Us technomads are pretty easy to please. We like pretty places to be and explore. We like an affordable place to be, free is great too! We like being around people we adore. And we love fast unlimited bandwidth.
This next leg of our adventure, had our technomadic dreams being fulfilled! And with the eBook version of ‘The Mobile Internet Handbook’ published at last, we gave ourselves some time to take a slower pace, get out exploring and spending time with our friends Forrest & Mary!
Craters of the Moon
What is more magical than a place on earth that looks like what folks thought the moon surface might be?
Our reason for diverting to Arco, ID with our caravan buddies was to check out Craters of the Moon National Monument. It’s a lava field from eruptions some mere few thousand years ago.
We parked our RVs at Mountain View RV Park in Arco, and took a day trip over to the park to explore for an afternoon. I’ve explored Volcano National Park in Hawaii before, so I thought I was prepared for the scenic feast that would be presented. But nothing really can prepare you for this.
It’s just simply.. breathtaking. Molten lava gone wild, leaving behind a mixture of black rock with life emerging through the crusty surface.
The park is a drive through loop with many pull offs with trails to explore. We did as many of them as our crew could endure. As the day progressed, it gets warmer and warmer as the heat radiates off the surface rocks.
The last stop on the tour is the caverns, which are clearly labeled as needing a permit to go into. We didn’t have one, but we probably could have ignored that requirement. But I couldn’t ignore the heat, or the thirst, that had built up. If I had it to do over again, I’d start with the cave exploring first.
Incidentally, we explored the campground in the park – and feel that both our 35′ bus and Forrest & Mary’s 40′ RV could have found spaces there. We’ll definitely keep that in mind for next time through. I’d love to explore this area more.
Magic Reservoir
We’re in the west – the land of ample boondocking, and it was time to jump back into this lifestyle we hadn’t done much of since acquiring our bus.
And Forrest and Mary were complete virgins to wild camping – so we were delighted to share the experience with them and introduce them to the lifestyle.
We did some poking around for options along our route, and selected Magic Reservoir.
We turned down a little BLM road, and poked our way 10 miles into the town of West Magic and followed signs down gravel roads along with trusting our instincts.
And then we landed here:
A perfect view of the reservoir and the Sawtooth Mountains. And all to ourselves.
We enjoyed swimming on the shores below us, hiking all over the place, amazing stars at night, catching up on household chores and the quietness that can only occur in this sort of solitude.
It’s what our heart and souls have been craving.
It was also the perfect place to get all of our test solar panels hooked up and start some intensive testing while relying on them as our source of electrons.
The only downside was the internet signal was a bit spotty at our location. We could have selected a spot with better signal. But we couldn’t resist living on our own little secluded peninsula.
Even us technomads choose views over connectivity sometimes.
If we needed faster signal, we just commuted up the hill to the official dispersed area picnic shelter to gain altitude. It was actually much welcomed to be a bit off grid for a few days.
Forrest and Mary did well with their first ever wild camping experience, and toughed it out 2 nights on their non-optimized electrical system.
While we opted to stay an extra day and soak in the power of the sun and the solitude.
Magical Reservoir was truly magical. Our appetite for wild camping is completely re-ignited, and we’re inspired to get our solar research done so we can fully install our system and explore much more this winter after our Cape Blanco Lighthouse volunteering this fall.
How’d we find this location? I’m preparing a dedicated blog post on just that subject – sharing our tips and tricks for scouting places like this out.
WiFi Heaven
Our next stop was rendezvousing with the Lone Ranger at WiFiRanger Headquarters in Merdian, ID. Kelly and staff were returning from the FMCA rally in Redmond, OR, and we were excited to finally meet the entire staff and see what these folks have up their sleeve.
They own an incredible eco conscious building that is powered by solar, and have a parking lot for friends to stop by.
Not nearly as scenic as our last stop, but Kelly had our own dedicated WiFi channel waiting for us – tapping directly into their fiberoptic connection.
Sometimes.. we technomads choose connectivity over views.
We spent a wonderful day hanging out with the entire team. They showed us prototypes of upcoming products, gave us a tour of their newest firmware and we shared with them feedback we hear from our fellow RVing friends.
What we love most about WiFiRanger is how they listen, and react, to feature requests from those of us in the field. The RV market is a huge part of their business – which is not necessarily true of most of their competitors.
When we left, they handed us a box with ‘one of everything’ for us to put to the paces out on the road. We’ll be testing out the newest Mobile, the Marine and Nano, along with our Sky.
Forrest and Mary opted to stay in a nearby RV Park to power up after their first boondocking experience, and we rejoined with them down the road in Oregon. Stay tuned for those tales!
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Topic: Caravanning with RV Friends
We love caravanning with the friends we’ve met on the road, it’s fun to be temporary neighbors at multiple locations, and share the journey with other nomadic souls.
We’ll share some tips and tricks for traveling with RVing friends while honoring your and their needs, space and unique styles of travel. Balancing travel pace, style and varying interests.
We’ll have a Q&A at the end, so please feel free to ask questions if you have them (about caravanning, or RV life in general).
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I am Marvin’s wife and you were parked behind us at AM Solar. I was hoping to meet you, but never saw you out and about except when you first rolled in. I was particularly bummed when I read that you were recently in Arco and at the Craters. I grew up in Arco. My Dad was born there and lived there for 89 years and was a ranger at the Craters in his late teens. I am so glad you enjoyed your visit there. Since we are full-timers, we will likely meet on the road again some time and have some time to visit. Happy and safe travels to you. Ellen
Bummer we didn’t get a chance to meet up – our visit to AMSolar was way too quick, and jam packed with things to accomplish. We’ll see you on down the road somewhere!
I forgot to mention that part of the ranger walk was to see the flora out there….
So glad you liked Craters of the Moon…it was a favorite of ours and we did the walk with the ranger so we got to go into the caves …quite awesome…will have to check out your dry camping space there the next time we are in that area….we did stay in the park……have fun in Eugene and of course at the lighthouse…
That reservoir spot DEFINITELY looks magical. What a great way to end all that hard work getting your new book out!
Nina
It definitely was a perfect place to rest up!
We just missed Craters this Summer; ran out of time. But, it is back on the list now. Looking at your pictures, it looks like a place we visited Aridzona at Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument. Love the weird and wonderful landscape!
Noticed a little typo on the State abbreviation at the first mention of Arco, by the way.
Thanks for the typo alert. There’s probably an Arco, IN out there too, but likely not right next to a lava field 🙂
Great, great post. Wow do I want to get started on this.
There’s a whole big awesome world to explore!
I’m thinking it may take until at least the end of 2015 before I could get in on this. I’ve already got an RV picked out. But there’s many responsibilities I have between then and now that I need to take care of first.
We are currently in Boise, ID and because of you guys will be making Arco our next stop. We had never heard of Craters of the Moon, but now will get a chance to explore because of your blog. Thanks.
Enjoy it! And also be sure to check out the EBR-1 just to the east of Arco.. it’s fascinating!
Looks like the perfect balance and blend of wilderness and connection! The lava flows look amazing but that black surface also looks very hot this time of year :-(. Safe travels to Cape Blanco!
Yes indeed. those black surfaces just soak up the heat. But so worth it!
Craters of the Moon is magical. We once lucked out in early June and visited when the Monkey Flowers were blooming. The lava was full of tiny purple flowers. It was unreal.
Ooo.. that sounds lovely! The color contrasts out there are just amazing!