Boondocking is the term used when you have no access to any utilities. You rely solely on the resources of your rig and your surroundings.
This may not sound fun to some of you, but we looked forward to the experience, being closer to nature, and understanding how long we could be off the grid.
For us, Grover has one 200 watt solar panel and two 200 amp hour lithium phosphate batteries for electricity. We only have DC power which can drive the
the lights, USB outlets, water heater and refrigerator. No 120AC "regular" plug ins work nor does the microwave/convection oven. At first this was an inconvenience to keep our laptop charged which Eric had solved earlier in the trip with a two plug inverter attached to one of our batteries. Later in our boondocking experience, I longed for a blow dryer and curling iron which drew too much power from our little inverter. There is a control panel that tells us all the essential data points of the batteries which Eric watches carefully throughout the day.
We have 44 gallons of fresh water on board for drinking, showering, dishes and flushes. Our holding tanks (one gray, one black) each hold 39 gallons.
These large water tanks were some of the important features we evaluated when looking at campers and based on our time in the wild last week, I am pleased
with our decision.
We also have two 5 lb propane tanks that drive the stove, furnace and can also be used for the water heater.
Last week we went 7 days without being plugged in as we wandered around New Mexico. Here are some of the things we experienced during our boondocking at the 4 different campsites where we stayed.
Doris Campground in the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge was a developed campground with loops of campsites on the edge of a mountain lake.
Although there was a community restroom, it had been forgotten by the maintenance crew long ago and therefore I am counting this night as a boondock stay.
We arrived close to dusk after a cold and blustery day in Lawton. No campfire for us tonight, instead we had left over steak dinner warmed on the camper stove and
called it an early night.
Beautiful walk by the lake at the edge of the camping area with Rufous Towhee in the trees.
Since this is a wildlife refuge we were hoping to see something interesting and boy did we! As we exited Sunday morning, we were ran across a herd of Bison enjoying their Sunday Brunch.
We had not fully prepared for our off grid adventure when we left Lawton and needed to fill our fresh water tank. The idea was to get close, then find a place to fill it up. This was
our first non-campground fill which resulted in a bit of an adventure. Any one out there know the home town of Waylon Jennings? I did not, nor did I know who Waylon Jennings was!
Turns out in his home town of Littlefield, Tx, Waylon made a free RV Park. Through recommendation of a local, we pulled in, filled up and we were on our way! Additional fun facts about Waylon Jennings at the bottom of this blog.
Our next stop was Muleshoe National Wildlife Refuge where sandhill cranes migrate in the winter months. On the drive into the refuge, we saw hundreds of cranes in the sky
and in the fields for miles.
We even saw a coyote running across the field. The camp area was clean, protected and completely desolate with absolutely no cell service.
We had done Saturday with no service just fine, but Eric needed it for work on Monday, so back out to the highway for us. Disappointed in not being able to stay, we resigned ourselves to another 2 hours down the road and a quick stop over in Hobbs, Tx for the night.
New Mexico was a state that neither Eric nor I had spent any time in so we wanted to see as much as possible before heading to Arizona for my mother-in-law's birthday the first of March. Unfortunately the cold temperatures in the northern part of the state pushed us farther south that originally planned but we would wander where we could. That is the point of our trip!
The town of Carlsbad, NM was much larger than I thought and the roadways we traveled through town did not show the town in it's best light. However as we continued south past the national park, the desert opened up at the base of the Guateloupe mountains in the distance. Dyrt, our camping finder app, indicated there was BLM land which allowed camping just off the main road.
As we found the dirt road leading into the desert, the sign read "Trailers not recommended, tents only". Taking heed to the sign, we setup camp in a wide spot at as the sun was setting and called it good for that night.
As you previously read, a wind storm was arriving so we needed to find a more sheltered spot to weather the expected 70 mile an hour winds. We knew that the spot we find would need to be called home for two nights due to the storm and it took us a few tries down VERY primitive roads before we found a suitable campsite 6 miles off the main road towards the mountains.
The winds came as predicted after a wonderful evening of listening to the coyotes call to each other. Listen closely to this clip and you can hear them too.
We had passed come open range cows on the way in and they seemed to be interested in the foreigners who arrived in their pasture the next morning. Full on social hours as our black cow's calls brought the brown cows in the next pasture over to gawk at us. After a while, the cows lost interest in us and dispersed to other gazing areas.
Eric found a town, Mesilla, that we both thought would be interesting so from Whites City we headed through the Guadeloupe Mountains to our next spot on BLM campsite just outside Las Cruces.
Dispersed camping doesn't mean you can't go into town to have a bit of fun and that is just what we did in our days near the Organ Mountains. Friday night dinner at a local winery, D.H. Lescombes, after a great walk in the desert. Saturday wander around Mesilla Plaza with great lunch of street tacos and jalapeno puffs.
It was over these two days with cold nights and a cloudy day that our batteries would deplete over night. We woke the first morning to the refrigerator blinking and making noise. We had left the radio on and the inverter attached to the battery. We did not know about night mode for the fridge and the furnace blew hot air all night. Our battery was at 15% and sinking fast in the wee hours of the morning. We shut everything down, climbed back under the covers and waiting for the sun to come up. Even though we were much more aware of battery usage the next day, we were unable to get fully charged on the cloudy day and awoke again to very little battery power.
As Saturday afternoon arrived, both Eric and I felt like we had seen enough so back on the road to Deming where we had reservations at an RV park where a long hot shower and clean laundry awaits.
I didn't miss much on our boondocking adventure and we hope to do this again on our way north from Vegas to Salt Lake in the middle of March.
More New Mexico adventures to come and see you on the road!
Waylon Jennings deeper dive:
American singer, songwriter, musician and actor in the 1950's through the late 1990's.
He gave up his seat on the ill-fated flight that crashed and killed Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens.
Appeared in Sesame Street multiple times
Composed and sang the theme song for The Dukes of Hazzard
Inducted in the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2001
Recorded country music's first platinum album in 1976 with subgendra of Outlaw Country with Willie Nelson, Tompall Glaser and Jessi Colter
Married 4 times with 6 children. Died in 2002
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