Another vlog post from my trip.
I spent two nights at Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada, mostly because I wanted an electric hookup to sit out expected bad weather. I got a lot done in the camper on the bad weather day, then did two hikes on my way out of the park. This video fills in the details. Enjoy!
Satisfy your curiosity about the inside of my truck camper by watching this video.
Some people wanted to know what it was like inside my truck camper. So I made a video. Here you go:
Some details about the places I camped during my winter 2021/22 trip to points south.
I thought I’d keep track of the places I camped each night in case anyone wants to try any of them.
Edited February 17, 2022:
Where I am now/just added: Navaro Beach Camp, , CA.
| Place | Cost | Hookups | Facilities | Connect | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Three Islands State Park, ID | $36* | E ** | G ** | C | *Rate includes non-ID surcharge. **Water turned off for season. |
| Pahranagat National Wildlife Refuge, NV | free | none | T G * | C | *Multiple pit toilets. Lakeside sites. Wildlife, hiking/biking trails. Close to road. |
| Valley of Fire State Park, NV. Atyl Campground. | $35* | E W ** | T S G | *** | *Rate includes non-NV surcharge. **Dump station only. ***WiFi available for a fee. Nice sites, quiet, red rocks. Good value. |
| Lake Mead National Recreation Area, NV. Stewart’s Point. | free | none | T* | C | *Pit toilets in one area. Huge area right on the lake. Many campers but lots of space. Quiet, private. |
| Lake Mead National Recreation Area, AZ. Willow Beach Campground. | $57* | E W S ** | T S L G R | W *** | *Rate includes Good Sam discount and tax. **Sewer on site and at dump station. ***Free WiFi for one device. Overpriced but very pleasant. 50% off 65+ with pass. |
| Lake Mead National Recreation Area, AZ. Kingman Wash | free | none | T * | C | *One central pit toilet. Quiet, underutilized, early sunset because of canyon, 3 miles down gravel road. You can camp right on the lake. Coyotes, burros. |
| Lake Mead National Recreation Area, NV. Six Mile Cove | free * | none | T G * | C *** | *Park entrance fee or pass is required. **Central pit toilets. ***Weak come-and-go cell signal. Quiet (on weekdays), 30 minute drive down gravel road from park entrance station. You can camp right on the lake. Beware of soft sand in parking area. |
| Davis Camp. Bullhead City, AZ | $36.25* | E W ** | T S G | C | *Includes extra fee for dogs and tax. **Dump station. County park campground on Colorado River just downstream from Davis Dam. |
| Oatman-Topock Dispersed BLM Camping | free | none | none | C* | *Usable Cell phone signal on Verizon. Close to road, rugged terrain. |
| Needle Mt Road BLM Dispersed Camping | free | none | none | C* | *Usable Cell phone signal on Verizon. Relatively close to freeway, rugged terrain. |
| Lake Havasu State Park, Overflow Camping Area | $25.00 | * | T S G | C | *Dump station available. Limited number of beachfront sites. Inadequate generator rules. |
| Pomosa Road Dispersed Camping, Quartzsite, AZ | free | none | none | C* | *Usable Cell phone signal on Verizon. Very quiet. |
| Holtville Hot Spring BML Long Term Camping area | $40.00* | none | T S** G | C | *$40 covers up to 14 consecutive days in this and other long term areas. **Toilet and shower are at the hot spring. No soap allowed. Relatively flat, featureless area with dispersed camping. Lots of long term campers with expansive solar setups. |
| New Camp, Salton Sea Recreation Area | $37 * | E W ** | T S*** G R | C | *Rate includes $7 reservation fee. **Dump station only. ***Shower was solar hot water, $1/token. Hookup campsites were either in a large parking area or adjacent to main road with railroad track nearby. Camp store closed. I would not camp there again; not worth the money. |
| Joshua Tree South BLM Dispersed Camping | free | none | none | C | Large area along maintained gravel roads just south of Joshua Tree National Monument. Many campers, but plenty of space. Easy access to I-10 freeway about 1 mile away. Remarkably quiet. |
| Rice Ranch, Quartzsite AZ | $40* | E W S | G | C** | *Somewhat discounted rate due to past business relationship. **Strong signal but slow due to heavy load on local cell towers during Quartzsite’s busy period. Centrally located very near two main venues, bicycling distance to all others. At noisy intersection. |
