Fun in the Sun Road Trip – Days 27-30, Tombstone Territories and the HUGE breakdown averted

Let me backtrack to Tucson and Catalina State Park to talk a bit about the major huge colossal breakdown that almost happened. While driving around, Deb noticed a grinding noise coming out of the right front wheel area. Naturally, we started planning for the worst and started to look into Toyota Dealerships and thinking we’d need to stay a few more days, rent a car and wait for the dealership to make the necessary repairs..thinking wheel bearing. But being the mechanical talent I am (I hate working on cars), at camp I jacked up the front wheel to see if that wheel was really to just fall off. I spun it to find that exact same grinding noise,,, then with a little investigation, found that the dust shield was rubbing on the break drum… a 2 second repair and off we go!

Next stop was the Tombstone Territories, about an hour east of Tucson. What is amazing about this place is while it has the same basic desert feel and look, although hillier, the elevation is over 4000 ft. Temps in Phoenix we supposed to get into the 90’s and near 90 in Tucson that week, but it is a lot was in the mid 70’s in the tombstone areas I assume because of the elevation.

We camped at Tombstone Territories RV Park, near Huachuca City, centrally located to visit Kartchner Caverns, Bisbee, and Tombstone. It is a nice RV  park in the middle of nowhere. full hookups, nicely kept grounds and all of the amenities (i.e., we can finally do some laundry). Although a lot of people come and stay here all winter, and it is a nice place as far as private parks go, we still prefer state and national park campgrounds. I rate it a 9. They have Wifi, but you have to go to their library to access it. 

The first day, we visited Bisbee, AZ. Bisbee is a old mining town with a lot of original buildings. At one time it was the largest city between St. Louis and and San Francisco and has one of the largest mineral deposits in the world. We had lunch at the Copper Queen hotel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I took a tour of the old Copper Queen mine, which is a small rail car that takes you down into the mine to see how things were once done. Deb and Kyle stayed back because you had to wear a hardhat and rain slicker and Kyle

 

wouldn’t abide by that. He’s not tour friendly. Next time Deb will do the tour.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also visited the famous Shady Grove RV  park, not really an RV park to “pull into”, but a place with refurbished classic trailers that you can stay at. We wanted to eat lunch at Dot’s Diner next door, but they were closed.

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We wanted to visit the Kartchner Caverns, and we discovered that reservations are essential this time of year. Needless to say, they had no openings during our stay…so maybe next time. We played golf instead at a great municipal course in Sierra Vista.

Day three was a trip to Tombstone. This town is a National Landmark and of course, famous for ‘the gunfight at the OK Corral” (although it is really known for being a very successful silver mining city and at one time had a population of tens of thousands). We walked the wooden sidewalks, visited the tombstone Courthouse Museum/state park, and mostly window shopped the many many many tee shirt and souvenir shops along the way. Deb and I bought a couple of RED Shirt tee shirts with Tombstone logos. We also took an historic trolley tour and learned more about the history of many of the buildings and people .. including the fact that the gunfight wasn’t at the OK corral, but at an intersection of two streets a hundred yards away from the corral. Also, Wyatt Earp was only a deputy Marshall for a brief period and it was his brother Virgil who was the real lawman. Virgil’s brothers Wyatt and Morgan and doc Holliday were only temporary deputy sheriffs.  Anyway, it is a nice town to visit despite the cowboys trying to get you into their “authentic” gunfights” on every other street corner.

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the way out of town we stopped at the Boot Hill Cemetery where the Clantons and McLaury’s are buried.

 

We also stopped at the Fairbank ghost town site.

Fun in the Sun Road Trip, Days 23 -26 - Tucson

After two nights at Lost Dutchman State Park, we drove a couple hours south to the Tucson area for a few nights at Catalina State Park. This park came highly recommended on the RV Reviews site, but the campground host we talked to at River Island liked Lost Dutchman a lot more. She was right. Catalina is a nice enough park with huge sites and elbow room, it has miles of hiking trails, and is famous for bird watching. We didn’t think it was near as scenic as Anza Borrego or Lost Dutchman, but we definitely enjoyed our 4 night stay. Not a bad campground, but not a “destination” one either – maybe an “8”.

