KOFA Arizona Boondocking

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Kevin Means

Kevin Means

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Joined
Aug 3, 2010
Posts
5,120
Location
Hereford, Arizona
If you've never had the chance to winter-boondock in the Arizona desert, it's a shame - it's a gorgeous place to camp (if the wind isn't howling). We've been camping there for more than 20 years and just returned from our latest four-night trip. As is common this time of year, there was hardly a cloud in the sky, and as the sun sets in that part of the country, it throws kind of an orangish colored light on everything. It's breathtaking and you see those colors nearly every night.

I thought I'd share some pictures with you - Picture 1 is an unretouched photo of our coach with the KOFA mountains in the background. The next two pictures I took with my drone. The night image is a 3 second exposure. As you can see, you're pretty much in the middle of nowhere, but that's part of the fun of it. As a side-note, we only had to run our generator for about 45 minutes during the entire four days we were there - and that was only because some folks in our group wanted to cook their meals on their George Foreman cooker, and they cooked French Toast for everyone on a large griddle one morning. Other than that, our flat-mounted solar panels had the batteries fully charged by the end of each day.

Here's a link to a video I put together for our group. I hope you enjoy it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8E1OOmiy5N8

Kev
 

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Nice Kevin, thanks for sharing.  We boondocked there last year and enjoyed it, is all you say.  Hope to get back.
 
We have been going to Quartzsite for the past 3 years, I love it - would live there if it didn't get so HOT.  your pix make me want to get a drone.  :)
 
Lydia95252 said:
  your pix make me want to get a drone.  :)
Click to expand...
Just got my first (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00SH3MU0U?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00) because of other forum members who have posted cool drone pix (talkin about you JD)

I've got about 20,000+ hours in fixed wing and I thought, "kids fly these things and it's gyro stabilized, how hard can this be to fly?" Holy moly -  I'm having a heck of a time with this little toy  ::) (haven't broken it yet though  8))

Can't wait to starting getting campsite pix
 
Beautiful place to camp. Just went out to Quartzite this last January, never been out there and had no idea this was just to the south, one of the reasons I enjoy these forums.  Not certain how far in you take that coach of yours and I see a few other roads going in but I need to put this place on my list of places to visit. Lots of Jeep roads to explore as well from the looks of it. Thanks for posting.
 
Thanks for sharing Kevin, that is the reason we just put 1040 watts of solar on our coach.
 
Nice pics. Is this east of Hwy95? We're headed back to Qtz in a couple of days.
 
Wendy said:
Nice pics. Is this east of Hwy95? We're headed back to Qtz in a couple of days.
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From the looks of his video and google maps this area is east of the 95. This should be a good time to head out there. Looks like you are only a few miles away from there now.    ;)
 
Love it thanks for posting...

Utah and Arizona are our fav's as well... after being in Flint michigan all year, its like landing on the surface of mars!
 
530's right Wendy. We usually camp about a mile east of Hwy 95 on the north side of Kings Rd, but you can drive for miles on that road and take your pick of campsites. We used to go several miles into the reserve, but we've found the scenery to be just as nice, and the freeway noise (almost) silent camping where we do.

Becks, you might be able to run some extension cords and sell power to your neighbors with that much solar. :) We've got 970 watts on the roof and love it - especially with the res fridge and big inverter.

Kev
 
Kevin, I noticed on your great drone pic that you have six panels on
your MH roof. What size wire connects the panels with the controller?
I'm in the process of planning an extension of my solar array.
Many thanks.
 
Jves... we've got a junction box on the roof that all the panels tie into before going to the controller. The wiring from the panels to the junction box is 8 gauge UV protected wire. The two wires that go from the junction box to the charge controller (which is next to the battery-bank) is 4 gauge wire. The two wires that go from the charge controller to the battery-bank are 2 gauge wires.

Kev
 
Very Nice Kevin!!  What are you flying?

Sun2Retire said:
Just got my first (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00SH3MU0U?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00) because of other forum members who have posted cool drone pix (talkin about you JD)
Click to expand...

That is super Scott - Congrats!!  Those little guys that bounce off everything are the right place to start and a bunch of fun.
 
Nice video Kevin. We're camped at LaPosa south and have hiked in KOFA. I think one of our hikes was Palm Canyon. We were supposed to leave last Sunday, but are waiting on parts to covert a Winegard Traveler Direct satellite to DISH. Hope parts are in tomorrow and we can be on our way to Vegas. First time at Q and would come back again. Maybe next time we'll camp in KOFA.
 
Would be great to hook up with you there Gene. It's definitely one of my favorite boondocking loacations. In fact, we're headed there again this weekend. You're welcome to join us if you're in the neighborhood.

JD, it's called a DJI Phantom 3 Professional. It's made for dummies.... it'll literally takeoff, fly a programmed route and then fly back and land in the same place it took off - all by itself. Amazing technology, with a 3 axis stabilized 4K camera.

Kev
 
Hi Kevin - I'm flying the same bird (P3P) - I agree, amazing technology!

Great video production!!  For those that are not aware, capturing video footage is easy - putting it together into an interesting video is incredibly time consuming and not at all easy (certainly not for my pea brain).  Well done Kevin!
 
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