thegreenhouserambler: 2023 in 90 photos

Since I decided not to go to Mexico for the winter I spent a good deal of my time between late December of 2022 and April of 2023 in the Yuma area. Specifically, just to the west of Yuma in the desert of Imperial County, CA. This region seems to consistently be one of the warmest, or least cold, of anywhere else in the country. There's a ton of public Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land between the Colorado River and the Algondones Sand Dunes to the west so that I was easily able to find campsites away from the crowds.

an elusive glimpse of my outdoor mat.
I'm usually too lazy to set it out. 1.2023

Per the map below, all of my Yuma campsites are actually about 12 miles up Ogilby Road, Hwy. S34 in California. It's almost all BLM land with free dispersed camping. The ~32 mile drive into Yuma every week takes about 45 minutes.

daytime visit by a coyote. It's rare to hear them
around here let alone see. 1.2023

The weather reports were calling for strong winds in the area (if there's one thing that gets on my nerves about the desert it's the wind) so I traveled west to the Anza Borrego State Park for 5 days where it was quite a bit calmer. It's still desert but with scattered pockets of wildflowers in bloom in late January.

the trip to A-B State Park and back, in orange. The 3 dots in the
lower right corner were my main campsites over the months 1.2023

a campsite in Anza Borrego. 1.2023

desert sand verbena. 1.2023

sculptures outside of the town of Borrego Springs. 1.2023

There are something like 130 of these sculptures scattered around the desert of Borrego Springs including animals, humans, dinosaurs and dragons. The ABSP is also known for its super blooms when conditions are just right, usually in late March, I believe.

Algodones Sand Dunes, CA 1.2023

Heading back to my usual camping spots to the east you cross the Sand Dunes at a tiny place called Glamis. I can often hear the atv's tooling around from my campsite miles away, especially on the weekends.

my go-to barber in Yuma. They've been here since 1951.

I actually did something at one point this winter, going up to Quartzsite, AZ for the annual Truck Camper Adventure (a very helpful, informative website) rally. There were around 350 truck campers gathered in the desert for 4 days of seminars, raffles and a potluck of some sort. It was fun, I even had conversations with other humans!

some of the truck rally in Quartzsite, AZ. 2.2023

This is my setup for transferring fresh water into the camper 51 gallon tank when there isn't a hose bib available to run a hose directly over to the water fill. A bit tedious when I have to do this 8 or 9 times but it is effective. The jug is 6.5 gallons.

The gray water goes out the other end, so to speak. A gray bucket for gray water, I couldn't resist.

The first week of April was when the weather went from pleasant to hot in the desert so I started north up into the forest around Prescott. Up in Prescott is a company called Tern Overland. They make the Arctic Tern windows that are in my camper and I happened to meet the owner at the truck rally. I had shown Aimee, the owner, some issues I had and she had offered to help if I stop by their shop some time. So I did and her and Michael, one of their tech people, did several hundred dollars' worth of work and component replacement for me...for free! Very grateful to them. No pics, however.

north of Prescott, and a cool mining town called Jerome, is Cottonwood.
I camped above the town for 2 weeks. This is that. 4.2023

entering Sedona, AZ. I think you need money to really enjoy
this town...it's gorgeous country. I did buy a good pizza from
Moondog's Pizza before moving on. 4.2023

north of Flagstaff on a road to the Grand Canyon I found this site and spent
several peaceful days. 5.2023

Making my way generally back towards Colorado I stopped in at the Navajo National Monument in northeast Arizona. One of the campgrounds is free to stay so of course I jumped on it. I had great weather and was able to do several hikes.

Betatakin ruins from an overlook. 5.2023

another hike takes you down into a canyon that holds a relic forest. The climate is
different enough down in the canyon to support aspen trees.

driving further north into southern Utah is the Valley of the Gods.
A perfect morning. 5.2023

I believe this a glossy snake (no rattle!), Valley of the Gods, UT 5.2023

driving through the Valley of the Gods, UT 5.2023

Once more I went into Grand Junction, CO, this time to have some Bilstein shocks installed on my truck. Afterwards I turned west towards Lake Tahoe, Crater Lake and other stops in Nevada and northern California. This was to be my summer trip for 2023.

trip map in orange-red, starting west from CO on 5-17 and returning east on 8-3.

my campsite just east of Capital Reef National Park in Utah. I'm in
the lower center. This is up a dirt road called Cathedral Valley. 5.2023

a sculpture commemorating the Old Spanish Trail
(Fish Lake Cutoff) along Hwy. 25 in southcentral Utah. 5.2023

the Pando alongside Fish Lake, UT. 5.2023.

