Great day at the City of Rocks
I had a peaceful night's sleep last night. It's quiet in the City of Rocks, mostly because it's in the middle of nowhere.
Since I don't like making reservations, I arrived at the City of Rocks State Park unannounced with several plans on how to find a spot to boondock if things are crowded. When arriving at a place and hoping they have a spot for you to stay, I have found it always beneficial to have a plan A, B, and sometimes a C and a D, depending on how popular the place is. So, in this particular case, since City of Rocks is very popular, I had four plans ready to be used if need be.
Plan "A" was to drive by the regular full-hookup campground to see if the two full-hookup, first-come, first-served spaces were empty. I can camp in those two spots for free, but I must pay four dollars a night for the electricity. I'm not thrilled about staying in what resembles an RV Park, much preferring boondocking out amongst the boulders, but it is nice to have electric heat on these chilly nights.
Plan "B" was to check out one of the two first-come, first-served tent sites in the boulders. Because I'm a truck camper, I can stay in the tent sites; it's just a long walk from my truck to the actual campsite. But I sleep in the truck, so it really doesn't matter.
Plan "C" was to keep driving around the loop road until I got to the sites numbered in the 40s amongst the boulders. Some of them are first-come, first-served boondocking sites, and hopefully, there would be an empty site there.
Plan "D" which I really didn't want to do except as a last resort, is to get on my computer and make a reservation for last night at that &^%$$* company named ReserveAmerica. I can still camp for free but I have to pay those ^$%#@#% a reservation fee.
As luck would have it, the two first-come, first-served spots with hookups were both full. So, moseying a little farther down the road, I found my first tent site empty, pulled in, and made myself home.
The moral of this story is, if you live by your wits you need more than one plan, and if you only have half of your God-given wits you may sometimes need a plan "D".
Theboondork
I’m parked at my first come, first serve boondocking site.
Last nights sunset. No clouds in the sky…. bummer!
The road around the City of Rocks is about a 3 ½ mile loop, and many folks walk around it early in the morning. But I prefer walking through the boulders, which offer a bit more of a challenge.
This is what I call the campground. It’s on the opposite side of the road from the boulders and has full hookups, plus room for larger RVs; some of the boondocking sites in the boulders are very small and more suitable for a van than a normal-sized RV; I assume the boondocking sites in the boulders were laid out a long time ago before RVs became the size of a small house.
Sunrise this morning. I try to get out early enough to get a decent sunrise picture, but there have been hardly any clouds lately, so the sunrises and sunsets have been pretty poor. I’ll be here for a while, so it will change.