Tag Archives: RVing

Snowbirding 2022: More Camping in the Lake Mead Area

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Some luxury camping followed by three nights at a remote beach.

[Note: I had aspirations about vlogging my trip this year, but the response has been pretty disappointing — too disappointing to put a lot of effort into it. Sorry, but I’m really not interested in spending hours creating videos that 25 people watch. I’d rather spend an hour on a blog post that those same 25 people are likely to read — or at least look at. So here I am.]

When I’d last checked in, I’d just resolved my battery issue. Or thought I had. I didn’t know because I camped that night at Willow Beach where I had a full hookup and didn’t have to rely on my batteries at all. That was Thursday, December 16 — the end of my first full week on the road.

Willow Beach


Here’s my camper on its concrete pad at Willow Beach. If you need a campground with a hookup, this is a nice one.

Willow Beach is one of my favorite campgrounds in the southwest. High up a canyon overlooking the Colorado River, it has extremely well maintained and nicely spaced campsites that include electricity, water, and sewer hookups as well as a sturdy picnic table and fire pit/grilling area. There’s also showers (with heated rooms; imagine that!) and a laundry facility. The only drawback is that it’s crazy expensive: $60/night is the regular rate and tax gets added to that. I saved a few bucks with my Good Sam membership but seniors 62 and older who have the Senior Pass for National Parks save 50%. I suspect that’s why it’s so expensive: so that when the majority of users show up with a pass, they can still get a reasonable amount of money for the sites.


The lower half of the Willow Beach Campground. My rig is in about the middle of this shot. I had a nice view down into the canyon and could kinda sorta see the river.

The campground also makes a good starting point for boat trips up the river toward the dam or down the river into Lake Mohave. I have made the boat trip from the campground up to Arizona Hot Springs twice — most recently last year with my friend Bill — and would have done it again this year if (1) it wasn’t so damn chilly and (2) the water levels were high enough to permit upriver travel. When they told me that upriver travel was currently not allowed, I didn’t bother renting a boat there.


The laundry room at Willow Beach campground. I washed and dried a load of laundry for $4.

I had a nice, short stay in the park. In addition to enjoying my electric heater (which I can only use when plugged in), I also took advantage of the shower and laundry facilities. Before leaving on Friday (December 17) morning, I filled my fresh water tank, filled one of my 6 gallon water jugs, and dumped my gray and black water tanks, thus prepping me for another 5 to 7 days of boondocking.

On the way out of the area, I stopped for a while to visit the Willow Beach Fish Hatchery, which I’m pretty sure has existed longer than the campground and boat facilities. I walked around the tanks for a while, spoke briefly to one of the workers, and watched the fish being fed. The two species they were currently rearing were rainbow trout and endangered razorback sucker. As water levels rise, they’ll release fish into the river. This is downstream from Hoover Dam, so they’ll wind up in Lake Mohave — the body of water between Hoover and Davis Dams.


The Willow Beach Fish Hatchery.

Kingman Wash


Kingman Wash camping area (the blue dot here) is at the end of a 3-mile long, hilly gravel road.

I was mostly curious about Kingman Wash, which, for the record, is not near Kingman, Arizona. To get there, I had to backtrack up Route 93 to the first exit on the Arizona side of the Colorado River. From there, I got on a maintained gravel road that was hilly and, in some parts, kind of hairy. It climbed into the hills and then descended down to a dispersed camping area at the mouth of a wash on Lake Mead.

At one time, the area had a concrete boat ramp. The boat ramp is still there, but it’s nowhere near the water’s edge. Between it and the water is a lot of rough gravel. And then there’s a sand beach along the water’s edge.

When I got down there on that Friday morning, there was only one car there and it was deserted. I scouted around a bit and then maneuvered my rig into position in the middle of the canyon on a relatively flat spot that dropped off toward the water.


My campsite at Kingman Wash. There was a steep drop behind me and an erosion channel about 50 feet southwest. No one was going to park anywhere near me.

