Arizona

Our first stop in Arizona was after an unreasonably quick run through Utah, which by the way is amazing. But, as we were racing the winter weather, we wanted to get further south as quickly as possible. Our Utah trip was more, Ooh, ooh, we have to come back here!” Hope to do that soon,.

November 30 we were heading from Cedar Canyon in Utah to the neighborhood of Flagstaff. We didn’t quite make it, but found a quiet overnight spot near the north rim of the Grand Canyon. We had identified a boondocking area south of Flagstaff and I ran ahead on the freeway to scope out our exact spot while Calvin opted for the “Avoid Highway” feature of Google Maps.

An hour later I get a call from Calvin and he’s telling me there is no road where Google Maps says there should be a road. There’s some rock, some goat tracks perhaps, but no actual road. Looking at what he’s facing in our home, I tell him to park someplace and I will come to him. Doing so, interestingly, required all my offroad skills. I was thankful for our OHV time in the Tillamook State Forest (Oregon) and all my years driving off-trail on my own property, thankful for Calvin’s admonition to carefully pick ones line, and of my awareness of what my clearance was and the location of my pumpkin so as not to high center on any of those deep ruts. The final stretch of my cross country excursion was what can only be described as a rock waterfall, sans water.

When I finally caught up with Calvin, I jumped out of the car and exclaimed, “I drove a black diamond trail all by myself!”

United, we found a spot off Interstate 17 south of Munds Park on Schnebley Hill Road. We parked on the edge of a dry lake and planned to stay for a couple days before heading to Sedona. The site was fine except for the fine dust – a side effect of frequent offroad vehicles. (Sadly, we lost our kitty Louie at that location. He got out right before dark and didn’t come back, which was completely out of character for him. No sign of him for the next few days confirmed that he’d been killed. He was a miserable little kitty and we’d been thinking of trying to find him a new home where he could be an only kitty.)

On December 3, we decided to move over to Sedona. Three ways there: Back up to Flagstaff and down 89A; South on I-17 to 179; or the “shortcut” over Schnebly Hill Road into downtown Sedona. I decided I would check out the shortcut since it was only 10 miles. Note to self: turn on data so your partner can monitor your progress.

Although the map says suitable for all vehicles, it lies. That ten mile shortcut took a full two hours, most of it in 4-wheel low, and after the previous day’s off-roading, I’d pretty much had my fill. Granted, I got some absolutely incredible photographs of vistas most people will never see, but OMIGOSH, that was some rough road.

I finally got to the bottom and called Calvin, who after two hours was just about to bring Moose down the same goat trail, assuming I’d driven off a cliff or something. I firmly said, there’s no way you’re bring Moose this way, go around, I’ll meet you at Forest Road 525.

Forest Road 525, and the associated complex of roads, is a popular boondocking location near Sedona. There’s some off-roading areas (no thanks, I’ve had my fill) and a number of side roads on which to camp. Typical 14 day limit applies. The first spot we found had a lovely panoramic view of the surrounding hills. Through a fellow traveler we met and assisted with some mechanical and water system issues, we ended up in an even better spot, further from the main road and even fewer neighbors.

We stayed in that area from December 4-13, exploring Sedona, Cottonwood, Jerome (interesting place stuck to the side of a mountain, and what a stellar drive over the mountain), Prescott Valley, and Camp Verde. We enjoyed the Red Rocks, Montezuma Castle, the Chapel of the Holy Cross and so many other beautiful and fascination places. Mostly though, we hung out by our campfire, did some work, and took walks with our critters and the local cows, and enjoyed amazing sunsets.

We’ve learned that we get the itch to move after 9 or 10 days. I think we’ve also learned that we should wait at least a day after we get the itch to plan our next stop.

We left a tad soon and ended up missing a package in transit (COVID is making shipping dates a bit less reliable, something to keep in mind if you are having something shipped to your current location – you may not still be there by the time it arrives.). We wanted to head east toward New Mexico, but all of our boondocking candidates had locked gates on the access roads. Frustrated, but not seeing any point in turning back, we headed toward the next place on my bucket list, Petrified Forest National Park.

We arrived at the North Gate of Petrified Forest about 3:30 PM and I asked the ranger for some suggestions. He very helpfully directed us to the South Gate where we could find some free RV parking. Great! We did a quick drive through the park, making note of the places we wanted to see the next day, taking more sunset pictures, and pulled into what seemed to be a pretty happening RV park during peak season. As it was there was only one van there when we arrived, and another came later in the evening. All the critters got their evening walk in before dark, and we had a cozy nights sleep.

We were the first inside the South Gate the next morning and Calvin and I spent about four hours exploring the Petrified Forest together. Fascinating stuff! I especially enjoyed the architecture of the old buildings. The rocks are cool too.

New Mexico

From there, it was an easy and really beautiful drive from the South Gate of Petrified Forest on Hwy 180, past canyons, through amazing mountains, past partially frozen lakes, into New Mexico to the Gila National Forest and the Cosmic Campground.

No, seriously, that’s what it’s called. The nearest town is over 40 miles away in Arizona on the other side of a mountain range. There is absolutely no light pollution here, such that it is an International Dark Sky Sanctuary, the only one in the USA. We arrived at the New Moon just days before the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, the “Star of Bethlehem”, and my goodness, the stars did not disappoint! Glorious night skies, warm sunny days. The critters and I walked multiple times a day in what was our most interesting “front yard” to date, interesting rocks everywhere, the variety of plant species, hills, plateaus, canyons, you name it. Best of all, our friend Chris stopped by for a couple nights on his cross country trip from Virgina to California. That was an absolutely wonderful treat.

We enjoyed this area so much, it didn’t even occur to us to leave for the first full week. We had to do a bit of a supply run, so ran into Silver City. An hour each way, and it’s a pretty standard small town. This was our first indication that New Mexico had gone pretty extreme with the COVID “lockdown” mentality, so that kind of changed our tune about the state. Still, we stayed at Cosmic Campground a few more days.

Our next move was east, again, toward Lincoln National Forest and the Roswell “neighborhood.” We went north and east on Hwy 12 to Datil, then Hwy 60 east past the Very Large Array (cool), around the Magdelena mountains to Socorro, where we stopped to restock a bit, do some laundry, and all the other things that we never do on travel days as a rule. From Socorro, we continued east on Hwy 380 and spent the night at our first ever campground, BLM Valley of Fire lava beds. We arrived to the most incredible sunset we have seen thus far on our travels. The critters each got a quick walk, as they’d been inside vehicles all day, then we took luxurious showers, something we don’t do when we’re conserving water, and settled in for the night.

The next morning, December 29, started crystal clear with brilliant sunshine. Again, I walked the critters and did some exploring among the big rocks near our campsite, then Calvin, Daisy and I walked the trail around the lava beds. Fascinating! And the brochure and signage were very helpful in understanding what we were seeing.

We left the campground, stopped in Carrizozo to do some quick business at the post office, then toodled down the road about 30 miles to the Lincoln National Forest. Since it was a short drive, we parked Moose and did some exploring in the Jeep until we found a place to anchor for a few days. We have work to get done and we’re biding our time until payday (Friday) so we can do a big restock in Roswell before heading into Texas for a bit.  In the meantime, we’ll enjoy New Years from our mountaintop.