Travel through (and Celestial Events from) Four States

CALIFORNIA/ARIZONA/NEVADA/UTAH. DECEMBER-APRIL.

After my stay in Tucson, I headed back to the Yuma area and then up to Quartzsite to volunteer for a charity I support, Homes on Wheels Alliance. After that, another stay in Southern California to rest up from the busy volunteer days. Friends invited me to stay at their Nevada home for a while and then it was off to Apple Valley, Utah, to camp with a friend’s group.

My photos from these stays ended up being mostly of weather and celestial events–at least until I got to Utah. It was a pretty part of the state that I had not visited before. After that, I decided to head to Texas for an event I’d been wanting to attend for some years.

(more info in captions)

One NV stop / three CA stops on the way to Bodega Bay & Point Reyes NS

I went to meet a friend in California to travel to Bodega Bay. These are sights and adventures along the way (as always, more info in photo captions). (EDIT: forgot I made a short video of what I think were brittlebush blooms. It is at the bottom of this post, below the gallery).

A broader, but brief, view of the superbloom
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Stewart’s Point, Lake Mead, NV

Lake Mead, Nevada, and the surrounding areas are beautiful and provide many dispersed camping opportunities. Unfortunately, some of those camping spots have recently been closed because of mis-use. Those who have “disperse-camped” or “boondocked” for any length of time have, unfortunately, seen these problems time and time again – mostly in the form of (1) permanent residency instead of abiding by stay limits and, (2) sadly, a lot of garbage. At least the rest of us can easily do something about the second problem by cleaning up other people’s trash each time we camp and participating in organized clean-ups.

One Lake Mead area that remains open is a favorite of mine, “Stewart’s Point”. On this occasion, I met some friends here, and, while we endured some high winds and a little rain, we had mostly beautiful weather and exceptional scenery–especially after we snagged a waterside camping spot.

White Mountains & Ashurst Lake of Arizona/Lovell Canyon of Nevada

After meeting my appointment, I drove up to the Arizona White Mountains where I had camped before. This is a beautiful area closest to the town of Springerville, AZ, that has many dispersed camping opportunities. Next, I went back to visit my friend at Ashurst Lake for a few days. Finally, I moved on to Nevada, because I had to attend an event hosted by the non-profit for which I was working at the time. I camped with several friends at Lovell Canyon between Vegas and Pahrump.