Boondocking in Quartzsite, Arizona

We've done some research about taking fresh fruit into California, and we found that they have inspection stations as you enter the state from any direction.

Even though the entrance says, "Welcome," we're not sure that we will feel welcome when they ask questions about the citrus we have on board. It's one of the things that they confiscate as travelers enter into California.

So we took inventory of the fruit we have on board, that we picked while we were in Mission, Texas. For the last month, we have averaged eating 3 grapefruit, 3-4 oranges, and 6 tangerines every day! That's a very fruity diet! If we continue at our current daily consumption rate, we will still have citrus left when we're planning to drive the motor home into California. So Denisa started juicing so we could drink our citrus too. We can tell you right now that tangerine/orange juice is an awesome breakfast drink! We are also fans of grapefruit juice because these tree-ripened fruits are so sweet.

After cleaning up that juicy mess, we were on the road to our next destination. We have heard about the tiny town of Quartzsite, Arizona for years. According to the Arizona highway department, as many as a million RVers come to this tiny town every winter to enjoy its temperate weather. In the middle of the desert, and just a few miles from the California border, it is a very hot place to be in the summer. One local told us they had 30 days in a row over 115 degrees last summer. But during our stay in February, we had temperatures in the 70's and 80's. The fact that it is also surrounded by BLM land is another bonus for RVers. BLM stands for Bureau of Land Management, and these are federal lands where people can camp for free in their RV. This is a picture of a BLM area north of town that is flat and level, and scattered with RVs parking there without hook-ups.

We did some research, and decided that we would set up camp west of town instead. The West Dome Rock BLM area is hillier, and has nice views of the surrounding mountains. Dome Rock is the peak on the left hand side of the picture below, and we took a picture to show the sprinkling of RVs parked among the cacti in the desert.

We stopped in at the camp host site, and filled out the paperwork. We can pick any spot we like in this Dome Rock area that stretches out for about 6 miles, and runs about 1/2 mile from the paved road. There are bumpy gravel trails that lead off the paved highway and wind their way throughout the foothills. With our completed permit, we can camp here for up to 14 days for free. Our neighbors aren't very close here at West Dome Rock.

We found a nice flat place with great views, and parked the motor home. We decided to leave the slides in, so we didn't have to put down the jacks. There are no electricity or water hookups, and no sewer hose to get out. We just put on the parking brake, turned off the motor, and we're home! As we sat outside enjoying the cool evening temperatures, we saw a few bats fly by. They were obviously looking for insects, but we didn't see any ourselves.

We started exploring our new place, and found someone had marked this spot with a giant "X" made from white rocks. We're guessing it made this spot easier to find in a drone photograph from the sky.

But Denisa got to work repositioning those rocks, changing the angle and the lengths of the legs. Then she came up with a better symbol for our camp site. Now it feels like we are really at home here!

January is the busiest month at Quartzsite. That's when most of the RV rallies are held, and the "big tent" is set up in town to sell RV supplies. But there is at least one rally in the month of February. On the other side of the hill is a gathering of those little white trailers called Casitas and Scamps.

As the sun gets low in the sky, it lights up the trailers that look like a field of big white marshmallows parked close together in the desert.

As the sun sets, the moon rises. We might not have electricity, but we have a great night light in the sky!

One of our reasons to come here is to exercise our generator. Because we usually stay in campgrounds with electricity, we don't need our generator often. But it should be started and ran under load once each month. So we will have electricity compliments of our on-board generator for the next few days. We are more careful with our use of electricity when we boondock, and we tend to go to bed earlier and wake up earlier. That means Denisa was up to take sun-rise pictures the first morning.

Because we left Gila Bend early, our stay in Quartzsite will now be stretched to four nights, instead of the planned two. That gives us time to see some of the winter highlights of Quartzsite. We visited the vendors that set up tents in town to entice campers to buy all kinds of junk that won't fit in their RVs. We think it is particularly interesting that they host the big rock and gem show here in Quartzsite. That's exactly what we don't  need to tote around the country--heavy rocks. Our only purchases were a bag of dehydrated apples (light-weight and edible) and chocolate candy (for Valentine's).

We also made the obligatory stop at the world-famous book store in Quartzsite. If you don't know why it is famous, just know that Denisa was too embarrassed to smile for the picture outside the store.

We checked out the Quartzsite social scene, and went to a dance at the senior center one night. Mark's favorite part of the evening was the break in the middle of the dance to eat cookies in the dining hall. We also attended services at a little church that swells in the winter with a whole congregation of people with white hair visiting from all over North America.

There were plenty of opportunities to get exercise too. Denisa did some running, and Mark rode his bike up and down the hilly and rocky trails of the BLM land.

So we are exercising our generator, as well as our muscles here in the desert. Even though the crowds have subsided a little since their peak in January, we are also experiencing a famous piece of RV culture in Quartzsite in the winter. We can now say we have been to the place that's claim to fame is being the largest gathering of RVers in the world.