Our Snowbird RV Route: Colorado to Texas and Back
Our first snowbird winter took the Brinkley from Colorado south through New Mexico to Texas in late October 2025, then home through Arizona and New Mexico in the spring of 2026. Over 61 nights we camped at 26 different places, and Texas got 31 of those nights, more than the other three states put together.
In our welcome video we told you we were going to “drive from Colorado down to Texas.” We did, and then we kept going back. Here’s how it went, leg by leg. The full route and what the campsites cost are at the bottom.
How much of the year did we actually spend in the trailer?
More than anywhere else we went. We bought the Brinkley at the end of August 2025 and picked it up on August 30. From then to September 30, 2026, we spent 159 nights away from home, and 85 of them were in the trailer. That’s more than Costa Rica and Hawaii combined.
So the trailer wasn’t where we lived every night. It was our main way to travel. Erin and I made all three Costa Rica trips together, including our November 2025 retreat in Nosara. The Vancouver to Hawaii cruise and our time on Kauai took 19 nights in the fall of 2025 (that’s Episodes 2 and 3). The rest of the year we were home in Colorado, a good part of it for surgeries, including Erin’s spinal fusion surgery in late September 2026 (her updates are in Erin’s Corner). Of our 85 trailer nights, 61 were on the snowbird route below.
| Where we slept away from home | Nights |
|---|---|
| The Brinkley (34 stays) | 85 |
| Costa Rica (three trips) | 55 |
| Repositioning cruise and Hawaii | 19 |
| Total away from home | 159 |
What route did we take from Colorado to Texas?
We left a chilly Colorado in late October with Rindo riding along, towing with our old F-150 hybrid (the F-250 didn’t show up until January). It took about twelve days to get from Lathrop State Park to Austin (coming soon: Episode 4).
Night two taught us two lessons at once. Heading for Villanueva State Park in New Mexico, we found out the park locks its gate at closing, and that our tank was a lot emptier than we’d planned. We made it, and the next morning I unhooked the trailer and the range estimate jumped to about 40 miles. Since then we have a rule: when the truck hits half a tank, we stop at the next convenient gas station.
At Valley of Fires the campground sits on a ridge above what I can only describe as an ocean of black lava, and we filmed a yoga class there. At Davis Mountains State Park in West Texas we pointed a camera at some of the darkest skies in the state, and Erin taught a class up on Skyline Drive.
Lake Amistad sits right on the US and Mexico border. We spent the night at Southwinds Marina on the lake, a military campground run by Laughlin Air Force Base, and paid $30. It’s where we did our first load of laundry on the road (free!) and where I made a roughly 800-point turn with the trailer still hooked up. After a night at Guadalupe River State Park, we rolled into McKinney Falls State Park, which feels like an oasis inside Austin. You can still hear the airplanes, but the e-bike trails are great.
Where did we spend the winter?
After that first stretch at McKinney Falls, we parked the Brinkley in a storage lot in Austin with the e-bikes locked inside and took an Uber to the airport. We flew to Costa Rica for our November retreat in Nosara, then came straight back to Austin for Thanksgiving.
December was the Texas coast and East Texas. We started at Goose Island, on the bays just north of Rockport, and worked our way inland to Lake Corpus Christi. Then we headed up to Lake Livingston in the Pineywoods and finished at Brazos Bend, which is alligator country (the volunteers there impressed me). I bought our Texas State Parks Pass on November 28, just before we headed for the coast. Ask me about the Texas park system and you’ll get two words from me: phenomenal, top notch.
Then the trailer went back into storage in Austin. We kept a spot there from October to April, on top of our home lot in Colorado, which meant paying for two storage lots at once. We weren’t traveling in January and February. We were home in Colorado while I recovered from surgery.
How did we get home in the spring?
The long way. In March 2026 we pulled out of Austin and drove west through Abilene to New Mexico, where Bottomless Lakes is a chain of eight sinkhole lakes southeast of Roswell. Then we crossed into southern Arizona. Kartchner Caverns protects a living cave you can only see on a guided tour, and Catalina State Park near Tucson has nearly 5,000 saguaros. We came back through Rockhound in New Mexico and finished at Trinidad Lake, three nights in Colorado before home.
We didn’t stay home long. We got back and turned right around to host a yoga retreat in Costa Rica in April. When we came home from that, we picked up the trailer and headed for Oak Creek Canyon, because Erin had the Sedona Yoga Festival. That loop started at Pine Flat Campground in Oak Creek Canyon near Sedona, where my Access Pass took half off, and to Rio Verde RV Park in Cottonwood. Then came Lost Dutchman under the Superstition Mountains. We crossed New Mexico to City of Rocks and the West Texas dunes at Monahans Sandhills, and then spent five nights at Austin East KOA.
On the way north out of Austin we got a flat near Lometa, with no equipment to fix it ourselves. That story (and the tools I bought within a week) is in what our year on the road cost. Palo Duro Canyon and Sugarite Canyon, just outside Raton, got us home.
Where did we stay the longest?
