Category: 2021 Travels

Listen. When you’re on the road for a while and you’ve been out of cell service or wifi for a lot of that time, it can take a toll. Sometimes all you want is a safe place, out of the wind, with cell service, decent wifi, and maybe hookups so you can live it up. So here we are.

We have reached the point in our trip when we have to start making tracks back home. It was not a terribly long drive from Death Valley to the Barstow area and we had a plan. We were going to stay again at Calico Ghost Town, but instead of getting a site in the upper part of the campground, behind the cell blocking hills, we were going to ask for one down low that would surely hit the cell towers. We didn’t have reservations, but I mean, come on. We did call just to verify there was plenty of availability, and there was, so no worries. Here’s what we did not know: New Year’s Eve is a huge event for OHV people. The hills around Calico are chock full of off roading trails. Add those two pieces of information together and you’ve got yourself a jam packed campground in the big rig pull through section down low. Everyone down there was whooping it up with their giant flags, blinky light up OHVs, and 2-3 bars of LTE. Damn them.

We tried to make an up-the-hill site work and went as far as doing a complete unhitch and set up to try it out. Here’s the other thing: it was super windy. So part of set up included using the Caravan Mover to spin Dory into the wind. It was a lot. And once we were done, despite the fact we’d gotten 1-2 bars from the car, there was no service in Dory. We sat there for like a minute and I pulled the plug.

Before relocating 3 miles down the road, we did drive down and verify that: a) there was cell service, and b) there was less wind down there. With both requirements met, we went back up hill, unspun and re-hitched Dory, and moved.

For having dissed the Barstow KOA in the past, I must formally apologize. They have a lovely campground, with strategically planted, wind breaking trees. And enough LTE to upload pictures for the blog. And they are even closer to Penny’s Diner than Calico. We were happy campers who repented our snooty ways. Super thank you to Jessica, who was working at Penny’s all by herself on New Year’s Eve and made us the absolute best breakfast for dinner. Happy New Year!

Total miles: 173.1 from Furnace Creek, 15.0 mpg, 3 hours 56 min. Site 2. We had dumped on arrival at Calico, before realizing that was not going to work out. Dump at KOA not good so did not dump the next morning. Great LTE for both and wifi easy to hit from the sites. Right by the highway, whatever. Close to gas and Penny’s so it’s a win.

We were pleased to wake up to minimal wind in the morning. Our route out of the Las Vegas valley took us up Highway 95 through lonely, sandy countryside, dotted with Mesquite shrubs and billboards suggesting we were near Area 51 (we weren’t). We cut south across highway 373 to Death Valley Junction and then made the descent into the valley on Highway 190. This route is a very calm and beautiful way to enter the park, with stunning views and no terrifying drop-offs (like the western section of 190 between “Father Crowley Overlook” and Panamint Springs).

Before we got set up in our site, we saw signs saying the campground dump was closed. There is another one, used for the Sunset and Texas Springs campgrounds, but the line was long and the rinse water ran slow. We were there for a while before coming back to unhitch. The Furnace Creek campground has nice amenities and even some sites with hookups. Ours did not, but we were fine. The first item on the list of things to scope out was whether there was still wifi at the Visitor Center. That is a nope. And though both our phones showed 4 bars of 3g, it barely counted. Nothing internetty would load, and though you could text, it took 8-10 minutes to send. So it was going to be another 3 days with little to no service. Oh well, that’s camping for you.

Right as we entered the campground, I spotted the unmistakable shape of an R-series Alto. Of course, we had to go say hello and make sure we knew the owners. In fact, it was a couple we’d camped with at another Altogather, and know well from the Altoistes group. They were going to be heading over to Valley of Fire next and were aware that overnight temperatures would get below freezing. We traded thoughts on pipes and temperature thresholds and generally agreed that Altos can take a lot. They had an impressive antenna set up for ham radio signal. Richard and I actually both have ham radio licenses, but we haven’t used our radios in years. I started to wonder if that might be a great solution for communication in these no service situations. I wonder where those radios might be….

Having a couple hours of daylight left, and knowing that rain was coming, we decided to hit the 20 Mule Team Road. That is another E ticket ride and I can’t decide whether I prefer that one or the Artist’s Drive. Both take you through some of the most colorful canyons in the park, through twisty turny paths that make you feel like you are on a Disneyland ride. All that is missing is the music and animatronic singing animals. 20 Mule Team Road is unpaved, but the conditions are good enough for pretty much any car to manage. Maybe not a Ferrari. Don’t take your Ferrari. It is not a washboard, jiggle your teeth experience, like some of the other trailhead roads. There are tight corners and it’s not like I would recommend bringing a trailer along, but as long as there has not been recent rain, it’s a very easy and fun road to drive. We had a few minutes of sun, which we watched disappear behind clouds at Zabriskie Point. Then it was back to Dory for dinner and a movie.

