Our first full calendar year of full-time RVing is coming to a close. The summer differed quite a bit from our plan, but we learned a lot.

Our travels in the early part of the year aligned with our plan. From Tombstone we went to Paria River Ranch, spending one night in Catalina State Park and one night at Bumblebee Ranch in transit. We stayed in Paria for two and a half weeks, and rode among the sandstone and through slot canyons.

From Paria we traveled West, just past Zion National Park, to Legacy Park for 9 days. There was some local cragging, and great weather for it. While climbing we met a family, who has also been living on the road, and played disc golf with them. I also met two brothers flying their radio-controlled airplanes at the fairgrounds.

Our friends Luke and Maria visited, and we hiked to Angel’s Landing together. We relocated to the east side of Zion so Jess could participate in the Mt Carmel XP endurance ride, and I climbed with Luke in Zion.

Unfortunately we had to skip Bryce Canyon this year. Outside horses were disallowed to reduce the spread of disease. Instead, we proceeded to Moab, and stayed at Ken’s Lake for 2 weeks. Pros: we visited both Canyonlands and Arches National Parks, climbed along Potash Road, and made friends with Randy (a former triathlete who competed with Lance Armstrong, and now lives with his cats in a motor-home full-time). Cons: an annual ATV event coincided with our visit, so it was busier and louder than usual.

We had a reservation at Broken Arrow in South Dakota, so I drove Rubble there from Moab while Jess stayed with the horses. Towing the rig over Loveland pass took every ounce of torque Betty could muster. I made the 1,500 mile trip in 3 days. Over the weekend we moved the horses from eastern Utah to western South Dakota. We tent camped with the horses for one night near Grand Junction, and another in Broomfield, Colorado. At least we had a chance to visit with our friend Jess. The day after we got ourselves situated at Broken Arrow a blizzard dumped over a foot of snow on us.

South Dakota provided plenty of riding and climbing, so we stayed for almost 3 weeks. Favorites were Black Elk Peak (the highest point in the state) and Sylvan Lake, respectively.

We would spend the next month and a half in Wyoming. First at Sundance Horse Camp (we would have climbed Devil’s Tower if not for the voluntary climbing closure in June), then Ten Sleep, then Turpin Meadows (just east of the Tetons and south of Yellowstone). In order to spend this long in Wyoming we decided to significantly alter our route for the rest of the year and head south earlier. We shelved Bozeman and Smith Rock, and added City of Rocks and Tahoe. I found Mountain View RV Park in Arco, Idaho and negotiated use of a neighboring field as a horse pasture. This would be our next stop.

We drove Boop and the horses south to Jackson Hole and west over Teton Pass. I returned for Rubble and opted for a northern route out the west entrance of Yellowstone National Park. This added 70 miles (30%) to the trip, but the grade was much more gradual (protip: Google Maps bicycle navigation will show you the elevation profile).

During our stay in Arco we witnessed a wildfire claim 113,000 acres. Luckily, nobody lives in Idaho.

Jess wanted to ride in the Top of the World Pioneer endurance race, so I dropped her off in Spencer, ID with the horses. I moved Rubble south to McClendon Springs, spent the night, then returned to pick Jess up. We then all relocated to Smoky Mountain Campground in Castle Rocks State Park, near the entrance to City of Rocks.

Our next destination was Lake Tahoe, so we used the Humboldt County Fairgrounds as an intermediate. From Almo, ID to Winnemucca, NV it was a 380 mile trip by highways only, and only 300 miles using Google’s “shortcut”, which included 15 miles on dirt roads (some of them washboards).

Boondocking in Blue Lakes, south of Lake Tahoe, was our first extended period living completely off the grid. I will write a separate post with more details about how that works. The areas near Blue Lakes were pretty crowded, so after a week we moved about 1 mile away as the crow flies (about 8 miles away by car) to Red Lakes. We were able to ride out from camp onto sections of the Pacific Crest Trail. We also met up with Lubica and Kendall, friends who had moved to Incline Village from New Jersey a few years ago, and climbed.

The next commitment in our schedule was the Eastern High Sierra Classic endurance ride near Bridgeport, so we headed south with the horses and slept in our tent. I scoped out a few potential boondocking sites in the area, but in the end we decided to continue further south toward Mammoth Lakes.

We stayed in the Inyo National Forest for the entire month of September, leaving only when it got too cold. We took day-trips into Tuolumne Meadows, Owens River Gorge, and Pine Creek Canyon for climbing and hiking, and spent a weekend at Agnew Meadows riding horses in the High Sierras with Lynn and Laurie. I even drove into Yosemite Valley when Joe and Luke flew from New Jersey out to climb Lurking Fear (one of the routes up El Capitan) to help them haul gear to the base. After their successful ascent and descent they visited us and experienced the first snow of the season. My parents even visited us as part of their pilgrimage to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. They were good sports about sleeping on our pull-out couch and quickly adapted to life in the boonies. Mom really enjoyed helping Jess collect drinking water from a nearby spring.

All good things must come to an end; it’s hard to stay at an altitude of 7,000 feet as “winter is closing in”. We descended about 3,000 feet to Alabama Hills and found a boondocking site with good mobile signal and no neighbors. We lingered for a few weeks, climbing and riding, but Jess was entered to ride at the American Endurance Riding Conference National Championships (held at the Desert Empire rodeo grounds in Ridgecrest, CA).

We had 3 weeks to kill between the AERC National Championships and our reservation at Black Rock Horse Camp in Joshua Tree, so Jess signed up for the Sesenta Años XP Ride (in Santa Ynez). However, we struggled to find a place to stay in the interim.

I brought Rubble to TV Tower Road in San Luis Obispo. It’s a one-lane dirt road that winds its way up the mountain. Making it past the hairpin turn was difficult, but I managed. The campsite itself was on an exposed bluff, and thus not suitable for horses. We spent one night there, rode the horses on the beach at Morro Bay, and then scouted a better camping situation. The horse camp in the Los Padres National Forest (Sage Hill) was partially washed out due to a flash flood and has no mobile coverage. Additionally, we were told no dispersed camping is allowed in Santa Barbara County. We explored BLM land in the vicinity, but it was a struggle to get there with the horses, and would have been impossible with the camper. We fell into despair. Finally Jess’s friend Lucy, the rider from Tevis, came to the rescue and hooked us up with her brother-in-law in Atascadero. We camped in his yard for a week before moving on to compete in the endurance ride.

After Santa Ynez we traveled east to Hesperia Lake Park. We were there almost a week, then made the short trip ESE to Joshua Tree National Park. Our friends Keith and Gabi flew into Las Vegas, where Jess picked them up. We climbed, rode, and tried to keep warm as we got slammed by another unexpected snowstorm. On Thanksgiving Day we “escaped” the weather by driving down to Palm Springs to try an Escape Room. It was themed as a bank heist, and Gabi channeled Catherine Zeta-Jones from Entrapment to bypass the laser security system. On the following weekend, more friends (Lubica and Kendall from Lake Tahoe, and Victor and Jess from LA) came out to climb with us in Indian Cove.

After our friends left, we once again sought lower elevation at Lake Cahuilla in La Quinta. Unfortunately, there is a firing range nearby, which bothered the horses, so we moved on after just 2 nights. That brings us to our current accommodations, which is a vacant lot in Brawley owned by a friend of a friend.

The daily highs are typically in the 60s, and overnight lows are above freezing. We’ve moved our house almost 6,000 miles in the past year, so perhaps we’ll stay put for a little while.

Through the ups and downs (sometimes literal) we are always grateful for friends, old and new.