With my new solar installed, my plan was to hang out near Quartzsite for the week, at the Plomosa Road BLM camping area. I arrived back to find my spot still still available, so decided it was good enough to not move for the rest of the week. I was not planning on spending my winter close to Quartzsite. Having been here before, I have formed my own opinions about the area. For me, it’s not the desert experience I’m after. Let me explain further.
During my previous visit to Quartzsite, I stayed at the Road Runner BLM camping area. Each of these were picked for being less crowded that the other areas, that also happen to be closer to town. The problem is, neither of these is really that empty these days. While you can pick a spot so no one is within 50 meters of you, you probably are going to have some people within spotting and hearing distance of you. I’m out in the desert in part for the solitude, so that is one strike against Quartzsite in my books.
My Plomosa camping spot. The van to the right was pretty close. Good thing he was a good singer.
Second, Quartzsite itself is quite busy in the main winter season, serving all the people boondocking around the area, plus the RV parks. That’s strike two against Quartzsite. Thirdly, it isn’t really the prettiest desert in the area, especially near town. There are some redeeming features, so I wouldn’t say it’s the worst desert either. I’ll give Quartzsite half a strike for that. So, I’m down two and a half strikes before getting to the last point: even though town is busy, it isn’t the greatest for basic necessities. Anything RV can be had, but the grocery stores are small and expensive. There are options to cut that cost down, but they require the hassle of finding vendors in the big tent, or shopping several places to get everything you need at a better price. I hate shopping at the best of times. When I have to go where it is busy, and I have to make multiple stops, that gives Quartzsite its last half strike and it is out for me as a long term destination for the winter. If you are a people person that loves shopping, Quartzsite could totally be your thing, but it’s not my thing.
Border marker
Plomosa BLM is located on both sides of the same named road, going down about 8 km down the road from Nevada highway 95. Unfortunately, it isn’t 8km deep off the road, more like 800m off the road before you hit markers written with ‘day use only beyond this point’. The obvious paths have signs, otherwise you just have to look for a marker nearby. Many need replacement, the text is faded to white. It also doesn’t help that some people ignore the markers and camp beyond them anyways. I’d guess enforcement is only occasional, as some of those campers were out there the whole time I was there. So assuming you stay within the rules, you really are not out of earshot of the road, plus your neighbors who are “crowded” in with you. I say crowded, to me, but to others it would seem a wide open desert with only a few people far away. If can hear someone’s music and singing, it’s too close for me. Why yes, I did happen to have the only singer parked in a Van closest to me. He sung along to the songs he was playing. At least he was a good singer, it actually took me a few minutes to be sure he as adding to the chorus, not just part of a recording.
Typical Plomosa vegetation
Plomosa has a bit more vegetation than some areas. That is a good thing, as it is flat and the vegetation is the only thing keeping you from seeing everyone within a mile of you. I had a little desert pavement arm to myself, with some trees and shrubs that partially screened me from the people in the next arm over. At least going down Plomosa Road you can get away from Highway 95, which is quite busy into the night. Plomosa road did have some bulk haulers going down every day, ruining the morning coffee solitude. I’m being a bit hard on the area though. If you are new to the desert you will probably love Plomosa, even with a few people and noise thrown in.
Nicer Saguaro cactus
I was happy to see the classic Saguaro desert cactus again. These plants fascinated me during my first visit down, and I still find them novel. The area doesn’t have a lot, but walk around a bit and you will see one poking up in the distance somewhere. One advantage of the camping being restricted to the road area was that a walk into the desert was empty of vehicles. I explored a bit on foot, enjoying my time away from the people. The Grom motorcycle came out to explore some of the rest of the 8km stretch of Plomosa. I went down to the end closest towards Bouse, hoping for empty areas. It was emptier – I would camp down here next time. But there were people right up against the border of the camping. You are better off turning in towards highway 95 and camping a little off the end – there was more empty space there. Keep in mind this was early December – the whole area has many more people in it by the end of the month.
Hi Jolly Monument. Army Camel driver.
I did play tourist one day in Quartzsite, cruising in on the Grom to see the sites. Quartzsite’s best tourist thing in my opinion is the Hi Jolly Monument. Hi Jolly was responsible for bringing the camels out west in a brief experiment the army had to use camels as beasts of burden out here rather than horses. That explains why you see camel stuff around Quartzsite, if you were wondering. I admit I didn’t try hard to find other touristy things. I’m still not that comfortable riding the Grom around in traffic, so I contented myself with this one monument, and some random side streets. Quartzsite has very low end buildings – not really a photographer’s mecca for architecture unless you are looking for mobile trailers. Some day I will have to brave the big tent area and see all the vendor displays, now that I hear is impressive in scope and variety.
Guess what it spells.
The Grom went out away from Quartzsite on a couple of occasions. The pedestrian occasion was a trip to Parker to add funds to my US phone account. Parker is where Quartzsite people go when they need more selection at a better price. Parker is a large town, with pretty much everything. The more interesting trip was towards the Plomosa Mountains. There is a rock grouping spelling ‘Quartzsite’ and a north arrow. This would have been a navigational marker for airplanes back at World War II and prior. There is a remnant of a Native version of these rock piles by the road – but you don’t really get a sense of what it is other than some lines of rock at this point. The later additions are readable, just not welcome. If you go to the map link above, turn on satellite and zoom in. You can see all of this from above better than on the ground. Next time I’m in the area, I will have to visit The Fisherman Intaglio, just down the road from the Quartzsite rocks.
That is it for this time in Quartzsite. My plans for my next stop were to check out some promising roads west of Parker. There are a lot of people boondocking a few miles out from Parker, but there were promising roads past where most people were parked. Join me next time to see what I found out there.
