Here's a screenshot of the BLM Eastern Imperial County (CA) Route Map that I found online and downloaded onto my Avenza Maps app, which lets you view maps offline. Very handy app. This is to show where I spent most of the winter of 2023-24 (and last winter, too) camping between sites #1 and #2 off Ogilby Road in the desert of southeastern California. All of the yellow land is public BLM and free to use.
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| rainbow after a rainstorm at campsite #2 off of Ogilby Rd. CA 1.2024 |
I sometimes ride my bike around the various dirt roads and trails when the weather allows, i.e. when the wind is not being ridiculous. One day I came across this desert tortoise. I had to ride back to my camper to get a camera and about 30 minutes later it was still in the very same spot. I'm pretty sure I annoyed the heck out of it. They apparently spend up to 95% of their time in burrows and live 50-80 years. They say they get from 10-14" long so my amateur guess is that this guy is at least middle-aged. I think it was lucky to spot even this one when there is so much desert and so few trails.
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| desert tortoise near campsite #2. 2.2024 |
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| desert lily, campsite #2. 3.2024 |
With the weather warming in late February and into March some wildflowers started popping up right around me.
This got me to thinking about what kind of bloom was happening over in the Anza Borrego State Park, the very large California park in the desert to the west. So, on March 19 after some 109 days of free camping I left and drove west. Once in Borrego Springs a local told me that the week prior had probably been the peak but it was still a beautiful sight. This was, however, not what they call a super bloom year. The local told me that 2019 was the last one. Maybe there'll be another next year. Or the year after that...
The pink-lavender color is desert sand verbena, the white is dune evening primrose and the yellow is desert sunflower. I use apps to identify most everything, from flowers to birds. The flower app I've been using is called wildflowersearch.org.
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| spring bloom at Anza Borrego State Park, CA. 3.2024 |
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| same field next to Henderson Canyon Road. 3.2024 |
If you read my 2023 blog post (click on "Older Posts" at bottom right of this page) I mentioned seeing some of the 130 sculptures that are scattered all about the town of Borrego Springs. Here are some of the others I saw this year.
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| the miner, Borrego Springs, CA 3-2024 |
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| the jeep guy, Borrego Springs, CA 3.2024 |
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| the serpent, Borrego Springs, CA 3.2024 |
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| scorpion vs., Borrego Springs, CA 3.2024 |
West of Anza Borrego is the town of Julian. You climb up a winding road and gain about 3500' in elevation and go from desert to a mountainous forest of oak and pine. I had heard that this was a touristy town but had never looked into it. It's a very attractive place. The surrounding area has plenty of apple orchards, vineyards and nice homes. The town is known for their apple cider and pies, and numerous bakeries and restaurants sell one or both. One of these days I hope to spend a few days sampling some of it. Afterwards, I continued north up to Palm Desert and then back east over to Quartzsite, AZ.
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| a drive north and overlooking Palm Desert, CA 3.2024 |
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| along Paseo Drive, Palm Desert, CA 3.2024 |
I made a turn one road too soon and found myself on Paseo Drive. They call this the Rodeo Drive of the desert. Gucci and all that jazz. From here over to Indian Wells a few miles east is definitely big bucks.
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| in the Roadrunner Wash camp, Quartzsite, AZ 3.2024 |
Quartzsite is a famous winter gathering spot for literally 10's of 1000's of campers of all types and sizes. Late March is end-of-season around here and the Roadrunner Wash area south of town where I camped was close to empty, more to my liking.
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| Silly Al's, Quartzsite, AZ 3.2024 |
Beyond the winter crowds, Q has maybe 3000 full-timers so the restaurant scene is pretty thin. Silly Al's Pizza is one of the hoppin-ist spots in town. The pizza is...okay. But the bar area is a pretty cool place to hang.
I went south to spend a last few days off Ogilby Road, CA before heading east for my appointment up in the town of Show Low to get my air conditioner installed. Early April is when the ocotillo plants begin to bloom (it's not a cactus according to Wiki but related, instead, to tea and blueberries) and the picture below was right along the side of the road.
