Boondocking at Wickenburg and Bouse through November

I felt done with camp Congress (aren’t we all one way or another) so moved for new boondocking at Wickenburg and Bouse, not far away and still in Arizona.  Sierra, “Meoving again?”

Thanksgiving day is really no big deal to me, I try to be thankful every day at least a few times.  However, holidays make for shorter weeks to get things done and the calendars arrived to my Wickenburg mail on that Tuesday.  So a good time to leave Congress behind.  I had pre-addressed envelopes ready and filled them with calendars to be shipped that day.  Hopefully some of you have received them by now.

After grocery shopping I drove south several miles on Vulture Mine Road to state lands along Vulture Peak Road that is rough and bouncy.  I didn’t go far off pavement for the night for boondocking at Wickenburg.  Audacious signal!

In the morning I was greeted by several towed trailers full of OHVs, lots of the noisy things.  I was probably parked in, or adjacent to, their staging area.

Vulture Peak

Though I still had more calendars to mail I opted not to return to town that day which meant not until Friday so drove further into the area of obvious “roads” like an obstacle course dodging big dips and pointy rocks.

I left a respectable distance between the few other RVs tucked in and pointed it towards the tower. I was surely bombarded by some kind of waves but thankfully only a few days boondocking at Wickenburg.  Read a bit outside in the afternoon but it was cool in the mid-60s with a light breeze.

Went for a walk for sunset but no clouds so it was mostly about the late light. Met my nearest neighbor Mel and tiny dog Hercules who have a van towing a utility trailer.

Woke up Thursday to 40° and thankful to have propane fired up the heat.

During the warmth of  mid-day I wandered not far from camp for a two hour saunter following roads, washes, and game trails in a one mile loop.

Hillsides of knee-high dry grass blowing in the breeze and dancing under the warm sunshine.  Stunted looking desert Mesquite with a dark shaggy bark and sculptural branches.

A Palo Verde tree growing out of rock.  Seriously powerful survivor to see for a dendrophile like me.

Rock was too big to carry and I didn’t go up this game trail

Found some pretty quartz crystal lugs.  This isn’t a bad place for boondocking at Wickenburg only a few miles from town but just hasn’t grabbed me like the lower Sonoran.

I grew up with the tradition of eating duck for Thanksgiving and am not keen on turkey.  A whole duck wouldn’t fit in my oven and they are so greasy to sauté so I settled with a pork chop.

Made it back to Wickenburg Friday and mailed out more calendars, bought a few more groceries, went to Goodwill for books, and bought more large envelopes to ship more calendars.  All while thinking about where to go next and ended up right back where I was boondocking at Wickenburg.  Sadly, there was a large group within sight with OHVs.  Damn it, I dislike those noisy things.  Oh yea, a weekend.

I usually avoid traveling on weekends, but sometimes it works out.  Didn’t plan to go too far, about 1 1/2 hour drive for boondocking west of Bouse.  I hoped to find a place for full moon rise over mountains.  I saw 18 hawks on the drive there mostly sitting on poles but a couple flying.  Plenty of open land to find rodents for dinner.

Turning off Hwy 60 at Hope I was thinking about all the people I met during my years selling at flea-markets and how they are all gone and mostly passed away.  That makes me feel old even though I was the youngster at the time.  At the junction where I sold in 2002 at the Vicksburg flea-market I stopped for a yard sale sign and met a couple set up off their RV trailer.  It’s no longer a market.

Found a nice piece of BLM land on the western slope of the Plomosa Mountains with few RVs, little traffic, and lots of signal.

Took advantage of the golden hour with a late afternoon walk estimating where the almost full moon would rise.  I may have interrupted these two dancing.

And rise it did just before sunset, my favorite time to shoot the moon.

For Sunday’s fullest moon rise I put on the larger lens up to 300mm and used the tripod staying near camp but wasn’t happy with the shots.  Late enough rise that the foreground was dark making it easy to blow out the bright moon.

I actually woke up early enough Monday for sunrise.  Then lazed away the day, reading in the sunshine, and getting a post written.

All this time I’ve been contemplating the need for more power, solar power.  So I headed to Solar Bill’s in Quartzsite on Tuesday and discovered yet another problem with the camper.

A hint for where I’m currently camped.