We’re back from a two week trip to the Sequoia National Forest, which is in California’s Southern Sierra Nevada.
Our only goal was to leave the 120° F days in Palm Springs. Other than this, we had no plans, goals, or agenda. Sometimes doing almost nothing on a camping trip is the best kind of camping.
Just returned from Lake Mead a few days ago.
Over the past 23 years Joyce and I have spent more than 1,000 nights camping at Lake Mead, which is the largest reservoir, by capacity, in the United States. In addition, I have done numerous solo backpacking and bicycle trips in the area.
Much of Lake Mead is within the boundaries of the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, which is administered by the National Park Service. At just under 1.5 million acres, Lake Mead NRA has a plethora of outdoor recreational activities.
In recent years Lake Mead and its declining water level has frequently been in the news. Many people wonder how this winter’s record snowfall in the Western US has impacted the lake.
At the end of April, I shared pictures of the desert in bloom in this post. I also mentioned that the flowers in the higher elevations hadn’t reached their peak and that should happen in a couple of weeks. We had returned home because I had jury duty and we had some doctor appointments. Three weeks after that trip we left home to return to the Mojave Desert.
The Weber Baby Q grill has been a centerpiece of our camping trips for at least 20 years. At first the grill was stored in our camper. Inside storage left odors in the camper even if stored outside of the living space of the camper.
So for nearly 20 years it has been stored it in a plastic container. It is stored in our garage. Before each trip, it is moved to the camper. Even though the storage container was similar in size to the grill, it was kinda big and bulky.
It was finally time to search for a better option, an option that wasn’t available in the past.
Finally getting our lives back into normal mode. More about that later.
Southern California received an inordinate amount of rain the first three months of this year, which we desperately needed. Instead of being able to use my telescope every night at home, as in the past, I only had about 12 good nights for telescope use in the first quarter of 2023.
As many had hoped, some of our deserts experienced a wildflower super bloom. As the bloom reached its peak, the Coachella Music Festival opened. Along with the reported 250,000 fans that attended the festival, hordes of social media people descended upon our desert to take selfies and trample flowers.
Being rational people, Joyce and I left for the eastern Mojave Desert for a couple weeks of camping solitude.
This past weekend our travel trailer ran out of propane. But it wasn’t a surprise.
The national average is $4.90 per gallon for regular unleaded.
Will this stop us from camping this year? Why is gas so high?
No, we will continue camping.
Why gas is so expensive is a complicated matter, which I will delve into towards the end of this post.
As we do most years, we went camping over Thanksgiving. Eight days of camping. Our campground was in the Lake Mead National Recreational Area and close enough to travel to a family dinner on the holiday.
Continue reading 2021 Thanksgiving Camping Trip and a Milestone
Back in 2013 I wrote about finding remote campsites in this article, Boondocking.
My methodology hasn’t changed much. In this post I’ll share some of the tools I use and a few tips.
We had been home only two weeks from our 2-month trip. It was time for another camping trip because, well just because.
Most years we are camping on Halloween to avoid the little beggars and extortionists who knock on our door on October 31st. Last year, due to COVID there were none. This year we can’t go camping that weekend due to my son getting married that weekend.
So we headed to the high desert for a pre-Halloween trip.