Newbie 13 night car camping (lengthy w/pix)

[pbbelly]

Nights six through nine:

The primary goal of the trip was to attend the 22nd Circus Mexicus concert on the beach in Puerto Penasco Mexico. We could have rented a spot at the RV park (nothing more than a sandy parking lot with hookups that are elbow to elbow-not really suited for hammock camping) that is next to the concert venue, but we decided to stay in a nearby resort where we have stayed in the past. While the room was fitted with a decent king-sized bed, we opted to set up our hammocks on our 8th floor balcony...



I have to say that those were the absolute, hands down best nights' sleep that I have ever had the pleasure to experience. The temperature couldn't have been more perfect, the sound from the waves lapping at the shore was like a sweet lullaby, and the sea breeze gently rocked me all night long. Here was my view each morning when I woke up:







While in Mexico, a friend of ours took us to the Schuk Toak visitor's center in the Pinacate Biosphere-an amazing desert nature preserve near the Mexico/Arizona border. It was too hot to venture far, but we have plans to revisit and hang in their campground in a cooler season. I'm thinking we can just check our hammock gear as baggage and fly. The hammock stands weigh ~32lbs apiece and everything else is minimal. It would all easily fit in one duffle. Ah, but that is a different thread...



Night ten:

Once again we stayed in the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. We stayed a the campground near the visitor's center this time. It turned out that the tent camping portion of the campground was totally vacant, and having running water and a shower house was nice. After selecting our site, we took a drive around one of the scenic trails that are in the park. We had driven the other one twice in years past but had never driven the second one. They are both worthwhile is you ever visit the place. When we got back to the camp we found a Tahoe parked in the spot across from ours. I had looked at the tag on the post and it was old, faded and dated almost a month earlier, so I knew this had to be a new arrival. (I have to say the thought "in all of this whole, empty campground you had to pick a spot right across from ours?") It turned out to be a gentleman from Norway who was camping solo in his rental vehicle. He loves cacti and was there to take pictures. We had a very nice conversation and I was glad we met. I somehow managed to not get a picture of our camp, but here's a shot taken nearby:



That's all for this installment. More to come later...

[born2roam]

Great pics mate!

The usual stands over here (Holland) are too short distanced for a camping hammock and you end up on the ground.... mmmm

Drooling over the pics... thanks for sharing buddy.

Grtz Johan

[nothermark]

Be careful, we have folks here who no longer use conventional beds... ;-)

Thanks for sharing.

[pbbelly]

Be careful, we have folks here who no longer use conventional beds... ;-)

Thanks for sharing.

I know, the temptation is great, but even after 31+ years my wife and I still like to snuggle at night. The hammocks make that difficult...

[pbbelly]

Night ten:
This night found us in the Homolovi Ruins State Park near Winslow, Arizona. Despite horrendous winds when we arrived and biting ants, this turned out to be a great night. After the sun started setting the ants made themselves scarce, and, as our camp host (another Missouri native) promised, after the sun set, the wind died to a gentle breeze. This made for a great night's sleep. Stargazing wasn't too good due to bright porch lights on the bath house, but otherwise we can't complain.



Oh, did I mention that we experienced another beautiful sunset here?



We took a quick tour through the Petrified Forest National Park on our way to our next stop:





After that side trip we looked for a campground an appropriate distance away along our route. On the way out, we had seen Palo Duro Canyon State Park near Amarillo and wanted to spend a day there. It was too far away for us to arrive in time to make it into the regular campgrounds (they have a tiny, after hours campground up on the rim, but that didn't sound too appealing) so we decided to try and redeem some hotel points for a free or discounted night's stay in Amarillo. Well, all of their facilities in the Amarillo area were sold out. They had a room in Borger, a considerable distance east of Amarillo. That would put us getting there about 11:00 p.m., late but doable. Unfortunately, there was a terrible traffic accident on the interstate east of Albuquerque that delayed us to the point that we weren't going to make I to Borger until close to 2:00. We called and were able to cancel our reservation, despite the late hour. We camped at Santa Rosa Lake State Park in New Mexico-a spot we had rejected earlier because it wasn't far enough down the road. The bugs were pretty bad here-thankfully we had some awesome bug nets! There was a lot of lightning on the southwestern horizon, so I put up the tarps and cinched them in close to the hammocks. Luckily it never rained, but the closeness of the tarps made it a little muggy. Due to New Mexico's extreme drought, Santa Rosa Lake was extremely low (something like 30 feet low!)



The next morning we headed to Palo Duro. I kinda wish we had stopped here on the way out. It would have been much more impressive than it was after all of the wonders we had seen.

This was the only place we might have hung our hammocks without the stands, but our particular shelter was so rickety that we didn't dare! We did, however, take advantage of its shade-we had to move our hammocks a couple of times as the sun was setting to stay in the shade. The temperature in the canyon was about 10 degrees hotter than on the rim, (well into the triple digits) and the humidity was much higher than what we had experienced so far. That made for a muggy, sweaty night.



Some of the interesting rock formations we saw there:



(the light colored band are gypsum)



The most interest thing about Palo Duro:



This is interesting to me because I have a great-great uncle who was born on a reservation in Oklahoma. Quanah Parker gave the family their pick of his ponies if they would name the baby after him. So, the baby's middle names were Quanah Parker. I didn't know his "last stand" was in Palo Duro Canyon. (which seems odd since I've read his biography, but that was many, many years ago.)

Since we were getting back into allergen territory and humidity, when we pulled up stakes we hightailed it home...it was a good thing-my lawn was knee deep from all of the rain we had in our absence!

Hopefully everyone enjoyed this account. I searched quite a bit several months ago and didn't find any posts involving similar stands so maybe someone else will benefit from our experience.

Conclusions:

Would I embark on a similar vacation with the same equipment?

In a heartbeat!-tonight if I had any vacation left!

Would I do anything differently?

Probably not. Everything performed beyond my expectations. Going into this I had big plans to sew up our own underquilts since I had trouble finding one without down filling, but I stumbled across a review of the Kick-*** quilts somewhere and bought a couple of them. I am so glad I did. They worked perfectly for us. The only place we didn't need them was in Mexico and Pal Duro. It was so easy to regulate your temperature by adjusting the shock cords or even slipping the whole quilt out from under the hammock if needed.

The hammock Bliss bugnets worked so well. I loved the little pockets on each end (although I didn't notice them until we were halfway through our trip!

Everything held up well to our use and abuse, but there are some battle scars, but no fatal injuries to any piece of gear.

The only modification I would make to the stand would be to replace the wingnuts on the hooks with acorn nuts because with the hooks in the highest hole the hammock rubs on the wingnut on the head end. This wasn't a problem , but I was always afraid it might snag and tear the fabric.

If anyone has any other questions, don't hesitate to ask!

Until the next trip (probably an overnight kayaking trip n the Jacks Fork river in the fall/early winter)...

[MuseJr]

Nice report... Thanks for sharing your trip. I might be able to talk my wife in to something like that. I will have to take some of your ideas.

[cjayflo]

thank you for sharing that!

[TrekLightGear]

Great setup and photos @pbbelly!