NM To San Diego: Part 5 (San Diego, Quechan Casino in Yuma, Faywood,NM and back home)

After our wonderful visit to the Anza-Borrego State Park area, we headed to Claremont to visit with family and help with some furniture moving. After our family visit we headed to San Diego.

Karen's parents and her Dad with one of his two instruments. His other is a bass fiddle

We initially planned to stay at Santee Lakes Recreation Preserve Campground, but it turned out that our homemade camper van was not good enough for this exclusive county campground.

After we made a reservation for a campsite at Santee, we received an email receipt that stated that our RV had to have an Recreational Vehicle Industry Association (RVIA) sticker on it. This sticker indicates that it was manufactured by an RV company and was an official industry made RV.

We don't have an RVIA sticker because I (Greg) made the camper myself.  I guess having an RVIA sticker is a way to discriminate against scofflaws like us!!!! It's apparently a very snooty place. I've never heard of a public campground that was so restrictive.

Anyway, we found a better spot nearby.  Through Campendium.com we discovered Lake Jennings Park Campground. This is a fantastic campground on a water district reservoir. It was beautiful and quiet with great views.

The view of Lake Jennings from our site #90.

There is a story that this campground may close because it doesn't get enough business. That would be a horrible shame as it is a really fantastic campground in a great location with 30 minute access to San Diego tourist sites.

We picked out a beautiful site (#90) on top of a hill in the campground with great views of both the lake and the town of  Lake City below. We loved this campground!  We took a hike around the campground. We couldn't go all the way around the lake as part of the trail is closed Monday - Thursday to protect wildlife, we suspect.

This is a fishing lake and you can even fish from your boat at night at certain times. There is a stocked kids fishing area where kids were catching big fish!

There are private shower rooms as well and nice bathrooms throughout the campground.

There were many hosts in the campground, maybe too many? The hosts that we met were super nice. We had a great short stay here.

The next morning we packed up, had a great breakfast at a nearby Denny's and then headed to Balboa Park in San Diego. The drive was relatively easy even during the morning commute. We parked near a carousel and headed out to explore the park.

The buildings are beautiful. We really enjoyed a reflection pond and the adjacent Botanical Building. We had planned to tour a couple of the many park museums, but it was a beautiful day and we wanted to be outdoors. We will have to go back and tour the museums at some point.

We wanted to go into the Japanese Friendship Garden, but it was $10 each for what looks like a relatively small garden, so we skipped it. (A friend just told us that there is a day pass that includes all the museums and the Japanese Garden. That would be the way to go next time.)

After our tour of Balboa Park we walked quite a ways north to a taco restaurant I had read about. The restaurant was too "fishy" for Karen, so we went down the street to a Chipotle Mexican Restaurant and had a nice lunch.

We hiked back to our van and headed for Cabrillo National Monument where there are great views of San Diego Bay and Coronado Island.

After our Cabrillo point view, we headed out of San Diego, trying to beat the rush hour traffic. The drive over the mountains was pleasant.

We stopped for a break at the Holtville Hot Springs and LTVA area. We didn't soak. We just wanted to check them out for a future visit.  An LTVA is a Long Term Visitor Area. These are popular with Canadian snowbirds. You can stay in a fully contained RV all winter for $180 bucks or 14 days for $40. It's a good deal and this one includes free soaks at the hot springs. The soak pools looked nice. We will definitely return to try them in the future.

We then passed the dunes area on Interstate 8 and made it to Yuma. There was a big sign for In-and-Out Burger and we just could not resist. I brought my gluten free bread in and ordered a protein burger that is wrapped in lettuce and put that on my bread. It worked well and I had no damage to my overly sensitive intestines!!!!  After dinner, it was dark and we headed to the Quechan Casino, where they allow dry camping in their southern most dirt lot.

Quechan is a nice Casino. They have a weekend breakfast buffet that looked nice. If you stay in the hotel there is a nice pool with a lazy river. We did gamble a bit and came out slight winners. We are not big gamblers, but it's fun for a short time and with just a little bit of money to burn. Karen is fairly lucky and usually comes out far ahead. I usually lose, so it all works out for the best.

Many RVers, in their large Class A rigs, or smaller rigs, like to stay at Quechan and enjoy the facilities and then during the day head to Algodones, Mexico. Algodones is just down the road and then a walk across the border for cheap dental work, good food and low cost prescription drugs. We know a lot of boondockers that do this multiple times a year. Quechan owns a big parking lot next to the boarder and they charge a low fee to park for the day while you are in Algodones.

