From Yuma to Storrie

Lots to cover in this blog for, once again, I’ve been slothful in updating it.  The only reason I can think of is because I do regular updates on Facebook for family and friends but not in as great of detail as I do here.  If you’re not on Facebook with me and you’ve been wondering about updates, I apologize and WILL try my best to do at the very least a monthly account of where we’re at and what we’re doing.  Here’s hoping!

That being said, I am going to offer up a condensed version of the past couple of months. Here goes; Once we left Yuma, we aimed our trusty Lazy Daze over to Painted Rock BLM near Gila Bend, AZ.  We didn’t really care for this campground as there wasn’t much in the way of area attractions. Cell service was good though!  We had stopped here for three nights so that I could get into a Walmart near Phoenix to get an eye exam and order some new eye glasses. We stayed three nights here and then headed south to Organ Pipe National Monument, eventually hooking up with our friends Will & Karen and their new Class A Motorhome. 

Will & Karen's New Coach. NICE!

Organ Pipe is a MUST SEE area.  It sits along the Arizona and Mexico border and is quite a sight with all of the Organ Cactus and Saguaro Cactus that thrive there.  The campground is nice, clean and has some very good views of the area.  While there we visited the border wall during a Ranger Led talk and a van tour drive to Ajo Mt. Loop which was very interesting and pretty.  We spent 6 nights at Organ Pipe!

We then headed back up north just a bit to a boondocking spot called Darby Wells just outside Ajo.  The weather was hot so we only stayed a few days even though we really enjoyed the site that we were parked at.  While there, we visited the small town of Ajo (Ah-hoe) during a food festival which gave me plenty of photo ops.  The alley art (paintings on the sides of buildings) was very good and a lot of fun to look at!

From there we drove back up near Phoenix to get my new pair of eyewear and then continued on up to Camp Verde, AZ.  We found a couple of fellow campers that we had met  at Quartzsite who were camping along Cherry Creek Road so we set up near them. Beyond our friends there were too many additional people for us so we only stayed one night, moving further out to Forest Service Road 525 between Cottonwood and Sedona. We found a nice remote and beautiful location with great views but the road was very dusty and we had some major allergy issues.

View from our site of of FSR 528

We stayed 13 days there… rent free of course… and then moved over to Thousand Trails just outside of Cottonwood.  We were fortunate to find a “by ourselves” kind of site and enjoyed the easy in and out access and accessibility to Cottonwood.  I managed to do some thrifting while there and came across 5 almost new Harley-Davidson button-up shirts that I flipped on Ebay for a hefty return. Gotta love that!

We also spent a nice day visiting Palatki Heritage Site.  Very peaceful and an interesting place to visit!

We also spent a day at the V bar V Ranch for a small event that they were having. It was fun to see the colorful costumes of the Native Americans, watching Flint Knappers and learning how to start a fire without matches, etc. Of course, the park itself was nice to roam around as well!

We left Thousand Trails and headed north, stopping at Canyon Motel & RV Park for one night so that we could dump our tanks and get a good clean out of the black tank.  From there, it was off to the Grand Canyon……

Just south of the entrance into the park, on the right side of the road, is Forest Service Road #688.  We found a GREAT location and could have easily found a handful of others.  It was a very pretty site, almost park-like with tall spruce trees all around.  We ended up spending 5 days exploring the Grand Canyon, taking a few hikes and plenty of photos.

Once tired of the Grand Canyon (even for being mid-April there were a lot of people there) we headed back east toward New Mexico. A long days drive (for us at 4-5 hours) ended at Bluewater Lake State Park.  We found a pull-thru electric site (#A) but later on discovered several dry camping spots we would have preferred. They were doing some serious new construction on offices and showers so those facilities were closed. We stayed 3 nights and moved on further east to Cochiti Lake Recreational Area just south of Santa Fe.

We stayed a couple of times last year at Cochiti and it seems to be one of our favorite places to camp. If you DO NOT have a National Parks Senior Pass, it can seem pricey at $20/night  to camp there as it is a Corp of Engineer facility, not a state park.  The lake actually has 2 campgrounds; the newer one is just Cochiti Lake Campground and the older one is called Tetilla (Teh-tee-ya) Campground.  We split our stay between the two and actually preferred the older, more remote location of Tetilla.  We stayed in site #17 and it was large, spacious and quiet. And even though the showers there were old, the water pressure was great and the "timed" duration   was a decent amount of time. Nice!

View from Tetilla Campground, Cochiti Lake

While camped at Cochiti, we made a day trip to Bandelier National Park and really enjoyed it. It was a pleasant day, not to crowded and the scenery was beautiful.

Well, that pretty much brings up to where we are now.  From Cochiti we made the short drive to Storrie Lake State Park near Las Vegas, NM to be first time Camp Hosts in just one section of the campground.  We’re committed to be the Camp Host at the River Campground within Storrie Lake for approximately two months.  That helps the park with much needed volunteers through Memorial Day, Father’s Day and Independence Day (4th of July).  We’ll be off to another location and new adventures around mid-July.

Hope you enjoyed this quick up date on where we’ve been and what we’ve seen!

Bud & Barbara, back in New Mexico.