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| ocotillo blooming alongside Ogilby Road, CA 4.2024 |
April 9 was the date to have my new air conditioner installed up in the tiny town of Shumway, AZ which is 15 minutes north of Show Low in northeastern AZ. The drive I took north up to Show Low from Globe, AZ takes you from about 3500' to 6400' through both the San Carlos Apache and White Mountain Apache Tribe Reservations. This is beautiful country of pine trees and canyons. Show Low is near the edge of the Mogollon Rim, which is the southern limit of the gigantic Colorado Plateau. About halfway between the two towns is the Salt River Canyon and the winding road that travels down to the Salt River and back up again is a favorite of mine in Arizona.
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Salt River Canyon on the
south side, AZ 4.2024 |
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Salt River Canyon on the
north side, AZ 4.2024 |
The installer for my split a/c system was Alex who owns Zeeman Automotive. Alex, it turns out, is a mechanical genius with all things automotive. The install took two days and I look forward to when I need to finally crank up the ac. Here are the photos.
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| evaporator and controls on back wall |
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| compressor in a back storage compartment |
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| condenser fans and dryer under rear of camper |
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| view of comp. and condenser at the back |
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| sharing a celebratory PBR with Alex, Shumway, AZ 4.2024 |
The air conditioner I bought is sold with the 3 main components separate from each other allowing an installation that can utilize any available spaces. And in my case nothing can go on the roof (all solar up there). I didn't leave Shumway until 8:30pm and just north of Shumway is another small town called Taylor. They have a Walmart and that's where I spent the night. My first Walmart "camp of shame"! Not too bad, actually.
Eventually, I made it west over to Kingman for supplies and then took old Route 66 up to Peach Springs. This stretch of 66 rolls through some pretty country as the elevation increases. Peach Springs is at about 4970 feet while the dirt road that leads north into the Grand Canyon and to the river drops down to 1358 feet. The temperature on this drive rose at least 10 degrees. The Hualapai run rafting trips from this river entry point and there were two other campers the night I was there. The only sounds that evening were of the river and what I think were frogs that live around the Diamond Spring that flows into the river here.
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| northwest Arizona. 4.2024 |
Peach Springs is a small town that is the tribal headquarters of the Hualapai Tribe. You need to acquire a permit from the corner store in order to travel on tribal land and stay at the campground down next to the Colorado River. The permit costs $21.70 per person per night. I opted for one night. The brown marker is this trip, the red, black and blue are from earlier trips.
The first 15 miles down into the canyon was pretty decent and took about an hour. The last 5 miles took closer to 45 minutes and at the bottom you cross Diamond Creek itself several times. I don't think the creek was 6" deep in mid-April, no worries. The canyon gets narrower and the walls get higher the closer you get to the river. As you can see by the map above the Reservation is on the south side of the river and Grand Canyon National Park is on the north side. I believe this is one of the few points, or maybe the only point (I'm not sure if Lees Ferry at the east end of the Canyon counts?), where you can actually drive down to the river in the Grand Canyon. I had to do this trip for that reason alone. Here are some pics, tap to enlarge.
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| CO River next to campground. 4.2024 |
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| the road into the canyon. 4.2024 |
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| 6:30am in the campground. 4.2024 |
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| heading back out of the canyon. 4.2024 |
Driving west back on 66 I turned north on the fast dirt road out of tiny Antares. The dust clouds were epic as I was able to fly at 40-45 for long stretches. Antares Road intersects with Pearce Ferry Road, a paved road that many people take up to Grand Canyon West where they have the glass Skywalk. I thought about doing that but the costs seemed just a bit ridiculous to me. I believe it costs $68/person to do the Skywalk. If you want any photos of yourself on the Skywalk they cost $17 each printed. You're not allowed to take a camera or phone out onto the Skywalk; they have their own photographers take any pics you may want.
I continued north to Pearce Landing which is on the Colorado River where a guy named Pearce had a ferry crossing in the 1880's. Between Antares Road and the town of Meadview is an awesome forest of Joshua trees. I did not know they existed in Arizona but they, in fact, are all along the highway for miles.
