Trips – Small Wanders

28 Apr – 02 May 2024: Yosemite National Park

I was fortunate enough to be invited to Yosemite National Park by Gary Wellwood, a friend from the UCSD Photography Interest Group. He had a reservation for Lower Pines Campground for 4 nights and he was looking for another photographer to join him. Other than a couple nights in Anza-Borrego earlier this month, I have never taken our travel trailer on a solo adventure.
Yosemite in late April is a perfect time to visit. The weather is ideal and the place isn’t as crowded as during the summer. It did take an extra long time to get into the park because April 28th was the last “free National Park entry day”. Many people in the queue were turned back because they had not made an entry reservation. Although entry into the park for the past week was free, the weekends still required an entry time reservation. I had made one just in case I didn’t meet Gary before entering and his documentation didn’t get me in.

Lower Pines Campground is a great location in the shadow of Half Dome by the Merced River. Campsite 1 is at the entrance and has room for two vehicles. As it turned out, with the travel trailer, we took every foot of the small parking area. We managed to squeeze in without issue since Gary was car camping in a tent. I had Howie, our 20ft travel trailer.
This is dry-camping without hookups so I had to fill the fresh tank with ~10gals of fresh water. Electrical power was provided by a 1200w Anker battery pack I brought. I also brought a 500w Jackary power bank which Gary used to keep his camera charged. My Anker bank powered the Starlink, my coffee machine, and all my electronics and camera gear with no problem for the 5 days. Since our site was shaded, the solar panels did not keep the batteries topped off. But they were able to keep the fridge running and the beer cold.

06-08 Apr 2024: Anza-Borrego

by JamesApril 6, 2024July 30, 2024Anza-Borrego State Park / California / Campgrounds / State Parks / Trips

We’ve dry-camped in Anza-Borrego State Park a few times and had a great experience. But we’ve always been interested in finding a site in the full-hookup section of the park. Mainly to be able to run the AC during the hotter part of the season.
In late 2023, I was searching Joshua Tree and Anza-Borrego for a site for my grandson’s birthday in February. In February all sites in Joshua Tree and Anza-Borrego were fully booked. Not a big deal as it turns out as my grandson was going to be out of town on his birthday. But during that search, I got lucky and found three nights in the full-hookup area of Anza-Borrego Palm Canyon Campground for early April.

I thought with our rainy winter, there might be a good wildflower bloom this year. But by the first week of April it was already two or three weeks too late. March had a decent display of wildflowers according to the Anza-Borrego wildflowers web page. But by April, there were mainly later blooming Ocotillo and Cholla cacti. I did find some isolated blooms along Coyote Canyon but nothing in the usual areas.

In addition to photographing wildflowers, I wanted to practice dry-camping in preparation for my solo Yosemite RV trip at the end of April. We’ve dry-camped before but it had been awhile so I wanted to flush the freshwater tank, exercise the water pump, and check the health of the batteries. It’s good maintenance to use your water pump occasionally to keep it healthy and flushed. I need to remember that.
I also wanted to practice hooking up and towing on my own. I’ve always had my co-pilot Carol to help me, double-check everything, and navigate. Since I would be towing to Yosemite on my own for the 1st time, it was good to practice traveling solo.
I used the fresh water hookup to fill the fresh water tank and used the water pump for water. I also kept the electricity off for my solo stay but when Carol joined me Saturday night. I turned on the electricity for her visit so we’d wouldn’t have to worry about conserving.

On Sunday, we took a drive through Fish Creek Wash and Sandstone Canyon in our sister & brother-in-law’s Jeep. It was a fun adventure that they’ve done before so we got to join them this time.

Coincidentally, Monday April 8th was the date of the total solar eclipse. Since I couldn’t make it to an area of totality. I thought I’d be fun to at least photograph the 50%. I bought solar eclipse viewing glasses and a filter for my camera. Here is a composite of the eclipse from an Anza-Borrego location – great clear skies.

11-16 Mar 2024: Camp Verde/Verde Ranch RV Resort

by JRWilkinsonMarch 11, 2024July 21, 2024Arizona / RV Parks / Travel / Trips

When we take our travel trailer to Padres Spring Training, we like to extend our time away to explore Arizona or Utah. Last year, the late snow season around Flagstaff diverted us south to Tucson, instead to Page and Monument Valley. This time we headed north but did not travel as far & stayed at a lower elevation. We didn’t have as much time to travel & Camp Verde is 1.5hrs north of Phoenix. A very short travel day, and great when you only have a few days.
There are only a few RV parks in Sedona and they are usually fully booked & expensive. So we reserved a spot 25mi south at Camp Verde at Verde Ranch RV Resort. We figured it was a short drive north to the Sedona area. Plus we could explore other places like Montezuma’s Castle along highways 17, 169 or 260.

