RONR
R³
Hello all: I've been a member of this site for some time and have a few posts, but this is my first trip report.
Let me start by saying I was down at Organ Pipes Cactus NM when I was browsing the website one morning reading Hoyden's posts on her full time FWC living and when I got to the last post the photo looked very familiar. Not just the place but the vehicles and campers, especially her mom's camper. So I looked up from my phone and low and behold, I was looking right at Hoyden's mom's camper and Hoyden and her FWC were in the next spot across the road. So I walked on over and said hi and started to think that I needed to become a little more active on the website and give back so to speak. Its not that I was too lazy to post reports (well maybe that's part of it), but the quality of the posts that I have been reading are so high, I frankly did not think I had much to add. So with a little written introduction, I think the best thing for me is to attempt to post a slideshow of my trip. We'll see if it works.
I live in Northern California, San Rafael, just north of San Francisco. Last year just after getting my FWC, I took my first trip to Utah and came away loving it. On most of my trips I take my dog, which severely limits my hiking around the National Parks. So I have been visiting mostly BLM lands and some Utah State Parks which works out well not only for the dog, but for me because I try to avoid crowds and I enjoy exploring. BLM lands are pretty good for that and I've found, as most of you already know, there are a lot of really cool places and the FWC (or any of the smaller popup campers) is a great way to explore them.
Every spring for the last 25 years, I meet a group of my friends in Scottsdale for spring training baseball. Since I can't take the dog to the place we stay, I figured I'd take some time before and after Scottsdale to visit some of the places I normally don't go because of the dog. I don't like leaving my second best buddy (wife is the first but she's still working) but sometimes you just got to go with it. So my plan was to hit Anza Borrrego, Saguaro NP, Scottsdale, then Tuweep and finally Zion. However, just by chance I saw Organ Pipes on a map when I was getting ready to leave ABDSP and decided to go there instead of Saguaro which turned out to be a good choice. At Tuweep, I pretty much had the place to myself with only one other camper on each of the three nights I stayed there, which was great. After leaving Tuweep early in the morning I got to Zion and although I realize that it is a bucket list must, it was a mad house with spring breakers and after sitting in line to get a camp site at around 10:00 am, I was told "We're full". There may be places outside the park to boondock, but I could not find anything that looked close by. So I called Bryce and the kid said "Sure come on up. 100% positive you'll get into the camp ground". Famous last word because when I got there they were all filled up. So up to the visitor center I went. At the info desk the kid (they’re all kids to me now) asked me what I was driving and I told him and he said “just head out of the park and a little past the park sign, take a left. You’ll find plenty of places a lot nicer than the campground” and he was right! Total solitude just 15 minutes from the park as long as you got about 1.5 miles of the main road. I camped there two nights and never saw a soul once tucked into the campsite and had a nice camp fire to boot. I should say that was the same experience I had at ABDSP. Although the main areas of the park were very crowded, I found spots each of the four nights where I saw no one at all while camping. My wife is afraid I’m turning into a hermit, but hey, if the opportunity knocks, go for it.
So here is the slide show I made. I hope it works. I figure its kind of a large file so instead of uploading to the site, I’ll provide a link to the file on my Onedive. I have to warn you it’s over 10 minutes and best viewed on a computer. Any suggestions on a better way to do this would be appreciated.
https://1drv.ms/v/s!AgKQzx8Z9YVbsxMMABpCk96GjXF2
Let me start by saying I was down at Organ Pipes Cactus NM when I was browsing the website one morning reading Hoyden's posts on her full time FWC living and when I got to the last post the photo looked very familiar. Not just the place but the vehicles and campers, especially her mom's camper. So I looked up from my phone and low and behold, I was looking right at Hoyden's mom's camper and Hoyden and her FWC were in the next spot across the road. So I walked on over and said hi and started to think that I needed to become a little more active on the website and give back so to speak. Its not that I was too lazy to post reports (well maybe that's part of it), but the quality of the posts that I have been reading are so high, I frankly did not think I had much to add. So with a little written introduction, I think the best thing for me is to attempt to post a slideshow of my trip. We'll see if it works.
I live in Northern California, San Rafael, just north of San Francisco. Last year just after getting my FWC, I took my first trip to Utah and came away loving it. On most of my trips I take my dog, which severely limits my hiking around the National Parks. So I have been visiting mostly BLM lands and some Utah State Parks which works out well not only for the dog, but for me because I try to avoid crowds and I enjoy exploring. BLM lands are pretty good for that and I've found, as most of you already know, there are a lot of really cool places and the FWC (or any of the smaller popup campers) is a great way to explore them.
Every spring for the last 25 years, I meet a group of my friends in Scottsdale for spring training baseball. Since I can't take the dog to the place we stay, I figured I'd take some time before and after Scottsdale to visit some of the places I normally don't go because of the dog. I don't like leaving my second best buddy (wife is the first but she's still working) but sometimes you just got to go with it. So my plan was to hit Anza Borrrego, Saguaro NP, Scottsdale, then Tuweep and finally Zion. However, just by chance I saw Organ Pipes on a map when I was getting ready to leave ABDSP and decided to go there instead of Saguaro which turned out to be a good choice. At Tuweep, I pretty much had the place to myself with only one other camper on each of the three nights I stayed there, which was great. After leaving Tuweep early in the morning I got to Zion and although I realize that it is a bucket list must, it was a mad house with spring breakers and after sitting in line to get a camp site at around 10:00 am, I was told "We're full". There may be places outside the park to boondock, but I could not find anything that looked close by. So I called Bryce and the kid said "Sure come on up. 100% positive you'll get into the camp ground". Famous last word because when I got there they were all filled up. So up to the visitor center I went. At the info desk the kid (they’re all kids to me now) asked me what I was driving and I told him and he said “just head out of the park and a little past the park sign, take a left. You’ll find plenty of places a lot nicer than the campground” and he was right! Total solitude just 15 minutes from the park as long as you got about 1.5 miles of the main road. I camped there two nights and never saw a soul once tucked into the campsite and had a nice camp fire to boot. I should say that was the same experience I had at ABDSP. Although the main areas of the park were very crowded, I found spots each of the four nights where I saw no one at all while camping. My wife is afraid I’m turning into a hermit, but hey, if the opportunity knocks, go for it.
So here is the slide show I made. I hope it works. I figure its kind of a large file so instead of uploading to the site, I’ll provide a link to the file on my Onedive. I have to warn you it’s over 10 minutes and best viewed on a computer. Any suggestions on a better way to do this would be appreciated.
https://1drv.ms/v/s!AgKQzx8Z9YVbsxMMABpCk96GjXF2
. 