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| Joshua tree forest just south of Meadview, AZ. 4.2024 |
The road to the ferry landing point turns to dirt for the last 6.5 miles and there is a free campground about 4 miles in. I was the only one there for my one night. I read that this was a very popular spot back in the 1930's, people even flying in to be here. There was a small airstrip on top of a nearby hill and there were big plans for this area. Those never happened.
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| Pearce Landing, AZ 4.2024 |
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| sunset at the P.L. campground, AZ 4.2024 |
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view of eastern edge of Lake Mead bathtub ring
from...Meadview, AZ 4.2024 |
The first few weeks of May I camped in the trees between Camp Verde, AZ and Flagstaff east of Interstate 17, always searching for the best weather. As you can see from this screenshot I took off of the US Public Lands app (a great app and the only one I've ever paid for, $3.99, I think) it's almost all national forest shown as the green shade.
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screenshot showing national
forest lands. 5.2024 |
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| foothill paintbrush, AZ 5.2024 |
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| Mormon Lake and Humphreys Peak, AZ 5.2024 |
Highway 3 runs south of Flagstaff for some 55 miles down to a dot called Clints Well. It's a very pretty drive; Mormon Lake is about a 1/3 of the way down.
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| new tire table with propane stove, AZ 5.2024 |
Being in the Flagstaff area I ordered a number of things to be delivered to a UPS Store in town. One of those things was a tire table by Tailgater. This is their large aluminum table. I had gotten rid of my camping table some time ago since I find them to be a hassle to set up and to get level so that I literally never used it. Now I can fire up my propane stove which quick connects to the camper propane tank system.
In late May I drove north towards Page, AZ on Highway 89, the middle third of which is horrible road that makes me always feel like I'm just on the edge of controlling my vehicle. Nonetheless, I then headed west towards the Kaibab forest that surrounds Jacob Lake and the north rim of the Grand Canyon. On the way, near Lee's Ferry, is the Navajo Bridge that crosses the Colorado River. This was the first time I came over this bridge where the conditions were pretty decent for a photo op off of the pedestrian bridge.
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| Colorado River from the Navajo Bridge, AZ 5.2024 |
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| map of the north rim area, AZ 5.2024 |
From here it was into the Kaibab National Forest that borders the northern edge of the Grand Canyon. Some nights I was simply in the forest but there were several nights where I camped at or near the edge. Here are some pictures, and a video, of that. On the map this trip is in brown thou it may be difficult to discern. No matter.
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from the Indian Hollow/Thunder River Trailhead, AZ 5.2024
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| campsite near Crazy Jug, AZ 5.2024 |
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| Crazy Jug view, AZ 5.2024 |
Below is a short video of my view at the campsite near Crazy Jug.
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| an arch along Arches Trail, UT 6.2024 |
Going north into Utah I made a stop in the very pleasant town of Kanab for laundry and supplies and then further north towards Bryce Canyon. I opted to camp up a dirt road that goes to Losee Canyon for a couple of nights. One of the short hikes is called the Arches Trail which has some arches and hoodoos. Nothing like the National Park but still pretty and with almost no people.
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| same trail |
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| same trail |
After this I went northeast thru some of Utah's national forest and then east into southern Colorado where I spent most of the summer at the cooler elevations of between 9000-10000', and most of that time was in the San Juan Mountains where you'll find towns like Gunnison on the north side, Telluride and Durango to the west and Pagosa Springs on the south. These are some pictures of places I saw along the way. Nothing noteworthy or exciting happened all summer long!
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| decent pizza in Escalante, UT 6.2024 |
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| Cheese Box Butte, Hwy. 195, UT 6.2024 |
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| "campsite", near Lake City, CO 7.2024 |
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| back in Colorado 6.2024 |
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| at ~9600' is Big Blue Creek (and campground), near Lake City, CO 7.2024 |
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| Lake Cristobal, Lake City, CO 8.2024 |
South of Lake City is Lake Cristobal, the 2nd largest natural lake in Colorado. You're seeing about half of it in this photo. We got jipped in the lake department in Colorado!
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| in the San Juan Mountains, CO 8.2024 |
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| storyboard about pic to left. 8.2024 |
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| campsite along f.r. 520, near Creede, CO 8.2024 |
West of Creede, CO this campsite was about 19 miles up forest road 520. This road follows the Rio Grande River up to its headwaters some 10 miles further along. You'd never guess this peaceful little river would become a flashpoint once it gets down to Texas. My only concern up here was the rain.