| A Friend’s House, Gilbert, AZ | $0 | n/a | n/a | n/a | Every year I visit with some friends in Gilbert, AZ. I stay in their guest room and let my camper sit empty in their driveway. The last night of my stay, they had more houseguests so I moved into the camper for the night, still parked in their driveway and not hooked up to utilities. |
| USFS Apache Jct Dispersed Camping | $0 | none | none | C* | *Cell signal was acceptable but not good. Wide open area not far from off-road vehicle recreation parking. Shooting within 1/2 mile before dark and before dawn in the morning. Coyotes. Two late arrivals slept in their vehicles and departed before light, which was kind of weird. Beautiful desert. |
| Catalina State Park, Tucson (Ringtail area dry camping) | $20 | none* | T S G R | C** | *Dump station available. **Cell signal was acceptable but not good. Nice park with many hiking, biking, and equestrian trails. Dog friendly. Main campgrounds offer electric and water at sites; nearly impossible to reserve. |
| Casino Del Sol RV Park, Tucson, AZ | $56 | E W S | T S L G | C W* | *Wifi near central building only. New campground with asphalt parking surrounded by gravel. Newly planted trees. No ambiance at all, but plenty of amenities. Expensive. |
| Las Cienegas National Conservation Area | $0 | none | none* | C | *Pit toilets available in group camping areas. Active historic cattle ranch(es) with dispersed camping. |
| A friend’s house, Sierra Vista, AZ | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | My Gilbert friends have a new second home in Sierra Vista and invited me to check it out. We stayed two nights and I helped them with a few of their renovation chores. It was wicked cold those two nights and I was glad to be indoors. |
| BLM Darby Wells Road Dispersed Camping, Ajo, AZ | $0 | none | none | C | Dispersed camping in Sonoran desert just south of an open pit copper mine. |
| Holtville Hot Spring BML Long Term Camping area | $40.00* | none | T S** G | C | See notes from first stay. I stayed for another 6 nights in February. |
| Mojave Narrows County Park, Victorville, CA | $39 | E W S | T S G | C | County campground right next to TWO train tracks. Sites were dirty, land was poorly kept. Other campers were loud, but train was worse; it ran all night. NOT recommended. |
| Gaviota Lane, Ventura, CA | $0 | none | none | none | Relatively quiet side street behind a strip mall with an apartment complex across the street. |
| Jalama County Beach Campground, Lompac, CA | $50 | none* | T S G R | W** | *I picked one of the beachfront sites which had no hookups. Other sites had hookups. There was a dump station. **No cell signal at all; WiFi was iffy. Very nice campground 14 miles down a twisty road. |
| Limekiln State Park, Lucia, CA | $35 | none | T S G R | none | Tiny campground tucked into a canyon under a bridge. Some sites are near the beach; others are in a dense wooded area next to a creek. No cell signal. Quiet. Pleasant stay but being out closer to the beach would have been nicer. |
| Bay Flat Road, Bodega Bay, CA | $0 | none | none | C | Recommended to me by campground host at full Bodega Dunes Campground. Pullout alongside the road right on the bay. Quiet except for fog horn, barking sea lions, and some traffic. |
| Navaro Beach Campground | $35 | none | T* G | C** | *Pit toilets. **Very weak cell signal on Verizon was enough to check in at social media and send/receive texts. Pleasant campground adjacent to a beach. Just 10 sites include table and fire ring. Very quiet. |
Key to codes
| Hookups | Facilities | Connectivity |
|---|---|---|
| E – Electric W – Water S – Sewer | T – Toilet S – Shower L – Laundry G – Garbage R – Recycle | C – Usable Cell Signal (Verizon) W – Free WiFi |
I leave the wildlife refuge for a comfy camping spot among the red rocks — and grab a shower along the way.
Day four of my trip saw me back on the road, this time traveling just about 100 miles. This video gives you a little background details about how I pack up to move out and shows you exactly what’s in the back seat area of my truck. (Spoiler alert; no one will be sitting there any time soon.) I also give you a look inside a truckstop shower — you may be surprised — and show you a fuel pump that has everything. Finally, a look at the reddest rocks you may ever see.