I picked the spot for three reasons: (1) being in the middle of the canyon meant I’d get more sun than being on the southwest side (which would have been easier to park in), (2) being in the middle of such rough terrain minimized the possibility of some inconsiderate idiot parking right next to me, and (3) I had a wonderful view of Lake Mead out my back door and windows. As it turned out, I would have been a little better off farther northeast in the canyon; I wound up getting direct sunlight from just 8:30 AM to 3 PM. But I don’t regret parking where I did. It was perfect for me.


Here’s moonset on Sunday morning, shot from the back door of my camper.

I leveled my rig with blocks and immediately took out the generator and set it up. If the battery fix didn’t work, I wanted to be able to run the generator without a lot of fuss in freezing temperatures. As it turned out, 6-1/2 hours of sunlight was more than enough to fully charge both batteries and I didn’t need to run the generator even once. My battery issues were fixed.

My Internet connection was amazing. Four bars, 5G. Fast speeds. I edited and uploaded that last video.

A few other campers — all in Sprinter vans — showed up later in the day. They parked up the canyon on the boat ramp. As usual, I hit the sack not long after it got dark. Being a Friday night, some rowdy partiers showed up and made a large campfire on the beach. There weren’t very close to me and I didn’t hear much from them other than music and the engines of their trucks as they came and went. They left around 4 AM; I was awake.


It’s really unusual to see coyotes wandering around during the day, but this one was pretty bold. He made his first appearance within an hour of our arrival.

I should probably mention the wildlife. Other than birds, there were two animals in the area. The first was a coyote who made his appearances in the morning and evening. He came very close to my camper more than once, probably looking for food scraps or small dogs to take for dinner. I spotted him in the dark stealing food from the partier’s unattended campfire — I even pulled out my binoculars for a closer look. This was an animal who lived off the people who came down to camp. Needless to say, I had my pups on a leash any time we went walking when he might be around.


I shot this photo of the burros while sitting on the back step of my camper. The closest one was about 10 feet away. Feeding wildlife makes them this friendly. While it’s amazing to see, it’s really not good for the wildlife.

The other wildlife were burros. There was a single burro who wandered around by himself and a herd of six others that included one very young one, two slightly older ones, and three adults. They were bold and came up to whoever was around. It was difficult not to feed them — they really were cute — but feeding wildlife makes them dependent on us and that’s just not a good thing.

On Saturday, a bunch of cars and trucks came down and parked with their rear ends facing the beach in a long line. They turned out to be a scuba certification class. They suited up and spent a lot of time in the water. The herd of burros boldly went right up to them; the coyote was conspicuously absent.

Once they’d gone in the afternoon, two vans and another truck camper showed up, each parking along the beach, spaced apart for privacy. Some other campers showed up on the boat ramp. There may have been more farther up the canyon. Everyone pretty much kept to themselves. In general, people who like to be social don’t camp out alone in dispersed camping areas.


Here’s the beach on Sunday morning. The vehicles parked parallel to the beach (a camper truck and two vans) were actually camped there overnight. Can you believe the nerve of the scuba folks to park so close to them when there’s so much other space? Inconsiderate!

On Sunday morning, the scuba people were back. I watched in amazement as they parked where they had the day before, completely surrounding one of the vans and parking within 10 feet of the truck camper’s back door. It was extremely inconsiderate. There was plenty of room for parking without invading other people’s space. I can only imagine the guy in the van waking up to find people right outside his door. Apparently words were spoken later in the day and the van guy left in a huff.

Of course, I didn’t have to deal with any of that where I was because no one else was nuts enough to park where I’d parked.


Here’s the big picture at Kingman Wash on Sunday. My camper is the one in the middle of the shot on the hill. The white Sprinter van is at the end of the boat ramp.

I spent a lot of time inside my camper, mostly reading. It was cool out and really only comfortable outdoors when the area was in direct sunlight, so I busied myself with inside chores. I didn’t feel comfortable letting my pups out alone so they mostly slept.

