Where to Next? Pahrump to Burro Creek, Arizona

March 23-28,2019

We arrived in Pahrump to find out that the RV parks were full of snowbirds and gamblers. It's Nevada, even the grocery store had a small room of slot machinges as you exited and entered it's one central entrance. (We decided not to gamble away the grocery money...) We finally found a nice RV park run by and behind the Best Western motel. We seemed to be the only transients. Everyone else was there at least for the season, if not longer. We paid for two nights, hooked up, and took care of groceries and laundry. We got over the air TV there, so we could view some news and weather.

Our next task was to figure out where to travel. We need to be back to Maryland by the middle of April to prepare for our volunteer job at the Schoodic Institute in Acadia National Park in Maine. That starts May 1^st. The long range forecast is calling for storms to keep rolling in off the Pacific Ocean which for us means, rain, cold, and impassable roads for boondocking. We've spent the winter working our way to California, with the plan of making our way up Route 395 on the east side of the Sierra-Nevada Mountains, and as the weather warmed, visiting our favorite boondocking sites and a few new ones. Sadly, we realized that we couldn't wait out the weather and we needed to begin the turn east. So, it needed to be “Goodbye, California!”

Our first task after leaving Pahrump was to relocate ourselves back in Arizona. The higher elevations are still too cold, especially at night when dry camping, and the desert floor is beginning to heat up during the day. We drove past Las Vegas, over Hoover Dam, and retraced our journey south on Route 93 until we reached I-40 in Kingman, Arizona. A short drive east on that and we were soon driving south on Route 93 towards Phoenix. Greg had spotted Burro Creek Campground, a BLM spot on the way. It looked good for a night or two, if there were no connections. As we drove in we were surprised to see a dump and water. We found a site looking over the creek and canyon and settled in. The sun was shining and it was hot!

Looking down at Lake Mead from I-11

The view across Burro Creek from our campsite

Burro Creek BLM

We were just downstream from the US 93 bridge over Burro Creek

Enjoying cool desert shade

Neither of our phones had any connection. I have AT&T service and Greg has Verizon, both through Straight Talk. Our WIFI hotspot is T-Mobile through Millenicom. The hotspot has had the worst coverage as we travel. We assumed until the second day that it wouldn't connect either. Surprise! There is T-Mobile here and nothing else! That made our decision to stay 2 more nights easy. This is a quiet campground, easy to get to off the highway, but far enough away for privacy.

Burro Creek

Recent flood deposits of basketball size boulders

Raccoon Prints?

Our spot overlooking the creek valley

View from the top of the canyon

We have continued to debate where to go. Our plans have changed a couple times. In the morning we'll work our way over to Prescott and up to I-40 and head towards New Mexico and Texas. Currently, the weather looks good and we are far enough east now to be out of the rain and cold.