Motorcycle Camping Alone in the Desert

this is just so lovely out here look at this beautiful track just winding through the desert here [Music] [Laughter] [Music] foreign [Music] it's a beautiful day down here in the desert Southwest and I've been on the road all day about 250 miles so far and it's getting to be that time of the day when I think I might better find a place to camp [Music] we're gonna head down the road to this little desert Town see if we can't find ourselves some food and supplies for tonight so that we can go camp out in this beautiful desert oh this looks pretty good I always like these little wines because they come in their own individual bottles Merlot tonight I don't go good with the chicken hi good how are you guys when I needed to get groceries at the end of the day and I want to put them in something I'll put them in this little backpack and then I'll just put this on my back and and it works a lot better than trying to attach a plastic bag somewhere to the motorcycles this is really useful Let's Get on Down the Road see what we can find and we're just headed out of town now into the wild back country of Ajo Arizona we'll just go a short ways out into the desert and see what we can find there's more than a few back roads in these parts to explore looks like it turns to dirt right here look at this beautiful Back Country right here isn't this gorgeous I've never been down this road before but so far so good it's very scenic I think we'll have a nice desert campout tonight in case you're wondering this is all BLM land which means that it's free and legal to camp here for up to 14 days and again that's one of the things I love about the desert is that there's just so much wide open space and public land and it makes for the camping really easy the Sonoran Desert it's the only place in the world where saguaro cactus grows [Music] thank you [Music] great time of year to be out here too because it's not too hot it's just absolutely perfect there's a dog he's following hey oh you're a cutie yeah look at what we got for you somebody just gave this to me the other day here you want some water you want some water oh you're a lover so I just had an encounter with a lot more than a dog the dog's owner came over to visit with another gentleman and it turns out that one of them is no less than the legendary Doug peacock and I just ran into Doug peacock out here in the middle of the desert I recognized that name and it turns out that I've read about his epic desert walks this man has spent hundreds of days walking alone through this region he walked across the desert here for hundreds of days lived and camped out here I think he had even an association with the legendary Edward Abbey who wrote desert Solitaire one of the the classic books about the desert environment I feel like I met one of the Desert Rat icons out here in his natural habitat to run into a a true true Desert Rat in his natural habitat is just astounding to me I couldn't bear to to be the guy that asks him if I could take a picture or record a video and I didn't want to incognito just let my camera roll and record our interaction just out of respect so we talked for 20 minutes we petted the dogs I gave them some water you know that's like I don't know seeing a snow leopard and its natural habitat or something to be out here wandering this part of the world and then meet an authentic icon of the desert like that wow that really just blows my mind so at this point I'm just riding around sort of looking for a place that speaks to me and by speaks to me I just mean something that calls my name in terms of its appeal what it looks like and what it feels like as a place to bed down for the night and there's a couple options that it might not be possible to get both of them at once one of them in terms of comfort would be to sleep in a wash and that's some kind of like a a Sandy area that's low where water would would come through and it creates like a bed of sand which would be comfortable to sleep in the other option would be up on a Hilltop with a view and those things don't seem to always work in conjunction with each other the washes are usually down low and covered in the trees and the hilltops are obviously up on top of a hill and more exposed I think my preference would be for a Hilltop because I'm a photographer and so I like the The View and to see the sunset rather than be closed in down below and since I have an air mattress all I really need is a flat piece of ground and I'll be okay I saw a road over to the left here that looks like it might go up this little Hill I say little Hill not knowing what to expect well this certainly has a view but the ground is pretty Rocky and it's not very level so it wouldn't be the most comfortable I can see down here that there is a more flat and level spot and there's some big Saguaro cacti that could be nice to Park the bike next to but look at this view it's really pretty nice up here you can see for miles and miles just overlooking all of the Sonoran Desert well this looks like it would be a nice spot it's right up here on this hill just surrounded by desert in every direction but it's pretty Rocky and it's not very level so it wouldn't be the easiest or most comfortable I'm thinking I'm going to go down here and check out this this little area that's kind of flat there's some big Cactus down there and some trees and might be a little a little more comfortable but without quite the big vast picturesque view but I could always walk back up the hill here so let's go down the hill and check this spot out yeah it's definitely more flat down here there's a little canyon right over here I saw perhaps another Hill to go up and explore right here oh this is a steep one oh yeah oh barely made it up this one holy cow wow this is a good uh view here um it certainly would make a campsite but there's no even ground up here whatsoever so it would be a little uncomfortable but a lovely view I'm going to keep on trucking and try to just work my way gently down this hill here wish me luck here we go not so bad there's a big Runway right at the bottom if I were to get a little bit too fast there we go all right I'll sleep easier knowing that I'm at the bottom of that hill and wouldn't have to have a Restless sleep thinking about it all night [Music] [Music] thank you foreign God well this is my little scene in the desert tonight and it's not too bad in typical fashion I spent my whole day exploring it didn't get in here until the sun is almost down but I got everything set up here I've got the Firebox going a little supply of wood a glass of wine my camp chair I'm gonna sleep out Under the Stars tonight and just take advantage of this beautiful evening in the Sonoran Desert this is an absolutely classic Sonoran desert landscape I'm surrounded by saguaro cactus over here is an organ pipe cactus there's some jumping choya that already got me and the fading light on the mountains off in the distance [Applause] uh-huh hmm freedom mm-hmm well top of the morning to you I woke up about an hour ago here in the desert last night the moon was full and I watched its Ark travel across the sky for the entire night this whole desert all around me was just bathed in Moonlight it was like someone left the lights on was actually kind of hard to sleep I was up all night and I just kept tracking the progress of the Moon across the sky and now it's a beautiful Rosy Dawn here in the Sonoran Desert this place is pretty special this is probably one of the most powerful desert camping nights that I've ever had on my motorcycle all alone out here under the full moon I spend a lot of time looking for the right campsite and some of it comes down to just practicality you want to find a good place to Camp some of it comes down to Aesthetics I want to find a place that you know is is beautiful for photography and filmmaking and then there's always this idea of just like finding a place that speaks to me Carlos castanada an author who wrote books about life in the desert talks about power places that finding your power place and it's kind of an intuitive thing where you just you wander around until you find that place that speaks to you and it becomes like your place of power your spot but you have to slow down and you have to listen and you have to sort of try out different places and feel feel them out and I chose this spot after driving around for quite a while this spot spoke to me and it was only late in the evening or in the night as the moon was going across the sky that I realized the place I had chosen has this beauty right here this giant Organ Pipe Cactus this is the only one that I see as I look out across the desert landscape I without even realizing it my place that I chose was right next to this beauty [Music] I feel humbled to be here there's birds flying around the Moon is over my shoulder the sun is about ready to come up sitting here drinking my morning coffee yeah not too bad [Music] I guess it's time to pack up the motorcycle and wind my way out of here I'm gonna take my time and travel slowly across this desert landscape it's not about ripping up the terrain and going fast and that kind of ride is more about just a peaceful slow exploration of an amazing place well I really hope that you've enjoyed this motorcycle Adventure if you like this kind of content subscribe to my channel give it a thumbs up and come back for more we'll see you down the road [Music] thank you [Music]

Channel: Motorcycle Travel Channel

Views: 84,949

Keywords: BMW, BMW gs, gs, riding, ADV, adventure riding, travel, motorcycle travel, touring, dual sport, camping, cooking

Id: dobHqoxt_kw

Length: 18min 8sec (1088 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 10 2024