Mysteries in the Navajo Nation, Arizona

October, 2014 – The snow in Ouray, Colorado, had transformed the surrounding national forest into a winter wonderland. Each night we looked up to see a dome of sparkling diamonds in the sky. This was a perfect chance to do some astro-photography, and one night Mark got out all his camera gear and his jacket, hat, boots and mittens before going to bed.

Night sky in Colorado with the Milky Way

Stars glitter in the heavens over Colorado

Back of the truck with snow

Even our water bottles were dusted with snow!

Sometime in the wee hours, while I was groping around for another blanket to pull over my head, he snuck outside and got some beautiful photos of the Milky Way and shimmering sky.

Another snowstorm delivered another dusting of the white stuff on everything, and we decided we had shivered enough.

As that night’s snow melted during the morning, we packed everything up, hitched up the buggy and started to pull out.

Snow capped mountains and a lake in Colorado

Our views on the Million Dollar Highway were spectacular.

Well, we TRIED to pull out!

The nice soft dirt that had been under the fifth wheel’s tires when we first set up camp had transformed into thick gooey mud.

Despite putting the truck in four wheel drive, the tires spun like crazy, flinging mud far and wide and splattering the whole front of the trailer. But the trailer didn’t budge! Mark grabbed our shovel and piled dry gravelly dirt in front of each of the truck and trailer tires.

Golden aspen and snow in Colorado

Nature was showing the last of her vibrant fall colors.

After a few groans from the hitch, the rig slowly began to move. We were on our way.

We drove up and over 11,000′ Red Mountain Pass into Silverton and then over two more passes before we dropped down into Durango.

The truck was working hard as it pulled our house along, but it made it through the three big climbs and descents just fine. Mark had recently installed a K&N air intake and an Edge Tuner, and these gave the truck a huge power boost on the many 10% grades.

The scenery was gorgeous, and it was bittersweet to leave the glowing aspens and snow-capped peaks behind.

But the red rocks of Arizona’s Indian country welcomed us.

Driving into Monument Valley Arizona

Monument Valley.

We were on a mission to get to Phoenix, Arizona, so we didn’t dawdle anywhere. However, when the turn-off for Monument Valley slipped by, we did a U-turn and circled back to drive a short ways out on spectacular Route 163 towards the valley.

Monument Valley Arizona

Classic Arizona skyline.

Dream catcher for sale near Monument Valley Arizona

A dream catcher blows in the wind
at a souvenir stand.

We hadn’t done that drive in many years, but it was just as dramatic as we remembered it being.

This is an iconic place, and lots of Hollywood movies have been filmed among these famous rock formations (see a list here).

Monument Valley Mitten formations Arizona

Monument Valley is famous for its mitten formations.

We had recently watched John Wayne’s black and white 1939 classic film Stagecoach and his 1956 film The Searchers which pretends this incredible landscape is in Texas!

5th wheel RV at sunset

A full moon appeared at sunset.

Seeing these monoliths for real on the horizon was breathtaking.

The road into Monument Valley is dotted with simple little structures where Navajo Indians sell their jewelry, pottery and other crafts.

A dreamcatcher fluttering in the wind at one of these open air booths caught my eye as it twisted and turned against the backdrop of the distant red rocks.

I got chatting with the very friendly woman who was selling these trinkets.

Cow silhouette_

Cows appear on a ridge.

Navajo Indian hand painted Christmas Ornament

Hand-painted Christmas ornament

I remarked that she had quite a spectacular view out her “office” window and she smiled and joked that her twenty mile commute along these roads wasn’t too bad either.

I soon found myself picking out a beautifully painted ceramic Christmas ornament.

“Those are painted by my friend,” she said. “She makes each one by hand, and each one depicts a different aspect of traditional Navajo society.”

On our hike we suddenly see a red rock canyon

Rainbow canyon in the Navajo Nation

I looked at the ornament in my hand.

It occurred to me that even though we have driven through the Navajo Nation many times — it takes up a good 15% of Arizona in the northeast corner of the state — we didn’t know much about the people or culture that reside here.

Outside the craft shop two old Indian women stood talking together — in Navajo.

I tip-toed past very slowly, trying to catch the sound of their language that flowed so easily and freely between them.

Guttural, staccato and clipped, it sounded like no other language I’ve ever heard.

“We really need to spend more time here,” I said under my breath to Mark as we got back in the truck, wishing we could stay and get to know these people a bit and learn a little more.

Before I knew it, he’d taken a turn off the main road, and we were bumping down some side road.

He had us on a crazy detour that was taking us far from the busy Route 160 that zips through the center of this land between Cortez, Colorado, and Flagstaff, Arizona.

We drove along a variety of back roads, watching unusual rock formations rise and fall around us as the traffic grew lighter and lighter.

 

Hiking with views on the Navajo Reservation

Suddenly, the land fell away in front of us.

Navajo Nation red rock canyon hike

We were standing on the edge of a rainbow canyon that stretched vast and wide before us.

We ran out to take a closer look and found ourselves staring out at a massive bowl of towering hoodoos made of pink and red and white striped sandstone.

The spires were a thousand feet tall and the canyon stretched to the horizon.

What a beautiful and mysterious place.

Red rock canyon lights up in the morning sun

From what I’ve read, the Navajo are reserved and private people, and they aren’t quick to reveal the secrets of their lives. How fitting that an exotic natural treasure like this lies hidden in the vast wide open plains on their land, unmarked and unfettered by the trappings of civilization. We watched in awe as the sunrise slowly lit the canyon with a gentle glow.

Hiking through red rock hoodoos and canyons in Arizona

Desert southwest hike through red rock canyon of hoodoo formations

I wrote this post over Thanksgiving weekend, and an observant reader reminded me that Thanksgiving was, of course, a celebration shared by the Indians and the pilgrims centuries ago. The celebration took place in the fall of 1621 in Massachusetts, likely at the end of September, and was attended by 90 Wampanoag Indians and 53 pilgrims. The Navajo were a far distant tribe in Arizona, but they shared a similar spirit and heritage with the Indians of the Atlantic coast.

Related posts from Indian Country:

Related posts from exotic canyons with red rock spires:

All our posts from Arizona: Here!

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RV Budget, Costs & Expenses – What does it cost to RV full-time?

The biggest question most people have before they run away to live in an RV full-time is: Can I afford it? To help you answer that question, this page outlines our living expenses for six months of RV travel in 2014, and it compares those costs to the costs we incurred during our first year of full-time RVing in 2007-08.

This is a long post. To read it in sections, the following links skip further down:

1. Is the Full-time RV Life Affordable?
2. Fixed Expenses
3. Variable Expenses
4. Cost Comparison: 2007 vs. 2014
5. Capital Costs & Depreciation

IS THE FULL-TIME RV LIFE AFFORDABLE?

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People enjoy the full-time RV lifestyle on all kinds of budgets, and the money full-timers have to work with comes in all kinds of forms. Some retirees have big pensions but not a lot of savings. Others have a nest egg of savings but no pension. Many younger full-time RVers work while they travel, either to cover all of their living expenses or to supplement other income streams.

The form your money is in makes a difference in how you RV and what your expenses will be. If you have a big income that comes from a limitless source (a pension and/or Social Security), then a large loan on a new luxury Class A motorhome may be just fine and the nightly expense of high-end RV parks won’t be a problem. However, if you are trying to make a small nest egg last to your dying day, and you are not even retirement age yet, you may be best off spending a portion of it to purchase your RV outright, rather than paying interest on a loan, and you will also be looking to save money on camping and overnight parking.

If you are planning to work camp in exchange for an RV campsite, or if you will be working part-time jobs as you travel, or working via the internet from your RV, your choice of overnight parking spots may be based more on your job’s requirements than on the whims of your travel interests, and your camping costs and the kind of work you do will subsequently be tightly linked.

The bottom line, however, is that if you can afford your current lifestyle in a stick-built home, you will probably be able to afford a more mobile lifestyle in an RV.

Full-time RV Costs are Very Personal, including ours!

Everyone has different priorities and lives differently, making budgeting a highly personal project. My numbers here reflect who we are. We have been frugal in our choices, and we have adjusted to a simple life.

In my former corporate life, I hit Starbucks most mornings and ate dinner out almost every night. We owned and maintained two cars, and we each had significant commutes. Now we eat dinner out very infrequently, and we limit our coffee shop splurges. We own just one vehicle and drive much less. Where we used to have property taxes, utilities and HOA fees, we have none of those things in our RV lifestyle. All in all, we spend about $500 less per month in our RV than we did in our house. But that huge savings is entirely a function of what our old lifestyle used to be and what our current lifestyle is now. Other full-time RVers might not see those same savings.

To cut to the chase, our living expenses for our six months of summer travel in 2014 came to $2,090 per month. But that’s a meaningless number until we uncover where it came from…

How We Travel

We have a 2007 Dodge RAM 3500 single wheel diesel truck that we bought new one month into our full-time RV lifestyle. It now has 84,000 miles on it. This truck tows a 2007 NuWa Hitchhiker 36′ fifth wheel trailer that we bought new at the end of our first year of full-timing in the spring of 2008.

We own our truck and trailer outright and do not carry any debt. This not only helps us keep our monthly expenses down but makes it easier to sleep at night. There is a lot to be said for the budget traveler’s creed: “Go cheap, go small, go now!”

To save money, we don’t have a cell phone. We estimate that since we started traveling this may have saved us about $50/month or as much as $4,500 all together. We have also equipped our trailer with solar panels and we camp for free virtually every night. These choices make us happy, but may not suit everyone. Here’s a description of our minimalist internet and communications solution and our tips for how to live off the grid in an RV.

What Will Your RV Budget Be?

Budgets for this lifestyle are both easy and difficult to anticipate. Your full-time RV lifestyle budget will be exactly what your stick-built-home budget is now, minus the expenses related to living in your current home, plus the expenses of living in your RV.

It’s that simple.

You already know what you typically spend at the supermarket, and that will stay the same when you travel in an RV. Look at your current bills and scratch off your mortgage/rent, utilities, property taxes, HOA, house maintenance costs and the gas/registration/insurance costs for your current vehicles that won’t be coming along on your adventure.

If you want help managing expenses and boosting rental income when your rig isn’t in use, RVManagement USA offers resources and support.

Then estimate your future lifestyle costs that you need to add in (the numbers we share below will help with that). These include your fuel costs and your vehicle insurance and registration fees for both vehicles that make up your rig, whether it is a motorhome/car combo or a truck/trailer combo. If you have chosen your domicile city/state, you can do very specific research to estimate your future vehicle insurance and registration fees. We have some notes on domicile selection on our full-time RVing page.

There are also maintenance, repair and upgrade costs for the rig and your own personal interests to consider as well.

