West High Class- Off the Grid Camping

[Ray Eklund]

We just love the neighbors with the candles, nice carpet for chairs and table and the generator running for hours, for watching DVD's on the two televisions inside the Airstream.

Just gives me goosebumps. Especially enjoy those who place the large lit candles in the tall dry grass in the Wyoming prairie with steady winds.

Ahhhhh. Just wonderful. Getting away from it all.

This is why Off the Grid Boondocking gives us relief from living at home, while camped in an Airstream. Why not? Wanting to get away and relax. Just toss in everything from home, drive off and unload at an OTG Camp.

Beverly Hillbillies without a trailer, I say, have a better idea. Who needs the Airstream?

This is our Beverly Hillbilliy setup in Wyoming, lets say. Manicured grass. Carpets. Table and comfortable seating. No awning needed as at 7800 feet... the Sun feels so... good. After Sunset... double up the blankets and cover the Blue Heelers. Frost may be on the 'pumpkins' in May.

Also a memory of the 2016 Wyoming Adventure... it works some of the time.

These were the 2006 to 2007 experiences... we love to recall. A wonderful time learning to use our Airstream for what it was intended.... To GET Away and lay back with our Blue Heelers.

[Ray Eklund]

I wanted to add. The 'Dairy Sweet' is located on the east side of Crawford, Nebraska on Highway 20 and Highway 71 on the way to the Black Hills.

I stopped there at 16 years old in 1966. The elderly woman wanted her grown daughter to take over the business, but apparently was not interested. There are two Ice Cream / Soda shops in the 'metro' Crawford area. The town is a small rural town. This photo was in 2007.

The elderly woman was overwhelmed with business. Dishes were piled up and needing cleaning. Nancy and I washed her dishes while she served patrons. We talk about the 'old days' and how stopping for an Ice Cream Cone was a relief after working in the Badlands to the north, hunting fossils on local Ranches.

We were given all of the Ice Cream we wanted as a 'tip'. I do not know if this place is still in business.

THIS IS the Airstream Spirit. Not the Glampers on the Forum who prefer the 'nicer RV Parks' and believe that Boondockers are a subclass group of Airstream Owners.

Am I wrong?

After 14 years of towing Airstreams from the western MidWest to the edge of the western Rockies.... I have seen it all. I like to reflect on our experiences. We talk with Non Airstream tailer owners at a Forest Service campsites.

Boondocking is a SKILL SET that the Glamper cannot do nor understand why we do it, at all.

Our Airstreams operate just perfectly in nice OTG sites and along the barren ground of the arid prairies. It is wonderful.

I add a photo of the June 2016 Greenhorn Boondocking OTG in Colorado. A wonderful group and we all survived.

...and if you would be so generous to offer some Boondocking photographs... we and myself will owe you a big thank you. A small group with big hearts, I say...

[Ray Eklund]

Well... I tried to create some interest.

Search wikipedia for Wally Byam. A very interesting story. I followed it all the way to the... end. Something caught my eye.

Caravans. "A recreation of Byam's legendary Cape Town to Nairobi caravan was scheduled to take place in 2009. However, the planned tour was canceled due to safety and political concerns, and the prohibitive insurance costs."

We were at Jackson Center, Oh for warranty work on our 2006. Around October 2007.

A South African living in Chicago, I believe, was there with his Airstream and was trying to get Airstream to finance this Wally Byam Cape Town to Nairobi, Kenya trip for 2009. He was having brake issues and we were tinkering with them. He had an insurance issue having some exterior skin repair with the kind of rivet that was used, and the Insurance Company wanted to us a pop rivet kind of repair.

We started talking and he mentioned he was at Jackson Center to to this 2009 Adventure. He needed someone that might have some mechanical ability. Whoa... I would even bring my tool box on this Adventure. There may have been a Second Group also looking for Airstream to finance this trip and provide Airstreams, as well.

So by doing some reading about Wally Byam's 1959 Trip and repeating 50 years later... my timing was good... it just was not something on the Airstream Jackson Center short list.

I wrote my name and phone number on a piece of cardboard torn off a package of 45 caliber Pistol ammunition. I would not be surprised he is reading the Forums, as well.

Stranger things have happened on Boondocking trips... but this was strange to find was something being discussed and I was standing there thinking... 'this could be fun'.

[GOUSC]

Love your boondocking pics and posts. I can’t compete with where you’ve been but there’s something relaxing and refreshing about having no hookups and just enjoying the scenery.

[MickeyC]

Hello
I am fairly new to this RV camping. How do you find the good boon-docking sites? I have a good generator and plenty of fresh water. I am heading out in August to go boon-docking in the Oklahoma Texas New Mexico and Colorado areas. Looks like you found some nice sites.
Thanks
MC

[Ray Eklund]

Originally Posted by MickeyC

Hello
I am fairly new to this RV camping. How do you find the good boon-docking sites? I have a good generator and plenty of fresh water. I am heading out in August to go boon-docking in the Oklahoma Texas New Mexico and Colorado areas. Looks like you found some nice sites.
Thanks
MC

******
New Mexico and Colorado are easier than Oklahoma and Texas. These two States have different access than the Mountain States up to the Canadian border. Church parking lot in Ardmore... is my only experience in these two states. Not on Sunday, of course.

