Southwestern Deserts: Options for RV snowbirds
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By Bob Difley
A kinder, gentler climate, the driving force behind the snowbird migration, is not the only consideration in choosing where to spend the winter, free from ice, snow, cold winds, rain, sleet, and window-rattling storms. RVers choices for a winter roost though, are as diverse as their choice of rigs.
In last week’s post I wrote about the variety of climates among desert areas, now let’s look at other considerations when choosing a winter destination. At the glitzy top of destination possibilities are the full-service resorts with teams of gardeners that maintain the manicured grounds and have pages of amenities like swimming pools, hot tubs, and recreation rooms, planned activities like line-dancing, exercise classes , bus sightseeing tours, and golf tournaments, and abundant classes and workshops in rock-hounding, photography, ceramics, wood-carving, painting, jewelry-making, and more.
These parks often fill up for the entire season and command the highest rates, and they will keep you busy non-stop. You will find them around Yuma, greater Phoenix, and Tucson in Arizona, and the Coachella Valley, California, towns of Palm Springs, Palm Desert, and Indio.
At the opposite end is the RVing boondocker, who seeks a more natural, back to nature, desert experience (photo above). This RVer is willing to forgo conveniences like hookups, cable TV, and the activity schedule of the resorts for a solitary campsite with few or no neighbors. But this type of campsite has its amenities also–beyond not having neighbors close enough to hear their TV–no security lights dim the stars that seem so close you can reach out and grab a handful, curious kit foxes and kangaroo rats come visiting at dusk, and sleep comes to the tune of the coyote serenade.
A multitude of alternate wintering options lie all up and down the scale between the two ends. Its position on the scale, whether toward the top or at the bottom, can usually be defined by the amenities, location, and of course, price. Somewhere between the high line motorcoach and golf resorts of Palm Springs and the free “coyote camping” sites of the solitary RVer, something with just the right features and attractions awaits you. Don’t be too anxious to commit to the first option that tickles your fancy. Try several venues, traveling about the desert and seeing all that it has to offer.
Unlike the East and Southeast parts of the country where most of the land was divvied up in giant parcels to privileged founding colonists in the 1600s and 1700s, much of the western deserts remains in the hands of the US government. Managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), certain designated portions of these public lands in Arizona and California have been set aside as Long Term Visitor Areas (LTVAs) where primitive camping is permissible for the season for the grand total of $100–and you can move about between them. There are no designated campsites–find a spot that appeals to you–and amenities usually consist of a water source, trashcans, and a dump station–and the ambiance and camaraderie of other boondockers as close or as far away as you choose.
LTVAs are the ideal place to try some primitive camping, where you are in the company–but not too close–of other friendly folk. Try the LTVAs in Arizona at Quartzsite or Senator Wash (photo), adjacent to the Imperial National Wildlife Refuge near Yuma. If you want to learn about boondocking and the methods, ideas, and inventions that these independent RVers utilize, time spent in one of these LTVAs can be a fascinating introduction into the world of boondocking.
For more privacy, you can camp anywhere in the desert for up to two weeks–then you have to move at least 25 miles away–and is free. Take time to enjoy the desert in these wide open places. Take hikes, visit historic mines, ranches, and ghost towns, watch for the emergence of Spring wildflowers, hang out a bird feeder, climb a mountain, follow critter tracks in the sand, follow a meandering arroyo, stalk a javalina, spot a phainopepla, and howl back to a coyote. Go ahead. Nobody will hear you, but if they do, they’re boondockers, they will understand.
Check out my website for more RVing tips and destinations and for my ebooks, BOONDOCKING: Finding the Perfect Campsite on America’s Public Lands, Snowbird Guide to Boondocking in the Southwestern Deserts (now available in a Kindle version), and 111 Ways to Get the Biggest Bang out of your RV Lifestyle Dollar.
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Try Yuma a beautiful place to spend the winter
Many RV parks and so much to do
Dang, forgot the captcha code the first time – it was good but this one is shorter!
Hang loose, enjoy the freedom and don’t be afraid of being spontanious in the southwest! Plenty of choices without having every move planned out 6 months ahead of time or even 2 days ahead!!
Never had any problems getting into parks without reservations.
now we have even more information. If you keep making it sound so good, there won’t be any space left. Just joking of course and I hope a lot of people read your blog and really pay attention.. It seems the more users, the more room there is, as the government pays attention to the voters that are RVers.
The desert isn’t the only place to spend the winter. Try the Rio Grande Valley We found it and have been returning every year for the last 8 yrs.
Great site.
fortunately the fee for the winter months is `180 for the whole season which consists of sept 15 through april 15 it does run 100 per month for other times but those dates have a set fee.
[...] last week’s post I wrote of the many options for desert camping for snowbirds, from manicured RV resorts to true [...]
We spent a week in Slab City – Niland is the closest town, what a place, close to nature, REAL NICE people everywhere we went, no facilities, pure dry camping,
you can always get something to eat even if you have nothing to offer, the folk here are just plain friendly! You might just give it a try. Good Camping to ya’.
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