I left Veterans Park, 4363’ elevation , head up the west side of the continental divide and down the east side on route to Monahans TX elevation. 2729’ Funny to think of it that way.
I arrived at the Sandhills State Park just before the Park Office closed for the day at 1630. Ranger Phil checked me in and said he was a AK (procures, receives and issues supplies, materials, parts and equipment for Navy Aviation) in the Navy for 5 years. We swapped a couple sea stories and he gave me a free park sticker. It was free because the S is missing from Monahans, so they can't sale it. As he was locking up, he told me about the Geocache in the park. As soon as I found my space and parked, I took off on the Jaguarundi 🚲 in search of the cache which ended up a 1000' walk up and down the sand hills, like a beach! I continued to ride just outside the park to find another one. I had to wait for the office to open up in the morning to get the answers for the Earth Cache.
I got back to the van and got set up. I have been using traction boards to level up the van. I cooked dinner and watch the Padres game. The day use area had groups of kids using saucers to slide down the sand dunes. I had fun watching them as the sun set. My space pointed north, so in the morning I had a good view the sunrise. I stopped at the park office on my way out to get the answers to the Earth Cache. Talked Geocaching with the Rangers and got on the road heading east.
I found this place on 12/23/24 on my way home from Alabama. There is a cache in the tank at the entrance. Easy access just pull into the end spot with table canopy and grill. Flat hard packed dirt/ gravel very level. Only two other campers here. There are no amenities, I did see a water spigot but it might be for irrigation. I took off for a walk in the open fields across the street. More campers arrived later when I was cooking my dinner, but the place was far from crowded. Nice peaceful over night. Veteran's Park photos
052925 I had a notion to travel every summer to get out of the heat in Sun City May - Sept. In May I spent 22 nights in the GeoVan, Today, I am starting a trip to find a cache in all U.S. 50 states,
I have 13 left: 1 South Carolina, 2 North Carolina, 3 West Virginia, 4 Kentucky, 5 Ohio,6 Indiana, 7 Michigan, 8 Massachusetts, 9 Connecticut, 10 Rhode Island, 11 Vermont, 12 New Hampshire, 13 Maine. My plan puts me in Maine on 6/15/25 and between Michigan and Connecticut, I'll visit the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Once I get to Maine, I am pretty sure I will visit Canadian Provence's: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edwards Island, Quebec and Ontario. I will see how I feel once I get to the Ottawa area, continue across Canada or back into Michigan and take route 66 towards home. Here is the link to my google map
After playing baseball, a little geocaching and a long game of Battleship with Sawyer, I decided just to stay there. Now I could have stayed in the house, but this was my first time camping on the street. Lisa also had me scared telling me how her truck was stolen ( I hope you get it back in good shape). I had an uneventful nights stay. Everybody had school or work in the morning so I took off to Lake Murray for a nice walk, after topping off my water tank ( thanks you very much). The Osprey was at their perch
I enjoyed my stay at this small park. At first I was taken back with the noise and the number of people nearby, but soon I found it was nice to have neighbors and hear them having such a great time. Most of all I enjoyed getting picked up and having a great time with Riley (and her parents).
Visiting the area to attend my Granddaughter's 8th birthday party. The sites are pretty close together and there is a trail going through the center of the park, connecting the sites, so you can expect frequent food traffic through the sites. This would make a good Boy or Girl Scout campout. Most of the campers were tenting but there was a few other small vans, truck campers and class C. Plenty of nature, but not a place to get away from the hustle bustle. What I liked most was the easy in and out while I went visiting. The gate is kept open, even though they may look closed after 8pm. If you have to go through late, use the exit gate.
I did take time to walk the lake and the numerous trails. This is a popular area on the weekends and the campground is only open Friday and Saturday nights. The restrooms were kept clean and the showers worked great.
