A Western Odyssey (very photo heavy)

I have been following your adventures both on the blog, and here. Lots of good stuff about the Apache Trail. I plan to run it come April, in my ram/w truck camper. ( Huge camper, on huge truck!! )
I also wondered if you were planning on any looksee's around the north side of the GC, and if you hav any plns to go to maybe "Valley Of The Gods" , or the "Goosenecks" area over the river?
Anyway, happy adventuring and campin!!

Steve
 
Hi Steve. I hope you enjoy the Apache Trail as much as I do :-D

I'm fixing to start planning some locations to see during the rest of my time in Arizona, and then for Southern Utah. There's a good chance I'll go to the north side of the Grand Canyon but I'm not certain at all yet. I wrote a bit about where to go next (really - asking people for advice on where to go) in this blog post:



Exploring Arizona 3 - Road to Four Peakshttp://mywilddreams.net/2017/03/17/exploring-arizona-3-road-to-four-peaks/
For my third trip out of Phoenix, I went up Hwy 87 again, and explored a back road to Four Peaks. Also, do you know Arizona well? Where else should I go?
 
There are a lot of beautiful forested areas to camp up around Flagstaff in the Coconino and Kaibab National Forests.
I highly recommend camping up at the Mogollon Rim. The drive up through Pine/Strawberry is lovely.

I'm not sure if there's much for boondocking south rim of the Grand Canyon and you definitely don't want to go into the park there. Unless you like Disneyland nature. The canyon is f-ing amazing, but I recommend getting some north rim campering.

Perkinsville Road is a dirt road from just outside of Chino Valley over to the little used-to-be-mining-town-now-touristy Jerome. I've done it on my (dual-sport) motorcycle a number of times, but haven't in a four-wheel.

There are some nice places to camp off Williamson Valley road near Prescott. Also up there, camp up on Thumb Butte. The dirt road is traveled but beautiful views. When I was living in Prescott, I overnighted up there a couple of times just for a quick get-away. Same goes for Senator Highway.

East of the 17 is the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest, somewhat north is Coconino.

It's a campground, but I highly recommend checking out the Navajo National Monument up off the 160 before Kayenta. When I was there, there were two others in the campground. Dunno what it's like this time of year, and honestly don't remember when I was there last year but it was lovely. There's a canyon and you can do an easy hike from the visitor's center down to see cliff dwellings. Good stuff.

If you continue up the 160 from there, you can go up to Utah and to Valley of the Gods. Camp down there, then drive up the Moki Dugway and camp at the top out at Muley Point. It gets *really* windy, but you can see Monument Valley from there. Good cell signal and gorgeous.

Near the (south rim are) I have Lipan Point marked on my google map, but have not been there.

If you go more east, Canyon de Chelly National Monument is amazing. I think it's mostly reservation land around there though, so boondocking is difficult. Cayuse and I went there this past October, and camped in the campground. Not ideal, but the monument was cool.

Petrified National Forest is also east-er.

White Mountains (east-er/Mogollon Rim stuff) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Mountains_(Arizona)

I'm working on a plan right now - heading towards Marble Canyon over by Page, then taking (dirt) House Rock Road north into Utah and Cottonwood Canyon Roads.

more things on my map that I haven't yet explored: near Sedona - Boynton Canyon Trail and Cathedral Rock and I have Forest 525 Road marked too off of 89 near Sedona: zoom in and see boondocking sites https://goo.gl/maps/BKc8JWYn61D2

Hope any of that helps! Have fun!
 
@Hoyden - wow, thanks! I'll be adding these to my list, researching them, and I'm certain, going to some. :-D

Yeah, there are a lot of camping sites along 525, and other roads going off with more places to camp
 

Spending Update - Q1
A summary of my spending in Q1


I'm still in Phoenix, here later than I expected to be. I've ordered some things over the internet (some of them related to the gift referenced in the 2nd blog post), and one of them coming form China is taking particularly long. Hopefully it will be here within a week and then I'll start drifting north. This month some friends and family came to Phoenix to visit other family. It was cool to spend time with them. I got some interesting life stories out of some of my family.

I plan to get up to Vegas by the end of April. Some friends are flying in to meet me there. After that, I may meet up with my brother and his girlfriend. They've hit the road with their camper and will be heading out this direction. We'll hang out in northern Arizona (probably the north rim of the Grand Canyon) and southern Utah.
 