For our first full day in the park, we headed south, toward Badwater Basin. Richard rode all the way from the campground around Artist’s Drive, and I caught up with him at the end, after he’d gotten about an hour head start. I’ve done this drive a couple of times, and it never gets old. The colors of the rocks look very different, depending on the light, so it’s worth repeating. From there, we drove on a couple miles until we saw the dirt road leading to the Natural Bridge trail. This road was super bumpy. But the trail was nice, and only about a third of a mile to see the huge rock bridge. Then we continued down to the lowest point in the park. At 282 feet below sea level, the Badwater salt flats attract lots of visitors. The parking lot was overflowing, and I was curious about Badwater Road continuing south, so we just drove on down the road for a while.

Eventually we came to the turnoff to get to Sidewinder Canyon Trail. This is a slot canyon we’d heard about, but knew very little of in terms of how difficult a hike it would be. Richard talked to a couple of hikers and read the informational kiosk, and I tapped out. It sounded like a lot of scrambling and a big, technical hike to see the impressive bits. Also, the rains were ever threatening, and a slot canyon is not where you want to be during rains in the desert. Richard passed too, and instead we drove back on up. Maybe some day we’ll think about it again, but I’d need a lot more information.

For our last day, we went the other direction, up to Stovepipe Wells. There we got much cheaper gas than was available in Furnace Creek (over $6/gal). Richard was really excited about that. We also hit the Mosaic Canyon Trail. This is also a slot canyon, but with a far more accessible trail. It is a steady and fairly steep walk up, but those are my kinds of trails, because I’m always fairly certain I’ll be able to get back down. We call them “reverse Grand Canyon” trails. The unique feature of this canyon is how there are millions of water polished rocks embedded into the walls. It looks like some kind of high end, decorative concrete. Then right next to that, there are multicolored rock walls that sort of resemble finely layered pastry. The striations run in large bands, with finer micro layers within each. After you’ve walked about a mile and half up, you come to the “boulder fall,” which is exactly what it sounds like. It is passable by “adventurous hikers” and continues just a little bit before becoming even more tricky. Richard climbed over the first hurdle to check it out, and called it a day when he saw the second. Then we turned around and had an easy walk back to the car. We walked out a bit on the sandy Mesquite Dunes and called it a day.

During our stay, we could see thick cloud cover on the surrounding mountains, but we didn’t really get much rain on the valley floor. We heard it on Dory’s roof the first night, but it was never a deluge. What glimpses we could get of the mountains through the clouds, suggested there was a lot of new snow up there. That is all good news for California. Winter in the desert is a lot more fun than the hundred degree heat we experienced in early spring. When we come back to visit, it’s a pretty good bet it will be in December. Death Valley is a huge park and it would take a long time to see it all. So far, we’re enjoying our little dips.

Total miles: 145.8 from Red Rock, 17.4 mpg, 3 hours 27 min. Site 57, no hookups. Dump closed. “3g” but it didn’t do much unless it was after 9pm or before 7am when not many people were trying to use it. Water spigots. Dump at Sunset campground was not so great, but usable. Potable water, but it runs slow.

Weather reports showed wind advisories and winter weather alerts for the next two days. I was hoping the travel day would cut under the wind, but could definitely feel the buffeting as soon as I hit Highway 15. I am frequently thankful for the Avoid Highways feature in Google Maps, and used that as soon as we could. On our way out of Valley of Fire, we saw hoards of people lining up to come in. We were feeling pretty smug about how nicely our plans fell into place. The purpose of Red Rock was to be in a place outside the big city, with lots of cell service, and proximity to stores where we could replenish food supplies and catch up on all things civilized. It was also touted as being pretty, so again, we were doing the “We are the Smart Party” dance. In retrospect, The Hitchin’ Post might have been the better choice.

We took Highway 215 in from the western outskirts of Vegas, with a stopover at Walmart. The winds were ever present, with warnings of a bigger storm coming in. The Red Rocks Campground does take reservations, which we had, which was lucky, because they were full to capacity, with many signs saying so. When we got to our site, there was a car parked in it. Richard went and alerted the camp hosts, who shook their heads in exasperation, saying, “I know exactly who it is.” They immediately jumped in their official looking pickup, with big orange lights flashing on top, and came straight over. Apparently, there was a family of three who, all week long, had kept setting up in vacant, but marked as reserved, campsites. They had a small tent set up in a walk-in tent site, but it’s a long haul from the parking area to the tent area, so they just really wanted one of those sites closer by, with a covered shelter. The camp hosts had had enough with them and kicked them out of the campground at that point. We felt bad watching them have to pack up all their things and lug them over to their car. We wondered what their backstory was, but we could tell they had pushed through multiple warnings and were not going to be given another chance. Their car was a Mercedes, so I tried not to worry about them too much.