The bathrooms were about an 8 too, because the showers were a bit luke-warm. Let me say a little something about bathroom ratings. As my big brother Dan pointed out to me, rating bathrooms at campgrounds is apparently something I always did as a kid. I guess nice bathroom while camping is important to me, although I’m perfectly happy with a bush behind the trailer too. A bathroom rating of 10 is clean and doesn’t need repairs. The sink area has soap and paper towels, and the shower is free, has a curtain, so water doesn’t spray all over your clothes, and you can set the water temp at whatever you want.

 

On the first day we drove south about 40 miles to visit Tubac, which is a cool artsy-crafty town with old buildings and lots of shops. We had a nice lunch and bought some Mexican pottery and a neato tortoise that we plan to put near the fountain.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The second day we drove to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum which is about 1/2 hr west of Tucson. This is an amazing place with live desert displays, trails, animals, reptiles, birds and great displays.

We also visited the nearby Gilbert Ray County Park campground as recommended by a nice fellow we met at Lost Dutchman. This is a fine large campground in a desert setting, and all sites have power. While the sites have no water or waste hookups, they do have a dump and potable water available. This campground looks to be a “10”. The have a 7-day limit and don’t take reservations – perfect for us. While we didn’t stay here, we will definitely next time and visit the museum again as well as the nearby “Old Tucson” town area and Saguaro Nat’l Park.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the last day in the Tucson area we played a round of golf at a nice municipal course. Next stop – Tombstone Territories.

Fun in the Sun Road Trip Days 16 – 22 , Western Arizona

Our first camping spot in Arizona, after leaving the gorgeous Anza Borrega State Park is on BLM land south or Quartzsite, AZ. For those of you who don’t know, camping in the desert around Quartzsite is a big deal for thousands of RV’ers every year. In January through early February there are ginormous RV and rock/gem shows which draws a confusingly large number of campers. Like wall to wall. We missed this excitement, but could still visit the roadside swap meets and vendors stalls selling lots of useless crap.

We weren’t very enamored with Quartzsite itself, as the town is one big tacky flea market. But camping on BLM land is pretty cool. For one thing, you can camp for free for 14 days, or pay something like $15 to camp for a month. We chose a camping area called roadrunner, which is 5 miles south of town.

  You basically drive off the road onto dirt paths and find a spot. We found one nestled in an area surrounded by saguaro cactus and small trees. The first night was kind of eerie since we were basically along in the middle of nowhere, but after a couple nights, we got to appreciate the privacy and quiet….plus the price is right. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since we’re grazing, we decided to head north from here and see what camping is like near Parker, AZ and the Lake Havasu area, staying a couple nights at River Island State Park along I95.  It was a nice large campsite, nestled in between cool looking rocky hills, small and immaculate, with a small beach on the Colorado river, not too far downstream from the Parker Dam (the deepest dam in the US). The sites had power and water, and nice showers - I rate it an 8. You did hear some road noise, the only drawback. Very friendly people in a community-like setting. We made a reservation a couple days before we came, which is a good thing because there were packed. Down the road 1/2 mile is Buckskin Mountain State Park, which is also nice but it seemed a little more crowded and hectic, but it has a huge beach. We drove 30 miles north up to Lake Havasu City, and had had a picnic and nice stroll along the lake on a nice walkway. We also saw the famous London Bridge, which is the second largest tourist attraction in Arizona … can you name the first largest tourist attraction?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next stop was a late decision to visit Lost Dutchman State Park, as recommended by the camp hosts at River Island SP. It is about 4 hrs from River Island, located NE of Phoenix. We had no reservation for this visit, but they had room in their “overflow” area which is nicer than most regular campgrounds. As you can see, this is a beautiful campground nestled at the base of the superstition mountains. There are miles of hiking trails and a wide variety of cactus. We stayed two nights, and will definitely come back again to this “10” campground. The last night a huge (and I mean HUGE) storm came through. I had pretty much packed up camp knowing rain was coming, but we didn’t expect what felt like hurricane force winds. I had to get up at 3:30am and take down the awning. The trailer really rocked when the winds blew hard. No damage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We took a day trip to the town Tortilla Flat, along a neat windy road. Tortilla Flat is an authentic remnant of an old west town, nestled in the midst of the Tonto National Forest, in the Superstition Mountain Range. Tortilla Flat started out as a stagecoach stop in 1904 and neither fire nor flood has been able to take away this historic stop along the Historic Apache Trail.

  We also visited a mining town nearby called Goldfield, and walked around the shops and took a train ride, which Kyle liked.

