Exploring the Quartzsite Area

Map of this blog's locations click this link to open the map

The Newmar rally events did not fill up all of our time while here. Even though there aren't a ton of things to see and do, we managed to keep ourselves occupied. There are hundreds of geocaches out here along desert trails. But we found that most of these can get monotonous after a while. So we were a bit more choosy in our selection.

The "Q" of Quartzsite Mountain Visible from I-10

Geocaching Map of Quartzsite - Yellow Smilies are Ones We Found

One hike we did early in our stay was to climb up Dome Rock. It is a small odd shaped hill that gets you up a couple hundred feet overlooking Quartzsite and all the the RVs setup in the surrounding area. It was a very rocky climb and wasn't that pretty of a day but it still provided a nice view and we did manage to find the cache placed up there. You need to click on the picture to be able to see the vast number of trailers and motor homes parked all over. The picture of the hill we climbed has a small arrow pointing out how high the cache was.

Looking Out at All the RVs (click image to view full detail)

Chris After Just Finding Cache on Dome Rock

Looking Back at Dome Rock - Arrow Points How High the Cache Was

On one of the afternoons, we headed over to a town park to meet a couple of guys that have been living full time in their motor home many years. They call themselves the RV Geeks and have a very popular YouTube channel among RVers. Since we have learned so much from them over the years, we felt we should take the opportunity to meet them in person and thank them for the hard work they put into making their videos. If you have any interest in RV maintenance and technology, there guys have some pretty good videos. While there, we walked over to do a geocache on the other side of the park. Two people yelled out to us from a nearby car and came over to introduce themselves. They too are geocachers and live in their motor home full time. We sat and chatted for a long time before heading out.

The RV Geeks and Their Rig With Other Fans

Jet Near Geocache at the Park

Of course one of the main reasons there are tens of thousands of people camping in the area is to go to the huge RV show. The main tent is roughly the size of a football field and is lined with hundreds of vendors. Maybe a third of them were selling products or services that were specific to camping or RVs. Another third were selling things that anybody, including RVers, might want or use. The remaining third were selling oddball things. Many of them seemed like snake oil vendors with remedies that apparently could fix all ailment. As we passed each one, somebody would ask us if something hurt and would we like to sample their product. I overheard one salesman asking a passerby if they were on chemotherapy or had diabetes - apparently his treatment is pretty versatile.

Booths Just Outside the Big Tent

Big Tent in Background

After going up and down each aisle, we hadn't found many things that we absolutely needed. Although we did find one booth with good pricing on RV parks in the Yuma area. Since we are heading there in a couple weeks for a big geocaching event and hadn't made reservations yet, we took advantage of the discount and booked a spot.

Vendors Galore

There were even more vendors outside the tent - probably thousands. We spent some time going up and down the aisles. Occasionally stopping to see what they were selling but more often than not, just glancing as we passed by. After a bit of this we decided it was time to call it quits. Maybe just around the next corner was that one thing we really needed but I guess we will never know.

These Folks Have More Junk than We Did

Found Humor in the "Adult Day Care" Sign for the Beer Tent

We did a couple other day trips to nearby points of interest. Cibola National Wildlife Refuge is just a little bit southwest of where we were. It actually straddles the Colorado River with the park office and some trails on the Arizona side and the rest on the California side. The woman working the visitor center was very helpful and we discovered she was also living in an RV and working here as a volunteer and getting a free place to camp within walking distance. Maybe someday we will lose the urge to keep seeing new things and try out something similar.

Cibola Visitor Center

There was one main auto loop around several ponds where thousands of birds were spending the winter. For the most part, you are not allowed out of the car so when we got to the burrowing owl nest, we could see one from the car but couldn't get a very good picture of it. Their nests are completely man made. Apparently created with a 5 gallon bucket just buried underground and a big PVC pipe angled down into the bucket, sticking about a foot above the ground.

Hard to See Burrowing Owl Peaking Out Pipe on Left

There was one stop along the drive that had a mile long walking loop so we stopped to check it out. It was amazing to see so many different types of waterfowl. Some of the ducks had a very strange quacking sound. We thought it sounded like some guy was sitting out near the ponds doing very bad duck calls. As we came along the trail near an irrigation ditch, we spotted a good sized coyote.

