After a night in a full-service campground, Kent, Felix, Cosmo, and I drove north, through Monument Valley and got to Mexican Hat, Utah. There was boondocking adjacent to the “hat.”
Unfortunately, I couldn’t get up the steep and rocky hill to get to the really good spots. Kent had rented a 4WD Sprinter, and he made it up to the top, but not without a struggle. So I stayed down the hill, near the entrance. Cosmo and I went up to visit a few times and took a couple of hikes. When night came, we built a bonfire with wood I’d brought. Cosmo settled down for a nap, Felix went to bed and Kent and I stayed up until after midnight catching up and sharing life stories. It was the peak of the Perseid meteor showers, but the sky was quite cloudy. Even so, we managed to see a few fireballs streaking by as we sat and talked.
The next morning, after a hike up around the hat, we packed up and headed southwest. I had found a camping spot that would be on Kent’s way back to Hurricane, UT. When we got close, I drove up a hill that seemed familiar. It eventually dawned on me that we were heading up Navajo Mountain. There are two “campgrounds” there (no hookups, and no fee, so it was semi-boondocking). I’d picked Sunset View Campground but hadn’t realized it was one of my favorite spots on Navajo Mountain where I’d stayed before. We got set up and took a hike to look at what I named the “Not So Grand Canyon.”
I thought it was quite spectacular. Kent made me a salad for dinner, and we took a walk to see the sunset. It was cloudy, and we feared we’d once again miss the meteor showers, but we lucked out and by about 10:00 (Navajo Nation is on Daylight Savings Time, so it was only 9:00 in the rest of Arizona) the skies cleared and the stars all came out in a dazzling show. We saw nearly a dozen meteors, and of course, the Milky Way never disappoints.
Monday morning, I made blueberry waffles for Felix and me, and some blueberry oatmeal for Kent. They packed up and left soon afterward.
I remained on Navajo Mountain. I was parked in my favorite spot in the campground. We’d had the same spot last year and the year before, for some of our stay. It’s at the highest point and behind us was a huge, flat rock, splattered with craters. It looks very moon-like, and Cosmo loved playing ball there. It was particularly fun because if the tennis ball hit a crater, it would bounce up in a different direction, keeping Cosmo on his toes. He would often leap in the air to snatch it up before it hit the ground again.
I think the past couple of times I’d gone to Navajo Mountain were later in the season. Being August, there were a lot of tourists. The ones I interacted with were from Europe. I guess they come, rent vans and RV’s and Jeeps. The park was mostly empty during the day and Cosmo and I had it all to ourselves. By nightfall, they started coming in. They’d drive the wrong way around the one-way loop, pull into “back in only” sites and cause a jam when they all tried to leave at once in the morning, everyone heading different ways on a one-way loop. Young kids parked anywhere they felt like and several just pulled out sleeping bags and threw them on the ground to sleep. Oh, to be young and reckless again.
Wednesday night got very busy in Sunset View loop. People drove round and round the circle, trying to find the ideal site. Every time they passed by my van, the high beams would shine through my bedroom window. One couple in a car parked opposite me on the loop, their headlights aimed directly at me. Every time they got in or out of the car, they’d hit “the button” on their keychain and activate the alarm. Each time it would honk the horn and flash the headlights. This got old after about the tenth time they got in the car to retrieve something. I fell asleep early in spite of all the activity. I was awakened at 3:00 a.m. by a car alarm. It went on for about 5 minutes. Really? Someone feels a need to set a car alarm when their tent is 10 feet away? In a campground with about 5 occupants?
I got up Thursday morning and packed up. Sunset View has a sister campground on the other side of the mountain called Canyon View. I’d hiked over there once but didn’t get up as far as the campsites. A man I met this week told me the view was spectacular, but it was “more primitive.” I like more primitive. Fewer tourists. I drove over and indeed the view was spectacular and Cosmo and I were the only people in the entire campground. Not much internet signal, but it would do for a couple of days.
Each night, a couple of cars would drive through. Most went to the end of the road where there was a loop, and then came out the same way they went in. Each night a few would stay farther up the road and would leave at sunrise the next morning. Cosmo and I went up to the loop each morning after I was fully caffeinated, and we’d play ball in the large “group camping” site. There was never a group there, so we had lots of room to throw the ball.
Lessons From The Road: Sunset View and the sister site, Canyon View campsites are free to the public. You are allowed to stay 7 days in any given year. (I don’t think anyone is counting, as long as you don’t settle in for weeks on end.) Sunset View has a central bathroom (which I didn’t use) and an outdoor dish washing station which Kent used to do his dishes and conserve his onboard water supply. There are a couple trash stations throughout the park. One was close to me. When I lived in a sticks and bricks building, I always hated to take out trash. To me, it was the most dreaded chore. But now, being able to take out the trash without driving the van for several miles to a dump station is such a luxury. Normally, I break down any cardboard packaging and save it for the next time I am in a place that allows a campfire. I crush up soda cans to take up as little space as possible in my tiny van trash bin. This week, I’ve taken out the trash every day, joyfully. Being able to take out the trash is a luxury I won’t ever take for granted again.
The big loop that is Sunset View Campground is asphalt. It is not very level, but it is smooth. Cosmo and I walked it several times a day. Being parked on asphalt and being able to walk to our “back yard” which is solid rock means far less dirt than usual. In Monument Valley and Mexican Hat, the earth was red and dusty. I had washed my throw rugs the day we arrived in Monument Valley, and by the next morning they were covered in red dirt. I’ll wash them again when I go back through Tuba City, but not sure how much good that will do if I head back into the forest outside of Flagstaff. But while I was on the mountain, I got up each morning and picked a cleaning project. One day I did a deep clean of my “kitchen.” I took the stove apart and vacuumed out the area below the burners, removing toasted macaroni and some extra crispy spinach chards that had fallen below the burners. I got a scrubby pad and scoured the stove covering and the sink and took a knife to the crevices around the sink. I washed the backsplash with a mild bleach solution. It sparkled like a Mr. Clean commercial. Another day I tackled the containers in my closet that hold soaps, lotions, toothbrush and toothpaste, dental floss, Q-tips, etc. Something had leaked so I took everything out and washed it up with Dawn. Maybe today I’ll tackle the inside of the fridge.
Kent’s visit made me able to look at my life objectively, through someone else’s eyes. Since Kent has lived in a van for brief periods throughout his life, it was very nice to have him here, to appreciate the great outdoors with me and tell me how happy he was that I was living the dream. I am grateful for my life on a daily basis, but to have someone else come live it with me for a while, and voice how wonderful it is was a great benefit. I did some self-reflection and remembered back to my first summer on the road, and how scared I was. I remembered having severe “buyer’s remorse” at having sold my home and having bought a van to replace it. These days, I never get homesick for what was. To wake up here—
Is nothing short of bliss. To sit outside and eat, or read, or just take it all in is sometimes overwhelming, in a good way.
Cosmo Concurs.
That’s all I got.
See you down the road!
Scott
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCx9L4rW4Orsox-BDA4ebmmQ