Dan & Amy

Boondocking in Sedona

Forest Road 525

Sedona, AZ is one of the most beautiful areas in the west and late March is a perfect time to visit. We planned to stay on public land and therefore did not have a reservation anywhere. All our research pointed to Forest Road 525 as the place to go and, as one would imagine, everyone else learned the same thing. After driving 3 miles down a dirt road and finding all the obvious camping spots overflowing with RVs, we began to get a little nervous.

Tombstone, the Elks, and Harvest Hosts

While at Escapade, we decided to take advantage of an opportunity to join the Elks with an accelerated initiation. All we needed to do is show up at the Elks lodge in Willcox, AZ on Tuesday, March 27 at 5:30 pm for the initiation ceremony, pay the annual dues and we would be in. Dan was among 75 other individuals from Escapade that decided to join. That meant we had to find something to do from Friday until Tuesday evening.

Escapade and Amado

De Anza RV Resort

After leaving BLM land north of Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, we spent a couple days at De Anza RV Resort in Amado, AZ. Once again, we hooked up with Jim and Corinne and had the wonderful opportunity to meet Corinne’s dad, also named Jim. We even got to have dinner at his place one night.

Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument

Our final five days of boondocking before returning to the civilization that is an RV park was spent at Gunsight Wash BLM, just south of Why, AZ. Yes, the town’s name is Why and I don’t know why. Once again we seem to be tracing the footsteps of our friends, Jim and Corinne. We arrived here the day before they planned to leave. One big advantage of this was Jim driving Dan around in their Jeep to find a good site to setup for the 5 days. As a result, we have been staying in what is probably our best boondocking site yet.

Cibola National Wildlife Refuge

Hippee Hole BLM

We continue our boondocking adventures with 4 days just outside of the Cibola National Wildlife Refuge. The promise of this location is lots of migratory birds. Unfortunately, the majority of them have already started their trek north. Speaking with family in the northeast, these birds may regret departing so soon. This is another thing we need to adjust to – for migratory birds to show up in the north in late March they have to leave the south in early to mid February.