Of course, the whims of the economy are beyond anyone’s control. In the spring of 2008 diesel fuel prices soared out of sight in just a few months. Half a year later the world economy fell apart. Yet, the full-time RVers that were on the road then just kept on going — like everyone else — finding ways to make the best of a grim situation. So, once you launch your full-time RV lifestyle, you will find yourself adapting as the world changes around you — just like you did at home.

A Look at our Expenses, Then and Now

Mickey Mouse Calculator

Mickey always makes this stuff more fun.

My plan before we started in 2007 was to spend about $1,800 per month. I estimated $500 per month for food and household items (which is what we had been spending at home); $500 per month for gas; $500 per month for campground fees; $100 per month for RV and truck insurance; and I left a slush of $200 per month for other things.

We ended up spending $1,672 per month during our first year on the road, beating our budget by a little. During those twelve months we saw diesel prices jump by almost 90% from $2.75 to $5.16 per gallon (in the places where we were buying diesel). At the same time, we also learned about boondocking and discovered that we didn’t need to spend anything on campgrounds. Those two unexpected events cancelled each other out!

Seven years later, we are now spending $2,090 a month. This is a 25% increase. Part of that is due to inflation which has raised consumer prices 14% between 2007 and 2014. The other reason for the increase is that we have changed our lifestyle a little bit, and we’ve become less stringent about splurging on things like eating out.

FULL-TIME RV EXPENSES BREAKDOWN

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RV Lifestyle expenses can be broken into “fixed costs” that you spend every month regardless of what happens worldwide or to you, and “variable costs” that depend on your activities.

FIXED COSTS – Six Months – May 1 to Oct 31, 2014

Our fixed costs for the six months between May and October of 2014 are shown in this chart. There is an explanation of what each category represents below that.

Expense Category Amount
Food & Household Items $582
Vehicle Insurance $135
Communications $88
Propane $50
Laundry $50
Miscellaneous $40
Mail & Postage $32
Vehicle Registration $29
Hair Care $15
RV Dumps $4
Health Insurance
Total $1,025

Food & Household Items – $582 / month
This item covers all supermarket purchases, including groceries, household cleansers, toiletries, laundry detergent, over-the-counter pharmaceuticals and anything else that can be found at Walmart, Safeway, Albertsons, Target and other places. Our rig is fully outfitted, but occasionally we get a small kitchen appliance or pick up a DVD. Those things get lumped into this number.

Vehicle Insurance – $135 / month
This includes both truck and full-time RV insurance for our 5th wheel trailer. We pay it annually, but the monthly cost is shown. If we had kept our Arizona home address, this line item would have been twice as much. There is more detailed info on the selection of a domicile (home address) and the implications that choice has on your vehicle insurance in the fulltiming section.

Communications – $88 / month
After five years of relying on free wifi signals for internet access and using pay phones for phone calls, we got a Verizon MiFi jetpack in 2012, and we now use it for all our communications, including phone calls. This figure includes both our Verizon account with 10 GB of data per month and our $2.99/month Skype account that lets us make unlimited phone calls to the US and Canada no matter where we are in the world (this was very helpful while we were on our sailboat in Mexico). We’ve gotten used to using the laptop as a phone on Skype. It’s a little weird because the person you are talking to ends up on speaker phone, which they may or may not appreciate, and some calls get dropped, but it works well enough.

Our complete communications strategy is described in detail HERE.

Propane – $50 / month
Prices for LP are all over the map, and we haven’t been very diligent about shopping around. We just buy it when we need it from whoever has it nearby. We’ve been paying anywhere from $2.59/gallon to a little over $4.00 a gallon in 2014. We use about 15 gallons per month: a little more in December/January/February when we use our vent-free propane heater to heat the trailer, and less in summer. RVers that stay in RV parks and campgrounds with electric hookups use a lot less propane than this, because they don’t run their refrigerator on propane 24/7. If you have hookups and don’t have metered electricity, you can save on propane costs in the winter by using an electric space heater.

Laundry – $50 / month
After a few years of messing with the little single-load washing machines at laundromats, we discovered that it is much better to use the biggest machines in the place because they are generally the newest machines, they do the best job, and they hold a heckuva lot. Dryers are usually 25 cents for a set period of time that ranges from 5 to 10 minutes, and we’ve found that most commercial dryers need about 35-40 minutes to get the job done. Washers and dryers at RV parks are usually much cheaper than those in the local laundromat.

Miscellaneous – $40 / month
My mom was a professional bookkeeper, and she taught me never to have a “miscellaneous” category because things get lost in there. However, I can’t ignore the $40 of cash we spend every month that is unaccounted for with receipts — little things like a coke and snacks from a convenience store on the road, or whatever.

Mail/Postage – $32 / month
This includes both our mail forwarding service and monthly mail delivery (discussed in more detail in the full-time RVing section) as well as postage we buy to send letters and packages.

Vehicle Registration – $29 / month
As with Vehicle Insurance, we pay this annually, but I show the monthly cost here. The cost is lessened by careful selection of a home address, discussed in more detail in the full-time RVing section.

Personal Care Services – $15 / month
For us, this is just hair cuts. Other full-timers may have other personal care services to consider like manicures, pedicures, massages, etc. (you never know!).

RV Dump – $4 / month
This item is here because it is a regular part of the boondocking lifestyle (you’ve gotta go every two to three weeks at a minimum). Many RV dump stations are free, but if you have to go to an RV park to dump the tanks because there aren’t any free ones nearby, it will generally cost anywhere from $5 to $15. Our RV dump station page has other tips and tricks related to managing the holding tanks.

Health Insurance —
Health insurance costs are totally individual, and the coverage for everyone is evolving. We do not have health insurance. Other younger full-time RVers have posted some terrific articles about health insurance and the impact on one’s choice of domicile state. Check out the excellent posts by Wheeling It and Interstellar Orchard. They both reference insurance agent Kyle Henson of RVer Health Insurance who is quickly becoming the go-to agent for all RVers’ health insurance needs.

 

VARIABLE COSTS – May 1 to Oct 31, 2014

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“Variable costs” are lifestyle expenses that are essentially optional — at least for a while. They can be deferred to a later month, foregone all together, or can make a fun splash in the current month. The great thing about these expenses is that they are controllable. If fuel costs skyrocket or you are short on funds, then stay put and save money! If you’ve got a more modest budget, consider staying in each location for a month or a full season to take advantage of the monthly or seasonal rates at RV parks. If you really want to skimp, boondock or at least stay in the dry camping sites at any RV park or campground that will allow it and has them available.

Expense Category Amount
Diesel $497
Upgrades* $163
Maintenance & Repair* $106
Restaurants $175
Entertainment $46
Clothes $37
Supplies & Tools $26
Memberships $15
Camping & Overnight Costs $0
Hobbies
Total $1,065
Grand Total Fixed + Variable $2,090

*These numbers are averaged since we started traveling. See descriptions below.

Diesel – $497 / month
Fuel costs are highly variable, both because they go up (and sometimes down) and also because you may drive more or less in any given month. Fuel can cost as little as $0 per month, if you stay in one place and ride your bike around town. Or fuel costs can dominate your budget if you decide to take your RV from Florida to Alaska and back via the scenic routes through New England and Southern California — in six months!

The figure here is our average monthly fuel cost for a six month summer season of travel. We drove a loop from Phoenix, Arizona through Nevada to Crater Lake in central Oregon and then went from northeastern Oregon to Sun Valley Idaho and Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming and finally dropping south through Ouray Colorado and into northern Arizona and back to Phoenix.

Our stats for this trip were as follow:

Total Driven: 9,092 miles Loop: AZ-OR-WY-AZ
Towing: 4,673 (47%)
Not Towing: 5,267 (53%)
Fuel Mileage: Towing: 10 mpg
Not Towing: 17 mpg
Gas Prices: Low: $3.59 (AZ)
High: $4.39 (NV)
Types of Roads: Interstates: 392 miles (3%)
State/Local: 9,573 miles (97%)
47 Stops Shortest Stay: 1 night (15 times)
Longest Stay: 22 nights
Average Stay: 4 nights

To show just how variable the fuel cost can be in the full-time RVing lifestyle, during the four months prior to this trip, from January to April of 2014, we stayed in the greater Phoenix, Arizona, area and had dramatically lower fuel costs. We towed the trailer very short distances (20-40 miles) every few weeks as we explored different places in a 50 mile radius of downtown. We drove the truck on its own only once every few days. During that time our average monthly fuel bill was $195. Our lowest fuel bill was $112 (in January). Diesel prices during that time ranged from $3.59 to $3.79 per gallon.

Maintenance & Repair – $106 / month

This item is hard to predict, but now that we have owned our truck and trailer all these years, we can provide an average of what we’ve spent so far on maintenance and repairs since we started full-timing.

This figure is an average of all our truck and trailer maintenance costs from 2007 to 2014 rather than being just the expenses we incurred over our six months of summer travels in 2014. We did not use the trailer when we lived on our sailboat, although we did use our truck when our boat was in San Diego and Ensenada at the beginning and end of our cruise, and all that is factored into this average.

Mark is very handy, and he does a lot of the maintenance work himself (not the oil changes, though). He replaced both of the fifth wheel’s front landing jack legs and landing jack motor while we boondocked in Arizona (absolutely amazing to witness — I will write a post with step-by-step procedures and pics eventually!).

A summary of our maintenance and repair expenditures since we started (totaling $5,830) is the following:

  • Oil changes: $75 or so every ~5,000 miles on the truck
  • New Tires: 2 sets of new tires on the truck, one set on the trailer, $800 per set
  • New Brakes: Replaced front brakes on truck
  • 5th Wheel Landing Legs: Replaced the landing jacks and motor on the front of the 5th wheel
  • Engine Maintenance: We have performed all the maintenance (and minor repairs) required on the truck
  • Wash/Wax: We wash the rig regularly and wax once or twice a year

For budgeting reference, the maintenance and repairs on our rig have cost 0.128% of the purchase price of our truck and trailer per month since we bought them. That may be applicable to other truck/trailer combos. I am not sure it would be applicable to a motorhome/car combo, as motorhomes are inherently more complicated and expensive to maintain.

Note: In 2015, although all of our expenses were about the same as in 2014, we had several MAJOR and UNEXPECTED repairs as shown below. Luckily, our RV Extended Warranty covered the repairs:

Here's a summary of what our four year RV warranty through Wholesale Warranties cost, what our repairs WOULD HAVE cost, and what our warranty reimbursements have been to date:

Cost of Warranty $1,904
Total Cost of Repairs we've had done $7,834
Total Out of Pocket Costs for those repairs $1,145
Repair Reimbursements:
Trailer Axle Replacement $1,036
RV Refrigerator Replacement $1,647
Plumbing Issues & Window Leak $1,142
Suspension Replacement $2,550
RV Toilet Replacement $314
Total Repair Reimbursements $6,689

Our trailer warranty has paid for itself 3.5 times over!
Confused about the nitty gritty fine print buried in RV Extended Warranties? Here's an excellent detailed explanation!!

