Flag
Boondocking here outside of Flagstaff is a little better than I thought it was going to be. I figured it would be too crowded for my taste, and it is crowded, but unlike in the desert, where I can look around and see everybody half a mile from me, here, there are so many trees that anyone farther than a couple of hundred yards away just disappears into the forest, so, it doesn't feel crowded.
The big problem here is it's cold. When I left Wickenburg, it was in the 80s every day and 60s at night, but here in Flag, the 10-day forecast shows 50s and 60s for daytime highs and 20s and 30s at night.
A lot of that chilly weather is because of the altitude. Flag is about 7000 feet, and in the mountains where I'm boondocked, it's a few hundred feet higher than that.
To me, Flag was always a place that I drove through with little or no desire to hang around. Everything is expensive here. And in the winter, there's a good chance you will get snowed on and the main highways that go through Flag. I-40 and I-17 are often closed due to snow.
So why do I want to put up with this? Because New Mexico has priced me out of the state parks, and it looks like I'll be spending most of my time in Arizona, so learning as much as I can about free boondocking in Arizona is important to my future plans, and the Coconino National Forest in Flag fits into my plans if the weather is right
This is the dirt road that I'm boondocked on. There's boondocking on both sides of the road in this area, but Federal rules in the Coconino National Forest are Byzantine and all but incomprehensible, which is one of the reasons I always stayed away from here in the past. But my boondocking world is slowly closing around me, and it's anybody's guess who or what will last longer….. me wanting to boondock, or places I'm allowed to boondock.
This is what the whole area around Flagstaff looks like.... Endless pine forests. There are some good things about the area, but my solar panels hate it.
This is a sign just down the road from my boondocking spot.
As a rule of thumb, whenever you see an official government sign warning you to only do what an official government map tells you to do, just bear in mind that the sign was written by somewhat lackadaisical government employees, and the alleged official map was drawn by relatively apathetic government employees.... So, proceed with caution, because the rules are randomly enforced by other government employees who are armed and may not be happy about their low-paid government job.
None of this may be true, but it is my personal opinion based on 13 years of being a federal employee.