Dang I'm sorry to be reading this just a few weks late. I'm new to Phoenix and have spent the past eight months finding camping spots near to town. I have agreat spot in the Sonora Desert National Monument but it is getting a bit warm now. If you're sticking around AZ, I really like the Sierra Ancha Wilderness area for summer camping. Fairly remote with plenty to explore. Safe travels!
 
Don't worry, Horseshoe, I'll probably be coming back through the area at least a couple more times :-D




April 2017 Travels
Includes Phoenix, Sedona, Lake Mohave, and Las Vegas


Oh, and here was the first drone footage I shot: https://youtu.be/5LD_XWpTVss

I'm having fun with it, and learning some video editing software pretty quickly. I'll have much better stuff to come...
 
A couple quick updates:



Blog Post: How full time travel makes appreciation harder, and what to do about it





Drone video: of campsite near the Colorado River

This has been my favorite campsite in a year of travel around the western US. (I'm not aware whether it's possible to embed a youtube video in a blog post (???))



And here are a couple quick picture from my first day in Zion. More to come. This place is amazing. I'll be sharing much more from Zion. I'd like to spend about a month here, but it's getting pretty hot, so I may move on and come back in the fall
34839629711_6e6b88e75e_c.jpg


34807692942_093a7abce4_c.jpg
 
Leipheimer Is a regular in the local Cycling in the Marin / Napa area. Many yrs ago while on a Saturday ride with my wife and a bunch of friends. We were passed by a guy absolutely hauling arse up hill towing a damn kids trailer with two kids in it. Several guys in the group tried to hang with him and finally gave up. One of them was like dang that guy was moving. Then a couple of us told him who it was. His response was shock, disbelief then denial. I nearly had to pull over I was laughing so hard.
 
Ha, that's cool.

I was most excited about seeing Jan Ulrich. I think it's partly because he's German, and I assume there was a ton about him in the German press, but he seemed sort of quiet and mysterious to me because I never saw him saying much. And, no matter how much he was doping, the results he achieved are incredibly impressive.
 
Blog post - JUNE ADVENTURES


lots of pictures.. LOTS. You can also read about my drone getting smashed to pieces. :unsure:





JULY - FAMILY AND SIDE TRIP

At the start of July, I’d just came into Colorado from Utah. I called my Dad to get input on where to go in Colorado. He told me about some places, and then said I should come out to Denver (where he lives) and go along with him out to Tennessee for a couple weeks. He’s thinking about moving there. My ~brother in law and nephew were also going to be going out there during that time. My brother and his girlfriend are also already out in that area. My aunt might be going too. On the way home, my BIL would stop at my Mom’s and Step Dad’s place for a few days. So… if I would just drive to Denver, I could tag along to the southeast U.S., and see all of my immediate family in one trip.

So, of course I went. I’d never been out there, so it was cool to see that part of the country. It was strange just tagging along with people and I felt a little bit like a kid at times.

I also hung out near and in Denver for about two weeks of time.

And that was the whole month of July.



PLANS - AUGUST AND LATER
For August, I’ll be up in the mountain in Colorado for the rest of the summer, heading southwest through the state. Then after that, it’s further southwest and, I still hope, into Mexico for the winter.



CRAZY TATTOO PLANS
There’s an artist in Toronto that I’ve always wanted to get a tattoo from. I used to go there for work so I was trying to schedule time with her during one of those trips. She’s too popular, and her booking process is too tight for that to have worked out. But now, I’ve gotten in during one of her booking periods. I’m looking at going out there in October.

I am approaching this as a challenge to see how inexpensively I can travel across the country. I’d be flying out from either Las Vegas or Los Angeles. I have points from all my previous work flying so those will cover the flights - well, just to Buffalo. Bus tickets from Buffalo to Toronto are very cheap. Now I’m trying to sort out a place. I have a couple good prospects already (one guy from another forum, and one other I know through Instagram). I’ll also need to sort out whether to do the tattoo small enough to all be done in one day, or a larger one that takes two sessions and 10 days in-between to heal. The two-day tattoo would add more complexity between available booking dates, when it would work to stay with someone, and whether staying 2 weeks is actually a good idea
 
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