To my deep and abiding dismay, there is no cell service whatsoever in the Red Rocks campground. Like on the road before the turnoff, there was decent LTE, but as soon as you drop down just a bit, the road goes behind a hill, which blocks everything. To get a signal, you can walk up a short path to a high point behind the loop, or drive a quarter of a mile to a pullout near the entrance. But from the site, nada. This was frustrating, because it was my plan to sit inside and do service things while the rain was happening. I was looking forward to that a lot. I thought for sure we’d get service, being right outside Vegas and all. And I’m sure that is true of every other freaking place, except this campground. Campendium even says there is 4g, but they lie. Or maybe there are specific sites out on the RV loop that can hit a tower, but not site 20, that’s for sure.

We got going early the next morning so Richard could ride the Scenic Drive before the weather arrived. It was already very windy though. In order for me to not perseverate, we put Dory’s roof down before we left, with a plan to turn her into the wind when we got back. That would make her as aerodynamic as possible, and protect the crescent windows from any loose flying objects while we were away. Arriving at the kiosk entry to the Scenic Drive, there was a man checking for time designated reservations, which we had, which was lucky, because they limit cars to keep crowds down. I am not 100% sure of this, but I think the man in the kiosk was the dad of the family who got kicked out for being in our site. He was masked, so I could be wrong, but he said something to me, which I didn’t hear (hearing impairment strikes again). I thought he was asking me if I was “law enforcement.” He then gestured to what I think was the campground reservation tag on our mirror. I was just confused, and said, “No?” He sort of smiled then, like he’d made a joke, and that’s when I wondered if it was the same guy. Still confused, I drove on through. I still don’t really know what he said, or whether it was a joke, or whether it was him. Oh well.

Richard started riding the thirteen mile road and I sagged. Oh my god it was windy. And cold. I didn’t even want to get out of the car at the viewpoints. But whatevs, crazy husband, you have fun. I’ll turn on butt warming and crank Sirius XM. There was one other biker out there and I could tell people in cars were feeling sorry for them both, or were simply shaking their heads. I followed close by. Eventually, with about two miles to go, when the wind was practically blowing Richard over, he bailed. No shame in accepting the reality of weather.

Back to the campground we drove, and spun Dory into the direction of the wind. We checked weather reports before coming back and there were wind advisories, specifically for the Red Rocks Canyon area. Reports predicted 30-40 mph winds with gusts up to 60. Here we go. After we’d oriented and set back up, we blasted the heater and strapped in. We then noticed four young men trying to set up in a tent site. It was painful to watch. All four of them looked as clueless as you can get. They had cotton hoodies, no rain or cold weather gear, and took turns at not being able to set up their lightweight, fragile little tent. We were hard pressed not to go over and help them. The help I was more than prepared to offer, and surely would have eventually, was to hand enough cash that they could go get a hotel room. Until it reached the point of rescue, we watched the drama unfold. Three of them seemed really excited about camping. Perhaps the tent had been a Christmas present? One of them looked cold and sad, and kept gesturing over to the ominous clouds. They tried many times to set up that tent, with their sleeping bags and gear spread out on the ground, as it started to rain. Finally, they sort of kind of had the poles in the right position and the tallest one looked pretty happy to see it standing upright. Just then, a huge gust of wind collapsed the entire thing in upon itself. I think the young one was maybe crying at that point. Thankfully, they all seemed ready to accept the inevitable and began tearing down the few pieces of equipment they’d managed to get out of the storage cases. We were so relieved watching them pack up their cars and drive out. Probably, the whole campground was.

Meanwhile, next to the kids, there was a full grown man with a somewhat sturdier looking tent, who was there when we arrived. We saw him come out a few times and I thought he might be bailing. Instead, he was adjusting his rain fly and I guess anchoring things down. Then he disappeared and he either had gone inside his tent, or had left. Richard and I were hunkering inside, running the generator outside to top up the batteries, and trying hard to not pay attention to the sounds of the gusts. Dory was rocking, but way less so than I know she would have if she weren’t nosed in the right direction. Then there was a really huge gust. I can only guess how fast it was, but it felt like a wave hit us. I heard a thump outside that panicked me. It turned out it was the cover to the electrical outlet, flipping up, and it was fine, but I was thinking something had blown off. We both looked outside to assess any damage and we noticed the older guy’s tent was simply demolished. Parts of poles stuck up on the sides, but the whole upper structure was destroyed. We looked for signs of him coming out from under the canvas pile, and saw nothing, so we figured he must have left when things got real.

One by one, the remaining tent campers bailed. We watched some of the other RVs reposition themselves or put their tow cars in front of their rigs to take some of the wind. All the while, the campground hosts made periodic rounds to check on how people were holding up. We told them about the kids, and the guy with the destroyed tent, and they said they were worried about the kids too and were coming to offer a more sheltered site. By morning, there were only two tents that survived the onslaught and stuck it out. We think the people in them were rock climbers because they were decked out with all kinds of technical gear. We later looked up the brand of their tents and found out they each cost $900. That was money well spent, and that night was a good endorsement for the quality.

