AND SO IT BEGINS…

Hey everybody! It’s Brandon, back in the blog saddle to bring you another look into the Jeep life. By now you have probably asked yourself where this addiction to Jeeps comes from. This blog was created in order to chronicle our honeymoon adventure, not all this Jeep stuff. The origin of this addiction is a longer story than I had realized originally but I’ll sum it up quickly.

My first taste of driving was at roughly 10 years old when my family had a Jeep Cherokee Laredo. At the time, we lived in Dugway, Utah with plenty places to go play near home. We left the pavement, ran some dirt roads and I got to cut my first donut in the desert! Needless to say, I had a blast and couldn’t wait to drive legally. Fast forward a few years and you’d find me in central Texas. My family has 250 acres between Austin and Houston. My grandpa had stumbled upon a really cool old jeep and acquired it, much to my delight. That beauty was a 1968 CJ-5 with a Buick V-6 Dauntless edition engine and the appropriate amount of “patina” to call it a real Jeep. Crazy fast for a vehicle with manual steering and brakes! It wasn’t long before I had tested the strength of this Jeep. The mechanical math equation goes as follows: Jeep + teenager + 250 acres + swamp on property = blown transmission. I still regret killing that rig; it’s one of my favorite vehicles to date. Little did I know, that was not the end of my Jeeping.

When we decided to live a nomadic lifestyle it became clear we needed a tow vehicle. Jeep seemed to offer the best vehicle for the job. Jeeps are lightweight, equipped to flat tow, and, of course, four wheel drive. So I sold a big bad black diesel pickup and went home with a vehicle that didn’t even have a hitch. Even more embarrassing was having to return to the dealer in Jenny’s hatchback to retrieve the soft top because I didn’t have the cargo room. I was totally out of my element. All of a sudden a Mazda became the utility vehicle in our life. I was in a awkward place to say the least. Our Jeep has changed immensely since then, but here’s a look at it before I got my way with it.

I needed a way to learn more about my new car. I also knew there was plenty of off-road fun to be had in our area but didn’t know anyone in that mindset. I took to social media and found a Facebook group called Jeep Nation that was based in my area and fairly new to Facebook. This page showed me just how friendly and knowledgeable the Jeep community is. This page in particular was very well managed, and a corner of the internet that wasn’t full of trolls and negativity. All questions are good questions and the page focused on how to have fun on the local trail systems and give advice to those who asked. After some modifications to the Jeep and some time spent studying the local’s idea of fun, I wanted in! You can see that maiden voyage into the woods here.

Life is funny sometimes. One of the reasons we sold our house was to relocate near friends and family. Oddly enough, while planning to leave the state of Oregon, I gathered more friends through Jeep Nation in the final months than I had in the five years I’d been there. It was bittersweet. On one hand, we were going on a grand adventure but couldn’t believe we were leaving after meeting so many people through the the Jeep community. On the other hand, none of that would’ve even come to fruition if we hadn’t planned to leave and get into RV life. So now we will have a life of revisiting the beautiful state of Oregon that we called home for half a decade. Cool by me! I love reconnecting with my buddies!

So all these pre-game paragraphs are to help explain how drastically we changed our plans and ended up in Moab mere days before we had Thanksgiving with family back in Texas. It all started when a couple of Jeep Nation’s finest  members inquired about our whereabouts around that time. They knew damn well that we lived the RV lifestyle and roughly the route we were taking to get home. Luckily they asked if we would like to join them in the Moab area at the perfect time. They were celebrating an early Thanksgiving with their family in Moab and asked us to tag along. We hadn’t booked anything past the time they had in mind. It was a very easy decision. The Mecca of off-road play was a mere 220 miles from my current location, couple that with Jenny’s childhood love of Arches National Park, it was a no brainer, we were Moab bound! Continue reading “Fantastic Jeeps & Where to Find Them” →

Sedona is just a few hours north of Phoenix but looks dramatically different. The flat, tan desert of the south transitions to the deep red canyons of the north, making for fantastic views, excellent hiking, and even a few Jeep trails. Brandon remembers visiting this area when he was a kid and wanted to show me that Arizona is not entirely flat and tan.

We stayed at a Thousand Trails campground in the nearby town of Cottonwood, which was a great starting point for visiting the area. Cottonwood was quiet and peaceful (not nearly the tourist draw of Sedona) but was large enough to have all the stores and services we needed (including a Kroger, our favorite grocery store chain).

