My time exploring west of Phoenix was coming to an end for the season, due in part to the unseasonably warm weather. I had scouted out a spot not far from my first boondocking spot in the area. I figured I’d go give that a try before finding some higher ground to get away from the heat. Join me as I revisit my starting point for winter.
Even I have limits in heat tolerance. I’m like a lizard sucking up heat, but the long term forecast was looking to be too hot even for me. I had planned to return to Agua Caliente Road, going to a spot further down from the ATV staging area to boondock in solitude. But with the upcoming heat, I decided I would not be boondocking more than a week in the area, even though there are a lot of potential spots around. I’d enjoy my last week in the lowlands around Phoenix, then it would be time to head up and north to slightly cooler climes to beat the heat.
In the meanwhile, it was nice to come to a spot I’d previously scouted. I did have some difficulty finding it again, going down the wrong branch of road from the camp right at the main gravel road. Once I corrected that, I quickly found my spot. I noted in driving around to get level that things were a bit soft here. Any rain would quickly turn the area into a mud bog. Even dry, there were soft areas I was watching. I planned my exit to turn me around on what looked like firm ground, heading back up the same track I’d come in on. I was way off the main road – I’d have a hard time convincing a tow truck to rescue me if I got stuck.
Gold?! Nope!
I had not come to this scouted spot until now as, frankly, it is a bit boring compared to the other spots I had found further to the northwest. The immediate area didn’t offer anything interesting for hiking other than some washes. Even so, you get the occasional unusual thing in walking about out here. I spotted something in the distance that looked like the worlds biggest gold nugget. I wasn’t thinking I’d struck it rich, but did have to detour over to find out that I had found yet another party balloon that had floated out into the desert. I claimed my gold prize so that others would not be fooled into thinking they’d struck it rich.
A one way cattle entrance had been setup at the Jagow corrals since I was last there. A bit of bait hay is inside to get your cows to come in on their own.
I explored about with the motorcycle more here. I quickly found out that if you go further down Agua Caliente Road there are a lot more boondocking spots available. The main road is well maintained – it’s just a matter of how much gravel road you can tolerate. You do have to cross the train tracks where there are parked railcars on both sides of the crossing. I was a bit leery about crossing the first time, worried that the railway would block off the crossing. But the cars were always in the same position every time I came by so I conclude they are storing cars on the track, keeping a gap at the road so that traffic can get through.
Woolsey “Spring” is a well these days
I went down a left branching road from Agua Caliente that leads to Woolsey Spring and beyond. Previously, I had only traveled as far as Jagow Tank, which is about as far as an RV could travel down the road. There are boondocking spots down there, but from what I saw I’d say this is the most popular boondocking area. I saw one or two rigs out here most of the time. It’s not crowded by any stretch, but you might be looking at neighbors in the distance if you camp anywhere from the road junction to Jagow Tank. Being camped closer to the junction this time, I decided to visit Woolsey Spring. The road goes over the Gila Bend Mountains, starting to drop down to the Gila River and the I-8. The spring looks to be old, having an old stone well sitting dry in the wash. The “spring” is now a well, like most in the area a solar powered pump with the old windmill still there for backup, or more likely, just not worth tearing down. On the way back, I finally managed to get some video of the desert quail around here. They move so fast I only got video.
Empty Woolsey Well
I did a couple of re-visits while in the area. Since I was close to the junk area called “Old Arizona Territory Preservation Society” I decided to revisit it under better light. It was still junky, really being more the Arizona random junk piles area. If you come with an RV, I would walk in from Agua Caliente, the access road is just a bit to gnarly for anything that isn’t 4wd higher clearance. I also did a dinner meal revisit to The Coop Grill. The grilled chicken breast I had this time was quite good.
The 1st stage is firing away from me on the left side of the picture
I did have one unexpected sighting while I was camped here. I stepped outside a bit after sunset to see a large jet like plume in the sky to the west. I can see what looks like a huge exhaust gas spewing out. I immediately realise I must be looking at a rocket launch. A quick googles tells me that Vandenburg has just launched a SpaceX rocket. What I am looking at is the first stage performing its maneuvering burn to fall back down on a drone ship in the Pacific Ocean. I was super excited to see this, I’ve always wanted to see a rocket launch but am put off by the crowds I’d have to deal with. I’ll settle for this sighting for now!