We went on a few walks along the water’s edge on Saturday and Sunday, midday and in the evening. Although there were rocky slopes on both sides of the cove, the burros and the action of the water as it receded over the years had formed flat trails at various levels. They were easy to walk on and gave me various views of the area and beyond. On these walks I let my pups loose so they could run a bit; the coyote stayed out of sight. Beyond that, there wasn’t much hiking available from my camper.

I also spent some time chatting with the scuba folks and the guy in the truck camper. The truck camper guy was weird because when he settled in, he set up two chairs, side by side, outside the camper. I assumed he was with someone who was keeping her/himself busy inside. It wasn’t until we chatted on Sunday evening that I realized he was alone. (Maybe that second chair was for his dog?) He invited me to dinner — he was making spaghetti when I visited — but I declined. He was a nice enough guy but I just didn’t feel like that much socializing.

Meanwhile, the weather forecast was not looking very good. Skies would be overcast, rain was possible, and temperatures were dropping. I didn’t come south for cool weather. I came south for t-shirt weather. It was time to move on. I left on Monday (December 20) morning.

The Snowbirding 2022 Posts

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A handy index to all of the posts for 2021/22’s winter travels.

Updated 7-Feb-22

Regularly Updated

  • Campsite Log – a list of the places I camp, their costs, and their amenities, along with some notes. Updated 11-Feb-22.
  • Travel Costs – a day-by-day breakdown of my travel expenses. Updated 11-Feb-22.

Vlog (Video Blog) Posts

Regular Blog Posts

Related Posts

Snowbirding 2022: Travel Costs

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A breakdown of my travel-related costs by day for my 2021/22 trip south.


One of my favorite campsites so far this year was at Kingman Wash, 3 miles from pavement right on Lake Mead. It’s free, quiet, private, and has great views and an awesome cell phone signal.

A lot of folks think it costs a lot to travel with an RV. These are usually the folks who “camp” by making reservations at a KOA, pulling into a paved or gravel parking space with dozens of other RVs, and plugging in. In that case, sure, it’s expensive. Those KOAs are getting $50 or $60 per night. But camping doesn’t have to be expensive, especially if you know how to take advantage of free or low-cost camping locations.

While last year I spent nearly 90% of my travel time camped out on BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land in Arizona for free, this year I’m traveling a lot more and splitting my time between boondocking on public land and spending nights at campgrounds where I can dump my waste tanks, refill my water tank, and get a dose of socialization. As a result, this year will probably cost me about twice what last year cost. I’m budgeting $1500/month and am pretty sure I’ll stay within budget.

Here’s what I’m spending my travel dollars on so far. I’ll update this periodically throughout my trip. Note that this only includes expenses related to travel; I am omitting food costs because I’d be spending money on food if I stayed home, too.

As you can see, my biggest expense so far is fuel for my truck. That’s because I’m only getting about 11-12 miles per gallon with my camper loaded and I’ve driven about a thousand miles. But since I’ve pretty much “arrived” in the area where I’ll be spending most of the time, that cost has pretty much leveled out. I expect to spend, on average, about $50/week on fuel until I make the trip back home in February.