Unfortunately, the rainy weather we had the first game in Phoenix, as still hanging around. So the five days we had in the area to hike & explore were often affected by rain.

Verde Ranch RV Resort is a CRR “Lifestyle” destination – associated with the River Sands RV Resort we’ve stayed at in Ehrenberg AZ. Like River Sands, this resort is fairly new, opening in August 2019. It has plenty of spaces, amenities, and activities. There are even covered spaces at the top of the hill with great views. One of these sites would be great during the heat of summer. But in March, our RV site at the bottom of the hill was fine. The Verde River runs through the northeast border of the resort and is a nice hike.

07-16 Mar 2024: Arizona/Baseball Spring Training

by JRWilkinsonMarch 7, 2024July 21, 2024Arizona / Baseball / RV Parks / Trips

So far, we’ve stayed close to home most of 2024, with only a few short trips. Caring for our grandson has been a priority and we haven’t felt the ‘call of the road’. One trip early this year, was to San Diego Padres Spring Training in March. Our son, daughter-in-law, & grandson were going to Spring Training plus take a few more days to visit family in Arizona. So we had a long weekend for Padres Spring Training, then time to explore Camp Verde, Prescott & Sedona.
This trip, we got a later start Thursday so instead of stopping at Ehrenberg, AZ. We stopped for the night at Lake Tamarisk Desert Resort in Desert Center, CA. It’s an interesting place – a well kept retirement (55+) community on a man-made lake & golf course. They have a few affordable, full-hookup spots available and their location. Being just east of Coachella, it was the perfect ‘day 1’ driving distance from Oceanside. The ‘town’ of Desert Center isn’t much, mainly abandoned buildings on Highway 10. It has an interesting history but is long past it’s heyday. Only the US Post Office building near the freeway off-ramp, and a few mobile/RV communities are well kept.

After the quick overnight stop, we drove 3hrs more to Phoenix Metro RV Park. We were lucky to get 3 weekend nights here during Spring Training. Spaces in Phoenix around Peoria are hard to come by but we got lucky.

08 – 10 March 2024 – San Diego Padres Spring Training

24 Nov 2023: Havasu Island Bike Trail

by JamesNovember 24, 2023February 19, 2024Arizona / Day Trips / E-Biking / Sightseeing / Trips

The majority of the trails around Lake Havasu are for mountain biking or quads. There is a commuter bike path that parallels the highway and takes you into town. But we wanted to a more scenic bike ride, away from traffic so we picked the Havasu Island Trail. It’s a popular ~3.5mi walking and biking trail that circles the island.

The pavement is riddled with cracks so most of the bike ride was pretty rough & bumpy. Our Zizzo folding bikes do not have suspension so we appreciated the smoother areas near the residential sections. There are dozens of lighthouses along Lake Havasu. They are 28 scaled down replicas of well-known US lighthouses from all over the country. All of the lighthouses on the west side of Lake Havasu are replicas of famous West Coast lighthouses. The East Coast replicas are on the east side. The lighthouses around the island are replicas of lighthouses from the Great Lakes.
We stopped at the Mudshark Brewery after our short bile ride. It is kind of out of the way but definately worth finding – beer, food, and the view were excellent. When we got back to the campground, we brought the pups back to the dog park. At Thanksgiving, they light-up the bridge ceremoniously – like the lighting of the Christmas Tree in Rockefeller Center, so a crowd started to build around Bridgewater Channel & the London Bridge shoreline.

22 Nov 2023: Lake Havasu City/Parker Dam

by JamesNovember 22, 2023February 18, 2024Arizona / Day Trips / Sightseeing / Trips

About 12mi north of Cattail Cove State Park is Lake Havasu City. It is a sprawling town spread around the eastern shore of the lake formed by the Colorado River & Parker Dam. The lake is definitely the main attraction of the area. There are many lake resort communities especially on the ‘Island’. Many of the businesses focus on lake users and tourists. This is a great place to winter.
We drove around to get our bearings, have lunch, and buy some groceries. As close as Lake Havasu is to Oceanside, we’ve never visited this part of Arizona.

The main landmark in Lake Havasu City, other than the beautiful lake, is the London Bridge. It spans the Bridgewater Channel that connects the town with Lake Havasu Island. It’s a somewhat fascinating idea by developer Robert P McCollugh to add something unique to his lake development. Read the history on Wikipedia’s Lake Havasu City page here.

