I had been in some great solitude, but it was time to try a new area. My choice was much closer to Buckeye, but that also meant more people around. I figured if I really found it too crowded, I could always bail and head to a previously scouted area a bit further away and a lot quieter. I did end up doing some peopling, just not quite the usual chatter. Join me as I explore a popular bit of BLM land trying to find a quiet enough spot for the night.
Leaving my previous very quiet camp
I normally don’t camp in popular areas with lots of people, but decided to make an exception in order to check an area near Robbins Butte Wildlife Area, close to Buckeye. I didn’t need to get water or dump in the next couple of weeks, so wouldn’t need to head way west for that at Saddle Vista Ranch. The plan was to head over after my grocery resupply and see if there was anything good enough to camp at that wasn’t too close to other people. Worse case scenario, I’d just head to a spot I’d scouted northwest of my first camp on Agua Caliente Road. I knew that area would be sparsely populated with campers if I decided the people at Robbins Butte were too much.
I’m calling the area “Robbins Butte” but the actual Wildlife Area does not allow camping, only day use. The boondocking area is to the south, you just follow the left road at the junction with the signs. You eventually turn right heading west again, this is the start of the boondocking area, to the south of the road only. There is a turn off leading into the boondocking area as soon as you arrive. As usual, there are a group of campers clustered at the closest access point to civilization.
Old water draw from the Gila River
I drove on, expecting more access points down the gravel road. There wasn’t that many, and I could see people out there away from the road. This area isn’t that large being only a mile long east-west, and half a mile deep north-south. I stopped at a loop just past the end of the boondocking area. There are signs up informing you that you can’t camp in the Regional Park that is to the south and west of the boondocking area. I grabbed a quick lunch, then resumed my hunt, going back to the last decent access point I had seen farthest to the west. The first part of the cart path was good, I passed a few boondockers hoping to get further back to a spot away from them. Talking to one of them, he let me know I’d hit sandy road shortly, but there might be a spot up there for me.
Not a pot ‘o gold
I headed south further in, hitting some brushy area with a small spot to the right and a soft sandy wash I was not going to go through. Taking a long look at the spot, I decided it wasn’t quite good enough. It was small, close to the track that likely will have ATVs going by, and not very level. But turning around ended up being a major chore. I kept getting hung up on a Creosote Bush I just could not get around in the minimum maneuvering distance I had. It didn’t help that I was trying to avoid rocks sticking out, and simultaneously trying to avoid driving into the soft sand. It took me about twenty minutes before I finally got turned around, having done some damage to the bush unfortunately. At least these bushes are common out here – they are the primary taller vegetation in a lot of the desert.
Up among the rocks
I decided to try one more time down another road, this time close to the start of the boondocking area. This road was more open, but still with a bit of sand and some bushes closing in sometimes. I was able to get further back to the rocky hills, climbing up on a little rock ledge where I had a choice of two spots with a view back to my neighbor about 300 meters away. While the solitude wasn’t ideal, the spot was pretty, with some interesting rock formations around me, and a view to the Gila River Valley. I decided this would be tolerable for a week of boondocking, with me crossing my fingers that no one would come and take the other spot close to me in the rocks.
Boondockers at front of Robbins
I took a little walk to explore back down to the gravel road. The area has boondockers scattered about past the initial cluster at the start of the boondocking area. The hilly terrain at least hides you a bit from the others. I only had a view of the fellow immediately below me about 300 meters away. Getting back to the gravel road, I see a fellow heading in with a train. That would be Truck – Trailer – TOAD, the TOAD in this case being a Jeep. I thought to myself, ‘good luck buddy’ the options for him would be limited with the rolling terrain.
CJs rig
After wandering around a bit more, I am about to head back when he comes in at the beginning of the boondocking area. I thought at first that this was a different fellow, as there was only a truck and trailer now. He introduces himself as ‘CJ’, which had an interesting coincidence I’ll get to in a moment. We chat for a bit, as I assume he is looking for a place he can park his large truck and trailer unit. It turns out this is the same fellow with the Jeep, now sans Jeep. He had taken a hump too large turning around down the road and had bashed his Jeep hitch into the ground, bending it up good. Querying whether I could drive a manual he begged a favor if I could ride back up with him to go retrieve his Jeep.
