I took off from Yuma today about 11 and headed toward California. Hot Spring is a Long Term Visitor Area as designated by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). There is a 14 day limit on stays in this area and the fee is $40 for those 14 days. Of course there are no facilities at all except for trash pickup. As I drove in I could see everyone with large arrays of solar panels, which made me jealous.
It's a massive area and everybody was parked every which way. As I drove around looking for a spot, I tried to figure out where the sun would be during the day so that I could park with my refrigerator facing the opposite direction. I found a pretty nice spot and stopped and walked around a little bit. I didn't really see anything much better except for when I got back to my rig I saw a little back-in spot that would be perfect. I've never been really been very good at backing up but I figured I could use the practice and I really liked the little area that I would be backing into. I hadn't set myself up to back into the spot, but I decided I'd just give it a go instead of going around again. So I backed right in - just like I knew what I was doing! I just love it when there's no audience!
So I'm going to be wandering around the desert exploring. There's a little town nearby to explore and I plan to go to the Imperial Sand Dunes that are nearby.
This was done on my phone and I have no idea why it won't let me have the picture at the top. But, anyway this is my campsite.
We have never paid to camp on BLM land that had no facilities. I don't understand why you had to pay the $40.00. We have stayed in many BLM areas at no cost.
ReplyDeletePaula - I'm at a Long Term Visitor Area (LTVA) and at those areas, the fee is $40 per 14 day period, or $180 for 6 months. I think the reason is that these areas are the ones the snowbirds seem to flock to, in southern Arizona and California. Also, some of these have facilities - some have toilets, some have water available (but not at sites), some just have trash dumpsters. So, I guess we're subsidizing the facilities. I also have camped at BLM land that had no fee.
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