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First Visit To Quartzsite

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Jan 052011

I had a bit of time to kill today so figured I drive around Q to try and get a feel for the area. First up was to drive north of town on Highway 95. First stop was the Hi Jolly BLM camping area. This is another area where there is 14 days of free camping. It's boondocking at it's finest as it is with the other BLM camping areas. Hi Jolly was already pretty pretty busy but this area is fairly small and is only a couple miles out of Quartzsite so it attracts a lot of people. See the pictures of Hi Jolly below.

Arrived in Quartzsite Arizona

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Jan 042011

I arrived in Quartzsite today about 2pm. It was an easy 3 hour drive from Usery Mountain, the roads where good and the traffic was light. The only problem I had today was getting my slide closed. When I hit the close button it would only close an inch or so. But I knew what the problem was.

There is a nylon ramp that the slide rides up on when it closes. The screw holes holding the nylon piece in place are wallowed out letting it slip a bit out of position. If I extend the slide all the way out, the edge of the slide hits the bottom of the nylon ramp instead of riding on top of it. I never really fixed it because I just stop the slide an inch or so from fully extended so it would drop off the slide. I guess this time I extended it too far and it was hitting the bottom lip of the ramp.

Hiking The Merkle Trail

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Jan 022011

Started out a nice sunny day so decided to tackle the easy Merkle Trail that can be found within the Usery Mountain Regional Park outside Mesa, AZ. The Merkle Trail is a fairly flat 1.5 mile trail that goes around the small Merkle Mountain. It is a wide smooth dirt trail that is wheelchair accessible so is an easy hike. There is also a Vista Trail that leads to the top of the mountain that is a bit more difficult and is not wheelchair accessible.

The main parking lot is directly across from the trailhead that has restrooms and playground for those that would rather just sit and enjoy the sunshine. I just decided to enjoy the sun and warm weather while I took my time and snapped a few photos. Once I had made the 1.5 mile loop I started the climb up the Vista Trail to the top of Merkle Mountain. It is only a couple of hundred feet up and is a lot easier then the trail to Wind Cave. Once at the top there were great views of the park and Meza valley below.

You can find more photos in my Photo Gallery.

Wind Cave Trail

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Dec 312010

I got up this morning to a cloudy and cool day. After coffee and breakfast I decided to tackle the Wind Cave Trail that is in the Usery Mountain Regional Park just outside Mesa, AZ.. The trail is about 1.5 miles long and ends at the Wind Cave which is not much more then wind-carved hollow at the base of a high cliff. The trail starts out fairly easy with a wide sandy path. The further you get up the steeper it becomes was rocks and boulders you have to negotiate over and around.

Along the way there are a number of places to rest and look out over the park and downtown Phoenix. The guide says to allow 1.5 to 2 hours for the 3 mile round trip but it took me about 2.5 hours. I was in no hurry, stopped to take a number of pictures and just enjoyed the hike. This is the parks most popular trail and even with the cold temperatures I met dozens of other hikers along the trail.

Once you get to the Wind Caves you can go another .8 of a mile to the summit of the mountain but I had enough by that time and decided not to go the last mile.While resting at the caves before my decent I heard some chirping. At first I thought it was one of the many ground squirrels I seen on the way up. But then there was this flash go by my head. Low and behold, it was a hummingbird flying around the few pieces of vegetation that hung from the ceiling of the cave. I tried to get a picture of it but it was too quick and the lighting too dark to get a good picture.

You can view more pictures from my hike in my Photo Gallery or follow my hike on My Spot Adventures.

Usery Mountain Regional Park

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Dec 302010

Yesterday I made it to Usery Mountain Regional Park. It is located just east of Mesa Az and north of Apache Junction AZ. By the time I got here it had already been raining about an hour and it continued to rain all night into the morning. Today the temps are in the 40's with 30MPH winds. So much for escaping to the warmth of the desert! They claim this is the "storm of the winter" and it is not usual. At least I am not back in NM where I was yesterday and the temps are dropping into the teens for the next few nights and they had 6" of snow.

I have signed up to stay 3 days but I believe I will extend my visit so I can let the weather warm up a bit and get out for some longer hikes. The park here is beautiful. This is what most people think of when you talk about the desert. Tall 20'+ high Saguaro Cactus dot the landscape with Barrel Cactus and Mesquite Trees. Each RV site is nicely laid out with a gravel pad, picnic table and fire ring. Water and electric is provided.