Upgrades – $163 / month
Unlike Maintenance & Repair costs which must be done (although some can be put off until you have the funds to do them), upgrades to the rig are entirely optional. The figure here is the average of all our improvement and upgrade costs on our truck and trailer since we bought them rather than just the upgrade costs we incurred during our six months of summer travel in 2014.

The upgrades we have done total $8,235 and include the following:

Restaurants – $175 / month
This is a hugely variable cost that has changed a lot in our lives over the years. The figure for these six months of summer travel in 2014 is way higher than ever before. Our biggest “eating out” cost comes from getting coffee and muffins at coffee bistros (so nice!). The rest is a combination of beers at cute brewpubs and meals at Subway and other fast food joints. For comparison, in the first four months of 2014 before this trip, from January to April, our monthly restaurant bill was $70. In those months we weren’t camping near many inviting places!

Entertainment – $46 / month
We don’t pay for entertainment often because we find so much great entertainment that is free. However, we do miss out on some museums and events that charge an entrance fee.

Clothes – $37 / month
We have a two-week rotation of clothes for both warm and cold weather, and since we started traveling we have replaced almost all of these garments. Commercial washing machines are hard on clothes and they wear out. Our biggest clothing expense is shoes. We replace our hiking shoes and running shoes regularly, and we buy high quality, expensive shoes. As a side note, if you get a credit card from Cabellas, REI or another outdoors store, and put all your living expenses on it, and pay it off each month to avoid interest charges, you can use the points each year to get your hiking shoes or other camping gear for free.

Supplies & Tools – $26 / month
This category includes all the tools and supplies we use to keep the rig in good shape. Mark loves to try new products and has a growing collection of tools in his toolbox. Before we left, he made the mistake of selling almost all of his tools. If you are handy and can work on your rig, don’t make that mistake too! He tried to “make do” with the bare minimum of tools for the first year, which is why this category didn’t used to exist for us, but now he regularly buys little goodies that make his maintenance tasks easier.

Memberships – $15 / month
This includes both annual memberships and magazine subscriptions. We belong to Join Escapees RV Club and Good Sam Club and we purchase an America the Beautiful Federal Lands Pass to the national parks each year. We also subscribe to several magazines.

Camping – $0 / month
Camping fees and overnight costs are extremely variable from one RVer to the next, because this is the very essence of the lifestyle. In addition, full-time RVers are a broad mix of people with a wide variety of tastes and preferences.

From May to October, 2014, we did not pay for any overnight camping, and that is the norm for us. However, although we did not pay for camping over the summer season (or in January, 2014), the months of February, March and April, 2014, were unusually expensive for us. Those three months averaged $83/month because we spent time at three different campgrounds visiting friends and chasing wildflowers at a state park (we were a little late for the flowers — rats!).

Many people boondock to save money, and we started that way too. However, we have found that it is by far our preferred way to camp. If we couldn’t boondock, we wouldn’t live in an RV.

That said, it is not for everyone. We have met very few full-time RVers who boondock as much as we do. Most people who enjoy boondocking, or “free camping,” do it from 25% to 75% of the time, at most. For full-timers who work, it is hard to find a boondocking location near most jobs, and you have to pack up and go to the RV dump station every 10 days to 2 weeks, disrupting your life. Even if your work is location independent, and you work out of your RV, finding good boondocking locations that have adequate internet access to do that is not easy. During the summer of 2014 we spent 5 weeks camping in places that were 10 miles or more from the nearest internet access. Now things are a lot easier, as you can type in on Google terms like “internet services near me” and when you do, you’ll be given lots of hotspots to choose from that offer free WiFi. You can also install Starlink on your RV and have good internet access everywhere, including while driving.

Overnight campsite and RV park fees with hookups typically range from $30 to $50 per night or more. That is $900 to $1,500 per month. However, a lot of full-timers avoid paying anywhere near that much and average closer to $500 to $900 per month. There are many ways to save money on overnight camping costs, and those are covered on our Full-time RV Lifestyle Tips page.

As a budget figure, if you are a future full-timer, and you are excited by the $0 figure here, and you plan to boondock a lot but haven’t don’t it much yet, include a “slush” camping fee figure of $350 per month in your budget until you find out if you really like it. Some folks plan to “free camp” all the time but find it isn’t practical for their lifestyle once they hit the road.

Hobbies —

An area I completely overlooked before we started full-timing was the cost of our personal interests and hobbies. This was an important oversight that we came to recognize only after we had been on the road for a few years.

Before starting a life of adventure, it may be hard to imagine that you will need or want to have any hobbies. Sightseeing ought to be enough! But it isn’t. After a while, you will want to have pursuits that complement your travels in one way or another or that perhaps are not even related to your travels at all. Our hobbies are photography, writing and mountain biking, and these all cost money.

Since we started full-timing, we have upgraded both of our DSLR cameras twice and upgraded both of our pocket cameras twice. As for biking, we started out with cyclo-cross bikes but sold those when we found we were almost always camped near very rugged dirt roads. We replaced them with mountain bikes in March, 2014. Bike maintenance isn’t a huge cost, but it’s there. We also upgraded our bike rack a few years ago. And back in 2008 we splurged on a fabulous Hobie inflatable kayak that we loved for several years but eventually sold because we needed more room in the basement.

Mountain BIking

All smiles mountain biking in Bend, Oregon

Even my writing has its expenses. Keeping a blog can be free, but hosting, backup services, firewall services and other things add up. Writing also requires a computer. When we started out, Mark and I shared a single MacBook Pro laptop. After four years, this became impossible because we always wanted to use it at the same time. So, we replaced that one MacBook Pro with two newer ones in 2011 and 2012. Then, in 2014 we replaced the older one of those with yet another newer one.

All of these expenses hit the bank account with a resounding thwang and can’t be ignored or wished away. You may not know exactly what your hobbies will be when you start full-timing, but put some kind of figure into your budget that allows for replacing your computer and phone as often as you have in the past (if you plan to use them as much) and for buying the various things that will make your favorite pastimes possible.

 

EVALUATION – COST COMPARISONS – Year 1 and Year 8 – Lifestyle Changes and Inflation

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Budgets and actual expenditures vary over time. Most fulltimers find that they spend a lot more in the first few months of travel than they do once they have been out for a while. It takes some time, and quite a few purchases, to make an RV a home, and most of those costs come at the beginning. These are things like patio mats, camping chairs and grills, tools your suddenly discover you need, area rugs, throw pillows, kitchen gadgets, campground directories, travel guide books, and all those funky gismos they sell at Camping World that are just so perfect for the RV lifestyle.

When budgeting for a fulltime RV lifestyle, it is probably wise to assume that the first three months will cost about 50% more than the target monthly figure. Make room in the budget for this, and you won’t panic when it happens.

5th wheel RV camper in the woods

Peace.

Also, it takes a while to figure out how you want to live this lifestyle. What kinds of campgrounds do you like? Are you okay with overnighting in a parking lot? How much do you want to drive each day? How long do you want to stay put in one spot?

Most new fulltimers dash all over the country in the first year, and we were no exception. The exhilaration of having the whole continent to yourself, with no one tapping their watch and expecting you home, is such a thrill that we all run around and try to see as much as possible. Only when we are utterly exhausted do we start to slow down.

It also takes a long time to let go of old living patterns and establish new ones. When we first started fulltiming we were accustomed to one- and two-week vacations, and we lived as though we were on vacation. It was only after a few months on the road that we began to realize, deep inside, that we didn’t have to see all the sights in three days. We could stay three weeks and see them only when it was sunny and when we were in the mood for sightseeing.

This change in the rhythm of life ultimately affects how you spend your money. You begin to realize that this is not a vacation, so you can’t spend money as if it were. You begin to slow down and appreciate the truly priceless pleasures, like a quiet morning reading a book, or an afternoon hike that has no other purpose than to smell the fresh air.

Over time, both lifestyle changes and inflation have affected our monthly expenses. Inflation has hovered at around 2% a year (which compounds to a gross jump of 14% between 2007 and 2014 — here’s a graph showing inflation trends) and food prices have increased by 20% in the same time period.

FIXED COST Comparison

Studying the expenses we published on this page after our first year of RVing as compared to the costs for the current year (2014), it seems that, as expected, our fixed costs were most influenced by inflation.

Expense Category 2007-08 2014
Food & Household Items $477 $582
Vehicle Insurance $108 $135
Communications $88
Propane $42 $50
Laundry $40 $50
Miscellaneous $36 $42
Mail & Postage $30 $32
Vehicle Registration $15 $29
Hair Care $15
RV Dump Stations $4
Total $746 $1,025

VARIABLE COST Comparison

Our variable costs have changed more due to changes in our lifestyle than anything else.

Expense Category 2007-08 2014
Diesel $482 $497
Upgrades $140 $163
Restaurants $175
Clothes $8 $37
Supplies & Tools $26
Memberships $15 $15
Camping $145 $0
Total $926 $1,065
Grand Total Fixed + Variable $1,672 $2,090

What’s amazing (and a big relief!) is that our “Upgrade” and “Maintenance” costs didn’t bring any unwanted or nasty surprises during the years we have been on the road, and they have remained much the same as they were in the first year, although there were plenty of years without any upgrades or big maintenance projects. As mentioned above, we barely ate out in the beginning and we splurged this past summer. We had mostly new clothes when we started and have replaced almost all of them, and we now see the importance of having the right tools and supplies for little “RV Owner” projects.

CAPITAL COSTS & DEPRECIATION

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The biggest difference in costs between living in an RV full-time and living in your own stick-built house is that the RV will depreciate very quickly while the house will appreciate over time. The recent real estate collapse notwithstanding, housing prices always increase as the decades go by. In contrast, RVs, cars and trucks quietly make their way to a value of $0 and eventually breathe their last breath in the crushing facility.

In a five year period, a brand new rig (that is, a motorhome/car combo or truck/trailer combo) will typically lose 30% to 50% of its value, and by the end of a decade it will be down to 25% to 40% of its original MSRP. The only way to know what the full-time RVing lifestyle really costs is to know both what you paid for your RV at the beginning and what you sold it for at the end. The difference, divided but the number of months you lived in it, is the true cost of ownership.

That figure doesn’t show up in a regular living expenses budget. However, for a brand new $150,000 rig that reaches the ripe old age of 10 years, you may be looking at “losing” around $75,000 or $625 a month while you own it. Of course, that doesn’t include the additional cost of interest on a loan if you have one.

I’ve had several eager 20-something future full-timers email me saying they wanted to live in an RV after college because they didn’t want to throw away money on rent and they didn’t think buying a house would be a good investment. Unfortunately, an RV involves “throwing away” lots of money too. In the end, the cost of owning an RV — from purchase to sale and through the thick and thin of all the maintenance and repairs in between, not to mention the cost of campgrounds and RV parks — probably adds up to the same amount as renting an apartment or paying a mortgage/taxes plus utilities.

