Sleeping at a Vineyard – Kingman, AZ

Kicking off our eastbound journey we decided to quickly pass through California. It’s where we are from and are we are eager to see the rest of the country. That being said, Joshua Tree National Park was (sort of) on our way to Arizona, and Alex had never been there – so we gave it a visit.

Our boy got in some serious bouldering!

Now when you are traveling in an RV you have several options where to stay. Campgrounds at National/State/County Parks, RV Parks, RV Resorts all have various levels of services, like water/electric hookups, dump stations, even cable tv and wi-fi. At Joshua Tree we opted to stay at Joshua Tree Lake RV & Campground a quirky RV park outside of the National Park where we could get hookups. We even got to take our bikes out into the desert from there for some morning exercise.

I understand there is some great BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land near the south entrance of Joshua Tree where boondockers have been gathering this time of year… but we were on the north side of the park and were not quite ready for boondocking.

Oh, wait, you don’t know about Boondocking? Let me explain…

Boondocking is where you are completely on you own – use your rig’s batteries/water/propane and you just park where it’s allowed. We haven’t tried this much yet as we are still getting used to RV life and were a bit unsure about ‘cutting the cord’ from electricity and dump stations, or exactly WHERE it was both legal to park our rig and a nice place to be.

We did try Boondocking last month at a Walmart in Yreka, CA – because it was a convenient stop on our travels. We just needed a place to sleep before driving off again in the morning, so we didn’t even unhook from the truck. The Walmart parking lot served its purpose, but it was not the beautiful kind of camping we envisioned for our trip – and the area felt pretty sketchy (we found a big knife under our camper!)

All the beauty and glamour of a Walmart Parking Lot!

Now, I told you that story to tell you this one:

After Joshua Tree we were heading to the Grand Canyon. We didn’t want to push and do the whole drive in one day… so a perfect halfway point was Kingman, AZ. But where to camp for the night?

We had signed up for a service called Harvest Hosts. For a small annual fee we now have access to staying at hundreds of farms, vineyards and golf courses nationwide that welcome RV travelers to boondock. It sounds like a great idea, but we had yet to test it out…

A quick check of the Harvest Hosts app and we discovered Stetson Winery in Kingman AZ!

The gracious Don Stetson at Stetson Winery.

We arrived just before sunset and our host, Don Stetson (yes, he is related to the Stetson hat company), met us at the gate. He was friendly and gracious – showed us where to park and then invited us in for a private wine tasting!

He told us he was the first to plant grapes in the area and he is obviously proud of his vineyard and the wines he produces. Just by chance after planting a grape vine for his wife, he found the soil to be similar to Temecula, CA and a great area to grow grapes. Several vineyards have popped up around him hoping for the same success. We had a great conversation, a wonderful time tasting (Alex got a soda) and in the end we bought a couple of bottles from him (even though he said we didn’t have to).

It was a beautiful night under the desert stars and Alex sat out with me identifying constellations as I practiced night photography (I’m still working on it).

Star Photography – my first attempt. Kingman, AZ

We slept soundly in this beautiful spot and in the morning we woke to find Don driving his tractor to prepare a new acre of his vineyard. He came over to see us off and advised we take the more scenic Historic Route 66 to Arizona, instead of I-40 (thanks Don!)

Stetson Winery is located near Kingman, at the back of a residential subdivision off Historic Route 66 – not the main road (I-40). There is no way we would ever have visited or even known about it without Harvest Hosts. We are eager to try them again!