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.

Fun in the Sun Days 1-6

We’re now on day six of our “fun in the sun” road trip which started on Feb 13. This is the first wintertime camping trip we’ve taken and so far, we’re very impressed with our ability to find sun. Most of the entire trip so far has been sunny and relatively nice weather … not what we expected or planned for.

The first night was spent at Maryhill State Park (WA) which is near the Dalles on the Columbia River. The campground itself is nestled along the Columbia river between mountains. It is a sprawling, park-like campground right on the river with lots of room….that’s the good news. The bad news is the steep downhill grade of WA 14 with truck/trailers coming down all night with the compression bakes on, with the added bonus of having railroad tracks on two sides. We rate this campground an overall 4 (out of 10).

Night two was spent at Carl G Washburne Memorial State Park which is near Florence, OR on the coast. This was a typically nice Oregon State Park that was very wooded. The bad news is that the showers were luke warm. We rated this campground an overall 7.

Going south from Washburne, we stopped in Florence to see the Old Town section, with lots of shops and cafes along a river. Deb was hoping to find a new whirligig like the one we lost in Florida a couple years ago, but the kite shop was closed. We also drove through Bandon which is a great seaside village.

Night three was spent at Harris Beach State Park, way south on the Oregon coast near Brookings near the California border. This was an excellent park and extremely popular… perhaps because it was a Saturday night and a sunny weekend, or …just because. The bathrooms here were first rate and the campground had trailed that went down to the beach. We rated this campground a 9 and would definitely plan to come here again.

After leaving Harris Beach, we stopped at the “Trees of Mystery”. Certainly this is the highlight of the first 10^th of our trip, so we talked about just going home, thinking it couldn’t get any better than the Trees of Mystery. Actually it was pretty cool. Kyle walked the 1 mile loop and we took the “sky trail” gondola up into the trees.

Night four was spent at Patrick’s Point State Park, near Klamath, CA. A nice setting right on a point overlooking the pacific, but the campground is strewn with branches and storm debris, and the bathroom and shower facilities were poor.  All in all, a pretty run down park for $35/night and poor compared with Oregon parks. We rate this campground a 6, just because of the nice views.

Going further south down US-101 “the redwoods hwy”, we took the scenic bypass through the “Avenue of the Giants”. This world-famous scenic drive is a 31-mile portion of old Highway 101, which parallels Freeway 101 with its 51,222 acres of redwood groves. It is by far the most outstanding display of these giant trees in the entire 500 mile redwood belt and is accessible to all with convenient services provided along the way.

 

 

The Avenue of the Giants is surrounded by Humboldt Redwoods State Park which has the largest remaining stand of virgin redwoods in the world.

We spent the night in the middle of this beautiful area at Burlington Camp. This is a great example of what CA ST Parks used to be and should be, even thought $35 is still too mush for a dry campground in winter. We took a nice nature trail and enjoyed the trees. I even played my new ukulele that night at the campfire.

That night we got our first taste of winter since we left. In the middle of the night it started raining and in the morning we were surrounded by ponds of water. I guess redwoods like rain…

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