Love Your RV & Boat! Newsletter - 03/25

Welcome to the March Newsletter. On the road again!

Mar 31, 2025

What's New With Us

Well, mid-March, we bade farewell to the area around Ajo, Arizona, near the Mexican border. With temperatures rising, it was time to make the roughly 2000-mile journey back to British Columbia. We like to slowly meander northward for about 5-6 weeks, visiting elevations that are too cold during the winter.

For this spring’s trip, I had my eye on Highway 95 up the western side of Nevada. It’s a route that we have yet to explore past Death Valley. The long-range forecast showed above-average temperatures happening towards the end of the month.

Highway 95 in western Nevada is pretty high in elevation, 4-6 thousand feet, so we needed a place to camp for about a week, a little lower, waiting for the warmer weather. I decided a return to Death Valley was in order. Enjoy its low elevation spring warmth, then when the heat hits, head further north up 95.

We left from Ajo, up to Gila Bend, then over to Yuma on Interstate 8, and connected to Highway 95 northbound. I had planned to overnight at Quartzsite, but that was interrupted by a fast leak on one of our trailer tires! Luckily, my Haloview TPMS alerted me to the fast leak, giving me time to pull over safely. Looks like it picked up a nail or screw at some point. A quick swap to the spare tire and we were back on the road.

Fast Leak Warning on the Haloview BT 7 TPMS

New trailer tires were on the to-do list anyway, so we headed to the nearby town of Ehrenberg and set up camp on some free dispersed camping land.

May be an image of cloud — Camped on BLM land near Ehrenberg, Arizona

A Goodyear tire shop is twenty minutes down the road in Blythe, CA. I had them order a fresh set of Goodyear Endurance tires, and the old Cougar had new shoes a few days later. I had recently regreased the bearings and adjusted the brakes, so we should be in good shape for a while.

The next leg of our journey was to “Desert Campsite The Pads”, a free off-grid camping site about 25 minutes outside Death Valley National Park. In between, we stopped off at Big Bend of the Colorado State Rec Area near Lauglin for a lovely lunch on the river’s edge. And overnighted at a rest area on HWY 95 just south of Las Vegas.

Rather than tow the rig through Vegas, I took a left at Searchlight and used the Joshua Tree Highway to get to Interstate 15, then west to Baker, CA. At Baker, I connected to Highway 127 to Death Valley Junction. The route is a tad longer but very scenic and bypasses Vegas traffic.

If you have never taken Nevada State Route 164, aka The Joshua Tree Highway, it’s well worth a drive. The density of Joshua Trees rivals the national park! Here is a drone video I found on YouTube.

We camped at the Pads for nearly a week and did some hiking in the national park, including exploring Golden Canyon just below famed Zabriskie Point and driving through 20 Mule Team Canyon.

Death Valley never fails to amaze! Check out these previous videos from a 2019 visit.

May be an image of 1 person, climbing and mountain

May be an image of 3 people and mountain

After another enjoyable visit to Death Valley, the mini heat wave was on the horizon, so we packed up and headed north on 95 to Walker Lake Recreation Area just past Hawthorne, NV. That’s where we are now. Here is a video update for you.

I have loved our travels through western Nevada and am glad we decided on this route. The scenery is gorgeous! Though sparsely populated, there are good services, many camping options, rest areas, etc.

We have about 3 weeks left in this season's snowbird trip. Soon it will be time to get the boat ready for summer. Stay tuned. :)