I had been contemplating my move to a new area higher up while sitting here. The temperatures were climbing into the low 30C range – tolerable for me, but the coming high 30s was going to be a bit much. I had to do a dump and water refill so I planned to hit Saddle Vista Ranch one last time while in the area. I planned to hit that after my last shop in Buckeye for the season, so I was looking for points north of Saddle Vista Ranch in the higher grounds for camping. I was looking at areas around Wickenburg, a popular boondocking area a bit higher up. Wickenburg is popular because there is BLM land not too far away from town, and the town is just big enough to have everything you need as a full time boondocker. In fact, I had stopped in Wickenburg at the end of my RV rental adventure years ago to do laundry and get propane.
Leaving Agua Caliente
I remembered the area as being busy when I was there years ago – I’m sure it is even more so now. That means the boondocking nearby will also be busy, so my plan was to look for spots further out of town. I decided to concentrate on the area to the southwest, as I had vague plans to head to Quartzsite eventually to meet up with friends. I got to looking along Vulture Mine Road, which seemed to have a lot of boondocking listed closer to town, plus scattered sites further away. I would be coming from the south, getting closer Wickenburg as I drove along looking for spots. This is the reverse of my normal procedure of driving further away to get solitude, but that is the way the directions worked out this time.
Vulture Mine Rd
The first couple of spots I had noted on iOverlander I skipped past as they were closer to the I-10 with easy access and more popularity. Reaching the junction of Wickenburg Road and Vulture Road, I contemplated choices in several directions. This area was plenty far from the I-10, but starting to get closer to Wickenburg. I decided to try heading up Vulture Road first as it is paved, and there was a promising spot just a minute up the road. The cart path going off Vulture is very hard to spot, I missed it and had to backtrack, seeing it easier coming back traveling south. Only the first bit up was a bit rough, the rest of the track in was mostly smooth driving to the spot I had seen on the aerial.
Vulture Mine Rd spot
I arrived at what was a flat clearing with a firepit. There was a berm nearby to try and corral some water. There never was much water here, only a few larger trees show evidence of any moisture in the area. But the spot looked good – far enough from the main road to not have highway noise, and not likely to have visitors driving by. I decided to call it ‘good enough’ and camp here, even though I could see the flat area didn’t offer much for hiking.
Vulture City Cemetery
My week here was spent exploring around with the motorcycle looking for boondocking spots, with some less interesting hikes in the flat terrain around my camp thrown in. The one touristy thing in the area is Vulture City Ghost Town, a pay to see ghost town that looked like it might be worth hitting. Upon reviewing the website and reviews, I decided to give it a pass. The reviews are less than impressed by the number of historic buildings. The website pushes paranormal voodoo at the site. I’m not going to give money to feed that crap. But I did visit the area anyways to investigate the boondocking. The area is the beginning of the popular boondocking closer to Wickenburg. While there are several boondocking spots south of the ghost town, several of them were occupied. I could have tried a spot deeper in with no one present, but would definitely have had to deal with more people staying there.
Porta Potties and firewood in a boondocking spot suggests this will get filled with people at some point
Exploring in other directions yielded limited boondocking. From the junction of Vulture and Wickenburg Road, heading south does get you into some boondocking spots, two of which were occupied. What was unusual was the large boondocking area with porta potties. You don’t see toilets in boondocking areas so this is something special. Judging by the bits of hay lying about I’d say this was a horse staging area, either for work (cattle wrangling) or recreation. There was no one there when I visited, and no information on the googles. But I’m sure at some point the area will be full of people judging by the tracks, wear, and firepits all over the area. I’d overnight there, but staying a week I’d only go way in the back of the area just in case a gathering occured while I was in the area.
The crosses had toys left at them
From the same junction heading west, the road eventually comes to some hills with limited boondocking potential. The limits are lack of BLM land (lots of State land) and lack of spots. I found one person camped beside the road out here, and one nice spot that unfortunately didn’t have quite enough cell signal to consider at this point. I’m not going to sign up the Starlink for one spot when there are alternatives in the area. It turns out that I had selected one of the best spots in the area, by my criteria. I don’t know if I’d try another spot if I was passing through here again.
 Big Saguaro in the distance |
 Biggest one for miles around |
 Big as compared to my hiking stick |
Leaving Vulture spot
Having not found any great boondocking spots for next week, I decided to move west after a resupply in Wickenburg. I had seen some potential down Eagle Eye road to the west of me. That was the direction I wanted to travel anyways; I’d checkout the camping around Wickenburg in other directions another time. In the meanwhile, I was going to have to brave the crowds of Wickenburg to do at least a grocery run. Join me next time there.
