Heading out to the Southwest

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GoliathF350

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309 North Garden Avenue, Siler City, North Carolina 27344, United States
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Hey guys I'm breaking in my rig by going on a trip out to the Southwest area to hit some trails for about 3 weeks anybody out in the southwest area planning some trips around Arizona New Mexico even out by the Mojave Road or anything like that let me know we would love to join some fellow overlanders out there we will be leaving the East Coast around 9th of March I have some places and trails to hit also in Oklahoma but if something more interesting pops up in Arizona or somebody's going to do the Mojave Road I would head over there first and then work my way back home so if anybody is going to be doing any Expeditions feel free to let us know

Izzy & Liz
 
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Gregory Youngblood

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Hey guys I'm breaking in my rig by going on a trip out to the Southwest area to hit some trails for about 3 weeks anybody out in the southwest area planning some trips around Arizona New Mexico even out by the Mojave Road or anything like that let me know we would love to join some fellow overlanders out there we will be leaving the East Coast around 9th of March I have some places and trails to hit also in Oklahoma but if something more interesting pops up in Arizona or somebody's going to do the Mojave Road I would head over there first and then work my way back home so if anybody is going to be doing any Expeditions feel free to let us know

Izzy & Liz
Sounds like a great adventure.

if you're going to be in the area of the Gila National Forest, I'd suggest a trip to check out the Gila Cliff Dwellings. While you don't have to take trails to get there, the road itself offers some beautiful views.
 

GoliathF350

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Sounds like a great adventure.

if you're going to be in the area of the Gila National Forest, I'd suggest a trip to check out the Gila Cliff Dwellings. While you don't have to take trails to get there, the road itself offers some beautiful views.
yes sir thanks it's already in the places to go in NM

Izzy & Liz
 

Gregory Youngblood

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yes sir thanks it's already in the places to go in NM
It's been about a year and a half I think since I was last there. There's a primitive camp ground about 1/4 mile from the cliff dwellings itself, the Upper Scorpion camp ground. It's set up for tents, but I pulled up next to the curb and opened my RTT over into the ground area and it worked just fine. There are primitive toilets there as well - but no running water. I stayed at the opposite end away from the toilets.

I should point out there is no potable/drinking water at the camp sites at all. There was faucet for non-potable water to put out camp fires, but I don't know if it worked or not. Make sure you bring a good supply of water. The information center area is fairly close and they do have water to refill your tanks if you need it, but I think it's only when they are opened. I had enough water and didn't need to refill my tank while there, so I don't know if it is open 24 hours or not, or if there is a charge for the water. So, be prepared either way (or call ahead to be sure).

Keep all of your storage bins closed at all times, not just the food ones. I didn't do that and had a curious skunk checking out an open utility bin by the truck while I was by the picnic tables one night. Fortunately just the flash light pointed towards it and moving around was enough gentle persuasion to encourage it to leave without incident. :D

My daughter and I enjoyed the hike to the cliff dwellings. It's a short hike, but a bit of elevation change. The cliff dwellings are interesting, and you can go into many of them to check them out. One thing to point out, don't bring food on the trail to the cliff dwellings. There are signs posted (I missed them). Evidently there have been some animal encounters when food has been brought up there so they don't allow it any more. Fortunately when we stopped and ate our protein bars we didn't have any problems. I found out about it when we got down and the rangers were stopping someone else. Oops. :)

Another place to see is the very large radio telescope array near Socorro. I've been near there, and the Valley of Fires recreation area, but I've not made it to the radio telescopes themselves yet.

Have fun on your trip. Looking forward to seeing pictures and reading about the journey.
 
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GoliathF350

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309 North Garden Avenue, Siler City, North Carolina 27344, United States
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It's been about a year and a half I think since I was last there. There's a primitive camp ground about 1/4 mile from the cliff dwellings itself, the Upper Scorpion camp ground. It's set up for tents, but I pulled up next to the curb and opened my RTT over into the ground area and it worked just fine. There are primitive toilets there as well - but no running water. I stayed at the opposite end away from the toilets.

I should point out there is no potable/drinking water at the camp sites at all. There was faucet for non-potable water to put out camp fires, but I don't know if it worked or not. Make sure you bring a good supply of water. The information center area is fairly close and they do have water to refill your tanks if you need it, but I think it's only when they are opened. I had enough water and didn't need to refill my tank while there, so I don't know if it is open 24 hours or not, or if there is a charge for the water. So, be prepared either way (or call ahead to be sure).

Keep all of your storage bins closed at all times, not just the food ones. I didn't do that and had a curious skunk checking out an open utility bin by the truck while I was by the picnic tables one night. Fortunately just the flash light pointed towards it and moving around was enough gentle persuasion to encourage it to leave without incident. :D

My daughter and I enjoyed the hike to the cliff dwellings. It's a short hike, but a bit of elevation change. The cliff dwellings are interesting, and you can go into many of them to check them out. One thing to point out, don't bring food on the trail to the cliff dwellings. There are signs posted (I missed them). Evidently there have been some animal encounters when food has been brought up there so they don't allow it any more. Fortunately when we stopped and ate our protein bars we didn't have any problems. I found out about it when we got down and the rangers were stopping someone else. Oops. :)

Another place to see is the very large radio telescope array near Socorro. I've been near there, and the Valley of Fires recreation area, but I've not made it to the radio telescopes themselves yet.

