An Arizona winter escape
Favorite campgrounds and lots of pictures from our two months.
Happy Friday the 13th, Traipser! Dakota here with Traipsing About, my AI-free newsletter exploring living an intentional life while reclaiming creativity as an adult. I spice things up with experiences, pictures and drawings from traveling in our Airstream.
Thank you for being here. I appreciate your time and attention in this facepunch-a-minute tumult of a world and hope today’s newsletter helps quiet that noise for a bit.
In case you missed it: Last time I wrote about being an Illuminator versus a Diminisher (and shared a ton of photos from beautiful Sedona).
Two months living the Arizona life
I’m usually a trees and mountains guy, but I’ve gotta say that a banquet of saguaro cactus and desert vistas this winter really hit the spot.
Rolling in from California’s Anza-Borrego Desert, we headed way down toward the Mexican border. Since then, we’ve parked the trailer in just seven other stops in two months. #slowtravel (at least for us!)
Compared to van travel, we’re staying in a lot more paid camping situations, which I don’t mind a bit for the convenience and security, plus not having to crash around on back roads searching for free spots.
The slower pace has supported our other life goals as well: we’ve stayed on top of physical therapy, cooked healthy plant-based food from scratch, connected with friends and family, and kept after creative pursuits. There are tradeoffs (see my post on maintenance), but this travel style is working great for us.
Here’s the list of our stays, all of which I heartily endorse:
Organ Pipe National Monument: remote camping with trails out the door
Desert Trails RV Park (west of Tucson: a well-landscaped, quiet artist and musician’s RV park tucked up against Saguaro National Park. Coyotes howling at sunset!
Catalina State Park (NE of Tucson): people book this park a year out for a reason—the views and access to the Santa Catalina Mountains are fabulous. We scored two weeks of cancellations and dug our time there.
Lost Dutchman State Park (east of Phoenix): This campground is up against the Superstition Wilderness with stunning views and fantastic access. We didn’t drive once in a week stay!
Sedona Hipcamp: for two weeks, we parked a few miles west out of the Sedona fray in a quiet neighborhood, but still close to amazing hikes and riding, plus trails out the door into national forest.
Dead Horse State Park (Cottonwood): a few days enjoying the marvelous birds at the nearby lagoons.
Point of Rocks RV park (Prescott): one of our favorite camp spots! We scored a site overlooking the granite rock fields near Wilson Lake. Sadly, I didn’t ride as much as I wanted to (see below).
Grand Canyon’s Trailer Village: stay in the quiet, spacious gravel sites on the east side. One mile to the rim of the canyon via a paved bike path. Get 200’ from the main viewpoints and it’s quiet and stunning!
Overall, I can say without any doubt that state parks in AZ are nice! Clean, quiet and with spacious sites—we totally loved them.
Also, we found that everywhere we visited had respectful, quiet snowbirds who were there enjoying nature and some winter warmth. I suspect it won’t be our last winter jaunt in Arizona.
A pollen surprise
The only blemish on our Arizona time was a massive pollen dump in Prescott that destroyed me with allergies I didn’t even know I had. Instead of mountain biking my face off, I wound up with bronchial wheezing, sore throat, headache, all of it.
Allergy meds did nothing for me, but a visit to urgent care and a steroid pack tamped things down. (The nurse said every patient coming in had the same!) Two weeks later, I’m still congested and coughing, but not wheezing when I walk uphill. W.T.F.
Fair warning: start taking some allergy meds before visiting and keep an eye on pollen levels with an app like Allergy Plus.
Books, books boooooks
I’m reading a ton since hitting the road in December and loving it! Here are some of my recent favorites. Please send me yours, oh erudite Traipsing reader.
My Friends by Fredrick Backman: a beautiful, inspiring, sad novel by the author of A Man Called Ove. Couldn’t put it down!
Empire Falls by Richard Russo: a Pulitzer-winning novel about a dying mill town in Maine. LOL funny at times, heart-rending at others. Brilliant.
The Piano Shop on the Left Bank by Thad Carhart: loved this memoir of an adult going back to piano while living with his family in Paris. The depictions of the city and the culture delightful and I gobbled up the piano nerdery too.
Empire of Silence (The Sun Eater, #1) by Christopher Ruocchio: sci-fiiii! What world-building; can’t wait to read the next few.
Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green: I had no idea why everyone was raving about this nonfiction book, so I’ll just say: trust me (and the 50,000 other 5-star reviews).
Joyride: A Memoir by Susan Orlean: A stunner of a memoir by the author of The Orchid Thief. Anyone who likes to write (or read!) will love this book.
The Art of Spending Money by Morgan Housel: the latest and greatest from my fav financial writer.
How to Know a Person by David Brooks: I wrote a whole newsletter about this book I liked it so much. Oh, to learn the contents of this at a younger age…forget trigonometry, schools should teach this!
Traipsing Tidbits
Why kids are quitting sports (and how to rethink our approach: bring back the joy!).
Some surprising data about AI’s water use (and not what the headlines say).
Japan’s weird, fully-committed Halloween costumes.
Such a time saver having this portable washing machine while we travel!
Traipsing About is waving farewell to Arizona and heading north. But first, a quote for the road…
There’s an old saying that nothing’s worse than getting what you want but not what you need. That sums up so many people’s relationship with money and success. If you’re lucky enough to get what you want (money), you might still realize it’s not what you need (family, friends, health, being part of something bigger than yourself). And then you’re disappointed. What could be worse?
The Art of Spending Money by Morgan Housel
Onward,
Dakota
P.S. I loved this dude’s rant about what nine years of not watching the news (in 60 seconds).
Thank you for the book recommendations! I wrote down the titles of several of them! Thanks also for the gorgeous photos.
I recently became obsessed with van life and nature focused youtube videos and came to Substack in search of a similar sense of calming nature in written form. I can confidently say this account is just that! Stunning photography! And I will be adding The Art of Spending Money and How To Know a Person to my TBR! Thank you for sharing :)