I was game for this as the Jeep wasn’t far away, and I’d never driven a CJ class Jeep from the early ’80s. Yes, this was a Jeep CJ, owned by CJ. I wonder what CJ would have done had I not been able to drive a standard. I presume he was trying to avoid having a stranger drive his shiny new truck, but a beat up old Jeep was fine. We head back down the road, ending up in the same place I’d turned around too. Driving the Jeep was easy, in fact the ride was better than I expected. The Jeep soaked up the washboard much better than my RV does, but on the bigger bumps, the RV soaks up the bumps better than the Jeep, which tends to get thrown around on them due to its light weight.
Note the hitch damage
We left the Jeep at the entrance to the area, the idea being that either it would get fixed there or could be towed back to town for repairs being fairly close to pavement at that point. Getting back to his trailer, we chat for a bit and I meet his young Shepard-type dog Tia. CJ is from Texas and has been doing a mix of boondocking and camping out here for a while. We trade a few tips, with me being new to the area I’m always looking to fill in the gaps in my local knowledge. CJ decides to head off to the next road down as the entrance area is crowded. There is one big spot he can get his truck and trailer into still available, so he goes to snag it before some late comer takes it.
Gila River
I return to my rig having had my fill of peopling for a while. While I have a neighbor down the road, at least he is quiet, interacting with me with no more than a wave as I pass by. He was one of those car boondockers, driving a Subaru Forester. While he can go places I can’t, I’ll take my creature comforts in trade. Having tried out car camping, I decided having a proper bed and space I can hang out inside in all day beats being able to go more places.
I did have a non-human visitor to my camp while I was here. I hear a bird hopping around on the top of my rig one morning while I’m still in bed. Judging by the clacking, it’s a larger bird. I had assumed a crow or raven had landed up there, but no, I see a Roadrunner flying away as I open the door to investigate the bird that keeps hopping about on my roof. The next day, the Roadrunner returns. This time I’m ready with my camera and I get a few pictures and some video of the bird. I’m super pleased with this as I’ve been trying to get pictures of these birds since I’ve been coming down to the desert. Usually, I see Roadrunners in the distance, and they quickly run out of sight in the brush.
This bird was far less skittish. He returned everyday, being a little more bold everytime tolerating me being out documenting him. He even went and investigated my outdoor carpet area while I was out, hopping only a few feet away from me. I’m guessing this bird was acclimatized to humans, being in an area with a lot of other boondockers. Still, it was cool to see one of these birds up close. I even found out their call ‘coo – coo – coo’, nothing like the ‘meep – meep’ you hear in the cartoons.
Lotus Land road closure from the other end
I spent some time exploring around the area with the motorcycle. I was hoping to find some boondocking nearby that wasn’t as well used as the area I was in. My first forays out exploring east and west did not pan out with much. To the east, past Highway 85 there is some BLM land, but the boondocking is marginal. The roads for the most part are not great, and you need to get past private and/or State Lands To the west, you encounter Lotus Land Farm, which is private property the gravel road passes through. The problem is, the owner has closed the road for “construction”. I did eventually find a way around, but it is definitely 4×4 only.
Buckeye Hills Regional Park
I explored Buckeye Hills Regional Park too, to the south of the BLM camping area. It’s a nice park, with nice formal (dry) camping sites. Too bad you can’t camp overnight there, it’s day use only, except by special permit. Consequently, the park is empty as there isn’t much out there other than your camping spots with a bit of a view. I did see one fellow camp in there for several days. I wouldn’t try it. The park is right beside a Sherriff”s office – real easy for them to visit the park to patrol for illegal campers.
Robbins Butte
I was about ready to give up on there being any decent boondocking in there area but I decided to try one more spot. If you follow the gravel road in past the popular BLM camping, you start seeing signs saying you can’t camp in the Robbins(?) game reserve, which extends along the road all the way to Lotus Land Farm. However, if you look at a map showing land types in the area, you’ll see that the Regional Park to the south does not extend west, with the area a half mile south of the gravel road being BLM land again. To get there, there are several cart tracks heading out that will cross the border. There is even a sign on one of them to confirm that you are at the border of the reserve, so you can infer that you can boondock beyond it.