Have fun on your trip. Looking forward to seeing pictures and reading about the journey.
thank you for the info i have quite a few places pin pointed thanks to you guys and other researches I've been doing

Izzy & Liz
 
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GoliathF350

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Do I see White Sands NM on the list? If so, let me know when you might be near and if timing works out maybe get together and hear how your trip is going. I'm in Alamogordo, about 20 minutes from White Sands.
yes i pin pointed it I'm not sure if we will go by there yet but I'm trying to do a loop where I'm going to head West on 40 and then head south and come back East through I-10 because I definitely want to go to Tombstone Arizona and then from there we're just going to have to see how far and we are in a trip how many days we have left and see how it goes but if we end up going to White Sands I will definitely hit you up and let you know when I'm going to be by there

Izzy & Liz
 

brien

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We're starting to put together a trip along El Camino del Diablo here in Baja Arizona, currently looking at 16th-19thish of March. I'll pop up a Rally Point event today or tomorrow hopefully
 

GoliathF350

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We're starting to put together a trip along El Camino del Diablo here in Baja Arizona, currently looking at 16th-19thish of March. I'll pop up a Rally Point event today or tomorrow hopefully
Looks like hitting el camino del Diablo is looking like a good idea right now. still getting snow towards the northern part of the state

Izzy & Liz
 

GoliathF350

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309 North Garden Avenue, Siler City, North Carolina 27344, United States
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Izzy
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H
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We're starting to put together a trip along El Camino del Diablo here in Baja Arizona, currently looking at 16th-19thish of March. I'll pop up a Rally Point event today or tomorrow hopefully
hey brien hope your doing good , we'll be heading out this weekend and i just wanted to check in with you to see if that trip to the devils trail is still on?

Izzy & Liz
 

brien

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hey brien hope your doing good , we'll be heading out this weekend and i just wanted to check in with you to see if that trip to the devils trail is still on?

Izzy & Liz
I originally hoped to set up an El Camino run for like March 16-19 but then I ended up with a last-minute work trip where I won't return until the night of the 17th. I think we're still gonna be doing *some* sort of multi-day run during that week of the 19-25th, but nothing concrete planned. We may end up just loading up the rig, picking a direction for the first day, and making it up as we go. El Camino trip will likely happen in April now. I'm gonna talk to some other folks during the AZ Overlanders run this coming weekend and try to nail down a concrete date.

Depending on what dates you are in Southern AZ, we could try to coordinate and hit some of the borderlands together. There's some awesome stuff down there, I know you mentioned wanting to see Tombstone and that kind of area so we could head that way, there's some cool borderlands wilderness south east and southwest of there, too. We could lead you into NM via the Geronimo Trail if you want, taking a scenic route through the Chiricahuas on the way. Last time we did a route to the NM border that way we took two days to get there, stopping in the Chiricahuas to camp for a night, then camping right next to the NM border on night two. It's beautiful land down there, but for the borderlands camping, you should know that we'd be wilderness camping pretty close to the MX border, and sometimes that freaks people out. Last time we were there we actually woke up to a Border Patrol group tracking a half dozen drug mules somewhere near our campsite. We've camped down along the borderlands a few times and never had any issues personally, never known anybody that's run into trouble either. The Border Patrol presence is pretty noticeable, makes me feel fairly safe.
 

GoliathF350

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309 North Garden Avenue, Siler City, North Carolina 27344, United States
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Izzy
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H
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9176

I originally hoped to set up an El Camino run for like March 16-19 but then I ended up with a last-minute work trip where I won't return until the night of the 17th. I think we're still gonna be doing *some* sort of multi-day run during that week of the 19-25th, but nothing concrete planned. We may end up just loading up the rig, picking a direction for the first day, and making it up as we go. El Camino trip will likely happen in April now. I'm gonna talk to some other folks during the AZ Overlanders run this coming weekend and try to nail down a concrete date.

Depending on what dates you are in Southern AZ, we could try to coordinate and hit some of the borderlands together. There's some awesome stuff down there, I know you mentioned wanting to see Tombstone and that kind of area so we could head that way, there's some cool borderlands wilderness south east and southwest of there, too. We could lead you into NM via the Geronimo Trail if you want, taking a scenic route through the Chiricahuas on the way. Last time we did a route to the NM border that way we took two days to get there, stopping in the Chiricahuas to camp for a night, then camping right next to the NM border on night two. It's beautiful land down there, but for the borderlands camping, you should know that we'd be wilderness camping pretty close to the MX border, and sometimes that freaks people out. Last time we were there we actually woke up to a Border Patrol group tracking a half dozen drug mules somewhere near our campsite. We've camped down along the borderlands a few times and never had any issues personally, never known anybody that's run into trouble either. The Border Patrol presence is pretty noticeable, makes me feel fairly safe.
pretty much anything my truck can go through is good with me as long as its not rock climbing or anything of that nature. and as too the primitive camping im pretty much setup to stay out for a couple of days. that idea of the geronimo trail sounds awsome.

Izzy & Liz
 

brien

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Nice! Ok, You wanna meet up in Tucson on like the 19th and head out from there? We have a fully-stocked guesthouse you guys are welcome to use for that night, then we could head out to adventure on the morning of the 20th.

I'll PM you
 
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