No one should ever give up their dream of RVing full-time because an RV is a bad investment. At the same time, no one should go into RVing full-time because buying an RV is a good investment.

SUMMARY

I hope all this info helps you out as you plan your full-time RV adventures. Despite all the words on this page, your future full-time RVing costs can be approximated fairly easily, and planning your budget involves just three steps:

  1. Write down all your expenses now
  2. Subtract the ones that won’t apply when you start full-timing
    (property taxes, utilities, car expenses for cars you won’t own and commutes you won’t make, HOA fees, etc.)
  3. Add the new expenses you’ll incur in your new lifestyle
    (motorhome/car or truck/trailer insurance and expenses, camping costs, “fun” – restaurants, hobbies, entertainment)

Quite a few RV bloggers share their budgets and their thoughts about the costs of the RV lifestyle on their blogs. The following links offer itemized expense lists and excellent insights into creating a full-time RVing budget:

  • WheelingIt – Personal budget and analysis
  • Technomadia – Personal budget and analysis
  • Gone with the Wynns – Personal budget and analysis (reported by quarter — divide by 3 for monthly!)
  • RV Dreams – Three tiers of hypothetical sample budgets

A final note — I posted this image in a Quick Pic post the other day, but I think it bears repeating here:

If you are lucky enough to find a way of life that you love, you have to find the courage to live it.

Words to live by.

Don’t stress out about the numbers too much.
Spice up your life, take the plunge, and go have an unforgettable RVing adventure!

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Life on the Hook in Mexico – What do you do all day when you’re cruising in the tropics?

cruising, sailing, living aboard in Mexico

Mark makes music on Groovy

Sailing off into the sunset is a dream a lot of people share, and some even get the crazy idea to go ahead and actually do it.  What’s it like?  Here’s a glimpse of some of the things we do each day in our cruising lifestyle — kind of a behind-the-scenes look at our life of leisure aboard a sailboat in the tropics.

snorkeling huatulco mexico cruising and living aboard

We have fun above and below water.

When we decided to cruise Mexico, we planned to anchor out pretty much 100% of the time.  That way we could put more of our budget into a comfortable, newer boat, while keeping the day-to-day expenses to a minimum.  Marinas in Pacific Mexico typically cost anywhere from $30-$50 a night or $600-$900 a month for a boat our size, so living “on the hook” at anchor can mean big savings.

But living on the hook has its ups and downs.  Literally!!  The Pacific swell keeps the boat in constant motion, frequently lurching it from side to side for hours, or even days, on end.  Also, the beautiful ocean is often held hostage by red tide — or algae blooms — that cloak it in an unpleasant color and odor, and fill it with debris, making swimming impossible and dropping the water temps as much as 10-15 degrees Fahrenheit.

87 degree water in Huatulco Mexico

Ahh… warm water!!!

For the past week, however, we have had one ideal day after another (November, 2012, in Huatulco).  The water has been turquoise and clear and in the high 80’s.  The air has been sunny and warm, and the swell has been modest, jolting us awake with a jerk only once or twice a night, if at all.  Our days have been spent swimming til our skin is wrinkled, kayaking in the bay, and walking the beach where the waves caress our feet with the warmest of sun-heated ripples.

Mexico cruising clear turquoise water

The water in Huatulco is gorgeous

Life on the hook, even during these heavenly days, is not exclusively about umbrella drinks in the cockpit, however.  Each day we have a few hours of work that needs to be done.  Mark keeps us on track with this stuff, making lists and making sure we stick to them.

I always find my interest in these things wandering quite a bit, though.  Left to my own devices, I’m afraid the list would soon be lost, and after a few weeks we’d be living in true squalor.

swimming in Huatulco Mexico (Tangolunda Bay) living aboard a sailboat

Who wants to quit swimming to do a bunch of boat chores??

Back when I lured Mark into this cruising lifestyle (well, let’s see, I think I dragged him into it by the ear!), we divvied up the responsibilities according to skill, inclination and interest, rather than going straight “pink” and “blue.”

Since I’ve worked with computers all my life and had cruised before, the chartplotter was easy for me to learn, and I became navigator and skipper while underway.

Cruising Mexico - living aboard a sailboat To Do List

Mark keeps us on track with our boat chores. Notice: “clean bilge” is not yet crossed off…

In our RVing life I never tow the trailer and rarely drive the truck.  Last time I tried parking the rig, I put us exactly perpendicular to the spot I was aiming for.  Mark’s last docking experience with the boat went just about as well.  So this division of labor has been a happy one.

I love technical things and understand the theory of many things on the boat, and I got a huge kick out of researching and specifying the boat’s major system upgrades.  But when it comes to holding a wrench I am still flustered by which end is which.  Mark was a professional service engineer for Xerox’s high speed (room sized) printers and grew up working on cars.  He is a master when it comes to electro-mechanical troubleshooting and installation.

Mexico cruising living aboard a sailboat and cleaning the bilge

I like using a kid’s bazooka water gun to clean the bilge!

So, in exchange for putting all the responsibility for all the boat’s systems squarely in his lap, I volunteered to keep the bilge clean.

Having a clean bilge makes it is easier to notice when something isn’t right.  Water in the bilge must be coming from somewhere.  Is it salt water or fresh water?  Guess who gets to find out!  Hopefully if a chemical is leaking into the bilge it isn’t lethal!!

In our earliest days in Huatulco, “clean bilge” went on the to-do list (our engine’s packing gland material is getting old, so it drips now).  Mark had the luxury of taking a snooze next to the open bilge compartment when he finished his items on the To Do list!  I dawdled as long as I could.

Cruising Mexico living aboard a sailboat

Boat work done? Take a snooze!

I’ve found the easiest way to get water out of the bilge is to use a kid’s bazooka water gun.  Ours has a pointy end that can get into the crevices, and it soaks up a good bit of water that can then be squirted in a pail.  Doing a final squeegee pull with fresh water before putting the toy away has kept it in good working order.

cruising mexico sailing mexico living aboard clean bilge

There, it’s done, and we have a clean bilge once again.

Living on the hook means that going ashore requires either a swim or a boat ride.  So taking out the trash requires loading it in the dinghy first, and then finding a trash barrel on shore somewhere to throw it away.

The kayak works for this task too.  The cool thing is that after the trash is gone you’re free to go exploring either on foot ashore or in the kayak.

cruising mexico living aboard a sailboat taking out the trash

Time to take out the trash!

Getting the laundry done also means loading it up in the dinghy and then lugging it to a laundromat — that is, if there is a laundromat somewhere nearby!  In most Mexican ports laundry service isn’t hard to find.

cruising life aboard a sailboat hand washing laundry

Everyday we wash yesterday’s clothes in the sink. We wear light clothing around here and it’s an easy task.

Here in Huatulco the laundromat is a cab ride away — in addition to the dinghy ride to shore.  Once you get there a woman washes and folds it for you (for 15 pesos per kilo, or about $4-$5 USD per load).  But you don’t get it back til the next day!!  (Ahem — that means another combo dinghy ride / cab ride to pick the laundry bags up…).  If you splurge and stay at the marina, you can have your laundry picked up and delivered back to the boat for 20 pesos a kilo…

liveaboard cruising mexico drying clothes in the rigging

Luckily there are lots of places to hang the laundry out to dry

So, to avoid the laundry hassle while living on the hook, we’ve found it’s easiest just to wash out yesterday’s clothes in the sink each morning and hang ’em out to dry.  Luckily our clothes down here consist of bathing suits, running shorts and light shirts. We haven’t worn shoes and socks since we got here.

I’ve learned that what gives our clothes that “clean” smell from a washer/dryer is the fact that they don’t get fully rinsed out.  So we always rinse our clothes to a point — but leave enough soap in them so they smell nice after hanging on the line.  Sheets and towels have to wait for real laundry service, however…

living aboard a sailboat cruising mexico changing zincs

Mark gets ready to install new zincs

cruising mexico living on a sailboat bottom cleaning

Tools for the bottom: scraper, new zincs, scotch brite pad…

 

We both keep the bottom of the hull as clean as possible.  In some places (like Zihuatanejo), the barnacles grow so fast you have to scrape the bottom with scrapers every few days.  In other places (like the Sea of Cortez and Huatulco), you can merely wipe the bottom with a towel to get the algae slime off.  It takes a lot of breath to get to the bottom of the keel, though, and Mark is much better at that than I am.  So I do the hull and he gets the keel and scrapes the prop.

Electrolysis in the water, especially at marinas, can eat a prop down to nothing in no time.  So we put sacrificial “zincs” on the prop and shaft that are made of that softer metal.

Living aboard cruising Mexico changing zincs

Screwdriver and zinc in hand, you gotta get down there and get it attached all in one breath.

Cruising on a sailboat in Mexico new zincs

A new zinc is installed on the prop shaft

Over time, these zincs get eaten away by the electrolysis instead, sparing the prop shaft and blades’ slightly harder metal.

However, the zincs are not that easy to install.  Mark makes it look like a piece of cake, completing the task in just a few free dives.  I would be spluttering and drowning and would probably drop the screw driver or the zinc in the sand deep below the boat, never to be found again…

Bountiful fresh water is critical to a comfortable life aboard, and we get our fresh water from a “watermaker” that converts ocean water into drinking water.

Cruising mexico making water with the watermaker underway

We go out to clean deep water to “make water”

This is a rather miraculous system, and our watermaker is enormous by cruising standards, converting 60 gallons of water an hour by pushing it through a strainer first (to remove the fish and sea creatures) then through two filters (to remove the algae) then through two 4′ long high pressure membranes (to remove the salt, bacteria and viruses).

Cruising mexico there is frequent red tide

Wow – clean water!! Such a special treat. Red tide is an unfortunate fact of life on Mexico’s Pacific coast.

The system is rated for 38 gallons an hour, but after the two membranes failed in our first season, the manufacturer (EchoTec) kindly replaced them with high capacity membranes, so now we fill a gallon jug in 63 seconds.  It’s quite thrilling to watch.  Shower water, toilet water and deck cleaning water all go into our holding tanks (140 gallons), but we keep our drinking water in gallon jugs as a habit held over from living in our trailer.

Mark hated the watermaker the first year.  It was a bear to install due to inaccurate manuals, incomplete parts shipped to us, and difficult positions for the various parts in the boat.  Plus, installation required fabricating a bracket to hang the high pressure pump from the engine.