We had a quiet night at Quechan, got up in the morning, made our oatmeal and packed up to head back to New Mexico. We had a woman run up to our van and she seemed disappointed when she discovered it was us (strangers) and not her friend who has a similar van. We had a nice chat. It is always fun to hear more about others journeys. She was a solo van full-timer. It's amazing how many solo women are out there, typically divorced and living on a small amount of money.

We drove a long day through Arizona and ended up back at Faywood Hot Springs again and soaked our tired bones before getting a great night's sleep.  During a hike around the property we ran into the Geeks On Tour.  Jim and Chris Guld travel in a Class A and teach technology classes to RVers at RV oriented festivals and events. We love to meet blogging RVers on our travels. We call it "Boondocker Bingo" when we meet them.

The next day we headed home to freezing Los Alamos.

This was another really fun trip. Until next time - happy adventures!

Beautiful Lake Jennings Campground provided by the Helix Water District.

You can go about halfway around the lake on Monday-Thursday.

Driving to Balboa Park.

Orchids in the Botanical Building.

A plaza at Balboa Park.

One of the many beautiful buildings at Balboa Park.

A beautiful fountain at Balboa Park.

The Reflection Pond and fantastic Botanical Building at Balboa Park.

Orchids at Balboa Park.

Orchids at Balboa Park.

The Old Globe Theater at Balboa Park. We would love to see a play here. 

Beautiful Buildings at Balboa Park.

The over priced Japanese Gardens at Balboa Park.

The view of San Diego Bay from Cabrillo National Monument.

The view of Coronado Island from Cabrillo National Monument.

Pond and Palms at Holtville Hot Springs.

Holtville Hot Springs soak pools and shower gizmo.

Dry Camping at the Quechan Casino south dirt lot.

The Thing!!!!!   Never did see it. Just a zillion signs for it. One day I will force Karen to see it.

Back at Faywood Hot Springs, checking out the night sky chair up on a nearby hilltop.
The dark sky at Faywood makes for amazing stargazing. 

We ran into Geeks on Tour at Faywood Hot Springs. BINGO!!!

We are watching you.

Colorado National Monument (with video) - Sept 2016

The fourth part of our loop took us from Streamboat Springs, Colorado to the Colorado National Monument near Grand Junction.

The Colorado National Monument is spectacular!!!!  We were mesmerized. This is a gem that you rarely hear much about.  (National Monuments in general are under-appreciated.)

Courtesy Google Maps

[This is actually Vlog #3]

After another great breakfast at Freshies Restaurant in Steamboat Springs, we drove four hours to the Saddlehorn Campground in the Colorado National Monument.

We love this park. The views are incredible. The hikes are along straight edge cliffs (watch the kids here closely). We had a fantastic time.

The Saddlehorn Campground is nice. It's an older campground and has lots of un-level spots. The farthest loop ("B") is the nicest loop. You can reserve the sites on loop B.  If a site is marked "open" on loop B, you can stay one night without a reservation. There are a few sites with great views. It's $20 bucks a night (standard rate). There is a fee to get in the park without a "America the Beautiful" pass / card. There are tables and fire grills. Water is available from a few spigots in the area. There are nice bathrooms with flush toilets. I thought I saw that the bathrooms were heated, as many national park managed bathroom tend to be.  You can get large rigs up here. We saw 5th wheels and large buses in some sites. There are walk-in sites for traditionalists and youngins.

I believe we were in site 47, which was relatively flat (I did put a flat rock under one tire) and had a great view if you walked a few steps down towards the site table.

We toured the visitor's center that is within walking distance to the campground. We watched the informative geology movie. We walked from the campground to the nearby Window Rock overview site. WOW what a view!

The next morning, we ate our oatmeal, packed up and took the incredible scenic drive south through the park. The views are unbelievable. If you are a fan of the Grand Canyon, you will likely love this place too.

We then drove south to Orvis Hot Springs (commercial) near Ridgeway, Colorado where we soaked and read our books. We spent a restful night there. The next morning we drove over the million dollar highway to Durango. The aspens were in full color and spectacular.

We continued to Farmington, New Mexico and to our favorite Tequila's Restaurant there. This family Mexican restaurant is very pleasant with great food.

After a great meal we headed the rest of the way uneventfully home to Los Alamos. What a fun trip!

Our Saddlehorn Campground loop B sites. Colorado National Monument.

There's a Monkey!

Karen getting the shot.

A fifth wheel headed up to the campground.

The tunnel said 10' 4".  We are taller than that and we had plenty of room. Weird.

Hard work to build the road up here.

