Over the past 25 years, three generations of the Tibbals-Skinner family have built, owned and operated Desert Rose RV Park in the tiny high desert town of Fernley, Nev., roughly 40 miles east of Reno.
The 115-site park accommodates overnight travelers as well as construction workers, contractors and consultants working at the neighboring Tahoe Reno Industrial Center, the largest industrial park in the world, which is only about 15 minutes away.
But changes are coming to the park in 2026, reflecting changing technology as well as an increasing focus on guest comfort, aesthetics and accommodations.
Instead of solely taking reservations seven days a week by phone during the park’s office hours from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., the Skinners plan to invest in a new reservations system that will enable guests to book their campsites online on a 24/7 basis, said park manager and co-owner Debbie Skinner.
Her family also plans to resurface the park’s roads and may invest in another rental unit, potentially a park model RV, to complement the furnished covered wagon they bought from the Conestoga Wagon Co. last year.
Debbie designed and built the nine-acre park with her parents, Don and Sandy Tibbals, her brother, Dewey, and her husband, Justin Skinner, who passed away five years ago.
“We all built the park together,” Debbie said, noting that her father is a general contractor. “We purchased the land in 1998, broke ground in 1999 and opened the park in May of 2000,” she said.
The family built the park to a higher standard than the norm in the late ’90s, ensuring that every site would accommodate every RV by being equipped with 30- and 50-amp electrical service.
They also built a large bathhouse, which was unusual at the time. The showers, restrooms and laundry area were built with family in mind.
“My dad said that he wanted to build a park and with amenities that were better than what you’d see in the RVs traveling down the road,” noted Debbie
The family has also set aside a section of their park for RV storage to accommodate RV owners in neighboring residential communities whose regulations may prohibit RV parking.
Additionally, the park features a camp store with a wide range of RV parts, which provides guests with added convenience by saving them a trip into Reno.
“I try to be prepared for them when they’re not,” Debbie said.
While her parents were involved in building the park, Debbie’s dad made it clear he wanted her to run the business.
“Dad said, ‘My work here is done. Take care of my hobby,’” Debbie recalled with a laugh.
While she initially split her time between her parents’ contracting construction business and the RV park, the RV park soon consumed all of Debbie’s work time.
“The park is open seven days a week and that became my job,” she said, adding, “I am often there seven days a week, two to three weeks at a time.”
While she initially kept the RV park office open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., she eventually scaled it back to Monday to Saturday 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
“We didn’t have the draw to warrant that many (office) hours,” she said.
In recent years, Debbie has learned to appreciate the value of work campers, with the “perfect cocktail” being three couples and one janitorial/housekeeping staff member. She calls on her brother, Dewey, to help when bigger maintenance issues need attention.
“It’s having a great family that makes it work,” she said.
During the winter (off) season, Desert Rose RV Park increases the monthly sites, which fill quickly with skilled trade workers who mostly work at the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center.
“Right now,” Debbie said, “we have a lot of electricians and pipe fitters (as guests), and that’s because they are in high demand. There is not enough housing in the area and they don’t want to be locked into a year’s lease when their work may only be a few months. Over half of my sites are rented to those people.”
In fact, during the winter months, overnight travelers account for only about 15% of Desert Rose RV Park’s business. But during the summertime, she said, she allocates half of her sites for overnight travelers, who pay a higher rate.
Some summer attractions include the annual Fastest Gun Alive World Championship, July 15-19 in Fallon, Nev., which is 30 minutes away, and the annual Burning Man event, which is scheduled for Aug. 30 in Black Rock City, two hours to the north. Other attractions include Virginia City, the famous silver mining town that enticed prospectors and even writers, such as Mark Twain, during the late 1800s. Virginia City is only 45 minutes away from Desert Rose RV Park.
Other travelers stay at Desert Rose RV Park while traveling to or from Lake Tahoe, just over an hour away, or as they prepare to set out on the 287-mile stretch of U.S. Highway 50 from Fernley to Ely, which has been described as the loneliest stretch of highway in the United States.
Over the years, Debbie said she has made changes to the store layout to expand the size of the store. She has also replaced the park’s lawn with artificial turf, which doesn’t have to be watered and requires far less maintenance. Other improvements include planting new trees and repainting the park’s buildings.
“We’re aging gracefully,” Debbie said. “People don’t realize we’ve been here 25 years.”
Debbie’s three daughters are also helping out with the business.
Her oldest daughter, McKenzie, 30, who works for an accounting firm, spends a few hours a month handling the park’s accounting.
Her middle daughter, Reba, 28, works for the state of Nevada, but also spends about 20 hours or more per month on park operations.
Her youngest daughter, Cammie, 25, who attended the Paul Mitchell Cosmetology School in Reno, lives on site and helps with operations, working at the front desk, running equipment and reading meters. She was recently certified in propane handling.
When asked to consider the best advice she could give to new or aspiring park operators, Debbie offered several tips.
Among them:
- Make your sites bigger and wider.
- If you have to choose between spending money on roadways or adding concrete to your campsites, spend it first on improving your roadways.
- Add a storage room to your building. You’ll need it.
- Figure out your business plan: Don’t rely on other people to run your business. You need to know every aspect of your business.
- Create checklists of the things you need to know how to do. This is especially important for husband and wife teams in which the spouses’ roles in the business complement each other rather than overlap. Even if your spouse handles certain aspects of the business, you still need to know what he or she does in case you ever have to take over those responsibilities someday. Debbie said she always tried to learn from her late husband, whenever he worked to fix things at the park. “For me, I was always hands-on,” she said. “I always paid attention to what he was doing. I always held the flashlight and asked questions. Independence is huge. You need to be self-reliant.”
- Never stop learning how to be a better park operator: Debbie recently attended educational sessions at the Campground Owners Expo (COE) in Branson, Mo. Her next step is to sign up for training provided by the RV Technical Institute to help her become better able to troubleshoot issues brought to her attention.
Debbie thinks her park is on the right path. Desert Rose RV Park recently received an award from RV Life for having received over 200 reviews, which gave the park a rating of 8.9 out of 10 at the time of this writing.
Looking to the future, Debbie sees her three daughters continuing to be involved in the business. She also has how many grandchildren, the fourth generation of the Skinner family, who she hopes will also take on different roles at Desert Rose RV Park someday.