To top it all off, the first membranes we received were dead on arrival.  Then the replacement set failed after four months!  Now, however, with great, working membranes, the watermaker is his pride and joy (“I want to keep it even if we sell the boat someday!” he joked recently).  It is his favorite part of the boat.

cruising mexico in a sailboat EchoTech watermaker

EchoTec’s main watermaker panel. At 800 psi the system pegs at 60 gph.

sailing mexico watermaker installation

Mark runs a hose to the deck to wash it down as we make water

The purity of the water is measured by a TDS meter (“total dissolved solids”), and we found the San Diego water supply at our son’s apartment got readings of 350, and the FDA limit is 500.  Our watermaker usually gives us readings between 75 and 95.

Most boats our size have systems that convert 6-13 gallons an hour.  However, we’ve found the 60-gallon-an-hour flow is fast enough to be able to wash the deck and cockpit with a hose run out a hatch.  This is a real boon at the end of a salty crossing or after sitting in a dusty area for a while.  So, making water and/or washing the cockpit/deck is often on our day’s to-do list.

sailing mexico watermaker 60 gph

60 gallons per hour gives a good flow

Then there’s food.  We are simple eaters, so our diet is pretty plain by most standards.  In Mexico we’ve discovered many familiar foods can be found on store shelves, even if the packaging is in Spanish.

The most common bread available in Mexico is “Bimbo Bread,” which is equivalent to our Wonder Bread.  But it turns out that Mexico’s Bimbo Bakeries actually owns the US brands Oroweat, Arnold, Thomas’s English Muffins and many others.

ex-pat living in mexico buying bread

Oroweat Bread is owned by Mexico’s Bimbo Bakeries

We’ve found Oroweat breads in most supermarkets in Mexico, and the price of around $3 to $3.50 USD is comparable to home.

Mexico cruising ex-pat living cereal

“Azucaradas” sounds & looks like kids’ sugar cereal

mexico cruising sailing blog living aboard quaker cereal

 

It helps to learn some of the basic food terms in Spanish: “avena” (oatmeal), “integral” (whole wheat), “grano entero” (whole grain), “pasas” (raisins) and “azucar” (sugar) are a few.  So when you see a cereal called “Azucaradas” with a crazy, wild zebra on it, you can tell it’s probably a sugar cereal for kids!

In this age of jet-setting food, we’re used to seeing tomatoes from Mexico in the supermarkets in the US, but what a surprise to find Washington apples here in Mexico as well as organically grown California spinach.

 

California organic Spinach is imported into Mexico

Did this spinach bring a passport?

This spinach was a bit wilted (it’s a long flight for a little leaf!), and the price was $6 USD a box. But it’s available.

Bean burritos are a common dinner aboard Groovy.  They’re yummy, easy to make and don’t take a lot of ingredients.  But I was amused when I asked our friend Andrés from southern Mexico if he’d like a bean burrito, and he responded, “Is that an American dish or a Mexican one?”  What we always thought of as being so very Mexican isn’t really…

cruising mexico sailing blog living aboard movies

Matt Damon & Scarlett Johansson – We’ll take it!

At night we often settle in with a movie.  TV reception is non-existent on the boat, but the bootleg DVD industry is alive and well in Mexico.  DVD’s are sold on the street for 20 to 30 pesos apiece ($1.60-$2.40 USD).  The titles often have no resemblance to the English titles, so you go by the actors’ names and hope for the best.  Who knows what this one is, but with Matt Damon and Scarlett Johansson, it oughtta be okay!

Mexico cruising living aboard a sailboat in Huatulco Mexico

Groovy is happily anchored off a lovely resort in Tangolunda Bay, Huatulco

 

 

 

 

So we live rather simply, floating in a tub on the ocean and washing our clothes in the sink!  It’s a crazy life, but lately it has been fabulous.

 

 

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Other blog posts that give a glimpse of what it’s like to live on a sailboat:

More funny stories from our Mexico cruise + Tips for planning your own sailing cruise

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San Juan Mountains Colorado – And then it Snowed!

October, 2014 – When we first arrived in the Ridgway/Ouray area in Colorado, the aspen trees were just beginning their autumn golden glow. As the days passed, their colors intensified until we were surrounded by a vibrant mass of yellow set against a rich blue sky. Autumn is the harbinger of winter, though, and before long we found ourselves in the middle of a snowstorm. We have never been in a snowstorm in our RV, and it was quite exciting — and very surprising, as it was still early October.

Fifth wheel RV Ridgway Colorado fall foliage

Before…

5th wheel RV Ridgway Colorado snow storm

…during…

Fifth wheel trailer in the snow in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado

…After!

Million Dollar Highway Route 550 with snow Colorado

The “Million Dollar Highway” becomes a winter wonderland.


The snow fell steadily around us, and slowly a gossamer veil of white settled on our world.

There was enough of the white stuff to stick around awhile, and when we finally emerged out of the fifth wheel, the amber woods had become a winter wonderland trimmed in white lace.

We tip-toed around in total awe of the scene and took our cameras out for a drive along the Million Dollar Highway.

If it’s possible, the landscapes were even more beautiful now than before.

Aspens in autumn with snow in Colorado

Peaches and cream!

The snow on the orange aspen trees looked like peaches and cream, and the stately evergreens added dramatic accents here and there.

We were here because our friend Nasim Mansurov was conducting a photography workshop. One of the highlights was meeting John Sherman, a professional bird and wildlife photographer who was an instructor at the workshop.

He lives in a custom built Class C motorhome full-time, and as we tromped around in the snow the first morning after the snow storm, he suddenly appeared between the trees.

Evergreens and aspen in Colorado autumn snow

Gorgeous scenery all around.

He was shooting birds that morning, of course, rather than snowy landscapes, and he was using a staggeringly long 800 mm telephoto lens (yes, gasp, that price is correct, lol! Merry Christmas, anyone?!).

The darn thing is so big that the lens mounts directly onto the tripod (usually the body of the camera is what sits on top of a tripod). I just had to get a photo of him with this thing! See the tiny camera body on the end of it?

Pro Photographer John Sherman

John “Verm” Sherman and his LENS!

He ended up getting some wonderful photos of tiny birds high in the trees that we didn’t even know were there!

In the following days we got to know John a little bit.

Photographer taking photos in Colorado fall foliage

We were almost in a daze as we walked around taking photos.

He has shot two back covers for Arizona Highways magazine as well as some full page and two-page photos on the inside. How cool is that?!

He also writes for PhotographyLife.com and his posts are written with a wry sense of humor that always makes us chuckle.

Fall colors with snow in Ouray Colorado

The spectacular colors seemed even more-so after the snow.

His girlfriend Dawn Kish also shoots for Arizona Highways and has had more front cover photos on that beautiful magazine in the last five years than any other photographer.

Good Lord!! We were keeping some pretty illustrious company — way out of our league! — but we were learning lots and having a blast at the same time.

One evening John and Nasim did a critique of students’ photos, and it was a fascinating exchange between the two of them and each student as they went over the highlights and flaws in each photo.

Travel trailer in snowy Colorado mountains

This was cold camping, but oh so pretty!

Everyone in the room was able to see how a slight adjustment here or there would have transformed a good photo into a great one. Many photos, of course, were fabulous already and just got big nods of approval all around.

Out here in this newly snowy world, we were loving hanging around with a full-time RVer who shares our fascination with photography.

A deer by our trailer

This deer visited our trailer many times.

John is a rock climber as well, and was Senior editor of Climbing Magazine for years. He’s also written several popular books about climbing and bouldering.

Here’s a link to some of his very impressive work. Wow!!

This was a cold world up here at nearly 10,000 feet in the Rocky Mountains, but the wildlife was plentiful.

One night we listened to elk bugling all around us as we laid in bed. We didn’t see any during the day, but their high pitched calls filled the night air.

We did spot a little deer who hung around our trailer in the mornings and evenings for few days. We both marveled that he could manage all winter in this freezing climate.

Autumn leaves in snow

The bushes and trees hung onto their colorful leaves in the first snow.

He didn’t have an ounce of fat on him, and the fur coats that deer wear are not very thick!

Before the snowfall, he had come by our trailer one evening, munching the grass between the aspen. It was way too dark to get a photo of him, so we watched him quietly from our spot by our window.

After getting his fill of grass, suddenly he lowered himself to the ground and folded his legs under his body.

His ears twitched as he listened to all the night sounds growing around us. Every movement we made in the rig made his ears turn our way.

The night got darker and darker and he stayed put in his little spot.

Golden aspen in the San Juan Mountains in Colorado

If you have a chance to go to Colorado in autumn, do it!!

Snowy mountains and fall leaves in Colorado

An amber window on a snowy world.

Before long his head began to droop lower and lower, and in no time he had fallen asleep, right next to our fifth wheel trailer!

We were absolutely delighted. We had a special neighbor — and a trusting one.

When we got up in the morning he was gone, but the long grasses were all flattened out where he had made his bed for the night.

This was a magical time in every way. The colors on the trees were still vibrant, and the snow was a brilliant white in the sun.

Golden path near Ridgway Colorado

Treading down a golden path.

 

For a few days the trees and bushes hung onto their leaves tightly, cradling the snow that had fallen.

The photography workshop came to an end and everyone disbanded, but we couldn’t tear ourselves away from the beautiful San Juan Mountains.

We wandered down dirt paths and drove up and down the highways, catching each view in different lighting as the days passed.

A second snow storm covered us in another frosty blanket of white

 

Red Mountain Pass Colorado

Looking up towards Red Mountain Pass.

When we drove through the town of Ouray, we noticed that almost all the RV parks that had been full to overflowing two weeks earlier were now virtually empty.

The red “No Vacancy” signs on the hotels had changed to “Vacancy,” and the outdoor bar on the second floor of the Ouray Brewery that had been packed every afternoon since we’d first arrived was now empty.

It seemed like we were the last visitors in town! And no wonder — it was freezing cold.

In fact, when the snow fell the first night and into the next day, we were so focused on trying to stay warm that we didn’t really think about the other systems in our rig.

 

Fall colors in Colorado with a starburst from the sun

Mark does some starburst magic in the late afternoon sun.

Suddenly, near the end of the day, Mark gave me a lopsided smile and said, “You know, our solar panels haven’t charged one bit all day long.”

Huh? Oh, right, they were covered in snow!!

Oops!! He scampered up on the roof and found there was well over an inch of snow on top of them.

We had been running our electricity-hungry RV furnace almost non-stop all day, because the 10,000′ elevation was so high that our vent-free heater would run for only an hour or so before the oxygen detection sensor shut it off due to lack of oxygen.

Colorado Mountain stream with snow in autumn

Just beautiful…

Unfortunately, the furnace could barely keep up, and we were in shade until late morning. So, the batteries needed a little boost!

For the second time this season, Mark fired up the Yamaha 2400i generator to save the day and charge the batteries.

Motorhome on Colorado's Million Dollar Highway in snow

After the snow, the RVs left for warmer places!

The truly amazing thing about this underused generator is that, despite the cold, it started on the first pull, and it ran beautifully for the bulk of two days while we lived through this mini Arctic blast.

