While “rely” is too strong a word, we’ve come to appreciate casinos as acceptable “spots between spots.” They are almost always free, spacious, and happy to host weary travelers. Garcia River Casino in Point Arena, California, is the exception. What to Expect at Garcia River Casino The casino itself is sparse; mostly a large card room with some video slot machines. Google mostly marks it for its restaurant, which is
We love to boondock, but sometimes our route brings us to areas without a lot of boondocking opportunities. While traveling up the west coast of California, we couldn’t skip one of the most infamous national parks, Alcatraz Island. However, due to it being the 4th-most-populous city in the United States, there was no public land. We chose to stay at Tradewinds RV Park in Vallejo. What to Expect at Tradewinds
We’re no strangers to spending a few nights at a casino. Chukchansi Gold Resort & Casino, while not our favorite to date, wasn’t the worst by far. Camping at Chukchansi Gold Resort & Casino When it comes to parking our rig at casinos, we’ve seen everything on the road from FHU to large open fields or parking lots. Chukchansi Gold Resort & Casino is closer to the latter. They have
We’re no strangers to pivots, and Hanning Flat Dispersed Area is probably our favorite pivot to date. In the spring of 2025, we were planning to travel north up the east side of California before crossing the Sierra Nevada Mountains around Redwoods National Park, but wildfires made those plans change. We found the Hanning Flat Dispersed Area, just outside of Isabella Lake, California. What to Expect at Hanning Flat Dispersed
While we by far prefer to boondock, we’ve stayed in a couple of RV parks and resorts on our travels. Rivers Edge RV Resort in Winterhaven, California, is one of the latter. We stayed here for about a week during the Fulltime Families West Coast Family Reunion in the spring of ’25. What to Expect at River’s Edge RV Resort River’s Edge RV Resort is unique (to us) for an
We’ve been lucky to make several contacts and friends along the road. Some of them host events and gatherings of like-minded people. One of these events was a New Year’s Eve event for traveling families held at Good Vibes Ranch in Jamul, California. This post may contain affiliate links, meaning if you click on it and make a purchase I’ll receive a small commission at no cost to you. As
One thing that’s been a blessing as a nomad is the BLM’s Long Term Visitor program. We’ve talked about it in detail before when talking about Quartzsite, but there are more than just the four LTVAs in Quartzsite. The next biggest and most populous LTVA is the Imperial Dam LTVA in Winterhaven, California. Time Considerations at Imperial Dam LTVA Often associated with Yuma, AZ, the Imperial Dam LTVA is actually
We’ve crisscrossed the southwest several times, and like to stick to public land when we can. Sometimes, however, it’s nice to break up the boondocking with a paid campsite from time to time. While trekking from the Albuquerque Balloon Festival to overwinter a second time in Quartzite, we booked a few nights at the Bluewater Campground outside of Prewitt, New Mexico. Amenities at Bluewater Campground Bluewater Lake State Park is
We stayed at the Coronado Campground when leaving the Albuquerqueballoon Fiesta. A good place to recharge and recoop before heading on.
Not every boondocking spot is amazing. But none of them, to date, has been horrible. The BLM land off of Arizona 337 south of Holbrook sits happily in the middle, maybe biased toward the latter. While most, if not all, BLM land is “mixed use,” this area is more so than others. The area is a sprawling scrubland that’s heavily used by local ranchers for cattle range. When we were