Updated: February 11, 2022

DateTruck Fuel1Other Fuel2CampingOther3Total
Dec 10165.42 36.00 201.42
Dec 11182.7912.72 (p)  195.51
Dec 12 5.06 (g)  5.06
Dec 13106.404.98 (g)35.0015.00 (s)161.38
Dec 14  35.008.00 (i)43.00
Dec 15    0.00
Dec 1676.88 57.00 133.88
Dec 17   4.00 (l)4.00
Dec 18    0.00
Dec 19    0.00
Dec 20    0.00
Dec 21    0.00
Dec 22  36.25 36.25
Dec 2373.4612.91 (p)36.25 122.62
Dec 24  36.25 36.25
Dec 25  36.252.00 (l)38.25
Dec 26  35.00 35.00
Dec 27    0.00
Dec 28    0.00
Dec 29  25.00 25.00
Dec 30    0.00
Dec 31111.92 40.00 151.92
Jan 1    0.00
Jan 2    0.00
Jan 3    0.00
Jan 4    0.00
Jan 5    0.00
Jan 6 32.03 (p) 8.00 (d)
14.00 (l)		54.03
Jan 7    0.00
Jan 8    0.00
Jan 9    0.00
Jan 10    0.00
Jan 11    0.00
Jan 12    0.00
Jan 13    0.00
Jan 14    0.00
Jan 15  37.00 37.00
Jan 16125.00  5.00 (l)130.00
Jan 17 21.74 (p)39.62 66.36
Jan 18  39.62 39.62
Jan 19  39.62 39.62
Jan 20  39.62 39.62
Jan 21  39.62 39.62
Jan 22    0.00
Jan 23100.00   100.00
Jan 24    0.00
Jan 25    0.00
Jan 26    0.00
Jan 27    0.00
Jan 28  20.00 20.00
Jan 29  20.00 20.00
Jan 30  20.00 20.00
Jan 31  56.00 56.00
Feb 1100.00  12.50 (l)112.50
Feb 2 19.89 (p)  $19.89
Feb 3    0.00
Feb 496.60   96.90
Feb 5    0.00
Feb 697.48 40.00 137.48
Feb 7    0.00
Feb 8    0.00
Feb 8    0.00
Feb 10    0.00
Feb 11    0.00
Totals1236.25109.33799.1068.502212.48
Total Days:64Average Per Day:34.57

Notes:

  1. Includes diesel fuel as well as diesel exhaust fluid (DEF), which must be added periodically.
  2. Other fuel includes:
    (p) Propane (for my camper)
    (g) Gasoline (for my generator)
  3. Other includes:
    (s) Shower
    (i) Internet
    (l) Laundry
    (d) Tank Dump

Snowbirding 2022: Lake Mead and Boulder City

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A blog post with a vlog post.

In an effort to minimize the ums and uhs of my on-the-fly narration, for this video about last week’s trip to St Thomas Overlook, Stewart Point, Henderson/Las Vegas, and Boulder City, I wrote a script and just read it into my computer. Since I had the script, I figured I may as well turn it into a blog post, too. There are some photos here but the video has a lot more photos, maps and, well, videos.

Here’s the video:


And now here’s the blog post.

After leaving Valley of Fire State Park, we did a little exploring in the Overton Arm area of Lake Mead. We started off with a drive down a narrow, unpaved road to the St Thomas townsite overlook. St Thomas used to be under water. Now that water levels are so low, the ruins of the town are visible again. There’s a three mile loop hike to get down there from the overlook, but I didn’t go. I didn’t take any photos from the overlook, either, although I did see some of the ruins with binoculars.


Here’s the sign at the overlook for St. Thomas Point. YOu couldn’t really see any of the town without either making the 3-mile hike or using binoculars.

After that, I made a quick trip back to Overton to buy some fixit supplies and a few grocery items. Then back into the park.


Blue Point Spring was very disappointing. Rogers Spring, a bit farther down the road, is supposed to be a lot nicer.

We made a quick stop with a short hike at Blue Point Spring. It was a depressing little hike that led to a gurgling pipe with water flowing into a narrow creek that dried up only a few dozen feet away. Not recommended.

Then down the road to Stewarts Point, our overnight destination. This was down a long, partially paved road. I met a ranger along the way and he gave me all kinds of information about the area, including a park map and some information about water flows in the lake. He told me I could park anywhere down there but warned me not to get too close to the water because the ground there could be soft.

When I got out there, I discovered at least a dozen other RVers parked all over the place. There was plenty of room to find a spot away from them all. I packed into a spot at the edge of a steep drop off with the back of my camper facing the lake so I’d have a good view.


The view out the back of my camper wasn’t too shabby.


An interesting mineral was growing in cracks in the clay-like mud.

After I’d set up the camper, I made lunch, grabbed some snacks for me and my pups, and headed down to the lake. We spent some time having lunch along the water and watching water birds. I discovered some sort of mineral growing in cracks of the clay-like mud at and in the water; some Twitter friends later identified it as gypsum. I found traces of burros in the area but we never saw any. We went back up to the camper and spent the rest of the day just relaxing. We had a nice sunset.

