Overall impression? Despite a few minor hiccups, I mostly enjoyed it, and towards the end started to get little pangs of sadness that it would soon be over. I came to a realization about why I love camping trips - other than the obvious getting out into nature, etc. I think as a woman that a house can be a real burden - so many things to clean, organize, and manage, especially when you have a kid or kids. It’s a huge mental load. Reducing all of the managing to a small number of possessions somehow lessens that load. I know this will probably be obvious to everyone but me, but I found it revelatory. And it reminds me of why, when I picture myself old and alone and living in my desert cabin, I always picture it very simple - a stove, a washbasin. That’s it. I don’t wish to try to make a modern life out there. But anyway.
We picked up the van on Monday and drove to our first night spot - the only actual boondocking spot I had selected. We got there at night in the dark, and it was completely deserted and also peaceful and beautiful. And hot as hell. At ten o’clock at night it was still 105°. Great, let’s get the AC going. We couldn’t figure it out, so contacted the van owner, who told us that no, there is in fact no AC despite my having selected this van and our entire itinerary based on having AC. Apparently the only AC was from the dashboard and only when the van was actually running. What the hell. I’m still really annoyed by that - why TF list your campervan as having AC when it actually doesn’t?? Anyway, this led to a miserable and panicked hour or so as we both called every hotel in the area to find a room, only to hear over and over that every hotel was fully booked. Except, finally, the last *smoking* room in a Days Inn in Kingman. We high tailed it over there, and it was just as run down and awful as a hotel that still has smoking rooms would be - a total dump. But we were all hot and tired and didn’t care anymore, so we blasted the AC and got some sleep.
The next day we woke up smelling like Robert Goulet’s asshole and packed up and headed out to our next spot, which was the Grand Canyon south rim. We took a shuttle from Tusayan. It was absolutely spectacular and everything I had hoped. None of us had been before, and we had a blast shuttling to various view points and watching storms slide by.
We retired to our campground and had what was to be our nightly struggle keeping bugs out of the van (the bugs in this wooded area were out of control) and desperately reading the owner’s manual to figure out how the fuck to do even basic things in this van. We quickly discovered the toilet was useless for anything but pee, and even then stank horribly pretty much constantly, so we tried to use it as little as possible. The tiny shower was also basically useless, so we took to showering outside (once we figured out how to heat the water, which even then was lukewarm at best).
The next day we headed to Slide Rock and, as I’d hoped, spent the entire day there. Everyone loved it, but the water was so freezing cold I couldn’t bring myself to get in above my waist.
We then spent a pleasant evening in Sedona, and boy do I wish I’d included it more in my itinerary. Incredible red mountains with tons of trails - we had dinner with this view. I will definitely revisit this area when I have more time.
The next day we drove to another campground that didn’t allow reservations, and as it was by a river and only had a few spots, I was paranoid we’d not be able to get in. We went early and left out some chairs to claim a spot after paying for it, then headed to the Petrified Forest, which, if I’m honest, was not all that exciting. The boys got in the habit of saying, “oh, look, it’s another rock”. I enjoyed it myself, but it was definitely the least of the things we ended up doing. We returned to find our chairs gone. Sigh.
The next day we did our longest drive, up to Monument Valley nearly four hours away. I had wanted to hit up the Wupatki ruins and the Sunset crater, and we paid the entrance fee but ran out of time and had to leave before seeing anything but a short lava trail. We did, however, stop at a roadside dinosaur tracks area and paid a local Navajo woman for a tour, and it was pretty mind blowing.
We got to our Monument Valley campground as the sun was setting, and it was spectacular - by far the most beautiful campground I’ve ever been in. We slept in the back of the van with just some netting as a window, and got to enjoy this view:
I’m going to do a part II for Monument Valley since there are so many pictures.
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