Birds Congregating on Pond

View From Observation Deck

We continued our drive back in the refuge on some dirt roads that were not too bad since it hadn't rained recently. It did look like this area could be treacherous with the wrong weather conditions. Supposedly there are large numbers of feral burros on the refuge and at one stop to see an old cabin, we swore were could hear some calling.  After climbing a small hill to get a better vantage point, we didn't see any burros and no longer heard them. As we crossed over the Colorado River into California, we stumbled upon some very impressive irrigation equipment. The soild didnt look that fertile but apparently quite a bit of lettuce is grown in this area.

Cibola Cabin from Early 1900's Needs Some TLC

Large Irrigation Pump

Irrigation Stretching as Far as the Eye Can See

Just south of our spot in Quartzsite is another neat area - Kota National Wildlife Refuge. There are all sorts of hiking, biking and ATV trails in the area. One hike we did was the Palm Canyon Trail. The drive to the trailhead is along a 7 mile dirt road. Boondocking is permitted along here and there were plenty of rigs parked just off the road. In fact there was one hardy group that was camping there with several tents. The day we went was extremely windy and it sure looked like their tents were going to go flying.

One Entrance to Kofa NWR

The trail is only about half a mile long but does go up quite a bit into a canyon area. Supposedly the draw of this trail is to see the California Fan Palms. The only native palms to Arizona. It was a very beautiful area and fun hike even in the extreme winds. The canyon didn't shelter us from the winds. In fact, we suspect it made them worse. The actual palms were in a very small ravine on the opposite side of the canyon up quite a ways. They were not all that impressive although we did try to stick around a bit to see if the sunlight would make it onto them. The cold and wind forced us to give up and come back down. Still it was a nice hike, but our advice is to not do it just to see the palms.

Looking Back on Road Out to Palm Canyon

Rugged Mountains

One interesting thing about where we were camping in the desert with thousands of other rigs is trying to locate it after you go out for the day. We never stayed out in the car past sunset so we didn't have to deal with finding "home" in the dark.  Many of our fellow campers had stories about how long it took them to find their spot after dark. We even had trouble find our spot on the afternoon after our rally hosts had left. They had removed the flags to help guide everybody in at the beginning of the rally, but we had obviously come to depend on these flags and had to stop at a couple forks in the road to think about which way to go.

We did get to take the Jeep out on some of the dirt trails in the area. In many cases we drove further into the desert than Chris was comfortable with but often not as far as Jack wanted to go. One such drive took us to a very interesting place. It was an old mining area with a stone cabin now without any roof, some old mining equipment, lots of old household items now just sitting in the cabin exposed to Mother Nature. But the highlight of this stop was the "parade of toilets". A geocache placed nearby was what even made us aware to check this location. There were about a dozen or more toilets decorating the area around the cabin. It wasn't simply a pile of broken toilets in a heap, but all lined up with flowers decorating them. Not something one sees everyday.

"Potty Lane"

Old Mining Home

Mining Equipment Looked in Decent Shape

One of the Dirt Roads Traveled

When we arrived in Quartzsite we really hadn't formulated what our travel plans were going to be the rest of the winter or for that matter where we might head once southern Arizona starts to heat up. Well after talking with many of the other rally participants, we actually started to put our plans in place. There are a series of rallies for a few different RV clubs we belong to that are going to be in the southern Arizona area. Instead of just picking one of them to attend, we decided to try them all out after being told by others that they are all very different in nature. Also a friend of ours from Rochester has relatives in Arizona and often comes to visit them during the winter. We managed to arrange to meet up with her in Tucson in before two of the rallies. So we will basically be bopping around the Phoenix and Tucson area going from rally to rally and filling in with other spots along the way.

As of now, our thinking is to head up to the Pacific Northwest for the spring/summer/fall and likely come back to the southern Arizona or California area for next winter. A few of the couples at the Quartzsite rally either lived in Washington or Oregon or have traveled that region a lot and had many good suggestions. Nothing definitive yet, but at least a straw man to work from.