Colorado: West of the Front Range. The further west you go, the better the variety of Off the Grid Campsites. Having something like a DeLorme Atlas of a State you want to 'explore' is your first tool.

New Mexico: West of I-25 to Springerville, Arizona is a massive territory to search. The areas East of I-25 are massive Ranches and private, although you can find pull offs if you are running late and need a place to park for an evening.

When you are traveling in the Rocky Mountain area... National Forest and Bureau of Land Management vary in access and activities. Start traveling early and about 1PM, you need to be getting less picky and visually look to an area that you could spend the evening. Then study the map(s).

Any area near a major CITY... Friday, Saturday and Sunday bring the locals. Holidays, the same experience. Smaller towns... great access and lots of potential.

Not ALL National Forests to the west of the Front Range can be accessed. Access along many highways are Private Property due to the Mining Claims of the 19th Century. You can travel from Fort Collins, Colorado to the Wyoming Border and find no place to find access.

You will get better scouting as you go. Paved roads usually do not take you to isolated Camp Sites. Get use to eating dust... you and your Airstream. It washes off the Airstream.

Check out some older Posts I had on Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming. They will get you to some wonderful locations and then work OUT for other campsites. Mark them on the map. GPS, elevation and make comments. Some of my comments are: Nice Place... Nothing to do.

It is not easy. I had been saying 20% of Airstream Owners Boondock Off the Grid... I am now down to 10%. Leaves you all by yourself. Finding hunter's campsites OFF SEASON are great campsites.

Hunting for OTG Boondocking sites is like Fly Fishing... you figure it out from doing it. Your favorite sites... once you give the location... things can change.

Welcome to the Dusty Airstream Society. You will EARN it.

[GatorDave]

Years before the internet was the rage I had two counties in western Kansas all to ourselves to hunt pheasants. People stated bragging about their Hunting success on the internet sites Game Over. So I will remain mum about the sites I have found in Wyoming & Montana. How ever I will offer this Benchmark Gazater for each state.
I am perfectly satisfied with owners being terrified of Boondocking. No crowded sites out there. 14 day max in some areas. Wish I’d stayed longer in some.

[Ray Eklund]

Originally Posted by GatorDave

Years before the internet was the rage I had two counties in western Kansas all to ourselves to hunt pheasants. People stated bragging about their Hunting success on the internet sites Game Over. So I will remain mum about the sites I have found in Wyoming & Montana. How ever I will offer this Benchmark Gazater for each state.
I am perfectly satisfied with owners being terrified of Boondocking. No crowded sites out there. 14 day max in some areas. Wish I’d stayed longer in some.

******
Early on to 2016, I was enthusiastic about group camping opportunities to meet people with similar 'looks' and thought processes. It did not work out for about half those with different visions of what Boondocking really was about.

Boondocking is for the curious and hardy souls wanting real adventure. There is risk to this kind of exploring. Once you gain experience... confidence replaces the natural fear of the unknown. It becomes simple and easily recognized when to turn around and don't go any further down a road.

At that time, maybe 2008 I tossed out a Colorado Fly Fishing Adventure... and then smothered myself to death as once disclosed... I would have to compete for a camping spot, where before the place was mine to fish and camp at will.

Some consider it Impolite not to disclose 'favorite campsites'. Often my favorite campsites are Hell Holes with Rough Terrain, Mountain tight roads, steep canyons and other place had only livestock to dodge in the road and wanting to rub against your trailer and lick the wheels... clean. But for me... great peace of mind. Mooooo to you, toooooo.

Few appreciate the clues and hard earned knowledge gained by trial and error that I 'drop like cow patties' on this Forum. Go and find them as the clues are many and you just have to put out some effort to... get there, or close enough.

Western Kansas... Hays, Wakeeney... Cretaceous Chalk Beds for swimming reptiles and further east for Stone Fence Poles. Sternberg Museum of Natural History at Hays... they beat me to the area in the last Century.

[n2916s]

If you mosey by any Forest Service or Bureau of Land Management or Bureau of Reclamation (dams, reservoirs) offices and the flag is flying, it is a swell idea to stop and chat.

Simply tell whoever is manning the desk what you are looking for and you will usually be given sound advice about where to go and how to get there along with maps galore. We have gotten some really good recommendations over the years this way.

I have never done it but I have been told that in any rural area a stop at the local Sheriff’s office can get you some fine recommendations as well.

[ghaynes755]

Ray, yes the Dairy Sweet is still there, at least last year. Great breakfast burito I got while exploring while parked at Fort Robinson State Park. To early for ice cream.