We don’t use that thing very often, and we sometimes regret the space it takes up in our rig as we chauffeur it around, but it sure comes in handy at times!

After the second snowfall, we sadly watched the colorful leaves fade to their winter shades. They began to fall from the trees like rain every time the wind blew. It was time to go! We packed up the buggy and headed up and over the Million Dollar Highway one last time — with 14,100 lbs of house in tow!

For more info on this stunningly gorgeous area, check out these links:

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A Mobile RV Service Directory – in a Free App!

Go Mechanic Home Page

Go Mechanic app home page

You just never know what will happen when you go to a bar. The other day Mark and I joined our friend Ron at a local favorite hangout for a beer, and suddenly the guy next to Ron said, “Hey, check out this app!”

We all leaned over to look at his smartphone. As he passed it around, he went on to explain: “It’s a mobile service app for cars, RVs and boats. If you need work done on your vehicle, or an oil change or detailing, or even new tires, you can get a mobile service guy to come out to you, wherever you are, with just one click.”

Wow. What a cool idea! It’s a speed dial directory for mobile service providers.

It turned out that this app is called Go Mechanic, and the guy showing it to us was Brent Stanphill, the visionary behind it.

Go Mechanic RV Mechanic

Find an RV Mechanic within 50 miles
based on either your phone’s GPS
or a zip code you enter.

He told us you can download the app for free at both Google Play and the iTunes Store, and before we knew it, everyone at the bar was downloading it!

The bartender was saying, “Man, I could have used this two weeks ago when my car died.”

A woman near me was asking Brent, “Can I really get someone to come to my office and do an oil change while I’m at work?”

Brent grinned, “Yes!”

Go Mechanic Select a Mobile RV Service Provider

RV Mechanic listing on speed dial!

The app locates all the mobile service providers within a 50 mile radius of either the GPS location of your phone or a zip code you enter.

This way, if you aren’t sure where you are, it doesn’t matter. However, if you need service and you aren’t standing next to your RV, you can simply enter the zip code of where the RV is located.

Mobile services are a growing trend, and this cool app is making it easy for service providers and customers to get together.

A few months ago I wrote an article about a couple of full-time RVers who have been providing mobile RV repair services for decades, and I was floored at the high level of professionalism in their business.

One look inside Phil’s mobile workshop proved that he was a skilled mechanic who had all the tools and spare parts necessary to tackle any RV repair job, from a broken awning to a finicky slide mechanism, to installing a complete solar power system on the roof of an RV.

Mobile RV Repair provider's mobile workshop

Phil & Ann Botnick have a fully stocked RV repair workshop on wheels.

Brent told us that many of the providers in his directory work from converted trucks (like Phil’s) that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to construct.

Whether they are oil change providers, vehicle detailers, RV repair specialists or tire providers, these are serious businesses, not fly-by-night hacks.

Across the country, a growing group of quality mechanics is recognizing the need we all have in our busy lives to find service people who can bring their skills to us. They have set up their mobile workshops with everything they need to do excellent work.

Interior of a mobile oil change van

Inside the van of a mobile oil change provider

And as serious businessmen, they see the value in this app.

Rather than paying for old fashioned advertising in the Yellow Pages, they pay a nominal fee for a premium listing in the Go Mechanic directory that comes complete with a link to their web page and reviews from customers.

And that’s how Go Mechanic makes it possible for customers to download this app for free. How clever!

I instantly wanted to help Brent get the word out to the RVing community. This could be a real game changer for us!

Instead of hunting down an RV service repair shop and figuring out where to stay while your RV is in for repair, why not have the mechanics and detailers come to you?!

What could be better than having your rolling home detailed while you’re out sightseeing? Or getting that niggling problem with the generator fixed or the oil changed without having to drive the big beast to an RV repair shop somewhere?

Interior of a mobile mechanic van providing tire replacement service

Mobile tire service and sales (including balancing!) is a growing trend!

Besides the convenience of not having to take your RV in to the shop, it would be awesome to have this directory at your fingertips if you had a major problem that left you stranded on the side of the road.

As we chatted more about Go Mechanic, Brent told me that it is one of handful of companies selected to participate in the new LaunchPoint incubator program at Arizona State University for innovative technology startups.

Major media outlets have also taken notice, and the folks at Fox12 News in Phoenix Arizona jumped on the chance to do a segment about the app.

Watch this fun Fox12 News video clip here!

As one of the guys on Fox12 News said, “Brilliant!”

Mobile oil change repair service

Have your oil changed without sitting around in a waiting room!

I asked Brent how he got the idea for the Go Mechanic app.

He told me that a few years ago his parents were planning to drive across country in a used car they had just bought at auction.

Being a very good and concerned son, he assembled a list of all the mobile mechanics he could find along their route.

As he handed them the list, he suddenly realized what a valuable resource it was, not just to his parents but to anyone out on the road.

His ingenious idea has flourished since then, and the Go Mechanic app is being rolled out nationwide with special focus on the RV hot spots of Arizona, Florida and California.

Go Mechanic Mobile vehicle service provider app

A clever new app!

If you have a smartphone or a tablet, download it and check it out.  If you’ve never enjoyed the convenience of mobile service, give it a try!

For more information, visit these links:

 

 

New to this site? Visit our Home page to read more about our full-time traveling lifestyle and our Intro for RVers to find out where we keep all the good stuff. If you like what you see, we'd love for you to subscribe to receive our latest posts!

Learning the Ropes at J-World Sailing School

Caribbean Dinghy

Dreaming of the tropics…

We’ve recently enjoyed a bit of nostalgia, courtesy of J-World Sailing School.

Before we bought our sailboat Groovy and went cruising in Mexico — in fact, even before we bought our first travel trailer and drove off to a life of adventure on the road — we enrolled in two classes at J-World in San Diego that put us on the course to our new lifestyles.

We had both sailed before, Mark on Hobie catamarans on Michigan lakes, and I on boats of all sizes in the Atlantic Ocean.

 

Nonsuch 36 sailboat

A Nonsuch 36, sistership to “Magic Dragon,” my home for 4 years in Boston.

In fact, at one time I had lived aboard a wishbone-rigged Nonsuch 36 (something like an enormous windsurfer with an elegant cabin) in Boston Harbor for four years.

What a ride that was — 3 months a year of blissful weekend cruising in New England and 9 months a year of frozen fingers and toes!.

When we decided to leave convention behind and see something of this beautiful world, our initial dream was to do it by sea, and we both realized we needed to improve our boating skills if we were going to do that and come out alive.

 

Sailing a Hunter 44DS sailboat

Happy sailor!

There are many sailing schools in almost every state, and most follow one of two track systems for teaching sailing: the American Sailing Association system and the US Sailing system.

We looked into sailing schools in our area, but they were all just Learn to Sail classes on lakes. We needed instruction on handling a large cruising boat on the ocean too.

We also thought about flying to the Caribbean for a week or two of instruction, but as lovely as a class at Offshore Sailing School in the BVI can be, it was cost prohibitive.

 

Sailing at sunset near Acapulco Mexico

Underway aboard Groovy near Acapulco Mexico

Our solution was to take two back-to-back classes at J-World in San Diego, and what a great decision that turned out to be.

J-World teaches the US Sailing curriculum, and they offered a four day Learn to Sail class followed by a three day Liveaboard Cruising class.

Even though I had had formal sailing instruction before, I had no trouble going back to square one and learning it all again.

That way Mark and I would be on an even keel with each other, and we would both have heard the same words of wisdom and learned the same methods and techniques.

Sailing a Hunter 44DS in Mexico

We have great memories of our cruise in Mexico

Another draw for me was the kind of boat they used for their Liveaboard class. It was a J-120, a boat that intrigued me.

The biggest decision for most sailors before they cast off on their cruise is what kind of boat to buy.

This debate had rattled around in my own mind for decades (this cruising dream went back to my childhood).

 

On the deck of our Hunter 44DS sailboat

They didn’t teach this sailing technique at J-World,
but it’s easy to learn!

My very first boat had been a 5′ long plastic skiff when I was a little kid. Despite my mom’s insistance that I stay within her view from the beach, I had rowed that thing long distances.

I had taken it far from view, imagining myself a skipper on the vast ocean, fighting off pirates and communing with seabirds.

The conventional wisdom among old salts is that a big, heavy, solid, “seaworthy” boat is what you need for a proper cruising adventure.

But a yacht broker in Marblehead Massachusetts who had circumnavigated as a young adult had convinced me decades ago that a boat that sails well and sails fast in light air is a really great choice.

Of course, there is no “right” or “wrong” boat for cruising.

Friends of ours who sailed from San Diego to Mexico and on to the South Pacific have regaled us with tales of cruisers that are out there on all kinds of floating tubs.

Paradise Village Marina in Puerto Vallarta Mexicoat dawn

Paradise Village Marina at dawn.

From multi-million dollar yachts to the Norwegian couple who has no plumbing at all on their boat (which means, of course, no head since leaving Norway!!), sailors cruise in anything that floats.

But I like the idea of a boat that is a joy to sail in light air, and the J/Boats line of racing/cruising yachts had fascinated me for years.

When I lived on the Nonsuch I dreamed of a J-40.  When a newer model J/Boat in that size was built — the J-120 — my dream got an upgrade!

So, when I saw that J-World’s Liveaboard class was conducted on a J-120, that cinched the sailing class deal for me.

Not only did I get to see the boat in action, both under sail and as a living platform, but Mark and I both received absolutely top notch instruction from two different teachers.

One instructor made sure we could maneuver under sail on and off the docks and in and around a crowded anchorage, and the other ensured we understood the operation of a large cruising boat.

Sunrise in Santiago Bay Mexico

Sunrise in Santiago Bay near Manzanillo

Now that we are J-World alumni, we receive their newsletters. 

When one came a few weeks ago, Mark decided to reach out and let the school know how their classes had launched us into the cruising lifestyle.

They were delighted to hear from us and wanted to know more about our experiences in Mexico.

We exchanged a few emails, and then they decided to highlight our story on their blog. What fun!!

Thank you, J-World, for your terrific instruction and for being our first stepping stone into a life afloat!
 

 

New to this site? Visit our Home Page to learn more about us, and see our Intro for Cruisers to find out where we keep all the good stuff, including tips for planning your cruise to Mexico, our Solar Power pages, and our ideas for outfitting your boat.

Escapees Magazine Feature Article: “Flame On!”

Flame On and Install a Vent-free Propane Heater in your RV

Escapees Magazine – November/December 2014
“Flame On! – Installing a vent-free heater”
By: Emily & Mark Fagan

The November/December 2014 issue of Escapees Magazine is featuring our article, “Flame On! Installing a Vent-Free Heater.”

Followers of this site have seen our recent post about choosing a heater and installing it in an RV, and here we are writing about it again. Are these heaters really that great? In a word, Yes!

