Going west has always been my dream of mine as a young teenager!
Growing up my uncle was a truck driver and always had loads going west from Georgia. I would always ask my stepmom if I could ride along, her answer was always no. My desire to see the west coast has always lived in me. Now as an adult and living in an RV, it’s amazing that we can experience the areas and really see things that people on vacations don’t get to experience.
Our journey traveling west.
Last September we made our way to Montana to work in the beet harvest. While we were there, we started looking for workamper positions and came across a SOCAL one that looked pretty promising. It would be working two days a week for our spot, which we thought was great and we would be able to work gigs while there. So we started our journey after the beet harvest was complete.
Typically we drive three hundred miles daily when traveling, the miles from Culbertson, Mt would be about 1200 miles or so. We made it a fun drive, and stopped at some pretty amazing places along the way. The first place we stopped in was Billings, MT, where we parked in a Cracker Barrel parking lot and stayed two nights. This was our first time staying at the restaurant and really enjoyed the quietness of it.
Each morning we woke up there were new people that had stayed the night as well. From there we made our way the Cody, WY. We drove around Cody for a while looking for a place to stay for the night with hopes of free camping. We want to make it back there during the summer.
Cody has nightly rodeos during the summer and the town looks like such a place to hand out. Since all the campgrounds were closed for the winter and the city wasn’t big enough for us to stay the night in, we found a BLM about 15 miles out of the city.
BLM in the West is an amazing place to stay.
So we made out way there, BLM stands for Bureau of Land Management. BLM allows for up to two weeks where you can stay for free. We found one with wild mustangs. Staying the night near the wild mustangs in the distance was very magical, just to see them move about and graze in their own environment. The next morning we were getting ready to head out, they were within feet of the camper just watching us.
Our next stop was Thermopolis, Wy where we spent four days. The park we stayed in wasn’t anything fancy but the mineral hot springs were just what we needed. It was nice to soak it up. The town was small and quaint. We did a load of laundry in town at the laundry mat. They have a beautiful state park where the bison roam freely, and at night they put them in a gated area. They also have a mineral pool that you can experience for thirty minutes.
We really enjoyed the downtime and sights, one morning while we were there we woke up to snow on the ground. We actually went into the spring pool while there was snow. After departing there we into Colorado for a night of parking at Walmart. While driving into Colorado it started to snow a little and we both were a little concerned because we aren’t experienced driving in a lot of snow.
However, the road was not bad at all. This was also our first overnight in a Walmart. The town was quiet and when we went to bed the snow kept coming down by morning there was some still on the ground. That morning we headed to our next destination which was Moab, UT.
We found another BLM to stay at for several days, we visited Arches for a hike and star gazing. The hiking in the park is pretty incredible, and we saw so much while
there. At night you can see the milky way with such dark skies. We went to Moab, the city is very hippieish and I loved the town. While we were dry camping at the BLM, we showered at a local gas station that had showers for $7 for five-minute showers which were a nice size. We wanted to get more hiking in plus see more parks but our black tank was full, and we decided to move on to the next town.
We found a gas station that had a dump station and free water so we filled up fresh water with empty tanks and continued on our journey. Now we understand how people are able to stay off the grid and not worry about paying park fees. I just wish the East offered the same type of environment, guess they can’t due to the population.
We drove to a city between Moab and Zion so we stopped for a couple of nights in Parowan, UT. We stayed a couple of nights at the county fairgrounds and hiked the mountain right at the fairgrounds. We ventured up to Brian Head, which is a ski resort. The ride up the mountain was beautiful and part of the road was closed due to snow that had fallen, keep in mind this was at the end of October. The ski resort was not open just yet from there not being enough snow. Brian and I had never seen a ski resort up close and look forward to staying at one in the future.
Utah is the best place for hiking and dry camping. I loved the scenery everywhere we went. When we hiked at Zion we were able to hike the narrows and it was absolutely amazing. We rented the cold water gear, and even though we had it on the water was still ice cold.