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The two activities are remarkably similar.
I’m sure I bored Capt Paul on Nano with my never-ending comparisons between cruising and camping (and flying, for that matter). In the beginning, I was constantly asking him questions about and observing things like navigation and using marinas. And then, when my mind started equating these new activities to things that were familiar to me, I drew comparisons. Over and over. Ad nauseam.
They really are a lot alike. And because of that, a lot of the experience I’ve gained as a long haul RVer — someone who stays away from home for more than a month at a time — can easily be applied to future activities cruising on a boat. I thought I’d take a moment to run through a few; if you’re an RVer or a cruiser, you might learn a bit about the activity you’re not familiar with.
Planning
Planning an RV road trip is a lot like planning a cruise in that you have to gather all of the information you can about the route, weather, desired destinations, and alternative destinations. You need to plan for where you can get fuel, where you can park overnight, where you can replenish supplies such as water and groceries, and where you can dump or pump out the blackwater tank. During the information gathering process, you learn as much as you can about roads/waterways and facilities along the way. This includes reading reviews left by other travelers to help you make informed decisions. Even if you start with a thorough plan for the trip, you have to be prepared to make changes to that plan to take advantage of new opportunities or handle unexpected problems. As someone who has traveled — usually alone — with an RV for about fifteen years, I feel as if I’ve been trained and tested on my abilities to make plans, change plans, and take care of problems as they come up. This skill will come in handy on a boat.
Navigation
In both activities, you need to find your way from point A to point B. With a camper, you do this on roads; in a boat, you do this on established waterways. In both activities, there are restrictions. For example, when I travel with my camper, I can’t take any road that doesn’t offer at least 12 1/2 (or 13, to be safe) feet of head clearance. I also need to avoid roads that are very rough or have soft sand so I don’t get stuck. Likewise, in a boat, you need to worry about head clearance — especially in the case of navigating canals and small waterways — but also about water depth.
Weather
Yes, I can drive my truck camper in high winds or rain or even snow. But do I want to? Is it safe? Ditto for traveling on the water. Wind and waves make potentially dangerous — or at least uncomfortable conditions. Either way, it’s important to check the forecast when planning the day’s travel.
These days, I’m spending two of every seven to ten days at a campground. I expect to spend about the same at marinas once I’ve become accustomed to cruising and anchoring out.
Campgrounds / Marinas
I cannot stop drawing comparisons between campgrounds and marinas. They can offer a variety of services — the same services! Power, water, sewer dump/pump out. Restrooms, showers, laundry facilities, wifi, supply shop, pool. Logo merchandise, souvenirs. Social and recreational opportunities. They both cost money and many directly or indirectly charge you based on the size of your camper/boat.
Free Campgrounds / Docks
These are a little harder to find, but they do exist: free facilities that offer some of the features you might find at a pay campground/marina. I’m staying in one right now: a nice little campground on a lake with developed campsites that have picnic tables, fire pits, and grills. There are even a handful of toilets. When I cruised on Nano, there were lots of free docks on the Erie Canal; several had access to power, water, and restrooms with showers.
Here’s my camper, parked at a free campground in Nevada that offers picnic tables, grills, fire pits, and access to a lake filled with migratory birds — and not much else.
Boondocking / Anchoring Out
In the RVing world, boondocking refers to parking someplace where you have no facilities — you’re limited to what you have with you. My camper is set up perfectly for boondocking; it holds fresh and waste water, has a water pump, water heater, toilet, shower, stove, oven, refrigerator, sink, etc. Solar panels keep the batteries charged, and I bring along a 2 kw generator just in case there isn’t enough sun to get the batteries charged. I find a suitable place — usually public land out in the desert or up a mountain road or sometimes, if I’m in transit and just want overnight parking for an early start in the morning, in a Walmart or Cracker Barrel parking lot — and park there for free. I make myself comfortable with what I have with me. The equivalent in the boating world is anchoring out for the night. You have to find a suitable place, drop anchor, and do what’s necessary to make sure you don’t drift. Then you make yourself comfortable with whatever you have on board. The trick in both activities is to find someplace safe and secure and, hopefully, quiet.
