Weeks 7 and 8: Goodbye Arizona, Hello Cali

The week that we returned from Havasupai was a pretty chill week for us. We were camped out in the Coconino National Forest near Sedona, AZ. Our camp spot was about 15 minutes down a very bumpy dirt road and was a pretty crowded and busy camp area. For the rest of that week we caught up on work and things around the van. On Friday, we spent the day exploring Sedona. We knew that this time of year the area is busy but, wow, there were a lot of people! We were able to hike the Devil’s Bridge trail and drove up to see the Chapel of the Holy Cross – a beautiful chapel built into the red rock. We ended the night at the Airport Mesa, an overlook of the city, to watch the sunset. There were a few other hikes we had hoped to do but couldn’t find parking. After watching the sunset we started the drive towards Tucson in southern Arizona. We spent the night on Friday in a national forest on the way to Tucson.

Saturday morning we woke up and finished the drive to Tucson and spent the rest of the day making up for the work we didn’t do on Friday. We spent our time in Tucson at another free campsite just outside the city. Sunday was Easter and we were sad to miss the family activities that happened back home. We found a church in Tucson to attend their Easter service and then spent the afternoon at Saguaro National Park. It was a very rainy day and not the nicest for hiking so we mostly spent our time driving through the park and did a short hike. I didn’t have very high expectations for this park but it turned out to be very beautiful. The tall Saguaro cactuses were very neat and there were some flowery plants starting to bloom that provided a colorful landscape we haven’t seen a lot of yet. That night we headed back to our campsite and had a movie night in our van complete with popcorn and the Pixar movie Elemental (I love a good Pixar movie 😊).

Monday and Tuesday we did our usual work during the day and then Tuesday evening we made our way back to Saguaro. We did a little bit longer hike on the King’s Canyon Trail and finished up just before the sun set.

Wednesday we decided we were ready to move on to a little bit nicer camping area. Our next destination was Joshua Tree National Park, which was going to be about a 6 hour drive. We decided to split up the drive and stop at Saddle Mountain on the western side of Arizona. There was a very large beautiful free camping area around the mountain so we spent the remainder of the week there. We enjoyed the sunshine and temps in the 80s as we sat outside while we worked and soaked in the sun. There were a LOT of flies though and our van quickly became infested. Trevor looked up how to make a fly trap and cooked together some concoction of ingredients…and it didn’t trap one single fly 😅. We eventually got most of the flies out but a few remained. Trevor woke up one morning and had the blanket pulled over his head to block out the sunlight. A fly had gotten under the blanket and was buzzing around and at his head. He said it felt like a little kid was trying to wake him up and get him to play 😜.

Thursday night we enjoyed our dinner outside by a campfire and Friday evening we talked with Trevor’s parents and it felt good to catch up with them for a bit. We booked some flights to go home for a week in the middle of May and we are so looking forward to it! We miss our family and friends so much and of course are looking forward to some of the luxuries of home – long hot showers, flushing toilets, dishwashers, etc.

Saturday morning we packed everything up and finished the drive to Joshua Tree where we did a pretty strenuous hike up Ryan Mountain. We are excited to be in California as we have been most excited about our time on the west coast. However, we are not looking forward as much to the California prices 😬.

I told Trevor this week that I’ve come to the conclusion that I have a love-hate relationship with van life. His response was “You’re just now realizing that??” I laughed and said that I definitely knew there was some hate for the van but I wasn’t totally sure there was love 😆. But when we are out hiking and the sun is shining and the skies are blue, I really do love that van life has given us that opportunity. Or when we find a nice camping spot like at Saddle Mountain where we have a nice area to enjoy lots of time outside. But those days when we run out of water or don’t know where we’re sleeping that night or have bags of poop sitting in the back because we can’t find a place to throw them away…yeah I really hate those times. But I think that’s true of any way of life. There are things we love and things we hate. I would say van life maybe gives you a little more extreme rollercoasters – you love things a lot more and you hate things a lot more. I’m happy to ride the rollercoaster for a little while but definitely not forever.