Zion has several places to rent wet pants, shoes, and socks from. The amount people at Zion during the month of October was pretty impressive. The busy season for that area runs from springtime till late fall. The nights were in the forties, and the days ran around the high fifties. The best time to go, from our understanding, is late October just because it is right after the busy season. The amount of RV’s dry camping on BLM land was a good deal. We saw all types of campers from schoolies to van life, some travel trailers, and just a little of fifth wheels.
We did some research on dry camping and the app we used showed some places, when we got to the outskirts of Vegas there wasn’t. We happened to find a mountain off the beaten path and stayed the night on our way to DHS. The mountain was beautiful and so cold because we gained elevation. We tried calling a couple of RV parks to see if we could stay a couple of nights but it was their busy season so that was a no-go. The next day we headed into Cali, we stopped at an interesting gas station that reminded us of Buc-ee’s.
Hiking in the Desert
So while we were in the desert we went to the 1000 Palms trail which was pretty interesting, being used to hiking in the mountains. The sand and no trees weren’t my thing but we did like it to change things up. We also drove through Joshua Tree and found the trees so beautiful! The park was somewhat busy, plus we saw several vans that were camping with no utilities. One of our workamper friends went for several nights at the park. They ended up with a critter in the camper at night. They loved the quiet night, with the star gazing being the main attraction.
West Winds has Kansas Beat
We made it into DHS (Desert Hot Springs) just outside of Palm Springs. We set up for the winter in Sands RV and Golf Resort. We headed down the street for a bite to eat at Dillions Burgers and Beer, it was a dive bar. A small intimate place with karaoke going on. It was a good environment after a day of travel and the food was just average.
During our time at Sands, Brian worked two days a week to pay for our spot and we worked gig apps. The resort is nice, it’s a 55+ community with a hot tub, heated pool, workout room, game room, and tons of activity. The park had several workampers there working during the winter and loads of snowbirds that come in yearly. Most of the people had been going for years.
I had no idea that there were so many casinos in Cali. We celebrated the New Year in a casino not too far away and at dinner beforehand at In-N-Out Burger. The next several months we got to know the area and saw some sights. Got some hiking done in the desert at Thousand Palms Trail. The next time we are in the area we are wanting to take the aerial tramway. The tram has hiking and a restaurant at the top of the mountain.
Santa Ana winds are terrible in the area, we had a couple of wind storms while there. There was a night when winds got to 70 mph. The camper was a rocking baby! If you don’t know about the Santa Ana winds occur when air from a region of high pressure over the dry, desert region of the southwestern U.S. flows westward towards low pressure located off the California coast. Boy, I tell you what, we were ready to be done with the winds after five months.
We enjoyed getting out in Palm Springs’s downtown area where palm trees meet mountains. The city has sidewalks that we strolled down and checked out shops,
dispensaries, and restaurants. I totally loved seeing the statue of Marilyn Monroe and the cake that she popped out of to sing happy birthday to the president. Palm Springs is a really beautiful place with gorgeous homes and mountains in the background. One of my favorite roads to turn down had the best view of the perfect mountain with palm springs.
Now let’s talk about cannabis, there are a lot of dispensaries and the number of billboards was a little surprising. After we had been to Colorado and witnessed the dispensaries we didn’t think another state would top that. However, here in Cali, it is such a different vibe and place. The way the dispensaries offer information to those purchasing the product and the health benefits of it is impressive. While we were in DHS Brian started working for a dispensary as a delivery driver. So the knowledge he gained is great for us.
During the winter we saw snow-capped mountains, and the next city over had about an inch of snow. We had gone to work and came across the snow with the elevation of 4,000, we didn’t expect there to be snow in the area, especially in the southwest of Cali.
Next Stop Summertime
We are currently in NOCAL for the summertime in Gualala River Redwood Park. This is our home for the next several months. We both are working in the park along with five other couples. The park is gorgeous filled with redwoods and ferns located on the Gualala River and one mile from the beach. It’s a small coastal town just north of San Fransico.
Stay tuned for how we are workamping is going in NOCAL.
