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Recently we stepped way out of our comfort zone and made a short film for the Moment Invitational Film Festival. We’ve been avid photographers and bloggers on this journey, but definitely not filmmakers.
And while we have been working on a series of video episodes, they’re way more fun and documentary style than freaking film festival style.
Obviously we needed to up our game.
The main requirement of this festival is that the film must be shot on your phone. Challenge accepted!
I just have to stop here and say how proud I am of Ashley. She saw this opportunity and really spearheaded the whole thing, writing and planning so all I had to do was figure out what gear we need and how to get the shots. Turns out she’s got a knack for scriptwriting!
Oh, and here's the film so you can watch it before we tell you how we made it!
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I’ve been sitting on this post for a while now. Not quite knowing how to describe our time spent in Ajo. We were just trying to escape the cold evenings in Sierra Vista, but what originated as a one week stay quickly turned into three.
If you have driven through Ajo, you probably didn’t even think twice about staying there. But as with most small towns, if you take some time to really explore the community, you may be surprised at what a gem these places can be.
We found a sweet little boondocking spot in the Sonoran Desert just a few miles from downtown Ajo.
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When we left Kartchner Caverns State Park, we were just not ready to leave southern Arizona. With a quick look at temperatures, we decided to head back down towards Hereford (just a little south of Sierra Vista) and check out another boondocking spot that a local had told us about.
Hunter Canyon was just 2 miles south of Miller Canyon and while our site was not nearly as secluded, we did enjoy a full week here. We were able to park behind a shade tree that kept us cool in the day, but solar panels were still in full sun. The perfect spot!
We were very close to the Highway (noise was not an issue) which made getting anywhere a breeze. We were close to a water supply, trash service, and the weather was just perfect...for a while.
Just to the back side of our site, there was a nice trail that lead up to Hunter Canyon. We had daily walks around the area and have really loved being in Southern Arizona. It has everything going for it. The weather, the hikes, the plants. If there was a way to have a desert landscape AND green grass…we’d be sold.
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Since we stayed our 14 day limit at Miller Canyon we needed to move, but loved the area so much we didn’t want to go too far. The weather and hiking made us want to stay in the area as long as we could. Someone had told us about Kartchner Caverns State Park so we decided to give that a shot for a week. Luckily, we were able to find a site for 6 nights despite being such short notice. That rarely happens in the winter in Arizona.
When we’re not boondocking (camping off grid/ no hookups) you’ll probably find us at a state park. If we have to be at a campground, they’re our top pic. Why state parks? Well, if we're going to pay for camping, we want clean bathrooms/showers, great hiking, spaced out camping spots, friendly staff, and programs for the kids. State parks usually have it all, and Kartchner Caverns was no exception.
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When we left Patagonia, we decided to just drive around the mountain and find a place to stay near Sierra Vista. We ended up in a small town called Hereford just south of Sierra Vista. We drove down a rugged dirt road and dropped the Airstream at a nearby parking lot so that we could scout for a good campsite. At this point it was nearing sunset and we were trying to get set up before dark. Rule #1 - never get to a campsite that you don’t know when it’s dark!
We found a really cool spot off the road far enough so we could have a bit of seclusion and we were pretty sure that we could fit in if we were really careful. Sometimes we just love the challenge of getting our rig into small spaces!
We quickly went back to hook up the Airstream and drove back to the spot only to find a Jeep had parked in 'our spot'! What the heck?! We were only gone like 5 minutes.
Jonathan got out and asked them if they were going to stay the night there. We were already off the main road and this site was the only place we could turn around. It was not an option to back up. Luckily, they said they were just going to do a fire for a few hours and they’d leave after sunset. There was literally another site just 20 feet up the road that would have been perfect for a jeep to hang out in but they weren’t moving.
Well, maybe we can go up to the next spot and finagle our way in?? We tried...but NOPE! It took us a good 45 minutes to back up the rocky road, trying to avoid boulders and trying not to smash our stabilizers on the crazy rocks that were sticking out of the middle of the road. It was a very stressful 45 minutes and now the sun was beginning to set.
We barely made it out and most definitely added some new scratches to the side of our rig, but we made our way back to the lot where we had previously dropped the Airstream to scout just an hour before. We sat there and just waited to see if the Jeep was going to leave. An hour later we were so excited to see them pass by and we drove back to 'our spot' and set up camp in the dark, breaking our #1 rule.
Anyway, this spot was great!
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Jonathan Longnecker / March 01, 2018
Ashley Longnecker / February 18, 2018
We’re Jonathan & Ashley Longnecker. We love weird ideas, great food, travel, drawing, music, homeschool, tattoos, dreads, woodworking, design and our 4 amazing kids.