With so many of my fellow bloggers having already made their way down to southwest Arizona, and with a few others either on the way, or getting ready to go, I’m really starting to think about our upcoming trip. But, we won’t be leaving until just after Christmas, so for now I have to be content with making plans and looking through our old blogs and pictures from previous trips.
Our site at the Blythe KOA – about a 20 minute drive from Quartzsite
One of the old blogs I looked at was about our visit to Quartzsite, last year, for the big RV Show. We don’t boondock, and the RV Parks around Quartzsite were either full or didn’t appeal to us. Instead, we opted to stay at the Blythe KOA, on the Colorado River, which is about a 20 minute drive west of Quartzsite. This was a lot closer than the year before when we went to the RV Show as we were staying in in Lake Havasu which was a 90 minute round trip.
View from the Blythe KOA of the gas line over the Colorado River
The Blythe KOA is right on the Colorado River and is a kind of strange little park. The staff are very friendly and accommodating, but, they sure pack the rigs close together. When we pulled in, we were directed to a nice, long, open grass covered pull-thru with no one on either side of us. Things looked good. After setting up, we went for a walk and found some great paths along the river, a fenced dog-park, a boat launch and even a beach with real sand!
My brother’s campsite on BLM land just south of Quartzsite, AZ 
When we got back, though, we found that we had a new neighbour and his motorhome was uncomfortably close to ours. Nothing he could do about it as that’s just the way the sites were setup. We couldn’t even open our awning for fear of hitting his rig. Every 3 sites there should probably have been made into just 2.
Paulette between my brother Tom and his wife Donna in Quartzsite
Another thing that really bothered me about this particular RV Park was the non-existent WiFi. It’s one of those parks that advertises free WiFi but doesn’t deliver and that alone is enough to write this place off of my list of RV Parks we’ll return to. We stayed there for 2 nights and never were able to connect to the Internet, even at the office. The staff just said it was “sometimes a problem”. Right!
I think we’ve seen enough of Quartzsite for a while and won’t be going this year.
One of the reasons we decided to go to Quartzsite last year was because my brother Tom, and his wife Donna, were there where they had just bought a very nice 2004 36’ Pace Arrow motorhome. They bought it from a dealer right in Quartzsite and got a very good deal on it. They traded-in their old 1992 no-slider motorhome for this 3 slide beauty!
The Colorado River separating Arizona and California
They don’t mind boondocking and were parked on BLM lands just about a mile south of the big tent – right out in the desert. We stayed to visit for a few hours but then headed back to Blythe. We were probably only at the RV Show itself for about 2 hours prior to going to my brother’s place. That was quite enough though as the crowds were really starting to build for the afternoon.
I doubt we will go back to Quartzsite for a few years unless it’s for some sort of special occasion. It’s the kind of place where a little bit goes a long way. After a while, it just seems much like the usual carnival or home show with guys hawking pots and pans, shirts, hats, fancy vegetable cutters and all kinds of other junk we really don’t need. Having said that, every RV’er should definitely go to Quartzsite at least once – just to experience it, as it is an event like no other.
Have a nice Saturday, and thanks again for visiting.
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