Wrapping Up the Van Trip: Oregon to Arizona and Back to Zephyr!

After we said our ‘until next times’ to dear friends at EclipseFest23, it was time turn the wheels towards Arizona and wrap up this segment of our van travels.

Although we do wish we had a few more weeks to play with, as we have so many friends in Oregon we would have loved to visit as well.

But we’re anxious to get back to Zephyr and our lot in Benson – and winter is coming.

This tale follows our adventures from Oct 15 – 31, 2023.

For the other trip reports in this van trip series from Florida -> Oregon -> Arizona:

• On the Road Again: Sanford to St. Louis Van Trip
• Missouri, Kansas, Colorado & Utah Van Trip Segment Recap
• Final Push to EclipseFest23 – Idaho & Oregon!

Stop 1: Tulelake, CA – Lava Beds National Monument

Our first stop after leaving Oregon was a free dump station in Tulelake, CA sponsored by the Rotary Club. And then we were off to Lava Beds National Monument – and it was so much fun! And gorgeous.

There’s over 900 lava tube caves from many flows over the millennia – and many of them are open for exploring! The visitor center has plenty of lanterns available to loan out, and all of the caves are self guided.

So we parked the van in the first come first serve campground (just $10/night, dry camping and only suitable for smaller RVs & tents) – and then went exploring the park by bike and foot!

We stuck to easy and intermediate caves, and just had a blast! One cave – Skull Cave – even had ice at the bottom. Super cool.

Definitely recommend this amazing park if you’re passing through the area.

A perfect way to unwind after the awesome of EclipseFest.

Stop 2: Susanville, CA – Susanville RV Park

Commercial RV Parks aren’t usually our first choice, and Susanville RV Park in Susanville, CA would classify that way.

But it was a convenient place to be for a few days to attend to our ‘work week’ where ample amenities and bandwidth are appreciated, as well as a shipping address to receive our sample unit of the newly updated Peplink MAX BR2 Pro Router with x62 5G modems (which we’re a bit too excited about). .

Now being semi-retired – we try to schedule all our monthly calls and webinars over a couple of days so we have less planning in our travels. It has been working out pretty well.

So when we found out our friends Amanda & Jesse were heading to Susanville for their work week next after EclipseFest23 – we decided to join up with them and share the bandwidth and friendship.

The park was a typical RV park – nicely maintained, but lots of rules and pricey at $60/night. Walking distance to dining (fabulous Thai food right there!) and shopping.

And it was biking distance to the trailhead of the Bizz Johnson National Recreation Trail – a gem of a Rails to Trails project. We only had time to bike a few miles of it, but it was absolutely stunning in a canyon following a river lined with fall colors.

And after a work day, we joined Amanda & Jesse for some hiking at nearby Lassen National Park.

It was a spectacular drive to the top.. and then we did the Bumpass hike out to see some volcanic features. It was otherworldly! We made it back just in time for a spectacular sunset.

Thanks to Newstate Nomads awesome national park video series – we knew exactly where to focus our afternoon and make the most of our time. (If you’ve not seen their amazing project – check it out!)

It’s awesome to have friends with a vehicle that can go out for adventures without breaking camp. That is one of the downsides of traveling in the van, we usually plan our stays to be exactly near where we want to explore or plan our stops in enroute.

Stop 3: Sierraville, CA – Sierra Hot Springs

As we made our way south, we decided to indulge in another hot spring experience and visited Sierra Hot Springs. We actually came here about 17 years ago with friends while on a ski trip in Tahoe, so it was fun to return in our own RV!

They have a huge meadow field for open camping, and we snagged a lovely spot along the edge. Camping is $60 per person on a weekend, and includes 24/7 access to all of the pools.

We enjoyed a weekend of soaking in their various pools throughout the grounds – from a meditation pool, to a hot/cold plunges in the temple dome (112 degrees and 56 degrees!).

There’s even a dry sauna that was amazing.

The only pool we could snap a pic of was the private tubs – as the rest were no cameras allowed (all pools are clothing optional – but the facility as a whole is not).

To top it off, they have an amazing 5 mile forest loop that was great for our runs and morning yoga classes – and Philosophy Cafe onsite serving food as art with healthy gluten free and vegetarian options.

What a splendid reconnecting weekend!

Stop 4: Reno, NV – Washoe Lake State Park

After a lovely drive through the Tahoe area and going over the Mt. Rose pass – we arrived to Reno. Time for some big city stuff!