14, 16 Oct 2023: Alabama Hills Movie Road

by JamesOctober 16, 2023July 29, 2024California / Central California / Day Trips / Sightseeing / Trips

The Alabama Hills &/or Mt Whitney are why you visit Lone Pine. Many highway 395 travelers stop here for lunch as they head to Bishop, Mammoth Lakes, or Lake Tahoe. But Lone Pine has a lot to offer, mainly hiking/climbing Mt Whitney, the highest mountain in the contiguous United States, and the Alabama Hills Movie Road & arches.
The Alabama Hills is renown as a movie filming location particularly for westerns. So much of it’s history is from the heyday of movie and TV westerns. Movies or shows starring Roy Rogers, John Wayne, the Lone Ranger, Gene Autry; movies such as Gunga Din, Star Wars, Tremors, Gladiator, Ironman, Django Unchained were all shot here. It’s close proximity to Los Angeles and unique topography and open rugged spaces. Make it a great spot to make movies or TV shows. There’s even a Museum of Western Film History in Lone Pine that’s worth a visit, admission is only a $5 donation.

The landscape of the Alabama Hills reminds me of Joshua Tree National Park. Driving, biking, or hiking Movie Road is the main route through the many unique aggregations of boulders, movie locations, and arches. It’s dry, dusty, and often hot – definitely a Spring or Fall destination even though at an elevation over 4000ft.
You can spend a few to several days hiking to all the arches and movie locations. All the arch and movie location trails are short, level, easy hikes. Some movie sets have plaques describing the film or show shot on the location. The hike to one of the best arches, Mobius Arch, is short, easy with very few people in October. I got up before sunrise to take photos of Mobius Arch at sunrise and I was by myself. The sunrise hitting the Eastern Sierras and Mt Whitney makes for a wonderful background.

We visited the Alabama Hills over a few days, hiking to the different arches and movie locations. We paced ourselves, only doing a few hikes each day. You can see most of the arches in one day but we were in no rush. Our RV park was only a few miles from the Movie Road and Mt Whitney Portal. So our only long drive was to Bishop & the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest.

Various Alltrails Trail Maps of Movie Road Loop & the Arches

We drove to the trailheads since it was pretty hot mid-day/mid-afternoon. Having maps of the arches or movie set locations is a good idea since many sites are not clearly marked. If you are driving the Movie Road, they are pretty hard to miss since they have parking areas. But having a map will help you figure out which stop you are at & there are many.

14-19 Oct 2024: Lone Pine, CA

by JamesOctober 14, 2023July 28, 2024California / Central California / RVing / Trips

Lone Pine is a small town on Highway 395 in the Owens Valley. Lone Pine has a few stores and restaurants and is mainly a portal to Mt McKinley & the Alabama Hills. Travelers often stop here on their way to Bishop, Mammoth Lakes and Lake Tahoe. There aren’t many RV parks in this area but there’s plenty of BLM campgrounds. Boulder Creek RV Resort, south of town, is the only RV park with full hookups in this area.
The years of drought in California, particularly the Eastern Sierra, made Owens Lake a small wetlands. But with the unusually large amount of snow pack melt & rain in winter & spring 2023, Owens Lake had returned to a lake. By October, the warm summer had reduced the size of the lake. But much of the lake and wetlands around the Owens Lake West Delta Birding Area were still prevalent.

After hiking the Alabama Hills Movie Road, we stopped at the Alabama Hills Cafe. It has a well-served 4.5 star rating in Yelp. But they close early at 3pm and all day Wednesdays so they are great for breakfast or lunch.
After hiking Lone Pine Lake Trail, part of the Mt Whitney Trail, it was after 3pm. So we tried the Mt Whitney Restaurant which claims “the best burgers in town”. The Mt Whitney restaurant has a classic decor with lots of history & memorabilia similar to the Film History Museum.

11-13 Aug 2023: Joshua Tree/Perseid Meteor Shower

by JamesAugust 11, 2023April 16, 2024California / Campgrounds / Day Trips / Hikes / Joshua Tree National Park / National Parks / RV Parks / Sightseeing / Southern California / Trips

I saw a post about the 2023 Perseid Meteor Shower on Instagram. One of the best places to see this event in California is Joshua Tree National Park, a dark-sky area. But Joshua Tree is 105°F during the day in August. Regardless, all available campsites at Joshua Tree National Park were booked.
Our last trip to Joshua Tree was the same way, so we stayed at TwentyNine Palms RV Resort. It’s located 3mi from the north entrance and usually has available sites with full hookups. Until we install or buy a RV with 12v A/C, we prefer to stay at a place with electrical hookups when it’s that hot. We do not want to run a gas/propane generator for hours to stay cool.
Since we arrived before sunset on Friday Aug 11th, we drove into Joshua Tree to find a location to photograph the Milky Way. The Perseid Meteor Shower was already happening but peak viewing was Saturday, the next night. I wanted to photograph the Milky Way with Joshua Trees. So we stopped at Cap Rock and I found a Joshua tree foreground for my Milky Way photo along the southern trail.
On our way out, we stopped at Skull Rock to watch shooting stars for an hour before heading to the RV. Since Saturday night was forecast to be peak viewing of the meteor shower. I focused on getting a Milky Way+Joshua Tree photo Friday night. Saturday, I’d spend photographing shooting stars with a star tracker.