We only had two days in the Sedona area, and this stop had been Brandon’s idea, so I let him plan our itinerary. It was a nice change of pace having someone else do all the planning. Day 1 covered all the best parts of Sedona. We went shopping, hiking, had a picnic at a park, and drove up through the canyon on a Jeep road to watch the sunset. Day 2 was a tour of some Native American ruins and cliff dwellings outside of Flagstaff. This was not actually where Brandon had intended to take me, but I’ll get to that later.

THE BEST OF SEDONA 

We started the day by driving from one end of town to the other to get a feel for the area. On the north end of town we stopped at this gorgeous bridge with a view of the Verde River below.

Continue reading “Exploring the Red Rock Canyons of Sedona, Arizona” →

A stop to visit Brandon’s dad is always a must when we pass through Arizona. Mike and his wife Cindy live in San Tan Valley, one of the many suburban areas outside of Phoenix. Every time we pass through here I am amazed by the sheer size of the sprawl. Phoenix is one of the fastest growing cities in the U.S., despite the scorching summer temperatures. San Tan Valley, however, is on the far southern edge of the sprawl where open still-uninhabited desert is nearby.

Much of the desert in this area has been irrigated and converted into fertile farmland. In fact, when looking for camping spots near Mike and Cindy’s place the closest thing we could find was an actual farm. Schnepf Farms is a huge complex of organic gardens, orchards, and multiple event spaces. They host a regular farmers market, a fall pumpkin festival, and all sorts of private events. It was mostly quiet during the week, as their big fall festival had just ended, but on Saturday they were hosting two separate weddings and a huge dance social for mormon singles.

The camping space was separate from the event spaces so the music and people didn’t feel overly intrusive. However, we were also the only tourists camping at the farm. The small camping area was mostly full of people who worked at the farm. Some were also travelers. We met two women from New Zealand who came to the farm to see America and work at the organic garden.

Most of our five-day stay was spent just enjoying quality time visiting with Mike and Cindy. Brandon’s dad is also a photographer and had lots of great tips for us. On Saturday I stayed home and worked on the blog while Brandon and Mike took the Jeep out into the desert for some sunset and nighttime photos. Mike has spent a lot of time shooting the moon and stars while living in the Arizona desert and this is something Brandon has just recently become interested in.  Continue reading “Visiting Family in Southern Arizona” →

Joshua Tree National Park has been on the list of must-do stops since we hatched this crazy plan. It seemed like every RV travel blogger I follow had stopped at Joshua Tree and everyone seemed to love it so much that they stayed much longer than they had originally intended. We heard similar reports from friends and family. Some of our favorite California to Texas expats used to love spending long weekends camping at Joshua tree. We didn’t really know what to expect, yet still had high expectations.

Thankfully, I can report that we are now total converts. Joshua Tree is like a whole different world and it is amazing.

I’ll start with our campsite. We stayed on some BLM land between the town of Joshua Tree and the military base at Twenty-Nine Palms. We were only about five miles from the north entrance to the National Park. It was super convenient for going into town, as well as touring the park, yet felt completely isolated. It was perfect.

This area of BLM land is often referred to as North Joshua Tree BLM or the Joshua Tree Lakebed. I also found one website that called it Coyote Lake. Essentially, this is a huge dry lakebed that is completely open for RV camping, tent camping, off-roading, hiking, etc. There is no gate, no fees, no designated campsites, and no utilities. We parked the RV on the main road and used the Jeep to check out the area and find a place to park the rig. The last thing we wanted was to get our giant motor home stuck in the sand. Luckily, the ground was very dry and well compacted so we had no troubles driving the RV out onto the lakebed. This might be a tricky spot to camp during a rain storm as I suspect it all turns to mud very quickly. We saw evidence of lots of people having been stuck.

We drove out as far as we felt comfortable and settled in. We arrived on a Saturday and had a few (very distant) neighbors but by Sunday night we had the whole place to ourselves. Incredible.

If you want to find this place yourself the GPS coordinates are 34.1658, – 116.2287. There are also numerous reviews and descriptions of this place on the internet. Most reviews suggest taking Cascade Road from the Twenty-Nine Palms Highway. This is terrible advice. Cascade Road is all dirt and unmaintained. Take Sunfair Road instead. It is paved and runs exactly parallel to Cascade Road, making this a much easier drive in an RV. Cut over to Cascade road on Broadway (also paved) and you will drive straight into the BLM camping area.

A bunch of the online reviews of this place complained about the noise from all the ATVs, dirt-bikes, and Jeeps driving around. We read this and instantly saw it as a plus. We could find Jeep trails leaving right from our campsite! Continue reading “Joshua Tree National park” →