I was still having battery issues so I left the heat off overnight, hoping to be able to turn it on in the morning. But in the morning, with the temperature around 30°F outside, my batteries were dead again. Rather than deal with the generator, I made coffee in a travel mug, broke camp, and headed out as soon as it was light enough to see.


Don’t tell anyone, but I sent up the drone for a few minutes around sunset to get this shot of my campsite from the air.

The rest of the morning was spent in Henderson and Las Vegas troubleshooting and ultimately fixing that battery problem. I cover it in detail in my blog; you can find a link in the video description.

When that was done, I treated myself to a nice lunch in Boulder City. I felt I deserved it.

Then my pups and I took my bike and their trailer on the Historic Railroad Trail that runs from the Lake Mead Visitor Center to the Dam. It was surprisingly chilly and there was just enough wind to keep the ride from being pleasant. I stopped for some photos of the lake that showed how far the water level had come down since the highest levels back in the 1980s. Instead of turning around after the last tunnel, I kept on the steep gravel trail down toward the dam. This turned out to be ultimately disappointing since I couldn’t easily get close to the dam with my bicycle and I didn’t want to leave it locked up out of sight for too long. We wound up coming back along the road, which was a lot easier than pedaling uphill in gravel, even with electric assist.


This shot of the marina gives you a pretty good idea of how far down the water level has come; most of those islands were submerged in the 1980s.

By that time, I felt done for the day. I packed up the bike and trailer, put my pups back into the truck, and left Boulder City for our next destination: Willow Beach Campground on the Arizona side of the Colorado River. I’ll tell you more about that in the next video.

Snowbirding 2022: The Power Problem

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I finally track down and solve an annoying battery power issue.

The problem first reared its ugly head at Pahranagat National Wildlife Refuge on Saturday night — the day after I’d left home. (I’d spent that first night at a campground in Idaho with a power hookup.) Nighttime temperatures were forecasted to be at 20°F or lower so, like anyone who values comfort, I stacked some extra blankets on my bed at nighttime and turned the heater on.

How It All Works

My RV’s heater is forced air propane. That means there’s a propane burner that heats the air and a battery powered fan that blows the air into the living space. So in order to have heat, you need propane and battery power.


My rig’s batteries in their compartment. The space is so limited that only a few different battery models will fit — so please don’t lecture me about 6v systems because I’ve already explored that option.

My RV has two 12v deep cycle marine/RV batteries on board. They are connected to the rig’s internal converter (which converts AC to DC power when I’m plugged into an external AC power source), a power connector to my truck (when the camper is on the truck and plugged into it), and my solar panel controller (which is attached to two 100-watt solar panels on the rig’s roof). That gives me three ways to keep those batteries charged: external power (if I’m plugged in), power from my truck (as I’m driving down the road), and solar power (during the day, which varies depending on how sunny it is).

My batteries showed fully charged — per the voltage reading on the solar controller — when solar power eased off late in the day. That was fine; that’s the way it’s supposed to be. The system is set up so that if I’m parked in a sunny place during the day, the batteries will fully charge before nightfall. I’m extremely conservative with my power use because, although I have a generator, I don’t like to run it.

Between sunset and the time I went to bed, power seemed to drain out of the batteries a bit more than I remembered it doing. Keep in mind, however, that I hadn’t been “dry camping” since the previous winter, so I really didn’t remember what kind of power drain I’d been experiencing. (The batteries were new; replaced in January.) I went to bed with the heat set low to just take the big chill out of the air.

The Problem Rears Its Head

I woke early and noticed that my refrigerator was showing an error code that meant it wasn’t getting enough power. My refrigerator runs on propane (when I’m not plugged into external power) but, like my heater, it requires a certain amount of DC power to operate its thermostat and interior light and who knows what else. When power drops below a certain level, the refrigerator shuts down and the error message appears.

I checked the solar charge controller. It read 10v. That was very bad.