Fun in the Sun Road Trip – Days 10 – 15 – High Desert Country

I start with an addendum to our previous post while staying at Pismo Beach State Park. Not to beat a dead horse, but we really like that park and would definitely return one day. As mentioned, we played golf on the 9-hole par 3 state park course next door, and while windy, it was good to shake out the cobwebs since being golfless all winter. We also took a super 1 mile r/t walk down a boardwalk that meanders along the beach south of the campground. Along the trail is also a stop at a monarch butterfly nesting area among a grove of cypress trees.  

Pismo Beach State Park is really huge as we discovered. It has two formal campgrounds, Oceano and North Beach (where we stayed), plus you can camp right along the beach in an area 1 mile south. Be warned… this is also a dunebuggy/quad heaven, so there are ATVs everywhere as well and several companies renting them. It was very windy along the beach too, so people camping had all kinds of wind block arrangements behind their RVs. 

After three fun camping days, we journeyed south through the big city to Riverside, CA and stayed at Rancho Jurupa Regional Park, which was a nice surprise*. Very large grounds with two fishing lakes, two camping areas and lots of trails and paths, plus a mini golf course. We rate this campground a solid 9. That night we met brother/sis in law Dan and Diane for a fine BBQ dinner.

*That night, while relaxing in the trailer watching a movie, Tucker starts barking and tears after something. We know because the trailer nearly tipped over when he reached the end of his leash. Seconds later we smell a skunk. Low and behold Tucker got sprayed a little on the chest, so at 11pm at night we had to trek to a grocery and buy ingredients for de-skunking, which are: 1 qt Hydrogen Peroxide, 1/4c baking soda, and 1 tsp detergent. We used the outside nozzle on the trailer and washing him down the best we could. The next day we left Jurupa and only smelled a little skunk…. or maybe we were getting used to it.

We traveled south of Riverside and entered Anza-Borrego State Park from the west side. At one point we were at an elevation of over 4000’, and thinking jeeez this camping is going to be cold.. but then we came to the edge of the Culp Valley, driving down an incredible winding road with beautiful views to borrego Springs, elevation about 500’. Borrego Springs Palm Canyon state park campground is just out of town nestled among gorgeous hills. We camped in the dry area site 70 which looks out at the hills with lots of privacy. There are water spigots everywhere as well as hot showers and nice restrooms within easy walking distance. They also have a hookup area, but the sites are relatively close together. We rate this campground a “10” for beauty and will definitely be coming back here again. 

We played golf one day at a local par 3 course and really enjoyed it. We visited a spectacular RV golf resort called Springs at Borrego Canyon and inquired about rates. Monthly rates in high season Jan-Mar are $1500-$2000 and they said some people make reservation 5 years in advance. We also took some drives and short hikes and saw some great scenery.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We liked Anza Borrego some much we stayed an extra night (4 total), and would have stayed longer if we could, but they didn’t have a space for us. Next stop … Quartzsite, AZ for some dry camping on BLM land.

Fun in the Sun road Trip – Days 6-10

 

A good friend of mine (Eric – you know who you are) once introduced me to a new term for eating a meal while moving around with no main course … “grazing”. It occurred to me a couple of days ago that this trip is just like that, but in a camping road trip perspective…we have no final “destination”, but just moving along sampling some really great places along the way.

Day 6 was spent traveling through wine country. I say through because we didn’t really take the time to wine taste, as this isn’t Kyle’s favorite thing to do, but we did see what I’m sure you’ll agree is the premier wine maker in all of Napa county, Sutter Home. We camped at a nice place at the Napa County fairgrounds in Calistoga, and ate at a nice (but overpriced) Mexican restaurant.  

Our next stop was a visit to Deb’s sister Carolyn in Morgan Hill, CA, south of San Jose where we had some great conversation and a superb pot roast.

 

 

Leaving Carolyn’s we stopped and walked around the fisherman’s wharf area of Monterey and saw some cool sea lions.

 

Travelling south down Hwy 1, we went through incredible Big Sur and enjoyed the gorgeous coastline and winding road.

 

We spent the next night at Pismo Beach State Park (North), which is very very nice campground with trails to the beach.  We liked this state so much we decided to stay three nights. We rate thgis campground a solid 9, for beauty, cleanliness and access to the beach.  While staying there, we hit a bucket of balls and played golf at the state golf executive 9-hole course next door.

 

We also walked the town of Pismo Beach and the nifty pier. We bought a new wind sock to replace the one we lost at St. Andrews park in Florida a couple years ago.