Podcast Interlude: How To Find The Perfect Boondocking Spot
This was probably not the blog post you expected me to write today. In my last blog post I’d just left you in Boston and I was about to sweep you all up into Maine (where we are now), so what am I doing talking about boondocking? Plus I’m already a tad behind. In linear time travel terms I’m around 3 weeks behind, while in RV time travel terms I’m about a week behind, which means in blog-land time I’m about 4 posts back. That’s blog-RV relativity for you, an as-yet undiscovered scientific revelation and (very likely) the missing piece to the Theory Of Everything.
But as usual I digress.
Just for today I’m going to pause this NE trip and teleport you around 3,000 miles southwest into the wide, open AZ desert. And instead of an RV park I’m going to take you waaay off the beaten track. You see last week I was lucky enough to be invited onto the popular and informative RV podcast from Roadtreking to talk about boondocking! It’s a topic I LOVE talking about and could literally drone on about for hours, but thankfully Mike kept me in check and we managed to squeeze it into around 20 minutes or so.
In the podcast we discuss how to find the perfect spot including which resources I find useful (there are many), what we look for in a site and whether we ever worry about security (a common newbie concern). It was a ton of fun to do! The podcast was published today so I wanted to share it on the blog right away. My segment begins about 1/2 hour in (but I recommend listening to the whole podcast, lots of good stuff in there). So if you’re interested check it out:
- Roadtreking Episode 157: How to Find the Perfect Boondocking Spot
New To Boondocking? If you’ve never heard about boondocking (maybe you’re new to the blog) it’s the joy of camping for free in the boonies on public land. We’ve done a lot of it out West and love it so much that I have an entire section of the blog dedicated to it (HERE), plus it’s inspired me to write a slew of posts including a 4-part, ~11,000 word “Boondocking for Newbies” series. So if you’ve never boondocking and are curious where or how to start, read on here:
- Boondocking For Newbies Part I -> Finding Where To Go
- Boondocking For Newbies Part II -> Prepping Your RV
- Boondocking For Newbies Part III -> Geting Your Rig Into The Site
- Boondocking For Newbies Part IV – Enjoying Your Time In The Boonies
New To Podcasts? A quick note on podcasts. We love podcasts and use them often as entertainment while we’re driving down the road. We typically download 4-5 podcasts on our ipads before we get on the road and then listen to them over the RV speakers (via bluetooth) while we drive. We have some general go-to Podcasts like This American Life (always awesome!), but we also have several RV podcasts that we like and recommend. Here are a few:
RV Entrepreneur – Health & Alyssa interview folks every week who make their living fulltime on the road! Tons of inspiring stuff here both for the RV dreamer and those of you on the road looking to change the way you make your income. We were honored to be included on their Podcast in Episode 30 and have been addicted to listening in ever since.- Living The RV Dream – John and Kathy started producing this in 2009 and have covered just about every aspect of the RV lifestyle in that time. Just this March life circumstances were such that they decided to hang up the headphones and pass them on to their friend Robert Morales. He continues to publish as “Living The RV Dream With Traveling Robert” HERE.
That’s it for today…short and sweet. Two months of realtime Maine goodness coming next….
Related Posts:
Ah the desert of Arizona, while it isn’t heaven, can heaven be very far away from that wonderful Arizona fresh air and sunshine, whilst the folks at home are shoveling out of six foot deep snow drifts. Yes that was last year, and what a wonderful year it was. We toured the Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, Bryce Canyon, Chloride Arizona, and our favorite spot in the area, we just kept going back to OATMAN!!! Yes the wild burro’s of Oatman, now that is fun, when my wife was outside the Jeep petting one, she left our door open, and another tried to join me in the Jeep. What a great time. I am so looking forward to returning in November. Must be in Topock for Thanksgiving dinner, wonderful friends who have become as close as family and an RV park that just feels like home. Oh there is a lot of wonderful spots to boon-dock in the area, many of our friends just pop back into the RV park after a week or so in the desert to drain their tanks, take on water, rest up for a few days and it’s back to the boondocks and another peaceful spot along the Colorado River, or the Topock marshes.