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| bighorns near Creede, CO 8.2024 |
I think this is a small herd of young and female bighorns. They were alongside my campsite off Pool Table Road above Wagon Wheel Gap near Creede, CO.
Eventually, I made it back to the Evergreen, CO area as I do every summer to visit doctors and friends. Here are some photos from that.
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| morning view of Mt. Silverheels and ground fog, CO 9.2024 |
This was mid-September and the aspen were already changing color up here in the chill at 10000'. This was the view from my campsite in South Park near the tiny town of Jefferson, CO.
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| in Morrison, CO 9.2024 |
I spent a few days with my friends Dan and Laura in Lakewood, CO. Dan and I took a bike ride into nearby Morrison. In the background above my head you can see the twin monoliths of Red Rocks Ampitheatre, one of the great outdoor concert venues on the planet. Really.
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| in the national forest about 25 miles north of Pagosa Spgs., CO 10.2024 |
Mid-October was when the temperatures in Colorado went from unseasonably warm to much cooler and so I moved south into New Mexico and Farmington, where I needed to have the vehicle serviced. Along the way I stopped at Chimney Rock National Monument. Chimney Rock is the rock furthest to the right in the photo. It looks more impressive from the other side and can be seen for miles.
Just north of downtown Farmington is a new-ish and free campground called Brown Springs. I spent 4 peaceful nights there, but I wouldn't want to be around on the weekends as this is smack dab in the middle of a serious BLM atv playground area. The noise would be horrendous.
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| top of Chimney Rock NM, CO 10.2024 |
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| Brown Spgs. CG, Farmington, NM 10.2024 |
From Farmington I made my way south and west back into Arizona. I needed to make another stop in Shumway where Alex was going to install my new water tank. My original had a small leak and even after a couple of attempts to weld it it still leaked. I assumed it would only get worse so I found a company outside of Pittsburgh, PA called Miller Plastics. We designed a new tank with internal baffles that will prevent the tank from bulging and leaking...I hope. This new tank should outlast me. It's even got a glass viewport and holds about 49.5 gallons, according to my guesstimate. (231 cubic inches per gallon, fyi).
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| the new water tank. 10.2024 |
My other reason for heading down into Arizona was to get into Mexico from Nogales. I made a stop in Tucson to talk to an insurance agent just so I felt comfortable with what was or wasn't going to be covered. I also found out they sell 3 month policies, which isn't listed on the website. That could come in handy someday, glad I asked.
Northwest of Tucson is the Ironwood Forest National Monument. I drove out that way and found a nice campsite that I stayed at for 6 nights. The peak on the right side of the photo is called Ragged Top.
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| Ironwood campsite off Silverbell Road, Marana, AZ 11.2024 |
It had been April 2017 since I was last in Mexico so of course the excitement, and the anxiety, were building. The border loomed. There is national forest that goes right up to the border wall on the west side of Nogales and that's where I camped my last night before crossing, not more than a mile from old Mexico itself.
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| crossing at Nogales, AZ 11-12-24 |
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| campsite outside of Nogales, AZ 11.2024 |
At this border crossing you simply drive thru some goofy obstacle course and you're on your way. Immediately the roads get worse, even the welcome sign is rundown! All of the necessary paperwork takes place further on down the road at what's known as Kilometer 21. Mexico seems to have a problem with pickup trucks and their attached campers. The lady pointed out that my Colorado registration indicated a weight of 9880 pounds, that was too much for a pickup. I pointed out that my registration also categorized my vehicle as a motorhome. That was the magic word. I paid my money and continued south.
About 4 hours south is the coast town of San Carlos, one of the first towns that has any real cluster of gringos. This is a place for deep sea fishing with a good-sized marina. There is a golf course and many condos. There is also an RV park called Totonaka, where many rv'ers opt to spend the winter. For others like myself it's a spot to catch our breath from the crossing and a place to get our first taste of in-country food. West and north of town the dirt coastal road goes up to several villages including Manga and Manga 2 and 3. It was here I drove to spend 3 nights of free camping along the beach of the Sea of Cortez.