Boondocking at Quartzsite

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The last step of our preparation for boondocking in Quartzsite AZ was to empty our black and grey holding tanks and fill up our fresh water tank. Supposedly our fresh water tank is 105 gallons but I really don't have any means to verify that other than that when I went to fill the tank at our campground, it took what seemed like forever! The water pressure at Leaf Verde RV Park hadn't been great so I'm guessing that had a lot to do with it. We also wanted to top off our diesel tank since it is the source of both our heat and domestic hot water when we are not hooked up to utilities. We found a station about 25 miles before Quartzsite that had a reasonable price and easy access. 

The drive along Interstate 10 west gives a great view of all the RVs that were already camped near town for the big RV show. You could see clusters of several hundred rigs scattered in one direction and several hundred more in a different area. The ones that were parked just off the access road for the interstate seemed to be just a bit close to the noisy expressway for our liking. The Newmar group was meeting in one of the boondocking spots about 7 miles south of I-10 - Roadrunner BLM Camping area. We had GPS coordinates for the location and some directions. "Turn west on 53rd St North (formerly LaPaz Valley Rd) about 200 yards and then go northwest into the desert."

The last instruction about going northwest into the desert was only slightly frightening. I was anticipating sand and tracks going every which way. But the area is much more of a hard packed sandy gravel and some of the driving 'lanes' were apparent once you were on them. Ted (our rally host) had placed big Newmar flags at strategic locations to get you to the right spot. It was good because there were many other groups of rigs here and there, and from a distance they all look about the same.  We pulled up to the first volunteer from the group and he hopped on his golf cart to bring us to our spot for the next week or so depending on how well we do with our holding tanks.

There were already nearly 80 Newmar rigs situated in our little corner of the desert. Six of the motor homes formed a 150 foot ring around the designated gathering area. Near the middle was a big fire ring and stacks of firewood people had brought along. They had multiple tables and canopies up along with all sorts of grills, smokers and propane stoves to help with food prep for the next 5 days. The first day we were here was nearly 80 and sunny but the forecast was for less than stellar weather the next couple of days. We ended up with just about 90 rigs in total, well less than the 113 that had registered but I suspect the weather forecast kept some folks away. 

View from Our Roof on First Morning of Rally

From talking with some of the folks that have been coming back here year after year, we have learned a bit about how the BLM land works around here. BLM stands for Bureau of Land Management. The federal government owns and controls many of the large land parcels here in Arizona and southern California. There are basically two types of lands where boondocking is permitted. One type is a dispersed camping area like we are at. As you enter the area, there is a campground host where you are supposed to register and fill out a form that gives you permission to stay here for 14 days for free. In our case, the rally host had gotten the forms from the host so we just did the paperwork at our site. According to the rules, after 14 days you need to move out of the area and go elsewhere. You may choose another dispersed BLM area but it must be one more than 25 miles away. So in theory, one could bounce back and forth between two free sites every two weeks.

Another type of BLM land is a Long Term Visitor Area (LTVA). There are several of these just a couple miles north of our area and a few others scattered about the general area. They have dispersed camping as well but also have dumpsters for trash, a dump station for your holding tanks and a place for potable water to fill your fresh water tank. The area we are in has none of these amenities. But the LTVA does cost money, not much money. You can either get a two week pass for $40 or a yearly pass for $180. Actually the yearly pass is only for something like 6 months, but nobody in their right mind would be out here in the summer. Several of the people putting on our rally had purchased 2 week passes for the LTVA so they could bring all our groups trash up to the dumpster each day.

The rally organizers had all sort of activities planned for each day. On some days, there were vendors that came to give some sort of presentation to the group, usually with the intent of selling what they were pitching. One of the morning Mac the Fire Guy came for a talk and demo. We had heard a lot about this guy on several RV podcasts we listen to but had never had the chance to see him in person until now. He is a full time RVer and a retired fire chief that now travels the various RV shows giving presentations and selling smoke detectors and fire extinguishers. 

