Overnighting in Sierra Vista

Sierra Vista Arizona is a town of about 40,000 and has just about all the shopping and eating a person needs. (But if that's not good enough Tucson is only 75 miles away. Since that's closer than our major shopping town back home that doesn't sound bad to me at all.)

After hiking in the San Pedro Riparian Nca with a fellow blogger that lives in this area, he treated me to a Jersey Mike's sub sandwich and a big-ass chocolate-chip cookie. (That I saved for later.)



On top of good weather year round, (The 4500' elevation makes summers here in the desert cooler than in Tucson and certainly cooler than Phoenix, while the southern latitude keeps the winters mild.) Sierra Vista is within about 50 miles of tons of natural and historic sites & towns here in southeast Arizona.

But after scarfing down our sandwiches at Jersey Mike's it was time for me to let my fellow blogger get on with his life and for me to find a spot for the night. And for all Sierra Vista has going for it, no one could ever accuse this town of being overnight friendly. (There is a Walmart in town, but it is definitely off-limits for overnighting.)

There are a couple of RV resorts right in town, but $35 to park for a single night in a site with full hookups I can't use just didn't sound too appealing. To some $35 might sound kind of reasonable, but not when I've been averaging $5.10 per night on this trip. (And less than $6.50 per night when I look at my data for the past 4 years.)

Besides, both these places call themselves RV resorts and I still remember being shooed out of another Arizona "Resort" like a diseased cockroach because my van didn't meet their minimum size requirements. This was the 350 site Arizonian RV Resort east of Phoenix. It was around sunset after a long day on the road and getting thrown out was an unwelcome surprise.   (This was pre-smartphone app days and the phone-book sized Trailer Life campground guide said nothing about any such restrictions. . .which kinda pissed me off, so much so that I wrote a letter!)




The Sierra Vista unit of the Coronado National Forest (The Coronado National Forest is scattered over a large area across two states and split up into 5 separate units.) lies, literally, just off the southwest corner of town and there are a couple of campgrounds up nearby Carr Canyon Road, but this road climbs 2600' in less than 8 road-miles over about a dozen switchbacks, (Trailers are limited to 12' as anything longer can't make the turns.) making it one damn steep road!

If I was going to stay up there for a few days, and had the time to scout it out before actually driving it, maybe, but not for a simple overnight stop!




So I called up my MVUM for the Sierra Vista unit and started doing some looking for a spot to throw out the anchor for the night. (Motor Vehicle Usage Map  - each National Forest has it's own MVUM - and everyone headed for a National Forest should have it! I download the PDF version into my phone but you can also pick up free paper versions for the local area at most District Offices, if you can catch them when they are open that is. More on that issue in the next post.)

I saw that there is dispersed camping allowed (those little grey dots alongside the road) along and around Miller Canyon Road, otherwise known as FS-56 so I headed that way. (South on SR-92 from the intersection of Fry Road almost exactly 9 miles.

FS-56 is narrow in a few spots and does have one switchback worthy of the name, but comparatively speaking it is an easy road to drive.

The rules for dispersed camping are to be completely clear of the road but not more than 300' from it, and preferably in a spot that has been used before rather than just driving across vegetation. Just because there are grey dots alongside a road on the MVUM doesn't necessarily mean that there are that many usable spots out there so careful scouting of the area is sometimes needed.

FS-5799 might have been a road at one point, but there was no way I was taking The Van down what looked more like a wash than a road.

Even though it is also a 4-number road, which are generally pretty primitive, FS-5740 wasn't much of a challenge for The Van, but there were already several occupied camps down there and I didn't want to crowd anybody if I could help it, so I turned around at the end of the road and continued on up FS-56.

After driving all the way to the top of the road, which ends in a trailhead parking area which makes it off-limits for dispersed camping, I headed back down again and grabbed a spot I had seen on the way up. It was a small loop located right at the point of that one true switchback turn.



It left me only feet from the road, but I was only going to be here overnight and experience told me that the already light traffic would be pretty much non-existent once the sun went down.



Here you can see a glimpse of the road, those light patches just in front of and above The Van, through the trees as it continues on up Miller Canyon towards that upper trailhead parking area.

All in all, this is not a bad spot to spend the night!



Within minutes of my arrival the sun was below the horizon and this was the view out the windshield.



Soon any vestige of light was lost on the ground and after the sky-show was over I was in for the night.

Oh, and that big-ass chocolate-chip cookie from Jersey Mikes was real good!

That's Miller Peak top center. At 9300' it's the highest peak in the Huachuca Mountains.

The next morning, after a quiet, restful night, the rising sun painted the peaks above me long before any rays reached my solar panel as I waited for the nearby Forest Service Sierra Vista District Office to open.