As we were leaving Joshua Tree NP Friday night, we noticed many people had chairs & recliners that made star gazing more comfortable. So Saturday, our mission was to find two zero gravity recliners in Yucca Valley. We found the last two on clearance at Home Depot. Tip: definitely invest in zero gravity recliners if you plan on spending any serious time star gazing.
Saturday, I wanted to do a hike before we setup for the meteor shower viewing. The temperature that evening was cool enough to hike the Heart Rock and Arch Rock Trail before it got dark. Turns out the area around the Arch Rock Trail parking lot would work for meteor shower viewing. Especially since we were lucky enough to grab one of the last parking spots. The lot was full and people were already setting up for meteor viewing when we arrived before sunset. Little did we know how CRAZY crowded Joshua Tree National Park would be tonight.

We saw an amazing display of shooting stars but not the hundred per hour predicted. I set up my Move Shoot Move star tracker and shot 2 minute exposures of the northeast sky and straight-up. After 3 hours of exposures from 2200-0100, ~90 frames, I was disappointed that the many shooting stars we saw were not in frame. This was my first try at star-tracked astrophotography and I was successful at polar alignment & tracking the stars. But successful astrophotography images are the result of practice & patience and I definitely need more of both. I didn’t want to interrupt the interval to check for successful capturing of what we were seeing. I thought the 14mm focal length was wide enough to catch the meteor trails.
We packed it in a little after 0100, after 3 hours of star-gazing. Our RV park is still in the dark area so if the meteor shower improved at 0200. We could still watch from outside our RV. As we left the park, the line of cars to get in stretched the 3mi to the main road. Crazy that hundreds of people were just arriving at 0100.
Regardless, we had a great time and were glad we got there early – the zero gravity recliners were a wonderful, comfortable way to star gaze. We’ll definitely make it a point to visit Joshua Tree at night often.

We packed up and departed 29Palms at 11am. Unfortunately, all the other thousands of people who came to Joshua Tree for the meteor shower were also heading West at that time. It took a few extra hours to get home because of the traffic.

03-05 Aug 2023: San Diego Urban Camping

by JamesAugust 3, 2023April 16, 2024California / Campgrounds / RV Parks / RVing / Southern California / Trips

It’s been increasing difficult to find a spur-of-the-moment RV site this year, especially affordable ones. Our weekday schedule has been busy and campgrounds on the weekend are all booked. So we felt lucky to find a few days at San Diego Metro KOA to take the grand-kids for a few nights of ‘urban RV camping’. This San Diego KOA is close to most of San Diego’s sights like Sea World and the San Diego Zoo but we were able to find plenty to do at the KOA.

They offer a nice list of daily activities for kids and families plus they have a great swimming pool. It’s large and mostly shallow so the kiddos spent a lot of time in the water. August was warm so cooling off in the pool was a great way to spend the day. The RV sites are also nicely shaded by trees so we did not need to run the A/C all the time. But these trees continually drop leaves and seed pods on Howie so I needed to sweep the roof before we left.
The KOA has special events celebrating holidays & special times of the year, such as Fall Festivals, and Halloween. But there’s always something going on Monday-Saturday during the summer, like Movies under the Stars. Some activities were not operational – the Rock Climbing Wall or Surf Shack Shootout were closed while we were there. So refer to the activities calendar when you arrive to not miss something.
Some of the activities that kept us busy:

Swimming pool – the kiddos can spend hours at the pool and the KOA had a Mermaid/Pirate-hosted pool party Saturday morning.
Barrel Train – throughout the morning & early afternoon, there is a barrel train that takes kids and adults around the perimeter of the resort for a fun, free five-minute ride.
Jumping pillows – the large jumping pillow get hot during mid-day but morning and evening bouncing is great fun and will expend loads of energy.
Bicycle rentals – if you didn’t bring bikes or want to try some fun bikes that you don’t have at home! They rent 3-wheel Fun Cycles, 4-wheel Peddle Carts, and 2-6 Person Surrey Bikes. Hour or half hour rentals.
Cotton Candy or Shaved Ice – these activities have a small fee but are a special treat!
Bike/Scooter Decorating – add streamers and balloon to your favorite mode of transportation
Scavenger Hunt – follow the clue sheet to find different locations & fun facts around the resort, take a selfie when you get there, and be awarded a free craft coupon.