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| Manga 3 sunset. 11.2024 |
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| view towards Manga 2 and 3. 11.2024 |
One of my favorite stops in the state of Sonora on this drive south has been the colonial town of Alamos. On earlier visits I've stayed at an RV park which no longer exists and I've rented a house for a few days another time. This time I stayed at the Rancho Acosta RV Park. According to Maria, whose family owns the ranch, this small park has existed for over 70 years and is currently the only game in town left for camping. It's relatively quiet at night, well shaded and a pleasant walk or bike ride into the centro area of town. Unfortunately for me Alamos has also gotten noticeably more crowded and the narrow cobblestone streets were never intended to handle so many vehicles. I stayed a week but it may well be my last. Before leaving I did manage to find a shop that sells bacanora and I bought a bottle. Bacanora is another agave-derived booze that can only be labeled as such if it is made in the state of Sonora.
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| the top part of my trip. 11.2024 |
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| driving into Alamos. 11.2024 |
At the end of my Alamos stay I continued down Highway 15 which goes from Nogales all the way to Mazatlán - about 700 miles - and then goes inland to somewhere near Mexico City. The State Department has some serious travel warnings about the states of Sonora and Sinoloa. Sinoloa is home to the cartel of the same name and I've always been aware of this in my several trips either north or south on this highway and took it in stride. I was not aware, however, of the serious recent danger due to cartel vs. cartel fighting going on. So, there are a number of checkpoints along the highway between Nogales and Celestino, 7 to be exact. As you enter Sinoloa there are a couple of checkpoints spaced maybe an hour or two apart. The first one was fine. I was waved over and a man who spoke English walked me thru the procedure. One guy would open one door at a time and slowly look thru things showing me along the way what he was doing. They looked in the truck and then the camper and let me go my merry way. It was easy and professional.
The next checkpoint was a bit different. Five guys in some type of uniform (the same uniform as the last checkpoint) and facemasks approached my vehicle all at once. One short little fucker kept saying "sir, sir, I need to count your money, sir". Two guys started going thru my truck at the same time. A fourth guy was speaking to me in broken English. I don't remember what the fifth guy was doing. While the short guy grabbed my stash of pesos the fourth one tapped me on the shoulder to say something and I turned his way. That was all the time it took for the short fucker to take 4000 pesos (about $210 on that day). The guys going thru my truck walked away with my prescription (out of date, actually) sunglasses, as it turned out. I didn't realize any of this until I was several hours down the road at a campground in the tiny beach town of Celestino.
I've paid bribes before, never in Mexico, thou I've been stopped who knows how many times. I paid mordida (the word for these small bribes, meaning little bite) when I was in Honduras and in Nicaragua on an earlier road trip. Small amounts that never really phased me. This one, however, got into my head and kind of soured my mood and put me on high alert anytime I was to hit the road afterward. I had always felt, maybe not invisible, but above the fray. Not anymore. Maybe it's the big green camper, who knows, but Mexico does feel more tense or edgy to me this time around. It's a different vibe, for sure.
Celestino was, maybe 15 years ago, a very busy RV spot. There were at least three good-sized RV parks along the beach road but now there is only one and it's barely holding on. From what my fellow campers told me this has everything to do with the level of violence which has been going on for some years now. I was also told that the guys that ripped me off were most likely with the FGR, which is associated with the Attorney General's office. I don't know if that was true or not but, if so, I think they decided to go rogue.
I stayed here for the next 16 days, partly because I needed to regroup and partly because I was in no hurry and I liked the spot and the people. There was Rick and Wendy from Bowen Island up near Vancouver and Clark and Ves from San Diego and Stewart from Albuquerque and Brian from British Columbia. We, along with the caretaker Miguel, were the only ones here most days with different campers coming thru on occasion usually staying one night. Rick and Wendy were nice enough to ask me along whenever they made a run up to La Cruz for supplies, the nearest town of any consequence. Otherwise, I never would have stayed so long. One of the compromises of having a single attached camper is once I need to pack everything away in order to drive somewhere I almost always keep going. All of these folks were longtime visitors to Celestino. Despite the troubles they still like the small, quiet location and the mostly gentle surfing. Clark, in his 70's, gets out and surfs most days. Rick and I would ride our bikes around, and he showed me the two other now defunct and overgrown RV parks that used to be full of snowbirds.