Taking It Easy In The Big Easy

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Mar 092010

I made it to Bayou Segnette State Park in Westwego, LA which is just across the Mississippi from New Orleans. The drive here was pretty decent except for the rain I had all the way. It wasn't heavy rain, just enough to use wipers. But that was enough to trash the outside of the trailer, it looks like I've never washed it.

The park is really nice. It has electric and water hookups and the sites are huge with 50 foot or more between sites. The bathrooms/showers are immaculate and they even have free laundry facilities. There is also WiFi but it sucks so I'm tethering my Blackberry. No pictures of the park today as it was raining too hard to go out and take some. I'll post a couple tomorrow. I have reservations for 3 nights but since it suppose to rain for the next 2 days I may just stay a couple extra days to "investigate" Bourbon Street.
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Mustang Island State Park

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Feb 202010

This morning I packed up and moved to Mustang Island State Park located just north of Port Aransas, Texas. It is only about 5 miles down the road from where I was so the move was easy. I didn't have to really pack things away as good as I would on a day I was going further so it only took about 15 minutes to get everything put away. I made reservations for 2 weeks earlier and I'm glad I did, they were full when I got there at 10am this morning

Mustang Island SP campground is located just over a small sand dune from the Gulf of Mexico. The RV campground area has 48 sites available with 15/30/50 amp electric and water. A dump station is close by. I'm not worried about dumping my tanks because I can go 2 weeks without dumping. The RV campground basically a packing lot with paved pads off the sides. Each site has a small gazebo, picnic table and charcoal grill. The sites aren't huge but there is plenty of room to put out your awning if you want and to extend your slides without feeling cramped. With the wind coming off the Gulf I doubt I'll be putting out my awning much. There is also building with bathrooms and showers that are restricted to camper use. WiFi is available at the park office but I am able to get it at my campsite with my external WiFi adapter. So far the connection has been good and fast. At $17 per day this campground has everything I need.

Checking Out Other Mustang Island Campgrounds

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Feb 162010

Didn't do a whole bunch today. Mainly just checked out some other campgrounds in the area to see where I may want to move to once my week is up here at Gulf Waters RV Resort.

Just down the road a couple of miles is Pioneer Beach Resort. They are mostly full but do have one space available for two weeks. I drove through and the RVs are packed tighter then sardines. They have a lot of activities, are located a short walk away from the beach and they have a lot of good reviews from others. Just not sure I'd like being that tight but it's always something to fall back on.

Port Aransas

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Feb 132010

This will be a two day update. I left Balmorhea State Park around 9:30am. It was cool and foggy but the fog wasn't bad enough to delay my start. A few miles after I got on I-10 there was a flashing sign warning of possible snow and ice. I had second thoughts but pressed on figuring I could always pull off for a few hours if it got bad. Never ran into any snow or ice, the fog cut visibility down to 1/4 mile so it really didn't effect highway speeds. A couple hours later the fog lifted and it was clear sailing.

I spent last night at the Top Of the Hill RV Park in Boerne, Texas. This is in the middle of Texas hill country and is a nice park that would be a good base for visiting the hill country. Since I already did the hill country on my way west, this was just an overnight stop for me. I got to park at the top of the hill and view from the camp sites is awesome. If I come back this way again I'll have use this park as a base for a few days.

It is only about a 4 hour drive from Boerne to the Gulf Coast so I wasn't worried about leaving early in the morning. I ended getting everything together and left around 10am. The drive went really smooth. Even San Antonio wasn't bad since it was a Saturday. Continue reading »

Balmorhea State Park

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Feb 112010

I got up early this morning to leave Alamogordo, NM and head to Corpus Christi, TX. A storm moved through last night and there was a chance of snow. When I looked out the window I seen nice blue skies and brown ground. Perfect! Snow was limited to elevations over 6,000 feet and Alamogordo is at 4,000 feet so we just got a bit of rain.

I got a couple of miles down the road and traffic was backed up. I looked down between the lanes and seen a helicopter in the road. There was an accident and they were evacuating someone. The delay was only about 10 minutes and I was on my way. The first part of the trip was south and once I hit El Paso I headed east. Continue reading »