Even in a “warm” place like Arizona, it is very different living in an RV than in a house, and we were surprised by just how frozen we were our first winter.

An RV furnace can keep a lot of the chill off, but if you really want to be warm, a vent-free heater will give you even more heat while using less propane and less electricity.

Some folks worry about the safety of these gas appliances, and this article goes into some detail about why you shouldn’t be nervous. If you are handy, the installation is straight forward. If not, of if you don’t want a permanent installation, there are portable options as well. And if you want a cozy look, they even build them into fireplace mantels!

Escapees Magazine is a wonderful and very informative RV magazine geared towards people who live in RVs long term. It is the membership magazine for the Escapees RV Club which is unique among RV organizations because it offers such a wide variety of programs for its members.

From discount RV parks to mail forwarding services in three states to advocacy work on behalf of all RVers to bootcamp programs that teach new RVers how to live this lifestyle, it is a club that has something for everyone.  The Club even has special interest groups for RVers, nicknamed “Birds of a Feather” groups (BOFs).  These range from Photographers (a group we are part of) to Beaders to Birders to folks who like to RV in the Buff!!

Plus – they have kindly allowed us to share our article here:

Flame On! Installing a Vent-Free Heater

For more info and a step-by-step installation guide with photos, visit our blog post here:

How to Select and Install a Vent-Free Propane Heater

Feel like doing a little easy reading? Our other magazine feature articles and cover photos here:

Published Work by Emily & Mark Fagan

 

 

New to this site? Visit our Home page to read more about our full-time traveling lifestyle and our Intro for RVers to find out where we keep all the good stuff. If you like what you see, we'd love for you to subscribe to receive our latest posts!

RV Trip on Colorado’s Million Dollar Highway – Ouray to Silverton

Red Mountain Pass near Ouray Colorado

The Million Dollar Highway

October, 2014 – We were loving our stay amid the golden aspen of Ouray, Colorado, where every view we saw in every direction we turned was a true jaw-dropper. Our cameras were going non-stop.

Ouray sits in a valley surrounded by mountains with a narrow ribbon of highway running through it.

This highway, US Route 550, is a part of the San Juan Skyway, a breathtaking scenic loop drive that takes in some of the best mountain views that Colorado has to offer.

 

A fifth wheel RV starts over Red Mountain Pass in Colorado

A fifth wheel takes in the views

Swinging through Telluride, Ridgway, Silverton and Durango, the San Juan Skyway winds all through the mountains, soaring over the peaks and dropping down into the valleys.

A motorcycle drives the Million Dollar Highway in Colorado

This is great motorcycle country!

When it gets to Ouray, drivers headed south are at the starting point of one of the most spectacular 25 miles stretches of road in America.

Nicknamed the Million Dollar Highway, the views are worth every penny (lol)!

The origin of this name is uncertain, but it may have come about because it was thought that a million dollars’ worth of gold dust was in the gravel and dirt that was used to build the road in the late 1800’s. Or, the name may have come from the cost of paving the highway in the 1930’s.

Million Dollar Highway Route 550 near Ouray Colorado

Million Dollar Views on the Million Dollar Highway

If those stories aren’t the real source of the name, there is also a joke that perhaps this gorgeous bit of road got its nickname from an early traveler who, wide-eyed with terror, exclaimed, “I wouldn’t go that way again if you paid me a million dollars!”

Really? Oh yes, indeed!

The views along this road are beyond stunning, but you’ve gotta steel your nerves when you drive it, especially if you are in the passenger seat heading south from Ouray to Silverton.

Nevermind the beauty. This road is one of the most hair raising and dangerous highways in America.

Fall Colors on the Million Dollar Highway near Silverton Colorado

As we approached Silverton the aspens were ablaze!

As we drove it the first time, we both kept saying “WOW” the whole way.

Half of those “wows” were because the scenery was so incredible. But half of them were because of the utterly sheer and totally unprotected drop-offs that fell away from the truck’s right tires, falling hundreds of feet straight down to a chasm below my door!

We stopped a few times at various pullouts and peered over the edge.

OMG. At one spot we saw an upside down car way at the bottom of the gorge below us!

Scary drive on Million Dollar Highway Colorado

Some consider this road among the most dangerous of America’s highways.

Yikes! Lord knows if it was from a fatal crash or if kids had rolled a car off the highway to watch it fall.

Over the decades I’m sure both of those things have happened!

Yet, frightening as this drive can be for first-timers, semi-tractor trailers traverse it all the time, climbing up and over the three mountain passes that lie between Ouray and Durango, Colorado.

I’m not sure that we ever saw any trucks hauling super heavy loads, but Freightliners and their like made up a significant percentage of the traffic on this narrow twisty road.

Colorado Red Mountain Pass in the rain

It’s certainly intimidating when the weather gets ugly!!

This gave us heart, because we were planning, at the end of our stay, to take our fifth wheel over this road.

We ended up driving the Million Dollar Highway and its highest summit, Red Mountain Pass (at 11,000+ feet), many times during our two week stay, because the peak of the fall foliage color was happening all up and down its wild walls.

So we got to know the many twists and turns and scary parts of the road.

When the weather turned nasty for a few days, and the road got soaking wet, the clouds dropped into the canyon and filled it with fog, and the rain fell in blinding torrents on our truck. At least we knew what lay ahead!

Motorcycles riding from Silverton to Ouray Colorado

On a sunny fall day, this is motorcycle heaven!

But on beautiful sunny days this is a drive people come from miles around to enjoy.

We watched lines of touring motorcycles, groups of shiny new Ferraris, and even a caravan of rental RVs out for a scenic drive on this thrilling road.

After crossing over the summit of Red Mountain Pass, the road begins to descend towards Silverton, and the fall colors jumped out at us from all sides.

Then the valley opened up, and Silverton lay before us, a tiny town with a big mining history.

Silverton Colorado

Silverton is one super cute Colorado mountain town.

Durango to Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad

The Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad is a fun stream train ride.

Once home to 1,100 people (in the late 1880’s) when the nearby silver and gold mines were flourishing, Silverton houses just 500 or so hardy souls today.

Tourists love it, and it is a great spot to spend an afternoon or a few days.

The Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railway is one of the biggest attractions, and we saw it in the distance, chugging up into the valley under a thick cloud of black smoke that trailed off behind it.

 

Western Photography in Silverton Colorado

Not only is the town photogenic, but it’s a great place for western-themed portraits.

This railroad was built in 1882, and it carried both mining supplies and tourists right from the get-go.

Today it carries only tourists, and it is a major attraction in the area.

40+ years ago in the early 1970’s, one of the train’s brakemen had a younger brother that was an avid cyclist, and one day they challenged each other to a train/bike race up the mountain from Durango to Silverton.

The cyclist bested his brother on the train, and the Iron Horse Cycling Classic was born.

 

Family readies for western photo shoot

A family get ready for a western photo session.

Now the Iron Horse is a huge affair with pro cyclists, recreational riders, volunteers and sponsors of all kinds participating.

Their website gives the annual race results for each group of cyclists that competes, but the one thing I couldn’t figure out was: how did the train do?!

No matter how you get to Silverton, by car, train or bicycle, this town is a great stopover.

It’s very photogenic, with colorful old buildings lining the dirt streets that are set against a vivid mountain backdrop.

Photographers set up western-themed photo shoots for tourists too, and we watched a family getting set up for a fun photo.

 

Old mining houses on the Million Dollar Highway Colorado

There are old mining ruins and old homesteads all over the place.

Two little girls donned big flower hats and long dresses, and a little boy hugged a bottle of whiskey while his brothers brandished rifles. Mom had a pistol, and the baby wore chaps. What a hoot!

Of course, it’s one thing to dress up like old times and have a meal at one of the western themed restaurants in town.

It’s a whole different thing to have lived here in the mining camps 100+ years ago.

An RV descends Red Mountain Pass near Ouray Colorado

The Million Dollar Highway can be negotiated by the biggest rigs on the highway — if you dare!

The ruins of both the mines and the homes are scattered among these mountains, and it is startling to picture that life.

Living at 10,000 feet in remote mountains where snow comes in early October (and sometimes sooner) must have been an unbelievable challenge.

What’s worse, the mining companies didn’t care a lick about safety. Falling down a mine shaft or having the whole mine collapse on your head were accepted risks that were just part of the job.

In 1918, Silverton was brought to its knees by the influenza epidemic. A staggering 10% of the population died in a six week period.

More recently, a rock slide in January, 2014, brought the town to its knees once again. Route 550 was suddenly impassable, and the town was cut off from its main supply route to the north.

A motorhome on the San Juan Skyway in Colorado

Just keep your eyes on the road (hah!)

The few vehicles that made it to Silverton had to drive nearly 500 miles out of their way to get there.

But hardships of remote mountaintop living aside, it was the gold and silver of yesteryear and the majestic scenery of today that put and keeps this area on the map.

For all the grittiness of the mining life in these mountains, I imagine that when the miners found a spare moment to soak in the scenery, it was as precious to them in those days as it is to us today.

Red stone lined stream and Colorado autumn color

The scenery here inspired us for weeks.

Back out on the road heading back to Ouray, we saw lots of big RVs navigating the hairpin turns on the Million Dollar Highway.

I had looked for info on taking an RV on this road in some of the online RV forums, and lots of people had said there was no way they would ever take a big rig on this road.

But many people do it, and we never saw anyone having trouble. Driving it a few times in a smaller vehicle first definitely helps!

 
 

Prior to towing our 14,000 lb. trailer over these passes, we installed an Edge Evolution Diesel Tuner on our truck to give it a little more power, and it worked great! (Our installation of this engine tuner is described here).

Fall color at a lake near Ouray Colorado

Fall color at Crystal Lake near Ouray.

For more info about this glorious drive and the Silverton area, check out these links:

Scenic Roads and Drives:

Silverton Area Attractions:

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Related posts about Colorado’s spectacular fall color and where to see it:

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Ouray – Finding the COLOR in Colorado on an RV Trip!

Classic western store fronts in Ouray Colorado

Ouray, Colorado, is a classic western mountain town.

September, 2014 – Continuing our journey south through Colorado, we left the rugged Black Canyon of the Gunnison and traveled on to the classic Rocky Mountain town of Ouray (pronounced “you-ray”).

This tiny town of just 1,000 people is tucked into a valley that is nestled in the clouds at nearly 7,800 feet, and it is surrounded on all sides by mountain peaks that soar into the sky.

We first discovered Ouray fifteen years prior to this year’s visit on a tent camping trip long before we were RVers.  We promptly fell in love with the town and the entire area around it.

We hadn’t been back since that first visit, and we were delighted to find that not much has changed.

 

Ouray Colorado is a cute mountain town

Home to just 1,000 residents, Ouray is a charming mountain town.

