Desert Camping: In winter, Quartzsite is RV, Boondocking Mecca

  Talk about the deserts of southwestern Arizona in the winter months, and Quartzsite is the seasonal capital for RV campers on a widely experienced continuum.

  The rolling hordes of visitors range from newcomers to more experienced vacationers driving vans, motorhomes vans or towing small to enormous travel trailers into RV parks and resorts -- to not a few enthusiasts who are "full-timers" braving the arid, cactus- and sage-laden sands of the Sonoran region of the Mohave Desert.

  It is those sprawling stretches of BLM's "dispersed camping"

tracts outside of the town that erupt with the "boondockers" in the winter months.

  Quartzsite runs about 2,400 or so residents in summer and fall, but in late December through February, it attracts up to a million visitors. 

  The heart of the season for the town? That would one the aforemented boondocking enthusiasts, for whom solar power panels, jugs and tanks for water, even a compost toilet, allow self-described "nomads" to celebrate off-grid independence.

  If I were decades younger, I might succumb to the dream. . . OK, maybe not. Alright, forget it. Maybe for a week? A few days? Yeaaahhhh.

  Probably not.

  Doesn't mean I don't find the idea of it at least worth experiencing, er, vicariously.

  Barbara and I have been camped beside the Colorado River about a hour's drive east of this RV Mecca, where our camping experience includes electrical, water, and sewer service. Starlink dish gives us internet and TV, when wanted. Folks socialize, ride e-bikes, swim in a pool or soak in a hot tub.

The rugged camping adventure for us? Doing laundry in park washers and dryers weekly after the grueling walk of hundreds (of steps) away, or bagging the dog's leavings during a walk along the river. Yeah, it's tough.

  Still, we've visited the Quartzsite phenomenon a couple times now. Rows of food, arts and crafts cards and trailers, popup tents, and larger canvas warehouses stretch for dozens of blocks. 

  They are filled with RV-related parts, gadgets, tools, solar power contractors, and not a few sellers of knives, firearms, ammo, stun guns, pepper spray devices, there are flags for all the states, nations of the globe, and banners and decals for all political persuasions of the conservative/libertarian realm.

  On the same block as a small church, there's a cannibas store (legal in Arizona. On another block, you'll find a cremation and funeral provider, oddly enough (I hope) sharing an almost next-door lot with a BBQ business.

  Made me think (and shudder) about the charred and well-seasoned fate of the protagonist Frank (abusive KKK husband) in the 1990s movie "Fried Green Tomatoes."

  No worries. Dinners will be salads, verified chicken strips included.