Out In The Boondocks

When we made the decision to try out a winter in Arizona we committed to at least two months at the RV Park in Quartzsite.  Without knowing what to expect we figured it would be a good way to get to know the area and the atmosphere in town.  We also wanted to spend some time in the desert to see what that was about.

Our time at the park ended on the fifth and we moved out to the desert the same day.  The area we selected is about 9 miles south of town.  We met Kim and Ken two summers ago and they had been at a particular BLM spot called RoadRunner for a few weeks, and were getting ready to depart so we joined them for their last few days.  You may recall a post I made earlier in December about the LTVA areas that describes in a bit more detail what these areas are all about.

All of these areas are fairly flat so it is not difficult to get level and set up.  Most of the ones around Quartzsite are the same - there are spots with fairly large rocks interspersed with areas of finer rocks with sand and dust.  There are some areas heavily travelled by four wheelers that have sand so fine that it ‘splashes’ when you walk through it so you can imagine why the people on four wheelers are kitted out with helmets, goggles, and face masks.  This is a four-wheelers paradise and all kinds of campers bring their side by sides along on a trailer for use while they are here.  Most times you can look off to the distance and see streams of dust clouds rising up from the ten or fifteen ATV’s barreling down a trail.  Driving these rigs on the roadways in town is legal just like snowmobiles and four wheelers in some communities in Canada.

The most noticeable geographic constraints are the areas that become flooded when there are heavy rains.  These areas are called washes.  These washes can be as small as a little dip in the road to some as deep as a car, and even the major roads keep the roadway following down into a wash rather than building culverts and raising the roadway.  We have not seen any rain this winter so have a hard time appreciating what happens when it does, but the signs are all over the place in town to not drive through a wash when it is flooded; otherwise you may end up like those drivers that drive through underpasses in Toronto during those freakishly heavy downpours they seem to get from time to time.

Road Runner BLM roughly outlined by the roads on the three sides.  We are the blue dot.

The washes are all well defined as they are the only areas where vegetation grows.  You can trace washes quite easily.  In the picture above you can clearly see the lines of vegetation running from the bottom right up to the top left.  You can also see the ‘trails’ that have been created on the ground between the washes that lead to the areas used for camping.  There is no shortage of good areas to pull off and set up.  A lot of people come back year after year to the same spot (if it is vacant when they get there) and some have gone so far as to encircle ‘their’ area with stones and are quite decorative.

The washes that are adjacent to where we are camped run southeast to northwest.  If you follow the lines from here you will note they group into a larger wash that runs right through the middle of Quartzsite and continues generally north west until it finds its way through a pass and ends at the Colorado River just north of Blythe, California.  This wash is called French Creek.  There is another wash called Italian Wash to the North East, and I suspect there may be a joke in there somewhere but cannot find any history on either.

The vegetation ranges from small creosote bushes, blue palo verde tree to mesquite trees, and saguaro.  There are some other types of cacti around but not too many out in these areas from what we can see.  Wildlife ranges from pack-rats, rabbits, coyotes, mourning doves, hummingbirds and other types of small wrens and sparrows.  Oh and snakes.  We have been told repeatedly they only come out when the temperature is consistently over 80, so no worries in the winter.  However, just like some humans I am sure there are snakes that just don't get it, so Pat is doing her best to keep an eye out when walking.

We have been out here a week now and have found it very relaxing.  It is super quiet although there have been two nights we have heard coyotes close by.  There are not nearly as many campers around as there are during the height of the January events in town so you get a better sense of being ‘out in the desert’.  This particular BLM is a popular one for rendezvous of certain specialty groups.

When we arrived last week there was a huge rally for owners of Fifth Wheel trailers by Grand Design.  They are one of the largest manufacturers of such trailers in the US and there had to be four hundred plus attendees.  They were about a quarter mile from where we are and all packed in together like a wagon train around the fire.  There were seminars, food tents, and brand new trailers to tease potential buyers.  This week is a similar sized event put on by owners of truck campers.  Some of the designs of truck campers now are especially impressive and require huge dual axle trucks to carry everything.  Most of them are towing a trailer with a side by side as well.

The type of camping we are doing is called dry camping or boondocking.  The dry camping part refers to no water, sewer or electricity so you need to be prepared to move on once your tanks are either full or empty depending on which ones limit your camping first.  Boondocking is synonymous with dry camping but I find it interesting the word comes from a word US soldiers brought back from The Philippines in the early 1900’s.  The remote rural mountainous regions of those islands are referred to as bundóks in their language.

To carry out a test of how long we can stay in one spot before needing to empty our tanks or replenish the fresh water we came up with the idea of staying 15 days.  If we can do that comfortably without sacrificing anything we would normally have if we were in a campground then I will say it will be a success.

For us we arrived with a full tank (105 USG) of fresh water for dishes, bathing and general use.  We have a grey water tank that can hold 75 USG from showers and sinks, and a black tank of 55 USG that takes waste from the toilet.  It is my expectation we will have enough capacity in all tanks to make it through for the planned fifteen days we are here. 

As for power generation, we have an onboard diesel powered generator that is capable of providing the same amount of electricity we would get from a campground.  We do not have any solar power generating capability so am evaluating what our daily consumption is to see if solar makes economic sense versus running the generator.

Once we have completed this two week test I will make another post to detail the experience.

Thank you for reading.