Quartzsite… It’s an Odd Little Town

We went into Quartzsite today. It is an odd/interesting little town.  There are $500,000+ motorhomes and tent villages all camping in this area.  We were trying to find a grocery store to pick up a couple of small things.  This is the oddest little town.  There are three stores that they list as grocery stores, but when you walk in there are only two isles of groceries—the rest of the store is either hardware or liquor.  We thought the floor of the grocery store was dirt... upon closer review... it is just dirty!

We searched for a drug store, followed the GPS to what was the only drug store listed in the 30 mile area.  We get to where the drug store is supposed to be and there are a couple single wide mobile homes.  Since we can't decide if it is actually a real drugstore or a "drug" store that might scare us; we decide to wait and pick up what we thought were necessities later.

There are RV “villages” set up in various areas around and in Quartzsite.  Several of the camping areas felt like homeless squatter areas.  Little campers were basically sitting on top of one another and there were tarps being used as make-shift tents.  These are camping areas that are approved for Long Term camping.  A camper only has to pay $140 to stay for 6 months.  There are no facilities, so they have to either haul water in or pay a company to deliver water.  The same with the black and/or grey tanks.  When it is time to empty these tanks, they will either go into town and pay to empty the tank at a variety of places or there are companies that will come to empty the tanks for a fee.  I can say without question… I would not even consider staying in one of the camping areas inside or near town.

Our campsite is on BLM land on Plomosa Road.  It is about 10 miles out of Quartzsite and so it seems to be a little nicer camping area and the campers are definitely parked farther apart.  For our first time boondocking, it is a nice location.  The campers are not close together, but they are close enough to make us feel like we are not out of civilization.

We haven’t decided how long we will be staying here.  We have reservations at our next campground on Tuesday, 1/13—but it is a nice enough area we could easily extend here.
It is definitely greener and much more vegetation than I expect it to be in this area.