Heading East out of San Diego
We are back on the road! We left San Diego in the middle of January and started heading east on I-8 to begin our two-year adventure to explore the rest of the Midwest and the East Coast. Hopefully, by the time we are done and returning back, we will have completed 48 states! We share our four stops including two great Harvest Hosts, one with animals, and one amazing dispersed camping area with beautiful desert sunsets. Don’t have time to read this now? Pin it for later!
Lake Morena County Park
The first stop heading east from San Diego was Lake Morena County Park in Campo, CA. We were in site #13 and we could see just the edge of Lake Morena. We arrived at dusk so we did not do much here except take a walk around the campground the next morning before we left. We posted a picture online of one of the smaller marsh areas we walked to and our friends thought the lake had dried up oops! The site was not level so we had to use planks to level the motorhome which is always fun. The sites are spread out with lots of room and it was fairly busy.
Boulevard KOA
Our second stop was just down the road at the Boulevard KOA in you guessed it: Boulevard, CA. This campground is oddly enough a Harvest Host which meant we could use our membership to stay for one night for free! We’ve never stayed at a KOA before because they are usually expensive and we don’t always make use of the more family-oriented amenities. This was an amazing Harvest Host with tons of animals like ostriches, lambs, pigs, chickens, and a koi pond. Very friendly and laid back atmosphere, we saw an amazing desert sunset here. They told us they only plan on booking 50% of the sites to keep it from feeling too crowded. When we asked about checking out, they told us basically whenever we wanted, which was a first. A group of RVs stayed until 3-4 pm before leaving. Firewood was a bargain at $5 which they also delivered to the site (and also came by and asked if we wanted more later in the evening). They had free popcorn in the community center which scored points with Jeri. Bonus: The Golden Acorn casino is just six miles away and on our way out we stopped to have their $7.77 prime rib special which frankly is pretty good and an incredible deal. They also have some reasonably priced gas at their truck stop.
Our Route heading East out of San Diego
Imperial Valley Desert Museum
Next up was another Harvest Host stay at the Imperial Valley Desert Museum in Ocotillo, CA. This was a very easy stay right off I-8 next to a gas station. On the other side is a very small town. I noticed there was a bar there called the Lazy Lizard Saloon, which I jokingly mentioned to Jeri that we should check out. She said we have been there already one spring when we came out to see the desert wildflowers and mud caves with Greg & Brandi. Anyway, the museum was closed, but they still let us and another RV camp for the night in their freshly paved parking lot. It was a little windy but all in all, great spot for a quick overnight.
American Girl Mine Dispersed Camping
American Girl Mine Dispersed Camping was our favorite stop out of all four. This is a dispersed dry camping area about 20 miles west of Winterhaven & Yuma (Arizona). It’s just a few miles north of the I-8 and there is a graded dirt road that leads to the open desert camping area. Which stretches miles off both sides of the road. We had no trouble getting in with the motorhome and picking a remote spot to spend three nights out here. There were other RVers there, but not as many as say Quartzsite so it was very spread out and quiet even with people running their generators. There was even a caravan of RVers that were playing some live music on an amplified sound system one evening that we went to check out. This would be a great place to come with a group of friends and camp out.