Packing Light
Whether you’re in a camper or on a boat, space is limited. You quickly learn to bring only what you really think you’ll need. When you have too much stuff with you, it’s constantly in your way. :Even shopping for food becomes a tricky task; you can’t buy more than will fit in your refrigerator or cabinets and you often have to shed bulky packaging before loading groceries on board.
Staying Organized
One of my biggest problems is that I live a cluttered lifestyle at home. When you have a lot of space and a lot of stuff and can’t seem to get rid of stuff or put it away you get clutter. I know why this happens and I know how to fix it. Although I don’t fix it at home, I’ve learned how to fix it in my camper. The reason: when there’s a tiny amount of space and its cluttered up with things you don’t need or aren’t currently using, it makes life miserable. So I’m constantly putting things where they belong or getting rid of them completely. As a result, my living space is relatively neat and clean unless I’m in the middle of a project — like planning a day’s activity, writing a blog post, or studying for my Captain’s license. This skill will be invaluable on a relatively small boat, especially since just stowing things outdoors on the ground will not be an option.
Conserving Power
Because my camper has just two batteries that, when I’m not in transit or plugged in somewhere are charged by a solar panel, I’ve learned to shut things off when I’m not using them and plan my activities around when the sun will replenish power. For example, washing dishes requires the use of a power sucking water pump; that’s why I always wash my dishes in morning or during the day when the sun is on those panels and can replenish the power I used. While I’ll have a generator available when necessary, who wants to listen to it if they don’t have to?
Conserving Water
There isn’t much water out in the desert when I’m boondocking and my camper only carries 30 gallons of fresh water in its tank. I have become very good at conserving water — so good that I can make that 30 gallons last nearly a week. Yesterday, for example, when I decided that I really need to clean my camper’s windows, which were covered with a white film from driving though a snowy area, I filled a basin with water from the lake behind my campsite rather than use a gallon or more from the onboard tank. (It wasn’t as if I were going to drink it or wash my dishes with it.) Boats have similar limitations, especially if you’re boating in salt water. While I’m not opposed to putting filtered lake water into my holding tank for washing and showering, I would never put salt water in it. Water desalination systems are expensive and power-hungry; it would be nice to do without one.
Toilet / Shower Use
Both my camper and Nano have a wet bath — that means that the shower and the toilet share the same space. There’s a limit to the amount of hot water and showering makes a mess. (It does, however, offer an opportunity to clean the bathroom thoroughly since you need to towel it out after a shower.) I shower in my camper when I have to, but certainly not daily. I never showered in Nano. And because there’s a limit to what you can put in the holding tanks, it’s best to do your business elsewhere — like at a campground/marina or restaurant along the way — when you can. I have had some excellent showers at truck stops (really!) and a few pretty good ones at marinas while cruising on Nano. The less you put in the blackwater holding tank, the less often you need to tackle the dirty job of emptying it.
Toilet / Head
This was a surprise to me. In the RV world, toilets are usually gravity flush and, with a limited size tank that has to be dumped in a proper facility, the less you put into them, the better off you are. I learned to flush with very little water. This became a problem on Nano since the head worked with some sort of pumping system and you had to flush until the water you could see beyond the bowl was clear. I estimate that it takes at least 4 times as much water to flush a boat’s head than an RV’s toilet. That means you are using more fresh water and putting more in the tank so you’ll have to dump/pump out more frequently. (Another reason to use public restrooms.)
Parking Hazards
When I park my camper in a secure spot — a flat piece of desert, a marked campsite, a parking lot — I don’t expect it to move. Hell, I usually don’t even set the parking brake. But things are different in a boat. Yes, if you tie off properly in a marina slip or at a dock, your boat should stay where you put it. But anchoring out overnight introduces all kinds of new challenges that are related to the movement of water (current and/or tide) and wind. I will definitely follow all anchoring recommendations when I anchor out and make use of anchor warnings that are widely available in navigation software for boaters.
At the end of all this, I’ve come to realize that I am well prepared to move my travels from hitting the road with an RV to hitting the waterways with a live-aboard boat. While I still lack a lot of raw boating experience in unusual circumstances — mostly challenging weather and water conditions — I have the logistical aspects worked out better than a lot of folks might. The fun will come in putting a long trip together and seeing it through from beginning to end — and learning from that experience.
I live to learn and I can’t express how much I’m looking forward to the cruising lessons ahead of me.