Blog - Frugal RV Travel

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Boondocking Guides
  • Contact Us

Refreshed, Renewed, and Inspired

April 25, 2017 By frugalrvT! 3 Comments

We covered a lot of territory in the last 10 days, revisiting, reviewing and re-enjoying all the locations in my California Desert and Eastern Sierras boondocking guide. Here are some of the highlights:

Joshua Tree National Park

Joshual Tree National Park
Joshua Tree National Park
Joshua Tree rock climbing
Did some great hikes but, as always, the best fun is scrambling and climbing to the top of the rocks.
Rock Garden
Wish I could replicate this rock garden (created by nature) in my back yard at home

It was Easter weekend and the park was so busy that we couldn’t get a campsite. Not a problem –  we knew we could boondock south of the park. There were at least 30 or 40 other RVs there! By chance, we ended up camped beside this adventurous, fun family. We recognized their each other (especially, their cute little boy) from Escapade where they had signed up for a Boondockers Welcome membership and bought my guides.  We enjoyed our tour of their beautiful Airstream’s original vintage interior.

Boondocking south of Joshua Tree National Park
A family on a great adventure in a classic vintage Airstream.
Salvation Mountain
A brief stop at The Slabs to see if anything had changed

What’s new here? Salvation Mountain has a fresh coat of paint. And, if it’s possible, there may be even more garbage in The Slabs permanent residence area than before. (Not sure how one could tell.)  It made us comment that, as interesting as it is to visit this alternative-lifestyle community, there’s something to be said for communities having at least some, minimal level of rules and regulations!

Hot Springs LTVA
Our stop at the Hot Springs LTVA was brief. All  the snowbirds had  flown home.
Squaw Lake Campground
We really enjoyed our time at Squaw Lake campground! Great facilities on a very pretty lake.

Anza Borrego Desert State Park

Anza Borrega Boondocking in Blair Valley

We spent 3 nights, camped in two of our favorite boondocking sites at Anza Borrego Desert State Park: Blair Valley and Hawk Canyon.

Anza Borrega Desert State Park - Hawk Canyon boondocking

Jojoba Hills – our favorite California resort

And 3 nights at our favorite Escapees Resort, Jojoba Hills. We reunited with friends we’ve met here on previous visits, met new ones, spent a lot of time in the pools (it was a hot weekend),  attended social events, and played a bit of pickle ball.

Jojoba Hills Escapee RV resort
Our stop here is always a vacation within the trip.
A Buddhist retreat center.
Finally, we stopped to wander and wonder at this Buddhist retreat center.

The grounds seem to be quite overgrown and neglected but the statues (there are at least a dozen) and the bell are amazing. And huge!

Moving on now, refreshed, renewed, and inspired, we’re ready to make our way slowly north on what we feel is one of America’s most beautiful, scenic routes: Hwy 395.

RV Dreams Summit

Tune in to learn about all things RV

 I was interviewed recently as  a “boondocking expert” for the upcoming RV  Dreams Summit. There will be many amazing interviews with “experts” on various facets of RVing and you can catch them all for free on the scheduled dates.  I believe, my interview will air on day two of the event, if you’re interested.

Days in the road at time of posting: 45

Total camping costs to date: $45.50

 

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)

Related

Share on Facebook Share
Share on TwitterTweet
Share on Pinterest Share

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Comments

  1. Sunny Harvy says

    April 25, 2017 at 1:49 pm

    “Slow down, you move too fast, you’ve got to make the morning last.” Just remembered that song after reading your post. I know there are valid reasons for traveling fast, including HOT weather. 395 should be grand! We loved every mile of it…well almost. Glad to see you out there again and sharing your discoveries. Thank you (again)!

    Reply
    • frugalrvT! says

      April 26, 2017 at 7:44 pm

      You are so right, Sunny. We did rush through a couple of those stops and it was entirely because of the heat. If it wasn’t for the “work” part of this trip and wanting to have eyes-on at ever location in my guide, we would not have been going to them this late in the year. We’ve never been ones to spend more than a few days in a row before moving on but we’re getting better at it. I think we’re caught up now and, like you say, moving into territory appropriate to this time of year.

      Reply
  2. Monique Lacoste says

    April 27, 2017 at 12:12 am

    Hi, Marianne. I am Oljo from Montreal. We are on the road since April 12 and just realise we where at mountain palms campground in Anza Borrego.when we where in Joshua tree. You recommand this place in your books and we love it. We where there for easter time. Not far from you. We really enjoy kayaking at Prescott for 4 days as you also recommand. Thanks a lot for your books . It’s so helpfull.
    Monique

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

CAPTCHA
Refresh

*

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Recent Posts

  • Just Cruising Along when Suddenly Everything Changed
  • White Sand Beaches as Far as the Eye can See
  • RVillage Rally 2020 – A Bit of a Lovefest
  • Old and New Friends – All in New Places
  • Florida – what we came for

Archives

  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016

Categories

  • Arizona
  • Boondocking
  • California
  • Campground
  • Camping
  • Canada
  • Festival
  • Free Camping
  • Hiking
  • New Brunswick
  • Newfoundland
  • Nova Scotia
  • Ontario
  • Overnight RV Parking
  • Prince Edward Islan
  • Prince Edward Island
  • Quebec
  • Road Trip
  • RV – General
  • RV Travel Budget
  • RV Travels
  • Scenic Camping
  • Scenic Hike
  • Uncategorized
  • USA
  • Web Site and Blog

Older Blog Posts

Older Blog Posts
My older blog entries are hiding here.

Keep Updated

Subscribe to my RSS

Copyright © 2021 · Daily Dish Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in