Rancho Notso Grande is an orchard and berry farm with a roadside farm stand and a steady stream of boondocking visitors. The owner took us on his golf cart for a tour of the farm and a sampling of his wares. It was too early in the season for pick-your-own berries, but he offered an assortment of wines, jams, vinegar, and meat from lamb raised on the farm. We got a pack of lamb rib chops, some raspberry-jalapeño jam and a bottle of berry wine.

We spent some time letting Ben explore the orchard and various berry patches before cooking up the lamb chops for dinner. After dinner, Ben played in a weird little stick teepee that the owner said was built by previous guests and continually added to by others. It looked like something from the Blair Witch Project, but Ben couldn’t leave it alone. We added a few more sticks from the orchard to shore-up the teepee and then called it a night.

Our goal was to find a suitable dispersed site near the south entrance of the park. I knew there would be patchy snow and potentially muddy conditions, but I was hoping at least one of the National Forest roads along AZ-64 would be open and passable. If all else failed, there are a few private RV parks nearby that would be alright for a few nights.

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We did notice a few elk along the dark shoulder of the highway and quite a lot of snow near the summit. I’m always captivated by these “island in the sky” environments that develop when tall mountains are isolated by surrounding lowland desert. We put Cloudcroft on our list of places to check out “next time around.”

On the western edge of the airbase is Holloman Lake, a scenic wastewater pond that offers free camping and has become all the rage for the Instagram #VanLife crowd. And not without reason… Despite the unappealing nature of the water, it makes an excellent reflecting pool for the already incredible New Mexico sunsets. The rugged, arid and wide open landscape combined with the typically wispy scattered clouds makes the sky look like a painting and helped us quickly understand how New Mexico got the nickname “the land of enchantment.”

The public access to this area is a small and not very well marked turnoff directly off US Hwy 70 and immediately through a tight cattle gate, so getting in and out can be a little tricky. It seems like you are on the military base, but the parcel of land where people can camp is actually BLM. We watched F-16s and MQ-9 Reaper drones taking off and landing at the nearby runway, which was a bonus for the aviation nerd.

The other nice thing about this boondocking location is White Sands National Park is less than five miles down the road. The park consists of a 275 sq mile gypsum dunefield, the largest in the world. There is a visitor center and some boardwalk nature trails near the edge of the dunefield, but the best part of this park is a road that stretches deep into the middle of the dunes, with large parking areas and picnic facilities spaced regularly along the route.

Anywhere you like, you can pull over and climb the dunes, sled down them or wander across miles of wind rippled gypsum. The gypsum is courser than typical beach sand, but it doesn’t heat up from the sun like sand and it is surprising comfortable to walk on. And, of course, the sunsets were amazing.

This may have been Ben’s favorite part of the whole trip. This kid really loves dirt.

We stayed at the Chosa BLM Campground.

Paintsville Lake State Park

Red River Gorge

Little Lick Campground

After a quick night at Clear Creek Reservoir, we headed back to the Twin Lakes area to find a more scenic campsite. By noon on Sunday, most of the campers had packed up and left. Despite numerous available campsites, we were hoping to take the place of the Sprinter van who had beat us to a spot by mere seconds around sunset the night before.

When we arrived to the location, we were disappointed to see the Sprinter van still parked in the site. We pulled into a gravel lot just down the road. It had several rough dirt roads leading to additional campsites, but two RV’s occupied what seemed to be the most accessible sites. As we discussed our options, suddenly the van’s brake lights illuminated and they drove away. Without hesitation I backed the trailer into the road, while Christy handled traffic control, and then pulled into our new campsite.

It wasn’t much of a campsite… more like a gravel turnout on the side of the road, but unlike most of the other camping opportunities in the area, it didn’t require crossing any rough roads or tight backing. It was flat and level, and best of all, it provided amazing views of Mt Elbert, La Plata Peak and the green and gold aspen covered slopes leading to Independence Pass.

Once we had unhooked the fifth wheel, we decided to spend the rest of the day driving over Independence Pass to Aspen. The drive was beautiful and so was the weather. The sketchier sections of the pass have been improved with signal controlled one way traffic through the narrowest bits.

Previously, the road would suddenly narrow from two lanes to about one and a half lanes as rocks on the uphill side of the road jutted out and the line dividing the lanes disappeared. If you happened to meet oncoming traffic on a blind corner, it could feel like a choice between losing a side mirror or going off the steep cliff to the canyon below.

We got fuel, had lunch and walked around Aspen for a couple hours before heading back over the pass. On the way back we stopped at a forest recreation area where a footbridge led to some hiking trails. We hung out on a serene river bend while Ben played monster trucks in the sand, then took a short hike to see some ice caves.

We made one final stop at the top of I dependence Pass and walked to the lookout point with a view of La Plata Peak.

This year was different because our traditional campground was closed for renovations. Instead we booked a large group site at a campground on the other side of the lake. Still, there were already several RVs in the lot from our group and the campground advises no RVs over 28ft. Not to worry, we had a boondocking spot pre-scouted just down the road. We could park the RV there and take the opportunity for a trial run at boondocking and still spend plenty of time with the family at the lake or around the campfire.