Unlike the other vendors that simply explain why you 'must' have what they are trying to sell you, Mac explains the dangers of fire in RVs and just how little time you would have to exit the rig if it were to catch on fire - about 20 seconds! But to make it more interesting, he travels with another retired fireman and they put on quite the demo after the talk. First he has a skillet that he pours in a mixture of gas and diesel and then sets it on fire. As is burns, it catches the plywood 'wall' of his demo stage. Next he had one of our fellow campers try to put it out, but with what turned out to be a dud fire extinguisher. This was to show that many of the standard extinguishers in our rigs don't function. Another camper was given a working one and put the flame out. Next he starts the fire up again and shows how well the small foam extinguisher he is selling works.  It was a good demo but we already have a few of his extinguishers in our rig. 

Oh No! The Place if Burning Down

The Fire is Out

In the middle of the afternoon we would all get together for drinks and munchies followed by some sort of dinner provided by the host along with sides we all brought. When there are 80-some sides to try, there is no chance to taste them all. The strange thing was that dinner was usually started by 4:30 and at first we thought this might be prompted by most of the attendees are on the older side. But it turns out the planning was more so that we would all be done prior to sunset around 6 o'clock because this place gets really dark at night. Generally we would then sit around the fire talking with our new found friends, learning about where they are from and where they have traveled to trying to pick up info for possible future trips we don't even know about yet.

Enjoying a Camp Fire with Friends

With so much to do and so many people to talk with, we found ourselves not going anywhere for several days except for the occasional walk around the nearby desert areas to get a geocache or three. We did meet quite a few very interesting couples, some that I'm sure we will run into again during our travels. There were numerous couples from Canada. While most of them were from the western portions of that country, one couple had driven here all the way from Nova Scotia to spend the winter in Arizona. 

So how has the boondocking been working out for us? First off, boondocking can mean various things but the idea is that you have your rig setup somewhere without any hookups, be it electric, water or sewer. Technically if we stop at a Walmart for a night while we are traveling long distances between campgrounds, we are boondocking. With the size of holding tanks we have, doing this for a night or two in a row is really no issue at all. For this stop we're hoping to stay for 12 nights in a row! 

With the delay between writing these posts and being able to upload them, I can say that we did manage to stay for the full 12 nights. Our coach is an all electric one. Most rigs (including our travel trailer and first motor home) have propane tanks to run a cooktop, possible oven, furnace and an RV style refrigerator. Ours has no propane which is good from a fire hazard standpoint, but more problematic from a boondocking standpoint. Our rig has eight, 6 volt golf cart batteries that run all the interior 12 volt DC lighting. Plus there is a 2800 watt inverter that will convert the 12 volt DC into 120 volt AC to run many (but not all) of our AC loads. The main one being our residential refrigerator which is as big as the one in our home we just moved out of.

These batteries will store enough power to keep things going for roughly 12 hours before they need to be recharged. This recharging is normally done by us being at a campground with an electrical hookup or shore power as it's called. Besides keeping the batteries charged, the shore power can be used to run air conditioners, the electric stove top, convection/microwave oven and so forth. When we don't have shore power, we can use the built in generator. It can run any of the electrical appliances and generally most of them at the same time when required. We have found that if we run the generator about 2 hours in the morning to charge the batteries for the day, we can also use the electric stove for breakfast or even the air conditioning units in heat pump mode to take the morning chill out of the rig.

By the time 6 PM rolls around, we kick off the generator again to heat up dinner as well as recharge the batteries for the night. One other trick we picked up from one of the rally sessions here is that before we go to bed, we simply turn off our refrigerator since we will not be opening the doors until morning. The temperature only goes up a few degrees and we don't deplete the batteries as quickly.

In terms of heat, the first few nights we were here, the temperatures only dropped to the low to mid forties overnight outside which brought the indoor temperatures to about 55 which was fine for sleeping. In the morning, after starting the generator, we would warm up the rig with the heat pumps and by then the outside temperatures had gotten warm enough that heat was not needed. 

