Arizona, take off your rainbow shades
Arizona, have another look at the world – Mark Lindsay

You don’t RV for long without hearing about Quartzsite.  In fact, I’d heard of it long before I’d ever dreamt of RVing.  In winter months it’s a mecca for snowbirds and other RVers who inundate the town and surrounding areas for the mild temperatures and the free (or very low cost) boondocking.  Estimates run as high as 500,000 or more arriving here for a wintertime stay.  We had friends and family to see in the Phoenix area so it seemed like a good time/excuse to check out the Quartzsite experience.

We were late in the season (late February) to get the full monty, like the giant RV show, the biggest swap meet in the world and the rock and gem shows, as most of the big stuff happens in December and January, but there’s absolutely enough going while we were here to get the flavor.  We weren’t really all that keen on being in (or close to) Quartzsite proper anyway.  Too crowded, even late season.  I already had a more remote setting all picked out.  One that was within driving distance of Quartzsite, but was still out in the boonies enough that we weren’t going to feel cramped in by neighbors.

At 665,400 acres, Kofa Wildlife Refuge is the second largest dedicated wilderness area in Arizona, and it feels it.  It’s big, with plenty of boondocking to be found.  Camping is anywhere along the roads in, but not more than 100 ft away from the road, and with a 14 day limit. (after which you can move 20 miles and camp again.)  Wide open space is everywhere for hiking, exploring, offroading and hunting.  I picked the Palm Canyon Road entry, about 20ish miles from Quartzsite, and we drove in 6 or 7 miles before we picked a likely looking spot.  Our nearest neighbor was at least 500 yards away and there were only two rigs within viewing distance.  Continuing up Palm Canyon brings you right to the foot of the gloriously red Arizona sunset colored mountains shown here in the featured image, and right where I was standing when taking the “Our RV” pic.

Hiking up the trail and crevice that leads into the base of Palm Canyon and there are number of rare California fan palms growing high on the canyon wall that are very probably descendants of palms dating back to the last age of North American glaciation.  They are quite unique and a popular hiking destination here.  Also of interest in the area: Bighorn Sheep, coyotes, a wide variety of birdies and reptiles, “ghost” towns, Castle Dome Museum, the famous Desert Bar, (Food, drink and music, no electricity or running water, cash only, 8 miles into the desert, open in the winter only, noon to sundown on Saturday and Sunday and high clearance vehicles highly recommended) semi-active mines, rock and gem hounding and swap meet booth style bargain hunting for just about anything you might be looking for all over Quartzsite.

Phoenix and cousin meetings were calling our names, so we were only able to spend 5 days here, but would have liked more.  In fact, it easily could have been the full 14 allowed, and we would have enjoyed every second of it.  This will be a place we’ll come back to again and again.