The exit off Highway 15 to Celestino had been a location, I was told, where bombs of some sort had been thrown off the overpass just a couple of months earlier and a carjacking had happened right in front of the little town tienda. As a consequence there were always National Guard troops at the exit - who naturally had to search me when I drove in - and occasionally Military, as well. They naturally had to search me the day I was leaving. This stuff was exasperating, thou everyone seemed to appreciate that they were there.
Anyway, nothing happened again all the way down the coast and I didn't see another checkpoint until Acapulco, but that's for a future post. One thing I won't be doing again is driving down the Sinoloa coast. In previous blogs I'd written about how boring, uninspiring and monotonous it was. It's still those things but now I can add "possibly dangerous". I hate to paint with a broad brush...but I'm painting like Jackson Pollock on this one!
This map shows my route from Alamos on down to Celestino to Stone Island, which is on the south side of Mazatlán, and then down to Paraiso Miramar, a hotel and RV park south of San Blas. As always, you can tap on any photo to get a full screen view. Stone Island was busy and full of longtime winter residents, Americans and Canadians. Paraiso was a beautifully maintained resort whose RV park area was barely visited anymore. It was only myself and a couple from Germany. And they left after one night.
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| Stewart, Ves, Clark, Brian 11.2024 |
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| laundry day in Celestino. 11.2024 |
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| the beach in front of the RV park (arrow) in Celestino. 11.2024 |
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beach at Stone Island
3 Amigos RV Park. 12.2024 |
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| looking back at RV park 12.2024 |
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| my spot at Paraiso. 12.2024 |
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| Paraiso, very rocky shoreline. 12.2024 |
I left Paraiso on December 20 and I was interested in not being on the coast during the holidays. I drove south thru Puerto Vallarta, literally thru the old cobblestone part of the city as I missed the turn that leads to a bypass. I'd driven thru that part of the city before but not with such a large rig. It was challenging, I'll say that much.
Maybe 2 hours south and inland is the small, clean, attractive town of El Tuito. A couple miles west of town is the bird sanctuary of Rancho Primavera. They accept campers so that's where I went for the next 17 days, at $10US per day. I found this location on the iOverlander app, an excellent app most everyone uses to some degree, worldwide for that matter. Primavera is owned and operated by Bonnie and her husband Carlos, and they were both gracious and helpful. It was a real pleasure to stay there. If you're into birding this is a destination and you'll find a bunch of information online and on their website.
This was the weekend before Christmas on the main square. These kids, and others, were showing off their dancing skills and were on their way to some national competition.
These three horses came down and visited my spot most days. There are no electrical hookups here so you would need solar panels to stay any length of time. This was, I think, the first time I've ever been in Mexico where I drank the local water. Their water came from a well and tasted so much better than the agua purificada that everyone drinks. I filled my tank a couple of times. Delicious.
To get supplies I used my bike, about a 20-minute ride each way. I had purchased this basket specifically for this Mexico trip. It fits a 6-pack perfectly.
This is the view from Bonnie's front patio looking east towards town. My camper is down there somewhere. Every morning Bonnie would set out birdfeed and multiple birds would show up. With most of the trees having leaves on them this time of year it was the only way I really saw anything. Other guests would wander thru the woods along the various trails. I did that but only ran into spider webs. Lots of butterflies, too. And more horses.
They rehab military macaws here and there were 6-8 of them that would show up, quite the racket. You'd see them flying overhead during the day, usually in pairs but sometimes 3 or 4. They were free to go wherever but a handout is hard to pass up, I guess.
A military macaw, black-throated magpie jay, yellow-winged cacique and a dove of some sort that I think photobombed me.
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| yellow grosbeak |
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| black-throated magpie jay |
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| cinnamon hummingbird |
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| west Mexican chachalaca |
I stayed at Primavera until January 6, 2025. And that's it for 2024.