Arriving right at 1400 on Tuesday May 13, cold and windy, I didn't need any directions finding the campground. There was one other camper and a group of tents down by the lake shore. The office was closed with a note to take to take my space and return in the morning. I parked, but did not set up. Instead I notices there was 2 new, well new to me, geocaches so I put on my warm coat and took a walk. Not much has changed with the lake,
soon I was walking by the bank where fishing with my kids, early 90's, they caught their limit and we had a nice fish fry. I remember I didn't fish because I was to busy taking fish off their lines and getting hooks back in the water, what a nice memory. Continuing around the east side of the island and across the bridge I proceeded to find the small hides. By the time I got back the westerly blow had eased to a moderate wind, so I re-parked and finished setting up. Dinner was grilled chicken salad.
The next morning I took off on the bike around the lake to check in at the tackle shop, complete an Adventure Lab and go after some more caches. Even though it was still cold and windy, the sun came out and turned out to be a beautiful morning. The Anglers I talked to said the trout were not biting, but they did get an occasional catfish. The clouds and wind returned in the afternoon, I hunkered down inside and took a nap.
Thursday morning I left the campground in the morning and parked on the south end of the lake. I rode up the jeep trails going after some more new hides. The last time I was in this area was March 2013 with Dan & Lisa we hiked up the Middle Peak trail. It still showed the devistation from the Cedar Fire, the largest of the 15 fires, began on October 25 2003 when a hiker lost in Cleveland National Forest sparked a fire in a desperate attempt to be rescued. In just 14 hours, what started as a relatively small blaze quickly swelled into a 28-mile-long conflagration, driven by the destructive power of the seasonal Santa Ana winds, and crossed into Cuyamaca Rancho State Park. Today there is much new growth, very green with spring flowers, parts of the trail are over grown. (https://www.americanforests.org/article/regrowing-a-forest/)
I stopped on the trail looking for a geocache and I heard this screeching. Looked all over for some kind of creature. Then when I was signing the log, I heard it again - like right in front of me. That’s when I saw the Bald Eagle. Stayed there for a long time, the Eagle giving me the eagle eye. Finally it took off to another tree top 🦅 N 32 59.192 W 116 34.229
050625 Badger Creek Dispersed Camping - Marble Canyon, Grand Canyon National Park. 36°46'35.2"N 111°39'33.0"W
I left the Flagstaff mountains, heading north towards Page AZ. My first stop was Valentine's Bridge at Tanner's Crossing, now called Cameron. Over a gorge of the Little Colorado on the edge of Navajo and Hopi country a sway-back, one-track suspension bridge was erected in 1911.
Continuing north on hwy 89 I headed to Horseshoe Bend. I have passed this so many times and never stopped. The parking lot was nearly full, cars, RV's and tour buses! $10 entrance fee just before the 2.4 kilometer round trip walk down to the viewing area. Even though I was turned off by the crowd, I enjoyed the walk and the views. Here is the Earth Cache Questions and my answers 1. Why did the Colorado River make this 270 degree horseshoe shape? The materials being eroded were softer than the point in middle, maybe more granite verses more porous sandstone. 2. What do you think horseshoe bend will look like 5 million years from now?All things equal, the river will go dry. But 5million years any number of geological events could take place. 3. How many millions of years did it take sand dunes to become petrified by the calcite, retaining their beautiful sloping dune shapes? 20 million or so <-- I googled this
4. The different colors, except for white, are caused by the presence of varying mixtures and amounts of what filling the pore space within the quartz sand comprising the Navajo Sandstone. Minerals that are impacted by the environment such as iron particles
5. Describe in your own words what you are seeing and experiencing as you visit Horseshoe Bend. Wow there was a lot of people but glad to see high interest. What I am thinking is this is a standard piece of science on a really large scale.
Next I headed back south to the Historic Navajo Bridge, which was the first bridge over the Colorado River for 600 miles. When the historic Navajo Bridge opened on January 12, 1929, Flagstaff's newspaper, the Coconino Sun, called it "the biggest news in southwest history." (https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC8209_historic-navajo-bridge)
I took a nice stroll across the bridge enjoying the views. I really like visiting historic bridges and taking photos of the engineering.