This is a pic of a small slice of what's called the Pando, perhaps the largest aspen clone on earth (it's technically one tree). Unfortunately, this was before the leaves had come out. You can see many great photos online, thou.

where I spent my birthday (lower right), this is looking west. Fish Lake NF, UT 5.2023

view to the north from my campsite. Fish Lake NF, UT 5.2023

some old truck campers in Junction, UT 5.2023

Butch Cassidy's teenage home in Circleville, UT 5.2023

inside Lehman Caves, GBNP, NV 6.2023

a drive up towards Wheeler Peak, where the
bristlecone pines are, GBNP, NV 6.2023

One of my destinations for this trip was Great Basin National Park just inside the Nevada border with Utah. A major attraction is the bristlecone pine trees, some of which are reportedly 4000 years old. The winter of 2022-23 had dumped copious amounts of snow and as of early June the road up to the trailheads was still closed. I had to settle for a tour of the caves (pic above) and a scenic drive only partway up the mountain. Next time.

heading northwest out of the park towards the town of Ely, NV you take Hwy. 50, often referred to as the loneliest road in America, thou not so much anymore. 6.2023

downtown Ely, NV 6.2023

After heading west on Hwy. 50 for several hours I turned south and ended up in Tonopah. I spent several nights camping on BLM land just to the south of town. I went into town to hit a new business that does bbq and they make their own beer. Good beer. Tonopah also has the Clown Motel. I only realized they have a gift shop there after staring at the picture again. I could have bought a t-shirt!

the tasty pilsner from the Tonopah Brewing Co. 6.2023

people really stay here. Tonopah, NV 6.2023

in far western Nevada, Boundary Peak in the distance and California, too. 6.2023

I wound my way north to spend two nights in the Sugar Pine State Park campground on the California side of Lake Tahoe. Because of all the snow from the previous winter the park had just opened and I was lucky to get a spot. Beautiful place. Lake Tahoe is something to see from any and all angles. But, man, is it crowded. I never could find a single spot to park near the lake on my drives around the lake. Good thing the campground was right across the street. I have since read a couple of articles about how the Lake Tahoe locals are trying hard to figure out how to lessen the crowding.

view from near Stateline, NV 6.2023

view from the small beach across from Sugar Pine campground. 6.2023

Emerald Bay. This was a shot I took driving. Every inch of parking was
already claimed. Breathtaking in person. 6.2023

my campsite under the magnificent sugar pine trees. 6.2023

I left Lake Tahoe the same way I came, through Carson City. I like this town, nice surroundings and close to the lake. I also had to have my tires rotated here at a Discount Tire since the Dodge dealer in Ely was too small a shop to have the equipment to raise up my 11,000-pound camper. From here north past Reno, which didn't interest me in the least. Then west back into California turning north near Truckee and into the Sierras.

At Sugar Pine I had seen these red plants popping out of the ground every so often. I saw them again in the woods north of Truckee. They're called snow plants and they have no chlorophyll. Something about fungi around their roots? These are only found in the Sierras and maybe a bit of the Cascades. They are striking to see.

snow plants in the California Sierras. 6.2023

closeup of the northeast California portion. 6.2023

Driving through the Sierras north of Tahoe in mid-June I saw a lot of snow left over from the big winter storms. The elevations were only in the 6500' range but I guess things are different this close to the coast. In Colorado you typically wouldn't see snow in mid-June much below 9-10,000', plus or minus. This part of California and further north was devastated by the Camp and Dixie wildfires in 2018 and 2021. Reservoirs were dangerously low back then. This summer everything I saw that hadn't previously been torched was green and overflowing with water.

Yuba River near Sierra City, CA. 6.2023

Lake Oroville, CA filled to the brim. 6.2023

The Dixie fire in 2021 completely wiped out the small town of Greenville and I found myself driving through one day. People were rebuilding in every direction and there appeared to be only a handful of structures that had survived. Coming through the mountains from Oroville I've never seen such complete destruction with almost every tree burned down to a charred trunk and nothing but concrete pads and chimneys where homes once stood. That went on for miles and miles.

a ranger directed me to this area at the edge of the burned
zone near Chester, CA 6.2023

The State of Jefferson sign I saw near Paynes Creek, CA. The movement to create
a new state out of this part of CA and a bit of Oregon continues. 6.2023

My next big stop was Lassen Volcanic National Park. The scenic drive that connects the south and northwest entrances was still closed to thru traffic due to, yup, heavy snow. The northwest entrance offered more tourist opportunities and one day I drove in to what is called the Devastated Area, due to the eruption of Lassen Peak in 1914. From there the road south was closed. To get to the cinder cone in the photo below there is another entrance, and a large campground, in the northeast corner of the park.