We did have several nights when the outside temperature was getting into the mid to upper thirties. On the first morning that this occurred, it had gotten down to 49 inside and was too cold to use the heat pumps to heat things up. This meant we needed to use our main furnace. Again since we don't have propane, our furnace is a diesel fired burner that heats up an antifreeze that is then circulated to several heat exchangers with 12 volt fans blowing air across them. We have obviously used the furnace before but never without being hooked up to shore power. We weren't sure how much current draw these fans would put on our battery bank. It turned out that even on those nights the furnace was running, the battery level was fine in the morning.

So with electricity and heat working out fine, the only other resource we needed to manage was our water usage. As I mentioned, the fresh water tank holds 105 gallons. The grey water tank holds 65 gallons and takes water from the sinks, shower and washing machine. The black tank holds 45 gallons and only the toilet is plumbed to it. Water conservation was going to be the biggest possible obstacle for us to stay out here for the full 12 days we were planning. We had filled 5, one gallon containers with water to use for drinking or coffee so that would help some with conserving the water in our fresh tank. We also switched to using predominantly paper plates and cups to cut down on the amount of dishes we needed to wash. When we did need to wash dishes, we would use a bowl to collect most of the water and then use that to flush the toilet, again saving the use of fresh water. Not doing laundry while out here and taking very quick "Navy" showers also reduced our fresh water usage and saved on grey tank capacity. 

The limiting factor in how long we can make it is our black tank. Although the lower temperatures have meant that the need to shower as frequently as usual have been reduced. I suppose it doesn't hurt that everybody else out here in the desert is experiencing the same thing and we have no real fancy places to go in Quartzsite so our hygiene levels are plenty adequate. 

It does get dusty out here at times and even though the windows are nearly always closed because the temperatures haven't been that warm, we are finding the inside of the rig gets fairly dusty. The outside of the rig and car are simply hopeless in these conditions. 

So would we be willing to do this style of boondocking again? I think the answer would be yes. If we were to limit our stays to the 7 to 10 day range, we would not need to be so hardcore on water conservation. We didn't find the noise from the generator was that objectionable. Once the crowds die down from the big RV event, it will be much more quiet and peaceful.  But the flip side to that statement is that we might not have anybody else around to talk to and interact with

Since we had filled up the fuel tank about 30 miles out of Quartzsite, I was able to fill up before heading out and get a good estimate of what it cost us to stay on the free BLM land. We used just under $23 in diesel to run the generator and the heat at times. This works out to be $3.54 per day. Not bad and would have been a little less had the weather not been as cold as it was.

Pretty Sunset Over Our Vehicles

Our Rig Beneath the Stars

Buckeye Arizona

Map of this blog's locations click this link to open the map

The drive from Catalina State Park to our next stop at Leaf Verde RV Park was an easy one. As nearly every drive we have had for the past few months, we head back to Interstate 10 and proceed west. It was only 140 mile drive and the traffic going through the Phoenix area was not bad at all. The park is far enough off I-10 so traffic noise isn't too big of an issue. The town of Buckeye is about 30 miles west of Phoenix. It is big enough to have decent grocery stores and other shopping.

The closest hiking area is not very far from camp - maybe 5 miles north. So while not as convenient as the hikes at Catalina State Park, it wasn't bad. Skyline Park is fairly new. In fact our maps didn't show it as being a park, nor were any roads listed as getting to it. But trust us, Watson Road north of I-10 extends straight into the park and the several parking areas. They were having a 1st anniversary party the weekend we are in town.

There are many miles of trails and they are all very well marked. At each intersection there is a map showing where you are, which trail goes which way and how far it is to the next trail. With that in mind, one might think we would be able to figure out a reasonable hike for our first one. But no, we ended up spending nearly 4.5 hours hiking 8 miles of hills while picking up 1500 feet in elevation climbed. The good news was that we did pretty well finding the geocaches hidden along many of the trails.

