View to Saddle Mountain in the distance
I was headed to the Eagle Eye Road for what was hopefully more interesting boondocking. I also needed to get a little higher to avoid the worst of the heatwave we were in this early April of 2026. On top of that, I was looking for a camp with some decent cell signal for some remote work I had planned. Before trying to meet those challenges, I needed to deal with Wickenburg for grocery resupply. It was going to be an interesting day for sure.
Mining Claim corner
I left the Vulture Road area with a distinctly ‘meh’ impression. My spot had not been bad, but flat and boring. There was other boondocking around, but the only interesting stuff I had found to the west was too far in the hills to get decent cell signal. Driving past Vulture City Ghost Town, there was indeed more interesting boondocking to be had, but there were also more rigs out here. You are starting to get close to Wickenburg, so more people are expected. I felt right in my decision to move to the west, planning on exploring down Eagle Eye Road, a paved road connecting Route 60 at Aguila to the Salome Road, and I-10 beyond. This road is pretty remote – you are traveling north south pretty much halfway between Phoenix and Quartzsite, with not much around you but cattle.
But first I had to deal with resupply in Wickenburg. I was expecting it to be busy so I wasn’t looking forward to it. I only had a grocery run to do, but even that was pretty hectic. There is a Safeway in town, actually right on the road I was coming in on. It was a busy place, with another RVer with a trailer coming in right in front of me, taking the better spot left at the corner of the smallish parking lot. It’s all reminiscent of shopping at Parker’s Walmart – busy, not enough staff and so-so selection. I was happy I didn’t have to drive further into Wickenburg, I’m sure it wasn’t any less busy for anything else you might need.
Boondockers across the road to the north of me as seen from mining claim hill
I was happy to get out and get driving west. My first spot on Eagle Eye road was about 30 minutes out, so not that far away. I could see RVs around, so kept on driving. Another 15 minutes south, I had passed the occasional RV parked not far from the road. I could see roads leading off if you want to get away from the infrequent sounds of cars driving by. I pulled off the road and followed a cart path that looked to go to a flat area that had seen some boondocking judging by the aerial photos of the area. Arriving on an easy offroad, I find some desert pavement with fire rings around that certainly would work for me. It was just far enough from the main road to keep the noise down too.
Alaska Mine site
I was hoping to find some decent cell signal as I had a remote computer session planned. I still do a bit of informal IT support where it is most helpful to be able to see and control the computer you are troubleshooting. My cell signal was definitely on the intermittent end of things. I drove around the area, hoping to find a better signal but it was all spotty. The road continued on through a wash that was a bit bumpy, but still firm and drivable by my RV. Driving down the next ridge to the west, I find a few spots, but no good cell signal. I decide to try one ridge further over, hoping that as I got higher the cell signal would improve.
The chair was your only warning here of the gully erosion onto the road here
I had to cross a much more challenging wash that was rougher and steeper V shaped this time. Crossing in, I just make it, just touching the rocks at one point from what I could hear. Climbing up, I come to a 4 way junction. Straight ahead leads to the next wash – I deem it to be a no-go with my RV. To the left I’m traveling south. I try that first, finding a few small spots until I hit another wash and the road continuing up the hill where there would be no cell signal.
Alaska Mine
Returning to the junction, I see that there is someone off to the northwest, on the next ridge over, and what looks like it might be someone in the distance to the north. I walk down the road just a short ways, seeing it dip down past a tailing pile from the nearby mining. I decide this isn’t worth the risk for just finding people camped in the spots, so back I go to my first spot. If only I had walked another 100 yards, as you’ll see. I return down my V shaped wash. This time, I’m not so lucky, hitting something on my rig on one of the rocks on the side of the road as I cross the wash. Setting up camp at my first spot, I notice my tail pipe exhaust is bent oval now. It seems a rock hit the pipe, smashing it against the rig, flattening it out a bit. It’s not critical – the bend is not enough to restrict the exhaust flow, so I survived with no more than some dings for my failed adventure to find boondocking.
“No Diggin”
I did manage to complete my remote support session OK, but I had to use all my cell phone signal boosting tricks. I don’t bother with the booster anymore – it doesn’t help much in spotty signal situations. But putting my phone in the right window, up high did yield me just enough extra signal to get my work done. I got out for a little hike back to and across the main road to check out a hill and some boondocking over there. The boondocking wasn’t great, but the view from the hill was nice. You definitely didn’t want to take any rocks there as there were signs all over telling you “no diggin” in what was an active mining claim. I did note one occupied boondocking spot to the north of the hill that would be not bad for an easy access spot.
It looked like a camp from a distance
I was finding the lack of cell signal annoying the next day though. Normally, I tough it out but this was really annoying. It was hot out, so it was nice to sit outside in the shade. The problem was, the cell signal didn’t extend down to the two feet off the ground I needed sitting there. I had taken a longer hike that day and gone exploring around where I had previously given up looking for spots. Now, the one confirmed camper was gone. The other spot I thought had been a camper turned out to be a windmill watering hole, with the windmill glinting in the distance looking like it was a reflecting vehicle. Just beyond where I had given up looking north, there was a little side road plowed off, leading to a little level spot nestled among some vegetation, with a wash right behind it. The cell signal was decent too. That’s the way it goes sometimes, the good spot is just around the corner you didn’t go to.