I got up and turned everything off. And then I got back under the covers, which was pretty much the only way I’d stay warm until it was light enough for the solar panels to go to work or late enough for me to run my generator in a campground where other people might like to sleep past 5 AM.

I had a hell of a time getting the generator started later that morning in 18°F temperatures. I thought it was a problem with the generator itself but I think it was more the fact that the previous user — who was not me; when will I learn not to lend out my stuff? — ran it dry of fuel. Later, I managed to get fuel and get it running and everything was back to normal.

Or at least I thought it was. I figured that I’d just expected too much from the fully charged batteries the night before. Instead of running the heater all night, I’d leave it turned off the next night and turn it on in the morning to warm the place before I got out of bed. In the meantime, the batteries were charging fine in the bright sun of my campsite.


Here’s my usual generator setup. There’s an adapter that makes it possible to plug in my 30 amp RV cord to a standard 20 or 15 amp outlet.

But the next morning, when it was only slightly warmer than the morning before, the batteries were already dead — without me running the heat at all!

I waited as long as I could and then said, “F*ck this, I’m running the generator before I freeze my ass off.” And I started the generator at 6 AM. Fortunately, my closest neighbor had left the day before and my 2KW Honda is pretty quiet. Plugging the camper into the generator is pretty much the same as plugging it into any AC power source; I had power and the batteries would charge.

Plugging In, Then Trying Again

Meanwhile, winter weather — rain and wind in that part of Nevada — was moving in. I decided that what I needed was either a campsite with a power hookup or a campsite in a remote area where I could run my generator anytime I had to.


At Valley of Fire State Park. I’m not totally opposed to campground living; I just don’t really like it when I don’t need it.

I went to Valley of Fire State Park and enjoyed two nights plugged in at one of their campgrounds. Surely being plugged for more than 40 hours straight would fix the battery issues. But I had my doubts. I’d dry boondocking — that’s camping with no hookups — one more night before I tried to get the batteries replaced.

So I spent the night at Stewart Point on Lake Mead. I had a great campsite and I would have loved to spend more than one night there. But it was the same story in the morning — freezing cold with no battery power. I didn’t even bother running the generator. I made my coffee in a travel mug, loaded up my pups, and left the campground right around dawn.


Boondocking at Stewart Point. I could have stayed here a week if it weren’t for the power problems.

Tracking Down the Problem

That was Thursday.

I already had reservations at Willow Beach campground on the Colorado River for Sunday and Monday night. I changed them to that night. If I couldn’t fix the power problem, I’d need a power hookup again. I was tired of freezing my ass off in bed and very tired of seeing my pups shivering, even with their coats on, as they tried to sleep. I was starting to wonder whether I should just give up and go home. I was seriously sick and tired of dealing with the problem.

I headed in to Henderson, NV where there was a Camping World. Camping World is a chain of RV sales and service places that are usually quite large and well-stocked. I had already called them the day before to see if they could replace my batteries while I waited. I was not going to deal with a place that made an appointment two weeks from Tuesday.

Long story short: because the Interstate brand batteries were less than a year old, they were covered under warranty. But because Camping World didn’t sell that exact model, they wouldn’t swap them. I wound up going to the Interstate location in Las Vegas. All this time, I’m trying to get the folks who sold me the battery to email me a copy of the receipt as proof of purchase.

One of the Interstate techs came out and tested the batteries. By this time, the drive plus the sun had fully charged them. The first battery tested good. I started thinking about how I’d track down the power issue if the problem wasn’t the batteries. But the second battery tested bad. And the guy found the date code on the battery that proved its age so I didn’t need a receipt after all.

There was some trouble with how I was going to swap them. They didn’t do installations on RV batteries — just car batteries. And they wouldn’t give me the new battery unless I left the old one. And then they also were trying to sell me the replacement or even a replacement for the one that wasn’t bad. They gave me the number of a mobile installer — likely someone they get kickback from — but I also called Camping World. Camping World wanted $149 plus tax to swap the batteries.

Once again, I found myself saying, “F*ck that. I’ll do it myself.”