Arch 616', Total length 834' Height 467'
Now that I have entered the Marble Canyon area, it's time to find a place to set up camp. I used a app call Campendium to find Badger Creek Dispersed Camping BLM (Bureau of Land Management) public land. This particular spot started with a rough entrance off hwy 89A, but the van handled it very well, but a few things fell off the shelf. I went in about a mile, well away from the fifth wheel I passed and pull off into a camp site - right into some loose sand.
With tires spinning I got popped back on the rocky road. So I got out and found some hard packed dirt, parked and got the Jagrundi out and peddled farther in to see how the road is. Although it the road had some ruts and exposed boulders, it looked passable. In fact the next occupied campsite was a low clearance minivan. But I kept riding all the way to
the canyon edge, 2 miles from the main road. The last campsite had room for a large group and it lies right on the canyon edge. That's when it started raining. By the time I got back to the van I was all wet. Reloaded the bike and waiting for the rain the stop. Pretty soon I made my way to a nice campsite a little farther in. It kept raining off and on. I could see the rain clouds coming in over the cliffs. I counted 4 other campers during my bike ride, but as sunset neared four more came up the road, 2 vans, a pickup and a 4runner.
There was plenty of room between campers.
The clouds stayed all night, so there was no star gazing.
I had a good meal and read my book.
The wind picked up so I took my awning down.
No rain in the morning and it was an easy 65°
I really wanted to stay another day, but I had a Van upgrade appointment the next day so I had to make my way home.
Before I left the area, I went on a long bike ride hunting a couple geocaches on another jeep trail that ended with a 450' drop to the Colorado river. After that I stopped at the Cliff Dwellers stone house for a Virtual Cache. After posting my log, I took off back the way I came and visited Lees Ferry, Glen Canyon, $30 entrance fee, this is where they start a lot of the river rafting. Beautiful cliff views and I visited the old dwellings of the Mormon settlers. I took my time, parked by the river and had some lunch. Eventually, I made my way back through the Navajo settlements, Flagstaff, Sedona and into the Phoenix valley, getting home about 1900. Arizona has such a diverse land scape reachable within hours. Desert, mountains, cliffs and cactus forests. Here is the link to my iCloud album for this trip: Badger Creek Dispersed camping
050525 Bonito Campground Coconino National Forest 35.369639, -111.540498
Got to use my "America the Beautiful" pass to visit the Bonito Lava Flow and sunset crater. After hiking the trails, in the rail, learning about how volcanos shape the land. It took a long time to answer all the questions for the Earth cache, no physical caches in a this area. I did proceeded to find a nice Geocache along the rode outside the park area. The ground in all loose volcanic sand.
The weather was still cloudy and rainy when I checked in at the Bonito Campground. Elevation 6926' There were about a dozen campers, but everyone seemed to stay in their rigs avoiding the rain. I didn't even set up my table and chair outside, no reason getting everything all wet.
Way off the beaten path, not very far from the state line, Lyman Lake sits half way between St. John and Springfield. The lake was low and muddy looking. I didn't anyone fishing and the only water activity were a brief paddle boarding.
The space I had had a real nice shade tree, up on the the hill with a good view of the lake. No geocaching on state parks, but I did get in some real nice hiking and rode Jagurandi along the beach.
I rode out to Rattlesnake Point Pueblo ruin, built between 1325 and1390, occupied by the ancestors of modern Pueblo Indian groups. The pueblo overlooked the Little Colorado River.
I really enjoyed seeing the Indian history and imagined how it would be to live as they did.
I only wanted a place for one night. I left home and did some geocaching in the area. This is a Harvest Host location. A membership program that is kind of like Airbnb, where the membership includes one night stay and they offer things to purchase. Farms, Wineries and just peoples property. The protocol is to purchase something.
I thought this was just a farm, but it turned out to be a long term RV park. They had electrical, water and sewage hook ups for additional $.