The wind storm was over by 3am and Dory had not a single sign of any damage. Altos are extremely well built little buggers. Wind is not my favorite thing, and I was prepared to lower Dory’s roof at any moment if it seemed like things were getting worse. Luckily, besides that one blast, it was less extreme than the “bomb cyclone” we survived in Half Moon Bay. One thing that helps: loud music. Second thing that helps: lots of wine. Anyway, we made it and were fine to head out to our next stop along the way. I hope that family is fine, wherever they are, and I hope those kids get to try camping again, maybe not during a wind advisory.

Total miles: 78.4 from Valley of Fire, 14.6 mpg (wind), 4 hours 58 min (because stopped at Walmart along highway 215). Site 20 no hookups and no damn cell service. No dump. Water spigots. Awesome camp hosts. 

Best Christmas Ever. On a last minute crazy impulse, we decided to hitch up and see if we could get a spot for one night in Valley of Fire for Christmas night. Richard has an app that shows how busy things are in parks and it looked like we just might have a shot. Worst case, we could simply come back because we’d already paid for that night at Echo Bay. And plan C or D could be to join the boondockers on Snowbird Mesa. So we had options and tried to maintain low expectations.

We waved farewell and Merry Christmas to Francois, grateful for the special time together, hitched up, dumped, and headed up to the park a little before 11. Again, our fears were unwarranted and we found the Arch Rock Campground to be all but vacant. We had our choice of sites and picked a beauty, right up against the red rocks. I got in my fill of taking pictures of Dory, and then we spent the rest of the day on the trails. 

First we tried the White Domes trail. This is at the end of the road that runs through the most spectacular part of the park. When we passed through here a few years back, it was during the summer and it was just a one nighter for us, so we hadn’t even seen that road. We had no idea how impressive a place it is. I’m surprised it isn’t a national park actually. The colors are crazy, like if this was part of a movie set (which is has been, many times), you’d say it was unrealistic and probably roll your eyes, thinking, “Yeah right.” The White Domes trail is pretty easy, though the first part is a steep descent down a rocky, sandy notch. You come to a place that is marked with an information kiosk listing the movies it has been used for. There is a partial structure remaining and if I knew the movie “The Professionals” it might look familiar. I am quite familiar with “Beastmaster,” and I must say, nothing was bringing back any memories about any of the scenery. There was this one arial shot where Dar (from Ar) was swinging his big sword around on top of some random rock, in what could have been this area, for reasons of … training? The location in that shot didn’t seem to really jive with the rules of movie continuity for the rest of the movie, but “Beastmaster” is a super high quality film, so I assume there was a logical explanation. Anyway, that scene could have been Valley of Fire. Where they shot the scenes with the blind witches or the Jun hoards or the weasel creatures stealing the naked Tanya Roberts’ clothing while taking a bath, I do not know. See? Now you need to see “Beastmaster.”

There were lots of people on the trails and in the parking areas, and when we got to Parking Area #3 for the Seven Wonders Trail, there was a car that was very very stuck on a big rock. They were probably trying to create a parking space where there wasn’t one, but we both took a moment to be thankful for AWD and high clearance. This trail was just as jaw dropping as the other, with signs marking a rock formation called the “Fire Wave.” All of the rock formations could have had names and I refrained from taking pictures every ten feet. This hike took longer than we anticipated because there was apparently a rock fall on the part of the loop trail that returns toward the parking area. This was not marked at all, and was alarming to not only Richard, but to another couple using a GPS map app. The park had placed trail marker posts up ahead and eventually had a sign pointing the new route, but when you are really locked into your GPS app, and it tells you to go up the pile of fallen boulders because that’s where the dotted line is, that’s where you go. We did not, but the other couple did. They were ok, and we met up at the end, but that was more exciting than we expected, so we called it a day.

We had a delicious dinner of Chicken Cordon Blue, thanks to Barber Frozen Foods and the Omnia oven. We paired that with sautéed asparagus with olive oil and balsamic and it was absolutely fabulous. Life is good. All is right with the world. Merry Christmas to all. This one will be tough to top.

As an update: we did later watch “The Professionals.” Meh. I guess I’m not a western fan. But that sure was Valley of Fire! You can even see where they built the set for Raza’s village in what is now the parking area for the White Domes Trail.

Total miles: 22.8 from Echo Bay, 15.1 mpg, 59 min. Site 16 Arch Rock Campground. No cell service at all. You have to go up to the White Domes road or out to Fire Canyon Lookout to get good service. No hookups in this campground, but there are hookups in the Atlatl campground right next to it. It’s all gravel roads in the campground loops and the turns are tight in Arch Rock. It’s not for big rigs, but an Alto fits into most sites. Good dump (also quite photogenic) and potable water.

The Vegas/Lake Mead area was the ultimate destination target for this winter trip. We’d never been to the area, but knew there were many opportunities for camping and we wanted to scope it out. We watched weather reports closely and had backup plans with hookups at The Hitchin’ Post RV Park, in downtown Vegas, in case overnight temperatures dipped too low. But conditions aligned, along with the stars, so that we got to meet up with a very dear friend in Echo Bay.