Mountain Views at Skyline Park

Trail Up to Overlook

At one point while sitting and signing in at a cache, we took a break to eat a snack and across the ravine, I spotted a lonely coyote walking along probably in search of its next meal. There must be some air force base not too far away because we continually saw fighter jets cruising overhead. We were even beginning to wonder if they were looking for some lost hikers (us?) since we saw them so frequently.

Jumping Cholla Cacti with "Babies" Scattered About

Trails at Skyline Park

A lot of the trails here are multi-use and occasionally saw mountain bikers or even riders on horseback. We both decided that the steepness and rocky terrain might be a bit much for our biking skills, so we stayed with hiking. We ended up hiking in this area three of the seven days we were here. We did try a different trailhead for one of the hikes. The development of Verrado is just to the northeast of Buckeye. It is a very fancy area with what are likely very pricey homes. But there was a small parking area and trailhead and fortunately no signs indicating it was only for Verrado residents.

Indian Petroglyphs Now Behind Fence

Lizard Petroglyph

A couple of the hikes we did had spur trails that took you up to the peak of one of the mountains and provided you with a great view. They usually required a fair amount of uphill climbing, but the trails were generally in excellent shape and the views were well worth the effort.

More Cholla Along Trail

Great Distance Views From Above

We spent one afternoon trying out the local disc golf course. It was listed as being in Sundance Park, but after arriving at Sundance Park and not finding any disc golf course, we had to check the website and discovered the location was a couple miles away. This was another one of those places where one sign said no trespassing, residents only while another sign gave the course layout. We opted to ignore the no trespassing sign since nobody else appeared to be around. The course is right next to a water treatment plant and the smell was not too pleasant. The whole course seems to be located in some sort of water retention area so if it has been rainy, you may need hip waders. Being southern Arizona, the landscape is mostly sand and rocks, but each tee is at least made up of crushed stone with signage stating how far the hole is.

We had done pretty well given we hadn't played in some time. Although on one hole, Chris went to take her second shot and somehow her throw went exactly 90 degrees from the intended direction and with such distance that it managed to go up into a large irrigation ditch. As we approached the entry location, we saw the disc had just cleared the lip of the ditch and slid down the concrete side of the ditch. It was now in about 6 feet of water and about 8 feet from the edge. We both agreed it wasn't worth the risk to try to rescue the disc.

We did spend one day heading into Phoenix to do a little site seeing. We went on a Sunday morning so there was very little traffic and not many people. We checked out the state Capitol area where there are many monuments. The anchor from the USS Arizona as well as 15" guns salvaged from both the USS Arizona and USS Missouri are on display here.

Anchor from USS Arizona

One of the 15" Guns

Theater in Downtown Phoenix

The grounds also had monuments to fallen firefighters from Arizona including the 19 lost in 2013 while battling a wildfire near Yarnell Hill Arizona. Another monument for Vietnam War vets and another statute honoring the Navajo Code Talkers from WWII. And a colorful Desert Storm Memorial.

Elaborate Bell

Firefighter Memorial

Desert Storm Memorial

Vietnam Statue

Navajo Code Talker

While wandering around this area of town, we came upon the oddest, and most dangerous, looking tree with large conical spikes all around its trunk. The tree was in bloom with large pink tipped white flowers. A little research and I discovered it is called a silk floss tree. I suspect it is a tree that shouldn't be climbed for obvious reasons. We also drove through the Mesa area where there are hundreds of RV parks wanting to get an idea of what they are like. Some have a hundred or so sites, but others are ginormous with over 2000 RV sites. Not sure this is our kind of camping, at least not yet.

Museum Near Capitol

Spikes on Trunk of Silk Floss Tree

Much of our stay here in Buckeye was to prepare for our trip to Quartzsite Arizona. The small town near the border with California swells from 3000'ish residents to several hundred thousand in January for a big RV show in the desert. We will be trying out our first real boondocking - camping without any utilities except what we have onboard. We are planning on staying 12 nights which will push our holding tank capability beyond what we typically can do. We obviously won't be there alone. From what we have heard, there are RVs for as far as the eye can see. We are planning on camping with a group of over 110 Newmar owners so we at least will be with "friends".  Our next post will tell you how well (or poorly) it went. Wish us luck.