Lassen Peak from the Devastated Area parking. 6.2023

the trail up the cinder cone took me about 25 minutes. Steeper than it looks, there
was a certain amount of backsliding on the gravel and cinder path, very frustrating. 6.2023
(doesn't this pic look fake, like a diorama, maybe?)

the reward of making it is the view from atop the cinder cone. 6.2023

I always wanted to see Mt. Shasta, this is looking south from the
free Orr Lake campground, CA 7.2023

Crater Lake National Park, OR 7.2023

I could post a hundred pictures just of Crater Lake. It's stunning from every angle. Can water look any bluer? The road that goes completely around the lake was partially closed, again from all of the snow. But it hardly mattered. I didn't want to rush myself and so managed to score a campsite in the park for one night even as busy as it was. The rest of the time in the area I found free camping in the national forests.

Crater Lake 7.2023

there is a hiking trail down to the lake shore where you can get a boat ride. They weren't
operating on that day. A bit of a slog, and mosquitos, going back up the trail. 7.2023

Wizard Island in the lake. 7.2023

closeup of the Crater Lake loop. 7.2023

driving south of Crater Lake is this curiosity, OR 7.2023

As I drove back into California I made an overnight stop at Lava Beds National Monument. There are a number of caves you can explore on your own, which I did not do being ill-equipped to crawl -yes, crawling may be involved - into the complete darkness. I went into one cave for maybe 200' turned off my flashlight and there was only a black silence. Not my thing. There are some hikes (above ground!) and I took one to the top of what's called Schonchin Butte. At the top is an old fire lookout and there were all these firefighter guys already up there in full gear and one asked if I wanted to take a photo and I said why not.

at the lookout station 7.2023

inside one of the bigger caves. 7.2023

morning on main street Cedarville, CA 7.2023

I took this picture of Cedarville because it was almost deserted that morning and it just felt peaceful. The car in the distance on the left is parked in front of a little place that is supposed to serve a good breakfast. If you're ever in the area.

North of Cedarville and the Alkali Lakes is Goose Lake and the town of Lakeview, OR. I decided to take a forest road to get there, FR #2 to be exact. This road went for 17 miles and took 2.5 hours. This is one of those roads where I've written "never again" on the map. My truck is more than capable but it's just not worth the effort.

looking south towards the Alkali Lakes and Cedarville from FR #2, CA,
before it got shitty. 7.2023

Hwy. 140, NV 7.2023

I like taking photos of unusual road signs. This one is in far northwest Nevada as I drove through the Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge. Wild donkey country, apparently.

closeup of Nevada portion. 6-7.2023

Highway 140 runs into Hwy. 95 and that's the road I took north to tiny Orovada and then onto Forest Road 84. To back up a bit, it started getting hot all of a sudden at the end of June and I often tried to find cooler camping by seeking higher elevation. If you can tell on the map a lot of Nevada is fairly flat with these islands of higher national forest areas and I tried to reach about every one as I made my way back to Colorado. F.R. 84 was 24 miles in 3 hours although several stretches were only 2-4 mph. This is another of my "never again" drives. Some beautiful rugged country but not worth a second effort. I made it to a primitive national forest campground that turned out to be fairly busy with what I'm guessing were locals. This is not a destination-type place.

Maybe someday there will be enough money in the federal budget to fix and upgrade all of the national forest and BLM campgrounds that are quite literally falling apart and being overgrown with neglect. Thousands of them. That's what I wish for. Plus, world peace. Obviously.

You may have read something about Thacker Pass in Nevada where there has been a legal battle with the local Indian tribes about whether to allow for some serious lithium mining. That area is just northwest of Orovada. Maybe it won't be tiny for long.

climbing the very slow switchbacks of FR #84, NV 7.2023

coming down the south side from the campground, overlooking Paradise Valley, NV 7.2023

Racing my way east on the Interstate (!) I hit Elko, NV for laundry and supplies and ran back north to another national forest for some heat relief. (At this point I've finally conceded that I need an air conditioner, there's no escaping the heat completely). Then it was back down to Elko and another national forest just to the southeast of Elko and the very pretty Angel Lake Campground, which was free at the time because the drinking water supply was turned off.

from the shore of Angel Lake, NV. My campsite was just behind here. 7.2023

my campsite in the middle. 7.2023

Another dash across the Great Salt Lake Desert (because it's hot!) - very flat - past the mess of the big city and into the mountains of the Manti-La Sal National Forest of central Utah. A week later I was back in Colorado where I could grab some real elevation.

nice campsite above Castle Dale, UT 8.2023

looking west towards some mountains in Utah (Moab is on the other side) from
the Divide Road on the Uncompahgre Plateau, CO 8.2023

my new toy in the Pike NF, CO 8.2023

As much as I enjoy walking/hiking I decided I needed another way to get around and explore. A visit to a Trek store in Golden, CO took care of that. This is a 'Marlin 7', 10-speed XXL with 29" tires. I like it.

