When we set off over 8 years ago, we did a lot of remote camping in the boonies. A lot. For most of our first four years on the road in tiny travel trailers, we were boondocking pretty much off-grid all the time. We had some darn amazing experiences.
In the past couple months we’ve gotten back to our roots, now that we finally have solar installed again on our bus conversion.
On Thursday, after nearly a month at in Desert Hot Springs, we followed Nina’s coordinates out to one of her favorite spots – a little boondocking location just east of Borrego Springs, California.
The drive out was stunning, and we were instantly in love with the area.
We arrived and she already had scouted out a few potential locations for our little pack of nomadic wanderers. We selected one that got great cellular signal and unobstructed views, and setup camp in quick time.
With Paul visiting family in Florida, it’s just the three of us and the critters. Nina did great moving ‘the beast’ for her first time solo. We helped her back in and we setup the shared space together.
And we’ve been in awe since with the amazing scenery. Big open expansive views all around us. And hiking galore.
But boondocking isn’t just about being out in the middle of gorgeous locations. It can also be an incredible social experience. And this is a somewhat new thing for us. Most of our previous boondocking was pretty much a solitary endeavor.
This spot, is a spread out neighborhood set in the desert, with RVs scattered about down little dirt road turn-offs.
Pretty much since we’ve arrived we’ve met fellow boondockers and been invited to several meet ups, and had a few folks stop by to say hi.
We’ve even hosted our own social gathering once we discovered blog readers Tim & Denise were parked just down the road from us – two awesome nomads we can only hope we’re as cool as in 20 or so years. After all, they also named their RV ‘Zephyr’ after riding the California Zephyr train to pick it up.
We’ve also been tweaking out our 1400w solar combined roof & ground setup, and taking lots of measurements to share between tilting and non-tilting positioning. All and all, we’re pretty abundant in power.
We’ve even got out exploring the cute little town of Borrego Springs, including the fabulous sculptures the area is so famous for.
We’ll be out here for as long as our holding tanks hold out for. Which we hope is at least into the new year.
Until then, we’ll keep soaking up amazing views, amazing community and enchanting sunsets.
For another perspective on this spot, read Nina’s post on our arrival to Borrego Springs.
Beautiful pics! We can’t wait to hit the road, so for now we live vicariously through you!
Happy Holidays!
This is our first year in Borrego, isn’t it a hoot. We were in your area yesterday visiting your neighbors Tom and Dianne. We are in a park now but will be moving to BLM in a few days. Don’t soak up all the solar with the new system!! Happy Holidays to you both.
Hope you enjoyed your visit with Tom & Dianne… lovely people, we’ve enjoyed getting to know them! Enjoy your BLM adventures too!
I THOUGHT i recognized the background in your “Happy Holidays” photo! That’s one of our favorite boondocks. We stayed there for a week in February, but got chased out by the weather (wind/dust storms). Watch out for the scorpions, but, OTH, go our looking for them at night with a UV light: they GLOW under UV and we could see our resident Scorp — about 3 inches long — from 10-15 feet away. They are actually really cool, and I’m pretty sure they are pretty much nocturnal.
We were also told by a desert “resident” to be wary of the coyotes with our dog and cat, even in the day time.
I think we were north of where it looks like you are, but just enough south that the south end of the ridge line allowed us to still “see” the cell tower NW of the airport with out trucker antenna. Just 3G, then, but enough.
We dumped at the State (County?) RV park west of town for a small fee.
We are actually in Panama City, FL, now and will be in Cedar Key for a month starting Jan 1st.
I do really enjoy reading of your adventures!
Thanks for the heads up on the scorpions.. we hadn’t been introduced to them yet.
Enjoy Cedar Key, and say hi to the gang there… and toast a sunset for us, they’re lovely there.
Ah, I just love that boondocking spot (& Borrego Springs)! Hope to stop by there once I get back to the U.S. from Baja in a month or two. Boondocking down here in central Baja is pretty fabulous (and warm) too…but screaming fast LTE signals? Nada!
p.s. wonderful holiday photo! Hope you guys have a lovely Christmas and New Year’s!
Great spot, we spent a month there last January and will be there this year in the first week on January. I hope y’all are still there when we show up!
Great photos and a wonderful place to spend the holiday. Happy holidays to you both and a blessed 2015. 🙂
Happy holidays to you guys too…
We will be headed to that same place in just a few weeks. I hope we get those beautiful sunsets while we are visiting! Happy holidays and thank you for all of the great resources you shared this year.
We’ll try to save some sunset magic for you 🙂
Those sunsets are fabulous! Nina runs into a cowboy in a laundromat a few years ago, and we all end up with spectacular scenes to look at on our iPads, as a result! Thank you guys!
And the lesson learned here is… we should send Nina to the laundromat more often to pick up even more great tips 😀
LOVE the “pack” shot. It turned out great!
Nina
Shadow pics are always so much fun! I know Polly will be happy to have her whole pack back soon too.
Looks like a totally amazing place! Have super great holidays with your fellow wanderers!
This is definitely more our style of ‘resort’. 🙂 Happy holidays to you and yours as well.
I thought you guys were there last year with fire spinners? Hmmmm, the blogosphere is starting to blur 🙂 The skies of AB are some of the most spectacular, and you really captured some great shots! That pic of the rigs in front of the mountain range is wonderful (feel small much?). The new theatre is very cool – campfire popcorn is the very best 🙂 Enjoy your holidays in the neighborhood.
Ah… think you’re confusing me with the lovely Charon (www.oddangel.com). They were part of the NuRVers meet up at Anza-Borrego this time last year. We were over in Cedar Key, FL part of another large convergence. Yup, sometimes if we didn’t wear name tags, we’d forget who we are too (oops.. forgot mine, who I am I again?). So many amazing folks on the road and sharing about it.
What a beautiful location! We haven’t tried our hand at boondocking yet but here’s hoping we get to take a crack at it in 2015! 🙂
Cheers to many future adventures, wherever they may be!
Ah nuts. If only we’d have known you were out there. We just spent 5 nights in Borrego Springs (at The Springs At Borrego RV Park) and arrived here in Yuma yesterday. We would have been out there boondocking with you guys, but our batteries are shot, which is why we are here in Yuma. We’re here at Starlight Solar to have 500AH of Lithium batteries (and a new hybrid inverter) added to our coach.
Which direction are you headed next?
— jc&bev
Bummer we just missed you guys! Hope you had a great stay in the area.
Best wishes with the lithium install, let us know how it goes!
We should be heading into Arizona for January & February, and generally roaming around exploring. No specific plans as of yet.
Color me green with envy!
Not a lot of green out here.. but it sure is gorgeous. 🙂
You gotta love the freedom that your new solar systems allows, along with the boondocking boondocking opportunities! Looks like a beautiful site and gorgeous sunsets.
It feels so good to have even more options again in where we can stay… loving being back to solar powered!
I just came here from the Wheelingit site, lol! You have some gorgeous photos too. So easy to appreciate them, thanks for sharing them.
To the both of you, Merry Christmas! You seem to be in an amazing spot for a peaceful holiday season.
Enjoy! 🙂
We are indeed blessed with an amazing location and excellent neighbors. Thanks for stopping over and leaving behind a little joy.. we always so love that!