Mittry Lake is an area of over 2000 acres of marsh and lake managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). There are numerous locations around the lake offering sites for free camping.
We drove south from Quartzsite on January 28th following our friends Rick and Janet Pilger. After a 5 mile drive on gravel road from the Yuma Proving Ground entrance, we located a site large enough to accomodate both rigs on the crest of a hill overlooking the lake.
With no hookups and no dump station (just like the Quartzsite BLM area), the supply of fresh water limits the length of our stay. Although we have about a 160 gallon capacity for waste water (e.g., 40x2 gal black water and 40x2 gray water); the on-board fresh water supply is 50 gallons. When fresh water runs low I use a water bladder to extend our stay.
We enjoyed numerous late afternoon/evening happy hours with Rick and Janet Pilger; Ed and Jan Biller; and a few neighbors. We also learned the joy of playing the domino game "Mexican Train".
During our stay we visited an interesting museum a short drive to the east: the "Dobson Museum".
Hand Woven Horse Hair Baskets
Wendi's Indian Baskets
Wendi Dobson owns the museum. Tours are by appointment only with Wendi acting as tour guide. Her home and the roughly 10 acres of desert ranch land contain a lifetime of collecting various farm equipment, tools, vehicles, and all sorts of circa 1900 household items and appliances.
Many of the bottles were collected by locating and excavating abandoned homestead sites.
Wendi clearly knows the history and has an in-depth knowledge of the items she and her late husband have accumulated over the years. Someone who loves history and antiques could spend days and not see it all.
Fine detail in horsehair. You can see the turtle's eyes.
Horsehair baskets.
Very Unusual! Collection of condom tins.
I managed to get some fairly good drone video while camped at Mittry Lake.
We arrived at the Escapees Boomers group site, "Boomerville" on January 9th. We had the coordinates for Boomerville center and parked about 60 yards south in a practically deserted area with only a few other rigs.
In a few days the area quickly filled with many different rigs camped helter skelter around the various desert washes. We spent the next 19 days visiting both the vendors and the big RV show in Quartzsite.
Boomerville had a variety of activities with music, Kareoke, daily happy hours, and an auction to raise money for the Escapees retirement community, "CARE" at Livingston Texas.
In Quartzsite there are acres and acres of vendors. Manny have their shops set up during most of the winter.
The CARE auction and other fund raising activities at Boomerville raised over $18,000 to support the Care facility. Before breaking camp, we took a day trip to the Crystal Hill in the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge.
We didn't find very many crystals, but surely enjoyed the Pizza and beer afterward at Big Al's.
The drone video I shot really illustrates the sea of RVs in the area. The Boomers is only one group out of many who get together around Quartzsite in January. At the close of Boomerville over 220 RVs had signed in at Boomerville headquarters.
There are at least six BLM (Bureau of Land Management) areas around Quartzsite where nomads can camp for a few days or weeks. The video shows only a small portion of the Plomosa Road BLM.
The last few days of Boomerville produced some wonderful sunsets.
We checked into the Valley View RV park at Benson, AZ on December 20th where we spent the next two weeks through Christmas and New Years. We did not do much in the way of tourist type activities. The park had nice parties for both holidays.
After Benson we traveled south to Sierra Vista where Ina attended the Korean Baptist church. We spent several days at the Fort Huachuca Post RV park, a very nice park with concrete pads and full hook-ups.
In planning to make it to Quartzsite for the Escapees Boomerville and the Big RV show, we found Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument was conveniently not too far off the route to Quartzsite.
Although the national monument campground was a no hook-up camp; the sites were awesome with very picturesque desert flora and plenty of room between the sites. We spent several days there taking lots of pictures. The park rivals Saguaru National Park for scenic beauty.
Organ Pipe Cactus
Also lots of Saguaro Cacti
Unfortunately I'm way behind on the blog postings. Hope to catch up in the next few days. We broke camp and headed north for Quartzsite on January 9th.