Boondockers are a friendly bunch. We’ve made many great friends in the boonies, something I’d never have expected. Sounds like you’ve found the dream!
Nina
See! You can do things out of order! Great job.
Yeah, yeah….{{sticks tongue out}} 🙂
Nina
Tim & Linda (and Woodstock the cat) here in our travel trailer appropriately named “CasaRoll”…long time readers and new full-timers (previously Californians) using much knowledge gained from “Wheelingit”. Serendipitously, we have been criss-crossing paths in the Finger Lakes Region and Niagara areas. Tomorrow, 9/14, we transition from Seawall Campground in Acadia National Park to over to Schoodic Campground (in ANP). If appropriate, we can swing by for a moment on our way over to Schoodic If another opportunity to meet up presents itself as we tour the Southeast and West in 2018, we’ll look forward to that as well.
in CasaRoll,
Tim, Linda, and Woodstock
Sure we should be here tomorrow. I’ll email you our details.
Nina
Hi Nina,
Great job on the podcast interview. Mike is so lucky to have you…it will be one of his best episodes!
Thanks for sharing. We hope to meet you and Paul (my Quant guru) on the road someday.
Safe travels to the Southwest. Sorry for your recent losses. Our thoughts are with you.
Craig and Elaine
Hey guys!
Such a lovely surprise :). Thanks for the nice shout out. Enjoyed getting to hang out the other night as well. Definitely need to do it again before we all leave!
Heath
Tomorrow is travel day for Rolling Recess from AR to MO. We are so looking forward to teleporting while listening to you on Mike’s podcast! Fun times!
Wow. so glad you did interview with Roadtreking or I might have never discovered your awesome blog. I’m just getting started reading yours but I already know its full of valuable information. I’m familiar with some of the bloggers you have links to but I never get tired of reading about the lifestyle, so new blogs are always welcome. I’m 5+ years van dwelling & loving it.
cheers from Annapolis, Md.
Ray
Very happy you found us!! We started RVing in a van (our very first trip in Australia many years back) and have often thought of downsizing back to something smaller. We love “the beast”, but we’d also love to be more mobile and nimble too. Our van-dwelling buddies get into so many more (cooler, more remote) boondocking spots than we do. Maybe one day!
Welcome to the blog!
Nina
Hi Guys,
Perfect timing on this post. We discovered a great place for boon docking yesterday and I was wondering how to pass it along without looking like a fish on a bicycle! Were in Nephi Utah and started driving the back roads, looking for neat places. We were on UT-132 and discovered a scenic drive that goes north to Payson UT. There were numerous places to dry camp, plus three Forrest Service Campgrounds. The place appeared to have numerous hiking trails and would be paws friendly. The leaves are starting to turn on some of the higher elevations. We had reservations here at Bryce Canyon for tonight or we would have spent some time in solitude.
my wife and i would like to try dry camping in quartsite az this winter try to leave in jan from wisconsin any help were to camp for first timers thank you
Check out this post (with map) about where to camp in Quartzsite. There are short-term areas (free, 14-day limit) and long-term, seasonal areas (charge, depending on how long you stay):
https://www.wheelingit.us/2013/01/28/8-tips-for-shopping-boondocking-at-quartzsite-az/
I have detailed reviews of two of the free boondocking sites (14 day limit) at Dome Rock & Plomosa Road. See here:
https://www.wheelingit.us/2016/03/13/boondocking-site-review-plomosa-road-quartzsite-az/
https://www.wheelingit.us/2011/11/22/boondocking-site-review-dome-rock-quartzsite-az/
Lastly these two posts have a lot of good details for first-timers:
http://tailsfromtheroad.com/quartzsite-101-what-to-bring-expect/
http://dewelldesigns.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-ettiquette-of-quartzsite-boondocking.html
Nina