After buying the bike, visiting with friends and doing all the annual doctor stuff in and around my old hometown of Evergreen I once again headed south into New Mexico.

free camp above the Rio Grande canyon west of Questa, NM in northcentral NM. This is
part of the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument, one of my favorite spots. 10.2023

The second week of October I was in the Albuquerque area and stopped in for a short visit with my friend Scott. This happened to be the last weekend of the annual balloon fiesta and it was a perfect day for some balloons to go up.

looking west to the balloons in Albuquerque, NM 10.2023

Santa Fe main plaza, NM 10.2023

After watching the balloons we drove up to Santa Fe for some lunch at The Shed (tamales for me) and wandering about.

Leaving the 'Q' I drove down to a canyon that was pinned on the iOverlander website. It was interesting to find this beautiful slot canyon maybe 5 miles west of busy I-25 down a dry riverbed which was fine to drive, no 4x4 required. Towards the end of the canyon I found this spot.

San Lorenzo Canyon, NM 10.2023

the view out from the campsite. 10.2023

closeup of the Gila NF, NM drive in brown. 10.2023

VLA, NM 10.2023

South from San Lorenzo I turned west at Socorro onto the familiar Hwy. 60 and past the Very Large Array. It appears that most of the dishes had been called home on that day?

I then went south into the Gila National Forest. As you can see from the map above I've been through it a few times but this trip I was taking some new roads going mostly east to west. All of the roads at this point were dirt and rock, some of it being quite slow in the 2-4 mph range. The Bursum Road portion wound through some very impressive country that relatively few people ever get to see. However, you might notice I wrote 'never again' for that drive on the map...once was enough.

horses in a meadow along forest road 150, Gila NF, NM 10.2023

view along Bursum Road, Gila NF, NM 10.2023

Bursum Road, Gila NF, NM 10.2023

This was a stretch of Bursum Road that was generally narrow and slow with steep terrain on either side. I didn't see any other vehicles along here which was fortunate because passing would have been a challenge.

main street, Mogollon, NM 10.2023

Finally reaching the end of Bursum Road it leads into the quirky little town of Mogollon. Home to a few people mostly tucked into a narrow canyon it seemed like a difficult place to live. Back in the late 1800's it was a wild mining town of 3-6000 people. Hard to imagine. They also filmed part of a Henry Fonda western here in 1973 called "My Name is Nobody". If memory serves, not his best.

closeup of east-central AZ trip in brown. 10.2023

It was getting chilly at the higher elevations of the national forest and it was time to move over and down into Arizona. I cut west on Hwy. 78 and first went slightly north into the company town of Morenci, location of a huge open pit copper mine, and a Bashas grocery store.

Owl Creek campsite, AZ 10.2023

If you can read the map (tap on it to enlarge) there is a dirt and gravel road called the Black Hills Back Country Byway on BLM land (designated on this map in yellow). Just a few miles in is a BLM campground called Owl Creek with 7 clean, widely spaced campsites. For only $2.50/nite with my senior card it's a very good deal. All campgrounds should be this nice.

just behind my campsite is this canyon of the Gila River.
They call this area of the river the Gila Box. 10.2023

Phelps-Dodge copper mine, AZ 10.2023

Driving the Back Country Byway southwest to its conclusion offers some great views. This is one looking north towards the Morenci copper mine.

Several days later I made my way down to the Sonoran Desert National Monument 1/2-way between Casa Grande and Gila Bend. This is one of my favorite hangouts in the Arizona desert and I stayed in the area for about a month.

Going back to what I said earlier about needing an air conditioner I stopped by a local company in Mesa called CruiseNComfort. They make a 12VDC unit that breaks down into 3 pieces allowing me to put the various parts where they will fit. My roof is spoken for with all of the solar panels. Of course, they make probably the most expensive units in the business but I decided to buy one anyway. This changed my plans from going south into Mexico for yet another year. The idea being to save some money while I hunted for a shop to do the a/c install. That would have to wait until 2024.

a near full moon at my campsite off Vekol Road in the Sonoran NM, AZ 11.2023

By late November the colder weather had caught up to me again meaning it was time to head down to my old hangouts near Yuma. So, I'll wrap up 2023 with a sunset pic from almost the same exact spot that I started this post. Until next year.