It’s funny for me to talk about Safari Condo with anyone not familiar with the company. Yeah sure, they manufactured our Dory, but they are so much more. We have become friends with our sales reps, as well as the founders of the company. They were 100% there for us when we lost Dory1. Not only did they put the build of Dory2 at the front of a 2 year line, but Francois our sales rep for Dory2, co-conspired to have the exact same “Just keep swimming” decal placed on our new trailer as the one that was lost in the crash. Understand, this meant our BFF Linda ordered it in the US, shipped it to Quebec to get mounted in precisely the right spot, where it then made the journey back to Durango, CO. Those are some outstandingly good people, and seriously great friends. Plus, Francois was the one who arranged the photo shoot with stuffed Dory during the build process. So when we caught wind that Francois was out in the US southwest, we would have gone well out of our way to find him and give him a great big hug.

We kept touch while he was whirl-winding his way all over the place and found that the Las Vegas area would work for a meet up. This was not all that easy, since he is kind of crazy and dives like 8-10 hours in a day in his fancy Safari Condo van. He had been traveling with some guys from Quebec, one of whom is a well established travel blogger. They picked up another nomad from Quebec along their way, from a random meeting in a park. Meeting up with people on the road is the coolest part of traveling. The guys had peeled off to head back to Quebec, but Karine, a remote fitness coach, showed up in her van along with Francois. We had a wonderful dinner at the picnic table all together that night, sharing stories of travel and life. As we chatted and drank, a little Kit Fox kept coming right up to us, looking for a handout perhaps, or berries on the ground under our table. 

We spent the next day in Valley of Fire State Park, while our Quebecois friends went into Las Vegas to get gifts and shopping. Richard rode all the way into the park from the campground and I did a quick spin through the state park campgrounds up there. Those are also first come, first serve and we weren’t sure how busy it got at Christmas. There were some sites open, but ultimately we decided to stay where we were because there is no cell service in the park. It would have been way too hard to transfer over and communicate with our friends, so we moved on to get gas and a few groceries in the town of Overton. On the way, we spotted lots of boondock areas, like Snowbird Mesa and Poverty Flats. Those could also have been backup plans, if necessary.

On Christmas Eve day, Karine had to move along. We got to spend the whole day with Francois. We had never seen Hoover Dam, so we all drove out together. My Grandpa George always told stories of there being bodies buried in the concrete during the construction of the dam, and I’d always assumed that was his own crazy tale. It turns out this is the number one question asked by tourists: How many bodies are buried in the Hoover Dam. The answer of course is zero, but the fact that it continues to be rumor is kind of amazing. After taking some photos and some selfies, we left the crowds and found the Owl Canyon Trail over at the western edge of the reservoir. This is a 2 mile, out and back trail. through a slot canyon that is apparently home to many owls. We saw evidence of nests and some concentrations of bird poop, but no birds. They could easily have been hiding in any of the wind carved holes in the rock walls, but we didn’t see them.

Christmas Eve was simply the best. Francois came over and we hung out in Dory. We drank and talked, while I made Ham and Swiss crescent rolls in the Omnia, with a few asparagus spears stuffed inside to make them “elevated.” We laughed a lot and shared stories. It was one of the best Christmases I can remember. All that was missing was Linda with dogs, but we raised a few glasses to her. For our evening movie entertainment, we watched “Return of the Jedi.” Because Christmas. Our son texted from Oregon to share his “Die Hard” joy (and get the Vudu password), dissing our nerdy ways. I simply replied, “Yub yub motherf…” He responded, “Now I have a lightsaber. Ho ho ho.” Good times.

On Christmas morning, Francois needed to hit the road again, and we were pleased to learn he was able to hook up with Mike and Ele, the owners of Four Corners RV in Durango, for Christmas night. What an adventure he is having! Meanwhile, we took advantage of the good weather and decided at the last minute to try a crazy plan and bring Dory to Valley of Fire to see if we could get a site. Spoiler: we did, and that will be the next post.

I was surprised by how beautiful the area is around Lake Mead. I simply had no idea. All the variations in rock colors that you see in the other national parks, like Zion and Grand Canyon, are also here in Lake Mead. It makes sense if you think of this as the lowest level of the whole Laramide Erogeny event, which is responsible for the geology along the Grand Staircase. You can totally tell that the rock layers were once underwater and the the beautiful rainbow effect is just the process of revelation due to erosion over time. I was also surprised at how uncrowded and remote it felt once we left the westernmost resort areas. It’s also huge. It takes about an hour to get from Echo Bay to the entry point near Henderson. What a beautiful drive though. It seems very much like a national park road is well maintained. We mostly even had service.

It was wonderful to add a new area to our repertoire, but more than that, it was so special to get to share Christmas with Francois. When people ask, and we have to lead with something defining, like, “He’s our trailer sales rep,” we will finish by saying, “who has become family.” Cheers, Francois, wherever you are.