Old Ice Cream
I was surprised to find the cart path heading south was quite good all the way out to the border where the BLM starts. You can camp right there, but there are better spots further south. I found out there was a shooting spot at the end of the road, so I avoided that. But a quarter mile before that was a nice spot with a bit of a ridge to shield me from the shooting area. I had found my next spot!
I’m closest, the closest distant neighbor is in the Regional Park
I did a quick resupply in Buckeye and headed out to my newly discovered spot. The road was a bit gnarly going over a little hump just before the site, but you just need to take it slow. I was tucked in by a wash away from the road a bit, it was far enough away that I didn’t hear them driving by to go to the shooting spot. There was some shooting, but not as bad as I’d feared, three groups came in during my week there. I was out of site of the main BLM camping area here. If I walked up to the road onto the hump I’d crossed going in, I could see the Regional Park, with one guy in a van illegally camping there. He stayed put for several days, for what it is worth. I heard they allowed camping in there at one point. I can only imagine the mess – a free campground close to town almost always has garbage problems among others. Now it’s an empty space – I saw one other group in the area for day use while I was there.
Hill view from camp
My new space illustrates the main principle of seeking solitude – go further than anyone else. I’d gone past the first easy BLM camping area, then explored up a road marked at the entrance as ‘no camping’, to pass the OTHER ‘no camping’ sign (facing the other way) marking the end of the park. Most people would assume there was no camping past the first sign, which is normal. I’d studied the maps and could see the road went into a BLM area, which you could camp in. I wasn’t surprised that I saw no one else come in to try and camp while I was there – between the signs and the cart path most people would be discouraged to go in looking for spots. I had gone further in exploring with the motorcycle to find a nice quiet spot not that much farther from the popular BLM area.
Hill view
I was close to the hills here, and took advantage of that to hike to the top of a few of them. Hiking up to one bigger hill right across from my site, I started noticing some scratched out dirt patches in the rocks. I recognised them as bedding areas, for something bigger than a rabbit. The days were starting to heat up at this point and I was looking to stop under some shade. Nearing the top, I could see a Saguaro Cactus ahead with the only shade around near the peak. I also see some mountain sheep trotting off down the ridge. That explained the dirt patches – the sheep had been bedded down there.
Tiny lamb at my feet, in the only shady spot around
As I arrive at the shade of the Saguaro, I notice something is already occupying the spot. At first I think it’s a rabbit, but then I realise it’s a tiny lamb – still too young to run with its mother down the slope. I slowly back away. I’d been almost on top of the lamb, who had been completely still with its head down trying to blend into the shady rocks. Looking back from a distance, I see the lamb with its head up, thinking the danger had past. It was a special wildlife encounter – this lamb must have only been hours/days old as they quickly gain strength to run along with their parents. I’ll trade the shade for the sighting any day. If you are ever fortunate enough to encounter a very young ungulate like I had, don’t touch it or move it – your smell on the animal may make the mother abandon it.
DDT was not an expected hazard out here
It was at this camp that I managed to explore my way around Lotus Land. There is an ATV trail that goes around to the south, going over the hills. It is too bad that the road is so sandy and rough in places. If you could get an RV through here there is some camping to be found – you just have to study a map to see where it is permissible to camp. The road past Lotus Land is OK, taking you out of the hills to Powers Butte Wildlife Area, a former farming site like Robbins Butte. I never explored the road to the south to see what it looks like, but from the maps it looks like you can come in that way from Old US 80 or Arizona 85 if you drive in from further south. From any direction, this is a long ways from pavement, so you don’t see a lot of people. I found an access point to the Gila River that was my stopping point. The area seems remote, but as the crow flies, you are only a short distance across the river to active farming and civilization. There is just no way to cross the river anywhere around here. It’s too bad they don’t allow any overnight camping here.
Leaving Robbins west
I had an interesting week at my remote spot. With only a few shooting parties coming in, and no campers, it had been quiet enough for me. This is where I’d return if I was in the area. I’d only use the closer to town crowded area for a quick overnight when I needed to head back into town. I was finally going to head for the spot I had scouted out when I first arrived in the area several weeks ago. I was eyeing the warming weather with the idea I’d camp here, then start heading for higher ground to get away from the worst of the heat. I really shouldn’t be planning for excessive heat in early February, but that is the new reality with these warmer temperatures in the southwest now. See you next time as I head to my last warmest weather spot for the winter.