There was no "Wild West" at all. Just a office/store where you can buy convenience store items. I purchased electrical hook up $30. I was the only camper in the camper area, so it wasn't bad, but not really camping. Other Photos
I found a cool Letterbox cache and some other traditional caches before checking in.
I need to be home this week so I can put out my recycling and compost for pickup. But I did I booked a site at Lyman Lake State Park for Friday and Saturday 😎
Mogollon (MUGgy-own) Rim is a 200-mile long escarpment that marks the southern edge of the Colorado Plateau. This escarpment is between 100 and 2000 feet high and is a dominant geomorphological feature of the state of Arizona.(GCZ5FD). I heard out about this location by watching the Vancaskeys on Youtube. I was intrigued with their description of the views and only 120 miles from Phoenix it is. So I knew that the Van would make it but I didn't realize the elevation was over 7500 feet. The Rim Road is narrow, but well maintained with a lot of logging industry in evidence.
At 1330 It was raining a little when I turned off to look for a place to camp. I got out and walked to the edge of the ridge to take in the beautiful views. There were only two other campers, a 5th wheel by the entrance and off in the distance I could make out a 4x4 with a teardrop trailer, By the time I got parked and set up, the rain completely stopped and the sun shown through partly cloudy skies. Taking advantage of this wonderful weather, I jumped on Jaguarundi to go geocaching.
The first night was very peaceful and believe it or not I had good cell service, so I listen to the Padres game while I made a salad (forgot salad dressing 🙁) and heated up taco shop leftovers. The rest of the evening I sat outside and stargazed. The next morning I got up just in time to take down the Moon Shade before the ice cold wind took it down. Question, do you normally take down the shade at night? Probably a good idea I suppose.
The second day was filled with a combination of biking and hiking. The geocaches I found were traditional regular sized deep in the woods, the way it was ment to be. Later on I expected the icy wind 🌬to die down like it did the day before, but it never did and the temperature kept dropping. I found myself hunkering down inside the van. The Windy.com had the wind at 15-20 knots with gusts up to 30. Needless to say, I did not put the Moon Shade back up, and could not keep the camp stove lit outside. I had planned to make a fire, but it was just too windy. I am so glad I packed my thermal pajamas, thanks BRH.
The next day was like the second day, 45°F with wind chill 34°. After breakfast, I packed up to go do some road caching. After finding a couple I found myself back down the Rim road, so I just headed home.
Only about 2 1/2 hours west of Sun City, this is a popular weekend fishing spot and OHV sports. But during the week, there was very few OHV, most of the campers were there for the smallmouth bass. I took my time and arrived at about 1500. I reserved space B33 and started my setup. There was no service, but I remember reading that the reviewers showed cell coverage. I jumped on my ebike and rode around all the other camping areas. I saw wild Burros on my trip over to the C,D & E. I also discovered good 5G in Campground E, so I returned to the van, packed up and moved to E3.
I figured I would recheck in in the morning.
My new campsite was on the edge of the culvert where the wild Burros wandered down towards the lake shore. At night, I had an amazing view of the night sky and the full moon. In the morning, I headed out on the ebike and made my way to the office. The volunteers were very helpful, so I purchased a t-shirt and park stickers. I proceed to go after the remaining geocaches in the area, ending with a nice hike up above the lake. Did some more exploring on the bike.
The next morning I tried my luck at fishing, but I really was not into it. I kept thinking I hope I can release it if I catch one, because I really don’t want to deal with it. I ended up walking more than fishing, enjoying the cool wind off the water. After lunch, I rode around the park some more, then took a refreshing shower using the van rear faucet.
I stopped on the trail looking for a geocache and I heard this screeching. Looked all over for some kind of creature. Then when I was signing the log, I heard it again - like right in front of me. That’s when I saw the Bald Eagle. Stayed there for a long time, the Eagle giving me the eagle eye. Finally it took off to another tree top 🦅 N 32 59.192 W 116 34.229