Austin was the hub, and it wasn’t close. McKinney Falls had five nights across two visits, and Austin East KOA had five in a row. We started using the KOA for its sewer hookups and laundry, the boring stuff you need between the pretty stops. After those came Pine Flat and Lake Livingston at four nights each.
Everything else was short. Twenty-four of our 27 stays were three nights or less, and seven were a single night. Would I do fewer, longer stops next time? Yes, 100 percent. By the time you arrive and unpack, the afternoon is gone. You need a full day to actually enjoy a place, and then the next day you’re packing up. We’ve done stops of every length from one night to four, and two nights is the very least now. Three is ideal.
What did camping cost in each state?
All of our first-year state park nights outside Colorado happened on this route, so this table is really the cost of the route.
Texas was the cheapest, helped by a $70 pass that paid us back $231 (the full breakdown is in our Texas vs. Colorado pass post). Arizona cost about twice as much a night as Texas. Federal land beat them all once I had the Access Pass, with Pine Flat at $72.14 for four nights. Private parks went the other way. Counting the Laughlin campground with them, they averaged $76.11 a night over 10 first-year nights.
| State parks in | Nights | We paid | Per night |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 25 | $612.00 | $24.48 |
| New Mexico | 11 | $382.00 | $34.73 |
| Colorado (whole first year) | 10 | $365.94 | $36.59 |
| Arizona | 6 | $310.80 | $51.80 |
The whole route, leg by leg
Here’s every stop in order, with the month and the nights.
| Month | Stop | State | Nights |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leg 1: Colorado to Austin, fall 2025 | |||
| Oct 2025 | Lathrop State Park | Colorado | 1 |
| Oct 2025 | Villanueva State Park | New Mexico | 1 |
| Oct 2025 | Valley of Fires | New Mexico | 2 |
| Oct 2025 | Davis Mountains State Park | Texas | 2 |
| Nov 2025 | Southwinds Marina (Laughlin AFB), Lake Amistad | Texas | 1 |
| Nov 2025 | Guadalupe River State Park | Texas | 1 |
| Nov 2025 | McKinney Falls State Park | Texas | 3 |
| Leg 2: Texas, Thanksgiving into December 2025 | |||
| Nov 2025 | McKinney Falls State Park | Texas | 2 |
| Nov 2025 | Goose Island State Park | Texas | 3 |
| Dec 2025 | Lake Corpus Christi State Park | Texas | 2 |
| Dec 2025 | Lake Livingston State Park | Texas | 4 |
| Dec 2025 | Brazos Bend State Park | Texas | 3 |
| Leg 3: Austin home to Colorado, March 2026 | |||
| Mar 2026 | Abilene State Park | Texas | 1 |
| Mar 2026 | Bottomless Lakes State Park | New Mexico | 1 |
| Mar 2026 | Leasburg Dam State Park | New Mexico | 2 |
| Mar 2026 | Kartchner Caverns State Park | Arizona | 1 |
| Mar 2026 | Catalina State Park | Arizona | 3 |
| Mar 2026 | Rockhound State Park | New Mexico | 2 |
| Mar 2026 | Trinidad Lake State Park | Colorado | 3 |
| Leg 4: back south and home again, April to May 2026 | |||
| Apr 2026 | Pine Flat Campground | Arizona | 4 |
| Apr 2026 | Rio Verde RV Park | Arizona | 3 |
| Apr 2026 | Lost Dutchman State Park | Arizona | 2 |
| May 2026 | City of Rocks State Park | New Mexico | 3 |
| May 2026 | Monahans Sandhills State Park | Texas | 2 |
| May 2026 | Austin East KOA Holiday | Texas | 5 |
| May 2026 | Palo Duro Canyon State Park | Texas | 2 |
| May 2026 | Sugarite Canyon State Park | New Mexico | 2 |
Where are we headed this winter?
This November we’re back in Costa Rica for our retreat. As for the trailer, nothing is set yet. We’re thinking Arizona and then, hopefully, Florida. We’ve never been to that part of the country, so if you have favorite stops between Texas and Florida, I’d love to hear them. Our Texas pass expires November 30, and I’m renewing it.
Questions people ask
How long does it take to drive an RV from Colorado to Austin?
Our first trip took about twelve days, from Lathrop State Park in Colorado on October 26 to McKinney Falls in Austin. We made seven stops and filmed along the way, so you could do it faster.
How much does it cost to camp in Texas state parks in winter?
Across 25 nights our Texas state park stays averaged $24.48 a night, entrance fees included. The $70 Texas State Parks Pass covers entry for everyone in the car and takes half off the second night on stays of two nights or more. It doesn’t cover the campsite itself.
Are Arizona state parks more expensive than New Mexico’s?
In our receipts, yes. Our six Arizona state park nights averaged $51.80, while eleven New Mexico state park nights averaged $34.73.
How many nights should you stay at each RV stop?
We’d say three. By the time you arrive and unpack, most of the first afternoon is gone, and the last day goes to packing up. Three nights gives you one full day to enjoy the place. Two is the minimum we’d book now.
See you down the road,
Matt