Total miles: 187.0 from Hole in the Wall, 17.5 mpg, 4 hours 21 min. Site 142 in the Upper Loop campground. We checked out Lower Loop and were unimpressed. Also, no service down there. About half the campground is closed, no idea why. There was hardly anyone there though, so lots of open sites. $20 per night. Good service for both. Water and good dump. RV campground across street with full hookups.

Richard has been super excited about this stop ever since we planned it. First, he got to ride up the 20 mile climb from highway 40 to the campground, which is a favorite ride of his. The Hole in the Wall Campground is a first come, first serve place, so we both get anxious about getting a site. We’re usually wrong to be worried, but that trend over time has not served to alter our natures in any way. I made a bee line for the campground after I dropped him off, and found it to be practically empty. I got my pick of sites, so I went for sunset view, unhitched, and just waited for him to arrive. 

There is good service in the campground, which seems unlikely given how far it is from anything. I was able to text him that we had an awesome site so he could enjoy the rest of his ride. I got to enjoy the view and watch as a coyote nonchalantly passed through the campground. Clouds came in enough to block the sunset, but we got nice bunny views as we cranked up the Truma and enjoyed nighttime in the desert. After dark, we put on our headlamps and walked the .4 mile trail to the visitor center, just for a little stretch of the legs for me. The stars out there are amazing.

For our full day in the park, we chose to do the big 6 mile loop trail again. It was a brisk day with a little wind, but nothing our jackets couldn’t handle. I believe it was because of this hike on our previous visit that we ended up spending a couple hundred dollars on jackets. It was money well spent, I must say. We have excellent jackets.

The loop trail ends in a big canyon wall. There is but one way through, unless you want to go another mile around, and that is up a narrow chute in the rocks. They have made this route doable through strategically placed rings, banged into the rock, along one side of two water-worn passages. But that is not to say it’s easy. Reaching from one ring to the next is a challenge if you’re short. And the logistics of lifting your knees inside the narrow chute so that you can get your foot up to the next ring is a rather bendy situation. Add to that the simple math of: width of opening:width of ass ≥1, and let’s just say I had a tight squeeze. I made it, but it was not pretty, and Richard was a key element in helping to hold my hand and pull me up. But I cleared it just in time for the sunset and rewarded my fat ass with a cookie.

We do love this campground. Nothing beats looking out the windows in the morning and seeing nothing but desert out there. This is not a place where big rigs can easily fit, so it’s a chill vibe. There is water and a pretty good dump there. Plus, the added bonus of unexpectedly strong cell service. So even though it is 20 miles off the highway, you don’t feel quite so cut off. Just be sure to gas up because there are not a lot of services past Ludlow.

It was a great stay, and our official welcome to this year’s winter in the desert. Onward to meet up with a friend at Lake Mead!

Total miles: 120.6, 15.6 mpg, 3 hours 41 min from Calico, with a stop to let Richard out. Good LTE for ATT, less strong for Verizon, but enough for mail and texts. Good dump. No electric hookups. Vault toilets in campground, and water spigots.

This is a real turnaround story. Finding this regional park and campground (thank you Suzanne!) has changed our entire mindset when traveling through the southern California deserts. Instead of: hold your nose, pull in at the Barstow KOA because I can’t drive another hundred miles, pull the curtains, head out early in the morning… It has morphed into: Yay! We’re in Barstow! Let’s go check out the ghost town! Look! There’s the adorable teeny train! Yay for Penny’s breakfast for dinner! Should we get ice cream and see Elvis at Peggy Sue’s? Like we’re honestly excited when we arrive. No, really.

It’s an easy drive up and over the Tehachapi Pass to get from Bakersfield to Barstow, so we had time to wait out the morning fog. We were originally going to stay in Tehachapi, but the weather reports showed below freezing temperatures for Sunday night. However, even down lower, it was going to be a chilly night. We debated a lot over what to do with our water, given it was almost certainly going to get below freezing. We’d had a tiny bit of experience with this, but not much really, being California weather wimps. In the end, we decided to dump the remainder of our fresh water (which we intentionally let get very low), and leave the valve open. We have no problem staying warm inside, thanks to the Truma. It’s just a question of how much the exposed exterior pipes can handle. Spoiler: it got down to 23º and everything was fine. According to our Safari Condo pal, we could have gotten away with not dumping.

After getting set up, we had time to hang out in the ghost town before sun down. I seriously love this stuff. It is so cheesy and silly, with old timey shops and employees talking fake old timey speak. They put up holiday decorations and there were lots of families strolling around. We even paid for tickets to go through Millie’s Mine. That was so fun. It’s an actual formerly used mine, I guess, but they have diorama displays and canned audio tour narrations. It’s like the Disneyland Railroad dinosaur battle diorama, but way way less, and with no animatronics. It was worth $4 a ticket. Next time, we plan to pay for entry to the House of Mystery! We’re already excited. Given the fun we had with the Picture Spot of Mystery, one can only imagine an entire house full. Maybe some day we’ll take the tiny train, but we want to extend this stopover joy for as long as possible.

