One thing I’d forgotten about Arizona is that you don’t have to drive far to enter a completely different environment. Google says it’s only 146 miles from Kingman to Flagstaff (following Route 66 most of the way), yet I went from desert to high desert to lush pine forests in that relatively short distance.
Elevation makes all the difference. The van got a pretty poor 11 MPG on this leg of the trip, but it was all uphill, climbing from about 3,000 feet to over 7,000 in Flagstaff, then back down to 6,500 to my home for the next week or so. It’s been two years since I left New England, and it still amuses me anytime I camp out at a higher elevation than the peak of Mount Washington, the highest point in the northeast.
I might not have made this side trip if it wasn’t for Amanda’s invitation. This area isn’t exactly on my way back to Quartzsite. But I’m glad I’m here. Arizona starts feeling a bit more like home when I start meeting my friends here. I also enjoy the forest, and this will be one last visit before I retreat to the warmer desert for the winter. I missed out on all of my forest camping opportunities in Oregon because of smoke and wildfires, so I feel like I’m making up for that a little bit here.
I seem to have a lot of Amandas in my life for some reason. This one is Adventuring with Amanda on YouTube. She decided to have a little fun in the video she made of today’s activities. It’s a little clickbaity, but it brought in far more views than she usually gets, so it works. We’ll be working on some videos together while we’re here. She may even inspire me to do something about my own channel. I’ve already picked up a few new subscribers of my own from her video.
This campsite is huge. We have enough room to fit another van or two in here. I detached the trailer and pulled forward a little bit into a level spot. This gives me enough room to open the back doors and set up my shower. There are even two trees just the right distance apart for me to set up my hammock. That’s been a rare thing in my travels this year, so I’m going to enjoy it here.
I haven’t tried Starlink yet because of the trees, but cell service is quite good, so I’ll just stick with that for the week. Everywhere else I’m traveling this month has open skies, so I don’t mind using up a bunch of data that I’m already paying for during the week I’m here. I will have to keep an eye on my batteries, though. While I will get a few hours of direct sunlight on my solar panels each day, it may or may not be enough to recharge what I use. Not using Starlink will help conserve a bit of power, but I’ll have to watch it. Worst case, I can just run the engine for a little while to help. Ironically, although this is one of the few situations where my rarely used generator might actually help, it won’t run properly at this elevation because the carburetor is tuned for sea level.
Amanda has camped here before and says the place is very quiet compared to how she’s seen it in the middle of summer. A lot of people flee the desert for shade and cooler temperatures here. But we do have some neighbors who got pretty close in the afternoon. This is another one of those public areas where ranchers are allowed to release their cows to graze. A whole bunch of them came up the road past our campsite and hung out for a while. They’re great neighbors. They’re quiet, keep a respectful distance, and don’t run their generators all night.
Facebook tells me that it was one year ago today that I arrived in Quartzsite for the winter. That was too early. This year is no different, with a high of 98º for the rest of the week. Meanwhile, up in the mountains, we’re going to see highs in the 70s and lows in the 40s, quite comfortable, especially with my heater giving me a fast blast before I get out of bed in the morning. I’m looking forward to spending a week here. I’ll do some exploration on the bike, enjoy the trees one last time this year, and Amanda is great company.
Smokey Da Van 