specific product recommendations, but if you have a choice of what kind of carpet you have in the RV (if you don’t have wall to wall carpet) go for an indoor-outdoor type rug that is easier to clean. Also, a good dog bed with a removable cover where the pooch can spend time while wet is key. Other than that, I would say a good rechargeable vacuum clear for those inevitable messes is a must!