Another fun thing about this place is that they seem to consistently have roaming flocks of very interesting looking birds. I’m sure I looked them up before, since they are so striking. A quick bird search told us we were looking at Chukars. These are large, Quail-like birds, who behave kind of like chickens. The original pronunciation was: chook-ar, but apparently it has morphed into: CHUCK-er in the west, and was even the mascot for a minor league baseball team, known as “Chubby Chukar.” So there you go.

They close down the park at 5, so we headed over to Penny’s Diner for dinner. News in my life is that I’m trying to pay better attention to all things health related. That doesn’t seem like it would jive with diner breakfast for dinner. However, if you plan the day, and don’t eat the entire plate full of pancake and 3 egg omelette, you can make it work. And with enough to spare for a kid size scoop of mint chip afterwards. It was awesome.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable stop, with only a few hours drive to our first real winter break destination. Y’all take care now, pardners, and just keep a-moseying along.

Total miles: 139.6, 15.6 mpg, 3 hours, 12 min. Site A13, full hookups. Nice dump. LTE service for both except it drops out sometimes when you’re behind the rock wall. If you just go out toward the kiosk, or up the loop a little, you’ll get it back. Part entry is free if you’re staying in the campground, but it closes at 5pm.

I absolutely love finding pleasant places to stay in the middle of routes that take us elsewhere. We passed by this place last time we came through Bakersfield, and the big signs advertising fruits and nuts and camping were enough to make us look it up. It gets five stars on Allstays. Sometimes that just means it is a clean parking lot with pull throughs for huge rigs. I won’t try to oversell it, but it is certainly as dependable as a KOA, and you get the added fun of being surrounded by orange trees. You are in fact allowed to pick as many of the oranges as you like, and every site has fruit bearing trees next to it. So that’s fun. I picked 6 nice looking ones.

It was an easy haul from Seacliff and we arrived just around sunset. There was plenty of time to catch up on blogging from the previous stay, have dinner, and get in a walk around the RV park. Some rigs were quite decked out for the holidays. There do seem to be a number of semi-permanent residents, but also lots and lots of available sites for one nighters. 

There was some kind of party happening in the communal building, but we weren’t curious enough to risk Covid and peek inside. On the whole, people were well behaved and there were all the amenities you could want.

We woke to very dense fog and decided not to be in any hurry getting started. Richard wanted a bike ride of some sort, so he headed over to the Bakersfield Walmart while I showered. That turned out not to be a great idea because the roads are apparently covered with bicycle tire killing bits everywhere. The fog was also so thick that he had a hard time seeing in front of him. By the time he was done with a quick replenishing shopping run, his front tire had flatted. I was all up and dressed at that point, so I suggested he just stay there to wait for the rescue party. He’s lucky I’m so good at rescuing. Richard wishes to note that riding in the fog is just like riding in the rain. (avoid)

Another benefit of RV parks like these is that you usually don’t need to unhitch because the sites are pull through and level. Since that was the case, it wasn’t too much of an offer for me to pack up without him. Inside close down is usually my job and all I had to do outside was unstabilize and put away the power cable. After about a 5 mile backtrack down highway 58, I found Richard apologetic in the parking lot. He needn’t have been, but let’s pretend this really put me out and let him be super nice, shall we?

Onward to our next stop!

Total miles: 248.2 from Seacliff, 14.6 mpg (headwind), 5 hours 48 min. Site 40 full hookups. Looked like nice dump, but we didn’t need it yet. Great cell service. Orange trees between sites. Contactless check in.

We managed to score a visit with Annie, our Alto friend, while simultaneously launching our winter trip. That’s a nice win there! (winky face) We had planned to connect with her the previous weekend, but weather got in our way. The storm that was forecast did not turn out to be as severe as predicted, but it did close down the campground we were going to stay in. We just stayed home, but we kind of needed to anyway. There was laundry to take care of and holiday joy to manage, so it was probably a good idea.

I was shocked we were able to regroup and score a site at Seacliff for the next weekend. I guess this one had gotten closed for a day or two as well, and Annie said she saw that the surf had come up about half way into the sites. Many people must have bailed, leaving sites to be scored. But this allowed us to see our friend and get a few miles started for our southward trajectory. For the record, launching from Seacliff is preferable to San Luis Reservoir. Chilling to the sound of the rolling waves and then hopping up to get ice cream at Marianne’s is hard to top.

Richard headed out to do a long loop while Annie showed me around downtown Aptos. We got to chat and shop for socks until Richard texted me he’d run into a road closure on Highland Way. He was pretty much stuck, so I drove out and rescued him. I therefore got to see a nice stretch of Soquel San Jose Road, which is pretty and fern covered, as it climbs up for some great views of Monterey Bay. The cargo was retrieved at the top, thankful he’d taken his jacket. The bicycle was thrown in the back of the car for the wet and windy descent.

