A skoolie-friendly stop off I-40, near Flagstaff Arizona.

[rossvtaylor]

Hi all,


My wife and I live about 25 minutes West of Flagstaff, Arizona. We have a 20-acre "family compound" with myself, my wife Kara, 13-year-old daughter Ruby, our dog Ginger, Kara's mom, and about 40 chickens. Our property backs up to the US Forest Service property of the Garland Prairie and we have great views of the San Francisco Peaks (no, not that San Francisco...the Arizona mountains, including the 12,700 foot Mount Humphrey). From the I-40 freeway, a major East-West corridor, you'd drive 1 mile on paved road then 3 miles on County maintained (nice) dirt road. As you leave the pines and spruce of the forest, you'll "burst" out onto the edge of the prairie where we regularly see elk and antelope.


Anyway, all that wordiness is to orient you to the general vibe. We've got an RV spot we've rented out before and we recently listed it on HipCamp. We're charging $20/night for RVers. But we love and support the skoolie community, so we've regularly offered free overnights to skoolie passersby. And if you ever did laundry near our restaurant in Flagstaff, you've probably had a free beer or meal on us! If you're passing through and want to spend the night here, just book your night on HipCamp and use the coupon code MountainViews20 to get a $20 credit, which should give you that night free. We're new to HipCamp, and they had to set that coupon code up for us specially, so please let me know if you have any issues with it. Our intent is that your night here be completely free. BTW, that coupon code is case sensitive.


Here's the listing:


https://www.hipcamp.com/arizona/ross...-views-rv-site


We're a great staging area for your visit to the Grand Canyon (where Kara used to work) and there are lots of free forest camping options nearby, if you'd like to linger. We're happy to guide you!


The spot does have WiFi . Because we're rural, our WiFi comes from a cellular modem...so don't expect blistering speeds, but it's free for your use and unlimited. Also, because we're rural, we get water delivered - but we can gladly provide you with a couple of 5-gallon jugs if you need. And, we're happy to run a load of laundry for you. Finally, as long as the hens are cooperating, you'll get some great eggs too!


We do not yet have power run to the site, but that's on the radar. We do have high-pressure air and a bus-friendly tire fill hose available, if you need to top off tires while you're here.



The listing has all the info and photos. Again...please let me know if you have any issues with the free night's booking. We only ask that you book through the site so that it locks that night out, so an RVer doesn't try to join you! We do love RVers too, but skoolies have a special place in our hearts...


Finally - this is not an attempt to sell you anything. Yes, we do bus and ambulance conversions for a living. Yes, we make money doing work on buses and rigs. And, yes, people book time for solar installations or fabrication or welding (we've worked primarily on coaches and expedition rigs, and we own 6 buses ourselves). But time permitting, I'll gladly weld that broken bracket or fabricate a new widget...without charge, so long as it's a small project and I can fit it in while you're visiting.


Be well, safe travels, and we look forward to meeting you someday!


Ross and Kara Taylor

[musigenesis]

This sounds awesome, thanks for sharing. I hope someday my bus can make it that far.

[Oscar1]

Thanks very much for the info and your very generous offer to the bus community.
Get this damn border open and we'll be on our way!
Cheers

Oscar

[magnakansas]

Thank you for sharing.

William.

[rossvtaylor]

I got a message asking about vehicle length and fit. We have it listed on HipCamp as suitable for vehicles up to 35 feet long. For a 35-footer you can drive straight in and turn around, in just a few moves. We based that on the RV crowd (pretty low clearance and, sometimes, renters who aren't that experienced) just to be uber cautious.

If you have a 40-foot bus and are comfortable with it, then you're absolutely welcome here. You could either pull down the drive forward, then turn around (we can help spot) or you can back down the drive and swing around so your passenger side faces the views and the sitting benches. In either case, pulling out when you leave is easy from there. Here's a 36-foot transit bus in the spot, to show you the fit. This is an unmodified bus, so the clearance is city-bus-low and she had no issues...so a skoolie should have no issues at all.

[johnbloem1974]

That is amazing!!! Thank you so much for this, and we hope to be able to meet y'all next time we head West!

John

[peteg59]

Awesome gesture and hospitality you offer will be appreciated by those who take you up on your generous offer.
Plus it gives you an opportunity to talk to the various travelers that potentially might now stop by!

Good luck on your new park...

[Native]

Excellent .... this is a very generous offer.

[dwood443]

Thanks for your post. This gives me a reason to come visit and finally get some use out of my new Skoolie. I'm even happy to pay the normal fee just because you appear to be decent folks and I could probably learn a bit during my stay.

Now if I could figure out how to add this as a favorite in the HipCamp app

[joeblack5]

Nice, next time we come out we will attempt to stop by. Last time we boon docked just south of the grand canyon southern entrance. Let's hope this covid gets under control in this year.

Johan

[Mountain Yawp]

Thanks for posting the great offer. We plan to do a yearly trip down to Phoenix once our bus is ready and are always looking for fun places to stay.

[Sticks]

What wonderful people you are that is such a beautiful place. I hope we can pass through sometime soon to say hi and stay to meet you.
Have a wonderful day
😊

[Doktari]

Great offer. I’m in the Tucson area and will hopefully take you up on the generous offer for overnight stay when I start my return journey. I visited someone near there and it’s a fun area to explore.

[rossvtaylor]

Thanks for all the kind comments. Kara reminded me that, for the time being, we're doing a $10/night special for RVers during the week. So the $20 MountainViews20 coupon would actually allow you to stay for two nights, free, during the week. And we welcome that, if you're in the area. We look forward to meeting you!

[WayneTSB]

Awesome and generous! My wife and I will have to stop by next time we are in Flag! What restaurant do you own there?

[o1marc]

Gives hope that there's still good people left in this world. Kudos.

[Kayla]

Hi Ross, we recently found you by watching your to-do videos which are super helpful! We recently bought a bus and are in the process of getting it to Arizona. We live in Flagstaff and I was wondering if you have any insight on a good place to park and work on it? My current neighborhood won’t allow me to park a skoolie! We would definitely be willing to pay for a spot. If you have any ideas it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[loo&jefferson]

Hey Ross! Curious if you are still renting space? Looking to be in Flagstaff for 3 months as a healthcare travel contract and my significant other and I are looking to purchase a skoolie here soon. Trying to find a space that'll house us and our rig there! Thanks!

[nikitis]

Hey Ross and Kara, I'd love to stop by a day or two after the Eclipse in Texas in April with the Wife and Family. I plan to finally have my bus ready by then and take my first trip and planning on driving from South Carolina to California, then Utah and back again. We'll be driving right on I-40 on our way there, so a 3 mile detour wouldn't be bad at all.



I'd love to meet you in person and visit the great bus yard of Ross Tayler, and see where you work and have filmed your roof raise Youtube video. You inspired me to do a roof raise after all, and you can see my work.



The link on Hipcamp doesn't seem to show for me, but I'd like to book a night for around that time. I'd like to reserve me a day on April 12th 2024. We'll gladly pay for the night. Feel free to jot us down for that day until I can book it on Hipcamp

[Chilly willy]

here is my number been trying to contact you 813-489-9088 would like to purchase a skoolie from you or have one build more me there is no number for you and no way to contact you.