And modus vivendi.
Here at home, the new, and old, umbrellas are both up.
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The fragments below are almost all AI; approach with due caution.
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CO-17/NM-17 (Cumbres Pass route) is indeed one of the least-traveled high passes in the Rockies:
–Traffic count – Probably fewer than 200 vehicles/day through the pass section
–Dispersed camping – National Forest Service manages the lands around the pass generously
–Water sources – Several creeks feed into the Rio Chama and Rio Grande below
–Season – Generally open May through October (check snow conditions at the pass in shoulder seasons)
And, for me this time on the recon, it began at Alamosa, culturally, and then of course at Antonito geographically.
Potentially, see also: Luzerne area along CO-17 south of Alamosa, river access, dispersed sites. And: anything about the Conejos River, which Route 17 tracks.
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Completely different thing in SW UT, the other side of the Escalante complex:
Brian Head & Southern Utah High Country
Dixie National Forest
The “Goldilocks” elevation – At 9,800 feet, it’s high enough to stay cool but doesn’t face the same extreme winter closure issues as 10,000+ foot Colorado passes.
Resupply without the pretension – Cedar City has a full Walmart, REI, hardware store, and grocery options at prices closer to Alamosa than Telluride.
Cedar Breaks National Monument – Right there at 10,000 feet (amphitheater formation similar to Bryce but less crowded), and the rim road gives you dozens of pull-offs for quick stops.
The Markagunt Plateau – This is the broader high plateau Brian Head sits on, extending into Dixie NF with endless dispersed camping opportunities at 8,500-10,000 feet.
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Back to my own voice:
“I’m all about solitude and communion with the natural instead of people. So I try to get as far off the beaten tracks as the rigs will let me, and I’m working on the utility systems on that rig (water, power) to allow me to stay out longer…”
UP north for the summer: We have the Alamosa-Concho corridor in our pockets now on the ‘east’ side. And, TBD, this Brian Head and Dixie thing to the west. There isn’t any need to run clear up to Riverton, WY, though there might be a desire anyway.
DOWN south for the winter: Currently, the ideal is Ajo, AZ, which is very warm (almost perpetually above freezing even on January nights), culturally vibrant, and superior in most every way to Quartzsite and the adjacent Long-term boondocking camps, except that they are dependably cheaper, and there is far less ICE and BP presence there. In a perfect world I’d be basing in Silver and abiding even further south into Mexico, but both of these things involve significant expense, and significant bureaucratic hassle. I remain open.
The current basecamp in Sandrock is conveniently equidistant to these migratory-pattern places: “Part of that means ‘spending’ less on heating and cooling. which is why I’m emphasizing places like the Conejos River country for summer trips, and places like Ajo, AZ for the winter.”
The biggest unanswered question for extended periods of seasonal migration remains: How many cats are left, and could they be mobilized too?
Seems kinda impractical, but not impossible.
Plus a bunch of other things, like accessing natural water and filtering it, but those are more solvable, and fun, and would make good content. (“Using a DIESEL HEATER For Cold Weather Truck Camping“)