Certainly, the Redwoods state and national parks and coastal areas are beautiful but unfortunately, my bad California luck continued in a big way here. The memories are still fresh several months later, so I will not choose to record those unfortunate events here since the goal is to ultimately forget what happened. Instead, I’ll only mention the good–and usual beautiful–parts and then we’ll move on. (More info in the photo captions.)
This post is about miscellaneous sights as I traveled north through California.
More information in several of the photo captions.
I had forgotten to pull images from my phone, so I’ve included a few more here from Bodega Head, but the majority are from a really nice hike in the Stump Beach area. I highly recommend a visit here–especially in April of the year. Although I didn’t include many photos of them (long story), the wildflowers here were amazing.
I decided to try something different for this post and make a video instead of creating a regular gallery. I’m interested in feedback on video vs still photos. Thanks!
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).
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.
Miscellaneous Arizona and California images – mostly from their skies.
I can’t remember who first told me about Alamo Lake but I’m glad they did. I know sunsets are “old hat” to some nomads, but I never tire of them; the sunsets and overall light here at this location & time was, in my opinion, extraordinary. I saw some of the prettiest sunsets ever for me. I did my best to capture them but there is nothing like being there.
Dispersed camping is plentiful here but waterside spots are scarce. With a few exceptions, most places anywhere close to the water are far above water level and yet have nice views. As for amenities, there is a small, informal RV park nearby that has a restaurant, water (for only 10cents/gal), fuel (one pump; no diesel, I think), propane, laundromat, & showers. There is also a state park campground nearby for those who need hookups.
Despite the amenities available, I recommend coming fully supplied to Alamo Lake, as it is quite remote and the small park I mentioned is…uh…rustic.
A few miscellaneous images from Lovell Canyon, Nevada; Lake Havasu City (LHC), Arizona; and Havasu Lake, California.
That is not a typo – On the east side of Lake Havasu, a wide place in the Colorado River, is “Lake Havasu City” in Arizona, population 60,000. By contrast, on the California side of the lake, is the 5000-strong community of “Havasu Lake” which is part of a Native American reservation.
Anyway, both of these places, along with Lovell Canyon, sport many dispersed camping opportunities.
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.
My travels took me from the West Yellowstone area southwards through Idaho and Utah on the way to meeting some good friends for a short visit in a Utah National Forest. After that, I drove through Capitol Reef National Park which I briefly explored.
After my hard-learned lesson never to return to camp after dark on a weekend, I learned yet another lesson: Never take Interstate 15 through Ogden, Salt Lake City, & Provo. (My preference since I began nomading has been the more interesting two-lane highways, secondary roads, & rabbit trails–anything but interstates, especially through large cities. True they are sometimes unavoidable but I still try to use them only in small bites). These Utah cities have “grown together” resulting in a very long stretch of very busy traffic. I guess one way to look at it is that I appreciate the quiet, out-of-the-way roads and places even more after these kinds of driving experiences.
As usual, this post includes interesting “sights along the way”–from an area through which I had never before driven–in addition to several images from beautiful Capitol Reef NP.
My Side of the Adventure 