They are not kidding. Watch those kiddos closely!!!

A great meal at Tequila's in Farmington, New Mexico.

Greg's plate. So good!

Outside Tequila's in Farmington New Mexico. 

New Mexico: Gila Hot Springs Ranch and Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument

(By Greg - Mid April 2015) After our visits to Faywood Hot Springs and Silver City, we headed on our way up to the Gila Cliff Dwelings National Monument.

We were warned not to take Hwy 15 as it is just too darn twisty and slow, so we took Hwy 152 to Hwy 35, which is said to take about the same amount of time, being less twisty and all.

It turned out to be a very scenic drive. Parts of it are designated as some sort of scenic tour. Karen and I call them "flower roads, ahhh."

First you come to a view point for the Santa Rosa copper mine.  You can also kinda of make out the "Kneeling Nun" on the cliff above the mine.  It's a cliff structure that really does look like a kneeling nun.

The drive is quite scenic to Gila Cliffs!

Nice forest views.

A view point.

View point.

 As we drove into the dirt access road to the Gila Hot Springs Ranch we passed a bunch of cute goats. The ranch also has horses that can be taken out for public trail rides.

Cliffs above our campsite.

Our spot #11

Portable honey wagon.

Campground layout.

Water Analysis of the hot springs.

This is a 360 photosphere that you can move around in:

Views: Gila Hot Springs Campground and pools by Greg Kendall

In the above photospere you can see two of the Gila Hot Springs Ranch - River Campground hot spring pools. There is a third one behind the one to the north.

Very hot water spout for taking to clean dishes, wash hair etc.

The Gila river view from our campsite.

Our campsite.

Greg cooking a hot dog on our great new portable propane fire pit. (Available in our Amazon Store.)

Karen snug in our van bed after a good soak.

A monkey trekker enjoying one of the hot spring pools.

Karen and her Monkey Trekker friend.

A Gila Hot Springs Ranch pool.

Monkey Trekker!

Greg enjoying the morning sun next to the Gila River.

We pulled into the Gila Hot Springs Ranch - River Campground at 5pm. We snagged the last campsite, #11.  The ranch is owned and run by a really nice older ranching couple who keep a darn sharp eye on things during the day.

Periodically, the river area suffers from flooding during either spring or during the summer monsoon. Because of this the owners have made everything portable so they can move stuff out during flooding periods.  The bathroom "honey wagon" is on wheels as is the check/payment in booth.

The last flood big flood in Sept 2013 really changed things.  The pools were filled with rocks and silt that had to be dug out. It looks really nice right now.

There currently is a day use fee of $5 and a camping fee of $6 per person.  If you camp, the fee includes use of the pool 24 hours a day.  We soaked first, right after we arrived and then again after night fall.

It was very cold but the night sky was great! I need a "water" telescope so that we can peer into the sky while soaking.

After a good long soak, we scurried back to the van and jumped into our many piles of covers.  It was 26 degrees out that night, but we were warm and snug.  (We always say we are the "Princess and the Pea" in our huge pile of blankets that we bring for winter camping.)

In the morning we cooked our left over Adobe Springs doggy bag food and then headed for the Gila Cliff Dwellings just up the road.

Entrance sign.

Geronimo was born near here.

This is a 360 photosphere that you can move around in:

Views: Gila Cliff Dwellings by Greg Kendall

Gila Cliff Dwelling.  Amazing!

Inside a cliff dwelling

Outside a cliff dwellling.

Very scenic.

Enjoying some potato salad, chips and hummus.

My whole life, I have always looked forward to visiting the Gila Cliff Dwellings having heard about it in school.  It's in a remote part of New Mexico.  It's not a day trip. We finally made it and it was totally worth it.  It's pretty outstanding. We've been to Mesa Verde and those cliff dwelling are spectacular too, but there is something about these and their location the is extra special.

There is a one mile hike that takes you up a canyon and then up a bunch of stairs to the cliff dwellings.  Do it while you are still good at going up and down uneven rock stairways.

I'm looking forward to returning and spending more time in this area.  There are some great hikes yet to be had!

We stayed in campsite #11.  I recommend getting a more private river side campsite if you go.  These are numbers: 1,2,3,6,11.  #6 is close to the north pool but is not as private as others.  4 and 5 are not bad but they are close together.  They would be good if you are going with others.  7,8,9 would make a big group site, but would not be private as individual sites.  10 and 12 are away from the river but are not bad. They do take reservations.

Links:
http://www.gilahotspringsranch.com/gilafacilities.htm#campground
http://www.nps.gov/gicl/index.htm