Even the barista at the cute coffee shop and chocolatier called Mouse’s Chocolates & Coffee confirmed that in the dozen or so years she’d been in town things have remained pretty much as they were.

That’s a rare thing in the popular western states, and it’s a good thing there hasn’t been a huge press for growth, because there is absolutely no room for this town to grow.

Sheer mountains frame every view in every direction, and the streets on the edges of town turn sharply upward.

 

Victorian house in Ouray Colorado

Most of Ouray’s architecture dates to the turn of the last century.

The town fills the whole little valley, and the town’s dirt streets that are away from the main drag are wonderful proof that progress is taking its time here.

Settled as a base for miners working the thirty or so gold and silver mines in the nearby mountains, Ouray was home 1,000 residents way back in 1877 too.

An RV in the golden aspen of Colorado

What a place to go RVing!

From 1887 until 1930 the Denver & Rio Grande Railway brought people and goods to and from Ridgway 10 miles to the north.

Today the town boasts beautiful architecture on the main street with wonderful Victorians dotting the view.

Orange Aspen in autumn in Colorado

The aspen trees were a brilliant orange.

For us and for many fall visitors, the real draw to Ouray, which many call the “Switzerland of the Rockies,” is the stunning visual drama of the fall foliage season.

Two years ago we attended a photography workshop in the Ridgway/Telluride area put on by the incomparable Nasim Mansurov of PhotographyLife.com, a massively popular website.

At the workshop we were blown away by the brightly colored aspen that blanketed the mountainsides beneath the gray craggy peaks on the Dallas Divide.

Nasim is a very unusual person.  Born and raised in Uzbekistan, he is gifted with that special kind of charisma and leadership ability that have ensured him a massive following (in the hundreds of thousands), not just for his photography blog but in past years when he led an online forum dedicated to Central Asian students studying abroad. To see just how unique he is, read his inspiring essay on why he traded a hugely successful corporate career for a simpler life doing what he loves. As you enjoy his eloquent writing, note that English is his second language!.

When we discovered he was offering his fall foliage workshop in the Ouray area again this year, we rearranged our travel plans to get us there in plenty of time.

Mother Nature did not disappoint.

Bright orange aspen trees in Colorado

Driving these mountain roads was sheer delight.

When we arrived in Ouray, the mountains were on fire — not with smoky wildfires but ablaze with the brilliant reds and golds and oranges that transform Colorado’s aspen trees in autumn.

Arriving a few days ahead of time, we eagerly explored the spectacular scenic drive that heads south from town on Route 550.

After negotiating a series of incredibly steep 180 degree switchbacks that made us feel like we were driving skyward into a kaleidoscope of yellow and orange, the road skirted some very sheer cliffs and delivered us to Crystal Lake.

Reflections at Crystal Lake near Ouray Colorado_

Crystal Lake reflects the puffy clouds and vivid colors of the mountains

This small lake was as still as glass in the morning hours, and we circled around the entire body of water, checking out the awe-inspiring views from every vantage point.

I’ve become very fond of photographing reflected images in mirrored water, and I’ve made the most of the scenes we found in Grand Teton National Park Wyoming and Maroon Bells Colorado.

Crystal Lake gave us the same kinds of fun photo ops and totally delighted us both.

 

A hint of autumn at Crystal Lake near Ouray CO

A few wildflowers were still in bloom at Crystal Lake.

The mirror images of the white clouds hovered on the surface of the water while the rocks that were totally visible on the bottom showed their faces through the crystal clear water too.

The golden aspens had just started to color the shoreline, and as the weeks went on during our stay, all the hillsides around the lake soon took on a bright yellow and rich orange hue.

A few straggling wildflowers were still blooming at the water’s edge.  I’m sure if we’d been there a few weeks earlier they would have been even thicker.

Crystal Lake and Adams Mountain

There is beautiful scenery every way you turn!

Mirrored water at Crystal Lake near Ouray Colorado

I got a kick out of getting reflection shots at this lake.

The spectacular fall foliage season in Colorado is hardly an unknown phenomenon, and we found ourselves in plenty of company as we repeatedly drove this jaw-dropping drive over the coming weeks.

From iPhones held out car windows to photographers with huge cameras and tripods, everyone was out and about taking photos in the abundant sunshine and even more abundant color.

As the road climbs into the mountains, taking one tight switchback turn after another, the views into the valleys become ever grander.

The Million Dollar Highway Route 550 neary Ouray Colorado

Is this a “scenic” drive? I think I would call it a “Knock Your Socks Off” drive!!

An artist and her husband with an umbrella

What a gentleman – he shaded his wife with his umbrella while she painted!

Not far from town we came across a couple standing on a bridge.

I did a double take as we passed because the guy was holding an umbrella.

Looking closer, I saw he was holding it over his wife’s head as she painted the river scene in front of her with oil paints and canvas on an easel.

It is crazy, but this is something like the fourth or fifth time we have run into “plein aire” artists painting out in nature this year.

 

Golden aspen in autumn

Mark captured this beautiful reverse silhouette of an aspen in autumn.

From Phoenix, Arizona to Sun Valley, Idaho, to the Tetons we keep stumbling upon artists happily recreating beautiful landscapes on their easels in nature.

I joked with the woman that she had found herself a very special husband if he would willingly stand next to her and hold an umbrella over her for hours on end, keeping her shaded while she painted.

“Isn’t he lovely?” She agreed. “I’m very lucky!”

Indeed!!

And he didn’t seem to mind one bit.

Autumn still-life in Colorado

A perfect still-life was all set up for me here.

The fall colors in Colorado can easily awaken the most artistic feelings in even the least sensitive soul, and we got caught up in the excitement of Nature’s vivid display along with everyone else.

Cars were pulled over at one hundred yard intervals for miles along the highway, and we scampered around the meadows with all the others, scoping out one magical scene after another.

Mark created a beautiful image of an aspen reverse-silhouetted against blackness, and I found the most amazing ready-made still-life with colorful leaves lying on a log.

 

Mark has stars in his eyes!

Starry-eyed with aspen leaves!

I didn’t put any of it in place there, honest!

The scenery was so majestic it was intoxicating.

Caught up in the thrill, Mark suddenly grabbed two aspen leaves and held them over his eyes.

“Take my picture!” He said.

I laughed as I got his pic. What a goof-ball.

But that’s the kind of silliness and joy this place inspires at this time of year!

A motorhome at the peak of fall foliage season near Ouray Colorado

Ouray is a gorgeous place to visit in late September and early October.

Colorful aspen in autumn

Sometimes we took pictures, but a lot of times we just stood and stared…

The host “hotel” for the PhotographyLife.com fall foliage photography workshop this year was the KOA campground in Ouray.

Nasim and his wife Lola are enthusiastic RVers, and they set up camp with their young family in their beautiful new 38′ Cougar fifth wheel trailer.

Other attendees came in assorted RVs, and many stayed in the KOA camping cabins as well.

The campground common room was quickly transformed into a lecture and seminar room, and people loaded down with eye popping photography gear of all kinds began to assemble.

Colorful view of golden aspen from our RV window

What a view to wake up to!

The weather in the mountains at this time of year is very unpredictable, and Nasim deftly got everyone out onto the spectacular forest roads in the area when the sun was shining and brought the group back indoors for lectures when it rained.

The mottled skies made for some beautiful photo ops, and no matter how many times we drove in and out of town or up and down the forest roads, our eyes were riveted on the gorgeous scenes all around us.

The trees seemed to change even as you looked at them, fading from lime green to the lemon yellow and darkening from yellow to a rich orange hue as the hours and days passed.

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This is an incredible area for an autumn RV road trip from late September through early October. There are several RV parks in Ouray in addition to the KOA. Just 14 miles away, lovely Ridgway State Park has hookups and sites for bigger rigs. For more information, visit these links:

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Related posts about Colorado’s spectacular fall color and where to see it:

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Beautiful Full-time Fifth Wheel Trailer – SOLD

2002 33' Custom Automate Fifth Wheel Trailer

2002 33′ Custom Automate Fifth Wheel Trailer
for sale for $19,500 in Montana.

We’ve just heard about an incredibly unusual and wonderful opportunity for anyone that is in the market for a high quality, boondocking-ready, full-timer’s fifth wheel trailer.

NOTE: This trailer has been SOLD!

Our good friends and RVing mentors decided to sell their beautiful fifth wheel trailer — and it has been SOLD.

Two slide-outs on the driver's side

There are two slide-outs on the driver’s side, one in the Living area and one in the Bedroom.

In 2002, after 18 years of owning and living in a variety of fifth wheel trailers (mostly NuWa Hitchhikers) as winter snowbird RVers in the southwest, the owners had this trailer CUSTOM BUILT for them by the fifth wheel manufacturer Automate. They have cared for it meticulously and truly lovingly ever since.

Fifth wheel kitchen

The kitchen has custom cabinetry with extra wide drawers.

Automate was one of the highest quality trailer brands of a decade or so ago.

These RVers are extremely knowledgeable and savvy, and when they decided to buy a custom trailer, they knew exactly what was needed for comfortable long-term living in a fifth wheel.

Kitchen in a 2002 33' Custom Automate 5th Wheel RV

10 cubic foot fridge

They oversaw the design and construction of their fifth wheel at the Automate plant, visiting the factory every day for weeks on end to ensure that everything was completed to their high standards.

They used the trailer for five to six months each winter in the southwestern states through the winter of 2012-13.

5th wheel RV dining area

Dinner with a view!

Completely outfitted for long-term boondocking, it has four 6-volt wet cell batteries, 360 watts of solar panels on tilting brackets, a Heliotrope charge controller and 2500 watt inverter/charger. It also has a ceramic vent-free propane heater.

Fifth wheel RV interior

Boondocking-ready with solar panels and a vent-free heater.

There is also plenty of fresh water and holding tank capacity with 100 gallons of fresh water, two 50 gallon grey water tanks (kitchen/shower) and a 50 gallon black water holding tank.

5th wheel trailer bedroom and bathroom area

The layout has a separate shower/sink are and toilet room.

What we like most about this trailer is the light and airy feeling inside. Besides the plentiful and big white framed windows, there is a large skylight in the bedroom. The living room slide-out is very deep, and the rear end of the trailer has huge wrap-around windows.

5th wheel RV shower and vanity

Shower and vanity

Fifth wheel trailer cabinets, drawers and toilet room

Ample custom cabinets and toilet room

fifth wheel floorplan

This is the approximate floorplan (but NOT exact).
The main difference is the vanity is on the opposite side of the bedroom.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here’s a fun little bonus — you’ll be buying a trailer that has been on the cover of Coast to Coast magazine (the Spring 2012 issue) !!

Coast to Coast Cover Spring 2012

Spring 2012 Issue: “Arizona’s Best Kept Secrets – Treasures of Tonto National Forest”

 

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