There are seven Long-Term Visitor Areas (LTVA), managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in Southwest Arizona and Southeast California, which are designed for winter use by the snowbird RV crowd. They all have potable water, dump stations, garbage disposal and pit toilets. One even has hot showers, while another boasts a natural hot spring. You can get a 14-day permit for just $40, or a season-long permit for $180 that lets you stay at any of the seven campsites from September 15 to April 15. Now that’s dirt cheap.

We tried out three of them: La Posa in Arizona, and Hot Spring and Imperial Dam in California. We even stayed a few days at the free Dome Mountain BLM area just west of Quartzsite, which has zero facilities, but close access to several trails, from easy to challenging.

La Posa was the biggest with four separate areas off Arizona Hwy 95 only a few miles south of Quartzite. We arrived to the area in late November, which is early in the RVing season, so there were lots of unoccupied campsites to choose from. There were very primitive roads carved throughout the area, periodically crossing small dry washes that marked the landscape. Saguaros, cholla cactus and pallo verde trees dotted the desert landscape.

We decided to stay in the Magic Circle, which is a huge clothing optional area in the La Posa South area. We were informed by neighboring campers that this year has been much cooler and windier than usual, so only the hardiest of the naturists ventured out in the buff, and then only during the warmest part of a sunny day.

We ended up staying there for 28 days all together, venturing into Quartzsite proper occasionally for supplies, to browse the gem and mineral markets, and to participate in one craft fair to try and sell some of our own jewelry. Unfortunately for us, there was lots of competition so we sold only a few items. In fact, we ended up spending more on polished stones, beads, turquoise, and craft materials at the gem show than we earned at the craft fair.

After Quartzsite, we traveled to Yuma, stopping at the Hot Spring LTVA for a couple of nights on the way. Situated between noisy US Hwy 8 and agricultural fields, it was by far the smallest of the BLMs we stayed at. But the smallish hot springs were flowing and warm. The concrete pools were open from 5 am to midnight and were always full of old and chubby retirees. No nudity was allowed here, but there were lots of smiles and friendly chatter.

After resupplying at Yuma, which was much bigger and more industrial than we expected, we headed to the Imperial Dam LTVA right on the Colorado River. We passed innumerable fields of lettuce, cabbage, kale (and many more greens we couldn’t identify), orange groves, and huge plantations of date palms. We discovered only later that this is “America’s Winter Lettuce Capital,” producing over 90% of the lettuce, citrus, and cruciferous vegetables for the United States every winter. It made us laugh too that instead of a ball-drop at midnight New Years, Yuma drops an illuminated eight-foot head of iceberg lettuce somewhere in its historic downtown.

The Imperial Dam LTVA ended up being our favorite BLM camping area. It had all of the amenities of the other LTVAs, but there were also many more hiking opportunities, some decent areas for rock hounds like us to collect unique stones, and… $1 hot showers at the nearby Imperial Reservoir campsite and boat ramp. There was also a RV community-run church nearby that ran a post office, a propane refill station, and even a man-cave with tools for RV repair.

We stayed there for another 28 days. We met several friendly RVers, including Randy who was a retired first-responder who’d been all over the world, and Harvey who traveled here each year all the way from Ontario, Canada. We ran mountain trails, explored deep dry washes and slot canyons, collected way too many rocks, and participated in another craft fair held at the RV church. In fact we did better here, selling slightly more of our jewelry than we did at Quartzsite.

As interesting as this area has been, however, by early January we were itching to move on. We said our goodbyes and headed toward Tucson, where our friend and fellow hiker, Faith, was waiting on Ren to hike a section of the Arizona Trail. But that will be another post.