We had a surprise Alto sighting back at Seacliff! We’d almost met Jennifer and Kim once before when we saw their Alto, but not them, parked at the visitor center at New Brighton. As I drove back into the campground, I spotted their R series Alto and blue tow vehicle and got momentarily confused. I knew that couldn’t be me, because I was me, and in my blue tow vehicle, so I rolled down my window and shouted, “Who are you??” They recognized us right away and said we’d given them Koozies. That’s a fun coincidence!

For dinner, we picked up a take out order from Aptos St. BBQ and got to watch the sun set over the waves in front of us. That was followed by another ice cream run (it’s ok because you have to climb stairs to get there, so you’ve pretty much earned the calories).

Great two night stay before heading to the southern deserts. Happy holiday cheer can commence!

Total miles: 88.9, 18.6 mpg, 2 hours 34 min. Site B7 no hookups. Dumped at New Brighton, as per usual.

Hello darkness, my old friend. You may think you’ve got me beat with my declining nighttime vision and with your tricky back-in sites. But you have been bested this round, with a combination of the Avoid Highways feature, and my expert level online shopping skills. I’ll put my “Add to Cart” ninja-like reflexes up against your sneaky darkness moves any day! Can’t see a thing while backing? *does quick search for collapsible traffic cones with blinking LED lights* BAM! Now we have a runway! My next level-up move really needs to be getting new glasses, optimized for darkness distance viewing. But this was a satisfying win. It really helps to take frontage roads and get off the highways whenever possible. We stayed off 101 all the way through Gilroy and Morgan Hill. That reduced traffic stress and driving fatigue by a lot and didn’t even add that much time.

Now that it is approaching the shortest day of the year, we are almost guaranteed to arrive at our site after sunset. I was pleased with how not terrified I was climbing the road up to Fremont Peak. When we came before, I thought to myself I sure wouldn’t want to do that steep, narrow, windy, cliffy, 10-mile drive at night. But actually, it didn’t faze me. It may have to do with the fact that steep drop-off roads are less intimidating when you can’t see the way way down below views. There was also a lot of fog as we drove up too, so it was all about just staying on the road. I do not have pictures of that, as you can appreciate. The only part that really caused me consternation was in the campground itself when I couldn’t quite believe the super narrow section that disappeared over a hill was the way I was supposed to go. Richard got out and walked it until he found our site and waved me forward.

Driving past the site so that I could back in, I had to take a turn to the left and start going downhill. That meant I’d be backing uphill after straightening out. The site was on the edge of a pretty steep hill. My memory from being there before filled in the far, far below valley views. So I did not want to overshoot. Exciting! Enter our new collapsible hazard cones, with blinking LED lights. Richard set them on either side of the front of the site, and at the back two corners, to form a flashing red rectangle that I could see perfectly in Dory’s rear view camera. All I had to do was steer. Richard guided and encouraged over the walkie talkies. Piece of cake. I honestly do not think I would have had the guts to pull that move without those blinky lights. So now they are an essential part of our gear.

We woke to a bright blue sky, high above the solid cloud layer hundreds of feet down below. We had a friend camping down at the coast who said it was overcast there. We got to look at it from above. Pretty cool. Fremont Peak is a very chill and quiet campground. No big rigs would dare that ascent, so it’s mostly tent campers. The most prevalent sounds are the woodpeckers going at it on the Valley Oak trees. It is very peaceful.

Richard (for reasons I don’t get) wanted to do the ride up the road on Saturday. For reasons I did understand, he did not want to do the descent. So I drove him down and dropped him off at the bottom. It is a fun drive when you know it a little, and you’re not towing, and it’s not nighttime. I sent him back beta as I returned to Dory (like letting him know at 5.8 miles it starts kicking up, and at 8 miles it calms down).

The rest of the time, we napped, and sort of read a little, before napping more. I enjoyed my fancy marinated mozzarella toasts, on a leaf of basil, with roasted red pepper, a drizzle of balsamic vinegar, and a bit of salt and pepper for good measure. And then a Blue Apron re-creation for dinner. That inspired me to look for a better tortilla toasting solution, as many of the recipes are tacos or tostadas. I tried just warming them up in the frying pan, but it was not great. Any suggestions?

It was a beautiful weekend in a chill location. There is no dump there, so we stopped at Betabel RV Park on our way back. It is a $15 fee and well worth it. Uneventful drive home. All is good.

PS, we definitely have a raccoon pet now. He/she was spotted numerous times over the weekend, coming right up to the sliding glass door.

Total miles: 107.8, 16.3 mpg, 3 hours 53 minutes (taking backroads through Gilroy and Morgan Hill). Site 7 no hookups. None of the other sites are as trailer friendly or have as nice a view. Good LTE for both. Some solar, but not great. No dump, so go to Betabel just up the highway.