Fun in the Sun Road Trip Days 16 – 22 , Western Arizona

Our first camping spot in Arizona, after leaving the gorgeous Anza Borrega State Park is on BLM land south or Quartzsite, AZ. For those of you who don’t know, camping in the desert around Quartzsite is a big deal for thousands of RV’ers every year. In January through early February there are ginormous RV and rock/gem shows which draws a confusingly large number of campers. Like wall to wall. We missed this excitement, but could still visit the roadside swap meets and vendors stalls selling lots of useless crap.

We weren’t very enamored with Quartzsite itself, as the town is one big tacky flea market. But camping on BLM land is pretty cool. For one thing, you can camp for free for 14 days, or pay something like $15 to camp for a month. We chose a camping area called roadrunner, which is 5 miles south of town.

  You basically drive off the road onto dirt paths and find a spot. We found one nestled in an area surrounded by saguaro cactus and small trees. The first night was kind of eerie since we were basically along in the middle of nowhere, but after a couple nights, we got to appreciate the privacy and quiet….plus the price is right. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since we’re grazing, we decided to head north from here and see what camping is like near Parker, AZ and the Lake Havasu area, staying a couple nights at River Island State Park along I95.  It was a nice large campsite, nestled in between cool looking rocky hills, small and immaculate, with a small beach on the Colorado river, not too far downstream from the Parker Dam (the deepest dam in the US). The sites had power and water, and nice showers - I rate it an 8. You did hear some road noise, the only drawback. Very friendly people in a community-like setting. We made a reservation a couple days before we came, which is a good thing because there were packed. Down the road 1/2 mile is Buckskin Mountain State Park, which is also nice but it seemed a little more crowded and hectic, but it has a huge beach. We drove 30 miles north up to Lake Havasu City, and had had a picnic and nice stroll along the lake on a nice walkway. We also saw the famous London Bridge, which is the second largest tourist attraction in Arizona … can you name the first largest tourist attraction?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next stop was a late decision to visit Lost Dutchman State Park, as recommended by the camp hosts at River Island SP. It is about 4 hrs from River Island, located NE of Phoenix. We had no reservation for this visit, but they had room in their “overflow” area which is nicer than most regular campgrounds. As you can see, this is a beautiful campground nestled at the base of the superstition mountains. There are miles of hiking trails and a wide variety of cactus. We stayed two nights, and will definitely come back again to this “10” campground. The last night a huge (and I mean HUGE) storm came through. I had pretty much packed up camp knowing rain was coming, but we didn’t expect what felt like hurricane force winds. I had to get up at 3:30am and take down the awning. The trailer really rocked when the winds blew hard. No damage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We took a day trip to the town Tortilla Flat, along a neat windy road. Tortilla Flat is an authentic remnant of an old west town, nestled in the midst of the Tonto National Forest, in the Superstition Mountain Range. Tortilla Flat started out as a stagecoach stop in 1904 and neither fire nor flood has been able to take away this historic stop along the Historic Apache Trail.

  We also visited a mining town nearby called Goldfield, and walked around the shops and took a train ride, which Kyle liked.