It’s the battery on the left that needed replacement. One terminal had just one fat cable while the other had two fat cables and three skinny cables. It was difficult getting them all back in place, but I managed.

I dug out my junky $49 Harbor Freight toolkit, which lives at the bottom of one of my outside storage compartments. I took a photo of the mass of wires I’d have to disconnect and then reconnect on the battery terminals. I disconnected the wires on the bad battery. And then I got the Interstate tech to take the bad battery out of the cabinet and lift the replacement battery up into its place. (I don’t think I could have lifted them myself; I tipped him $5.)

I got to work with a couple of wrenches and fastened all the wires where they needed to be. No sparks, no flames. I went inside my camper to look at various things that would indicate success or failure. The solar charge controller was registering properly, the fridge was on, the stereo’s clock was lit up. It all looked good.

I put everything away and left.

The Test

I had a celebratory lunch in Boulder City. It was more of a reward for dealing with everything I’d dealt with. Then my pups and I took a bike ride on the Historic Railroad Trail that starts at the Lake Mead Visitor Center and goes all the way to Hoover Dam. I put the bike and my pups’ trailer away and we headed down to Willow Beach.


Here I am, parked at a nice level site with a full hookup at Willow Beach. It’s a nice enough campground, but I think the price is outrageous. It’s half price for 65+ with the right paperwork so I have something to look forward to — in five years.

I considered not plugging in so I could test the system right then and there. But I was paying $57 for that campsite for one night and I’d be damned if I wasn’t going to use every single one of its features. So I enjoyed 30 amp power and “city” water and dumped the RVs tanks. I also had a good shower and did a load of laundry before leaving on Friday morning.

I’d decided that I’d test the system at Kingman Wash, a camping area about 3 miles from pavement on Lake Mead. I didn’t want to get any farther away from the Las Vegas area; if the problem wasn’t resolved, I’d need it troubleshooted and I stood a much better chance at finding an experienced RV repair person in a metro area than 100 miles south in some podunk town.

I drove down there, found an excellent camping area with just one other camper, parked on a high point overlooking the beach, pulled out my generator, and set it up. If I was going to need it, I wanted it all ready for me. I discovered that because the site was down in a canyon, I’d only have direct sunlight for about 6-1/2 hours a day — I was in shadows by 3 PM. But the batteries were charged when I went to bed.


I’m parked nearly dead center in this photo. Most of the vehicles by the water were for a SCUBA certification class that showed up during the day on Saturday and Sunday. You can see the afternoon shadow creeping toward my rig.

I left the heat off. It was warmer there than it had been at previous sites. In the morning, I still had 12.5v on the solar controller. I fired up the heat. And some lights. Everything worked fine.

The second night was the same.

For the third night, I got a little daring. I put the heat on before I went to bed. Again, set low to keep the chill out. It cycled on and off as needed all night. In the morning, I still had more than 12v of power.

I didn’t need to run my generator at all.

The problem was resolved.

Current Status

It’s Tuesday morning and I’m boondocking at Six Mile Cove on Lake Mohave. I set my generator up again before going to bed last night and left the heat on overnight. Power levels were fine in the morning, but it’s overcast today and I wanted to charge my laptop and a few other things so I ran the generator for about two hours. Now I’m just finishing up this blog post before a lunch break. This afternoon I’ll edit more video.


It’s a crappy day at Lake Mohave but it’s quiet and private, especially since my neighbors just “went into town” for a tire for their RV. (The closest town that might have a tire is Boulder City, which is about 90 minutes from here.)

The camping area is large, right on the lake, has garbage receptacles and pit toilets. It’s just me and a couple in a big fifth wheel toy hauler. Yesterday, I helped them get their rig out of the sand where it was stuck. They invited me to join them at their campfire and I did. My cell signal is weak, but I seem able to get online enough. I’ll spend another night here and then head over to the campground at Cottonwood Cove where I can get a full hookup while some more weather moves through. By that time, I’ll need to dump my tanks, top off my fresh water tank, and maybe buy some propane.

After that, back to boondocking. It’s the kind of RVing I like most — and you really can’t beat the price.