I rated this RV Park: 3/5
RV Park: Cheyenne KOA Location: Cheyenne, Wyoming Proximity to town: 8 minutes to downtown Cheyenne Cost: $54.00 a day (I have the KOA Value Kard so I saved 10% on the base cost). Dates: June 11-13 2017
Space: The RVs were not on top of each other. I would call this a win for this KOA. There was plenty of room for my RV and my Jeep. If I had my 5th wheel, we still would have plenty of room, and we would be able to open our slides and use our patio.
Facilities: The Cheyenne KOA is a very basic KOA. It is clean and well kept. The grounds are quiet, and the facilities are clean. I loved the separate locking shower stalls outside of the main restrooms. These showers were large and clean and had a room to change in before stepping into the showers. For some reason, I don’t enjoy taking a shower right next to someone taking a poop, so the bathroom/shower set up was perfect.
Amenities: Cheyenne is a flat place with a lot of wind. Like many RV parks, having a fire right next to your rig is a no-go, especially when a stiff wind and dry conditions exist. This KOA has a great little fire ring with built in seating around the ring, so campers can still feel like they are in nature, and not necessarily out in the middle of the prairie. Campers can purchase firewood at the Kamp Store if the spontaneous urge for a campfire arises. Even when the wind kicked up, we didn’t feel like we were in danger of burning the place down, so we enjoyed sitting by the fire and watching the stars.
I didn’t swim, but there is a pool on site that looked very clean. There is also a pet area, a mini-golf course, and a Kamping Kitchen. My little RV sink is small, so I used the sink in the Kamping Kitchen, and it was fabulous. Wi-fi and cable TV are available in many of the sites.
The Hosts and the Office: Kudos to the hosts at this park. We had a pretty scary experience with a tornado, and they were calm, collected, and let us know the proper precautions to take in the case of a tornado warning. More on this little adventure below.
Practice what you park: This KOA is honest with their advertising, so I wasn’t surprised about anything when I arrived. This trip was my first experience towing my T@B longer than an hour away. I was pretty apprehensive about pulling in to my space and setting up camp by myself, and the camp hosts made sure I was pulled far enough into the space, and they made sure that I had everything that I needed for a good camping experience. As a solo woman RVer, the kindness they gave me made me feel so much better about my whole stay there.
Other information (road noise, etc.): The KOA is pretty close to the interstate. There was road noise from the big rigs passing by, but when I put on my fan inside of my RV, I didn’t hear the noise anymore.
My experiences: I have a weird connection with tornados. Some people have connections with numbers, and some people have connections with colors, animals, or people. My connection isn’t the kind that I want to experience in an RV. Lucky for me, my little oddity reared its ugly head while I was staying at the KOA.
This trip was to be the first real trip that I would take on my own in my RV. I had been on one overnight camping excursion an hour away from home a few weeks before my trip to Cheyenne, but my trip to Wyoming was the first time I’d tow on a major interstate, and it would be the first time that I would fully disconnect from my Jeep. I was excited for this trip because I was meeting another solo female RVer. Sharron had been out a few times in her RV, but like me, she was new to Rving on her own. We planned our trip to catch up with each other and enjoy our new pastime together.
We decided to head into town to try out a few breweries and walk around downtown Cheyenne. Most breweries don’t open until later in the afternoon, so we killed time until Danielmark’s Brewery and Taproom opened up. While we were sipping our drinks, the bartender came over and said, “Don’t worry…we have a basement if we need it.” Sharron and I looked at each other and were confused. “What?” The bartender explained that we were under a tornado watch, but we would be safe if we needed to seek shelter.
The first thing to cross our minds was the fact that we had both left the roof vents open on our RVs. The second thing to cross our minds was our RVs. We had to get back to the KOA–and quickly. We ran to the car, dodging huge rain drops. I drove, and Sharron navigated. We kept our eye on the sky the entire time. We had gotten ahead of the storm and pulled into the KOA to find many people standing outside staring at the sky. Sharron jumped out and asked the camp hosts what to do in the case of a tornado. They explained that we would have to seek shelter in the restrooms. Scared, we got back to our spot and secured our campers as best as we could. We each had a bag to take with us should we need to go to the shelter, and we sat on the picnic bench watching the sky and monitoring the radars on our phones.
As the storm moved closer to the KOA, the sky became increasingly ominous. We could see the circulation above us, and the pressure change made both of our heads ache. We watched as the storm moved diagonally across the park, as it left a small clearing directly over us. The churning sky moved quickly, and we watched as a funnel formed on the plains a few miles from our spot. We knew that we were safe because of the movement of the clouds above us. The radar on our weather apps indicated the storm had bypassed us. We were safe.
Even though we didn’t end up in the tornado’s direct path, we felt like we experienced what most people in an RV or a mobile home hope never to experience. It was scary, and I don’t want to have to go through something like that again. The whole situation could have ended up very differently, and in the end, we had a wild tale to tell. We were both grateful that the people at the KOA were able to give us instructions in the case the storm had changed paths. They were calm and collected, and for campers, that kind of demeanor was the best to have in a scary situation. Thanks, Cheyenne KOA!