First stop – to pick up our new iPhone 15 Pro Maxes at the Apple Store. After fondling them in Salt Lake City a few weeks back, we both decided it was time for an upgrade. We had been tracking availability along our route, and were finally able to secure them in Reno.

We then intersected with our friends Marc & Julie of RV Love who were also passing through the area. Our 4th rendezvous with them in recent weeks – it’s so fun to ‘hopscotch caravan’ with friends like this!

We enjoyed dinner, and the next morning we all descended upon Battle Born Batteries for an amazing tour with founder & CEO Denis Phares (unfortunately, we totally spaced on photos, and cameras were not allowed on the tour – but we highly recommend his TED Talk video that recaps his inspiration and goals).

Both Zephyr and Y-Not have Battle Born Batteries lithium batteries installed (Blooper has the Volta system that comes standard on the Travato GL). These guys are up to amazing stuff, and it was very impressive to see their operations and R&D lab.

We stayed at the lovely Washoe Lake State Park just south of Reno. Last time we were here in 2014 with our friends Nina & Paul, the lake was completely bone dry, so it was nice to see it full.

The park just recently switched from first-some first-serve to taking reservations online (we have seen this a LOT in our travels this season) – but we were still able to snag a dry site as a walk-in for just $20.

Stop 5: Lee Vining, CA – Lundy Lake Campground

Next stop along our southward trek through the Eastern Sierras was Lundy Lake Campground, just outside of Mono Lake.

This campground is run by Mono County, and is first come first serve with amazing secluded little sites for just $16 dry camping (cash only via an iron ranger – so bring exact change!).

We found one that was ‘level enough’ (we have been using our Flat-Jack air leveling pillows from Vanlife Outfitters quite a bit this trip – have had them nearly 3 years, and just love them!) and with enough bare trees so that Starlink could work. Because there’s not a whiff of cell signal up this amazing canyon.

The fall colors were spectacular too.

We were tempted to stay another night, until the weather forecast updated to possible snow flurries the next evening.

Stop 6: Bishop, CA – Keough’s Hot Springs Campground

With winter on our heels, we continued south down 395 along the Eastern Sierras. Hot springs made a chilly night sound more tolerable, so we selected Keough’s Hot Springs Campground outside Bishop, CA as our destination.

Along the way, we stopped at Mono Lake for some hiking. And of course the entire drive is just stunning.

Glad we arrived mid afternoon, as we were caught off guard that the hot springs close at 6pm and don’t re-open until 11am. For everyone. Kinda odd for hot springs with a campground, in our experience. Most we have visited had extended or 24/7 hours for onsite guests.

This one however had a lap pool with 89 degree water – which was awesome to get some laps in. And then a shaded 104 degree huge tub.

Pricing was $40/night for an RV site and then $10 per person for a soak. They also charge campers to take a shower, which is just odd when they literally have excess hot water flowing off the property.

It wasn’t bad, but not amongst our favorite hot springs stops this trip (this being our 5th!)

Stop 7: Lone Pine, CA – Alabama Hills

While we had visited Alabama Hills outside Lone Pine, CA on our previous trip down 395 in 2014, we didn’t stay there. The reason? Cellular signal is pretty tough.

But now we have Starlink, which is perfect for just such scenarios. So off we went.

It’s just so abso-fricken-amazing here, and we have literally hundreds of photos from our two day stay!

Over the years, the BLM has shut down many of the previous camping areas due to over use of the area. For instance everything to the west of Movie Road is no longer available for camping. There’s only a handful of designated boondocking spots these days, so we feel very blessed to have arrived early enough in the day to find one we could get our van to (many require 4×4).

We were in constant amazement at the sheer beauty here. And we of course spent some time picking up trash others had left behind, hopefully to help keep this area open into the future.

Stop 8: Death Valley National Park – Furnace Creek Campground

In all our years on the road, we had never been to Death Valley (again, very limited cellular data service) – so we were thrilled to learn that the main road through had just re-opened after damage from Hurricane Hillary a couple months ago.

We were able to book a site at the Furnace Creek Campground over a weekend at $22/night.

The drive in from the west along Highway 190 was absolutely spectacular (and still with limited one-lane access with a pilot car leading the way). No photo I managed to snap does it justice.