I decide for once to pack up and move, since I had not totally unpacked yet, and head for this new spot. I didn’t have to go through the V wash for this spot, plus I was closer to the hills and mines for hiking. Half packing means I can just throw stuff down on the floor for a short drive; I don’t have to secure everything like I’m going to be on the highway. It was a good ten minute drive, even with the road being pretty good most of the way. I had definitely found a more remote spot, other than the ATVs that did ride by once in a while. Unfortunately, I wasn’t that high up here, sitting at just under 1800 feet.
A rare unfurling of the damaged awning in the heat
I say ‘unfortunately’, as this early April of 2026 was the beginning of a record breaking heat wave for the southwest desert. We were talking highs touching 40C in the Phoenix area. I was still getting to the mid 30s – bearable but I still decided that it was time to exercise my damaged awning. I was oriented that the mid-day sun was blasting the awning side of my rig – getting the awning out was definitely helping keeping the rig cooler. It was good that I took a look at the awning. The zip-tie that was holding the thing in place was brittle and just snapped off when I removed it. That’s why I don’t take the awning out unless I really need it – the damage means I need to tie it down when retracted for driving, and the joint damage/twisted frame means I need to watch for wind like a hawk lest the whole thing be damaged to destruction. I’ll replace it someday – it’s not a high priority for me.
Pump power control panel
I visited the windmill again for a closer look at the setup. The tank had tall grass growing out of it, I don’t know if that was a feature or an annoyance. But this setup had a control panel showing you could change the pump to use wind or solar. Looking at the mechanism, I could see the wind part had been disconnected, so this control wasn’t required anymore. From reading the partially damaged display, I’m guessing he was pulling 155 watts at the time, based on my guess that he had four 100 watt solar panels. You almost never hit your rated power in solar. I have 480 watts of solar and normally top out in the low 300s with good high sun. At any rate I’m sure some sales person made a convincing argument that you needed to have the solar AND wind, in case the sun don’t shine enough. From what I have seen anywhere in the arid parts of the west, there is always enough sun to keep the tank full enough. After all, in the mechanical wind pump days, you could have calm weather and your cows would have had to make due with what water was in the tank until more wind filled it up again. I have not seen a working windmill in a couple of years now – I think the solar with only an electric pump for moving mechanicals is proving to be much more reliable and maintenance free than a windmill.
My remote spot and surroundings
I certainly enjoyed my new spot, although it wasn’t quite as quiet as I expected. There was only the occasional ATV on my road, but the road on the next ridge over was really close, I was backed up against the wash with the next road on the ridge past that not far away. That road got more ATV traffic, especially on the weekend. There is an ATV staging are not too far away on the highway, so I’d expect some traffic out here. I had about equal opportunities for hiking and motorcycling, taking advantage of both as much as I could with the heat. I motorcycled north to the Harquahala mountain road, which goes all the way to the top of of the mountain. There is some history up there, with a sun observatory having been located there at one time.
Former camping or mining?
I wasn’t planning on going to the top of the mountain, but I still found a surprise in the area: camping spots are built along the lower part of the road leading up to the mountain. In fact, at least the first two are accessible by RV, although you do have to deal with some rough road and V-washes. While it was nice to have a picnic table and possibly a fire ring, I’d skip these as the road would get more ATV traffic, with the sites not being that far from the road.
I use a hand or foot to get off the shoe. I’m lucky I didn’t prick either before noticing this Cholla ball.
The hiking was good with several mines within walking distance. I wasn’t doing anything strenuous in the heat, in fact I tried to be back at my rig by the time the worst of the heat was on. I had a re-acquaintance with an old nemesis: the Teddy-bear Cholla. I’ve been stabbed many times by these and even now I didn’t escape unpricked. The balls laying around are the worst. You pick them up on your shoes. If you are not watching, you grab them when you take your shoe off. I had a close call where I managed to take my shoe off without noticing a Cholla ball attached to the side. That would have been painful to remove had I touched it in the process of removing my shoe. There were whole gardens of Cholla in places around here. I took to avoiding them as even when you are paying attention, you still can pick up an errant ball.
Groups of Cholla are called “gardens” I would take a wide path around these.
Malachite seam
The rock hunting in the area turned out to be best 100 yards from my rig. I had an exploratory trench dug into a malachite (copper bearing) seam that yielded some nice green rocks. Some of the mines in the area had similar rocks, but not all of them. I had to hunt down the mines with nice rocks. I could see other people are doing the same thing – there are fresh scrapings on some of the rock seams where others have taken rocks.
Mostly cheap but still useful camping remains
In random discoveries, I was surprised to find a camp behind a nearby hill to my camp. Thinking about it now, I’d say it was navigable by my RV, so someone could get there with any van pretty much. No cell signal was there though as you were behind a hill. The camp really looked like they’d just packed up with the idea of coming back, leaving chairs and water out. Perhaps plans changed and they just abandoned their stuff there. It was a quite a mess though.
I had survived my week in the heat out here. The awning definitely kept the rig a bit cooler, with me hiding in the shade of my rig as much as possible in the middle of the day. I had firmed up plans to meet up with Sara and Aaron of That RV Over There. It was time to pack up and head over for some peopling in the Quartzsite area. See you over there!