We stopped at the Stovepipe area, explored the sand dunes and and old 20-team mule borax site on the way to the campground. And then explored around Furnace Creek itself – which is a bizarre resort turned out of old borax mining grounds.

The Furnace Creek facilities are definitely resort priced (just look at those fuel prices – $8.20/gallon!!! Don’t even get me started on the restaurant prices!) – while the Stovepipe area just a few miles away is not (fuel there was on par with prices we saw outside the park at about $5.60/g – normal California pricing).

We honestly didn’t find much beyond the visitor’s center interesting right there to enjoy, and a huge wind storm that came through made our stay less than pleasant.

And if we did it again, we’d instead just do a first come first serve site across the street at Texas Springs – which is a completely generator free campground (hooray!) and a few bucks cheaper.

Since we had to break camp anyway to explore further afield, we ended up ditching our second pre-paid night. We did some hikes, scenic drives and visited the Badwater area before continuing eastward out of the park.

Much of the park is still closed from hurricane flooding damages, but we’re thankful for what we got to see. Absolutely gorgeous and fascinating.

Stop 9: Pahrump, NV – Artesian Cellars

After Death Valley we stopped for much cheaper fuel and did an overnight at a Harvest Hosts in Pahrump with decent wine, and gluten free flat bread pizzas.

We had originally thought we’d like to stay in Vegas a couple nights and catch some shows. But our pass thru would coincide with Halloween, and all on-strip RV parks were full up.

We had also contemplated the Xscapers Halloween Convergence, but it was more of a commitment than we desired (8 days is just too long for being in one spot with the van without any amenities or hook-ups).

Plus.. we’re so close and anxious to see Zephyr!

So we did a pass through – meeting up with friend and Mobile Internet Resource Center teammate Dan for lunch on Fremont Street, who was at the convergence.

We were surprised to see Big Rig Jig not too far off Fremont St – which we last saw at my very first Burning Man in 2007!

Driving through Vegas, we found ourselves on the Forumula 1 Track that was being put together for this month’s big event – so it was kinda cool to drive an RV on it.

We also decided to stop in at Meow Wolf’s new installation ‘Omega Mart’. Can’t say we ‘got it’ however, perhaps we needed a different frame of mind, or more time to immerse ourselves? After wandering around a bit, we decided to bail.

Stop 10: Henderson, NV – Las Vegas Bay Campground

And then off we went to snag a spot along Lake Mead at Las Vegas Bay Campground – hoping to catch some mid-band 5G signal for testing with our new Peplink MAX BR2 Pro X62 based router.

And in the morning it was one last adventure before arriving to Benson – a stop at Hoover Dam. In all our years on the road, and passing through this area, I have no idea how we’ve not stopped here before.

After all, Chris is a civil engineering nut – and this is a pinnacle of engineering art and beauty. We took the time to take the full tour – and for just $30 per person, this is absolutely worth it.

You get to ride an elevator to the power plant at the base, and then explore the original tunnels and elevators into the dam itself. You even get to view the river out one of the vents.

It’s just WOW. Every where we turned was art deco amazingness as the originators pre-planned tours, and attention to details to overbuild this feature that supplies power and water to much of the southwest.

Don’t be like us and pass on by for decades!

And then… ZEPHYR!

We made two long driving days for the final miles to Benson, AZ with a quick overnight stop at a Harvest Hosts (nothing spectacular).

It’s been so good to be re-united with our vintage bus, Zephyr. She started right up, with just some issues with a sticky throttle cable that we’ll work on – but we were able to get her safely to our lot out of storage with some manual intervention.

We’ve now been back two weeks and have been getting settled in for a bit on our leaseholder lot with an amazing little casita (which Kiki calls the ‘Catsita’) and mountain views off our porch. Our friends Amanda & Jesse have also landed in the park for the winter, so it’s awesome to have dear friends as neighbors for a bit.

At present time, we are planning to be here through the end of the year before we load up the van and continue the journey back to Florida and Y-Not.

If you’re passing through the area and are an Escapees/Xscapers member – stop on in and check out SKP Saguaro Co-Op RV Park!  All rental spots are first come first serve, and first time visitors can stay for a week for just $78.

As always, if you’d like to meetup while in the area (we’d love to!), please do drop us a line first and let’s get something scheduled. If you show up unannounced, we might not have clothes on (or be in the middle of work calls.)

We recently did a live from Benson recapping our van adventures: