McDowell Mountain Regional Park

If you love to hike, bike, run and/or ride horses, McDowell Mountain Regional Park is the place for you.  This park is just North of Fountain Hills, Arizona.  This is another of our favorite spots to visit when we venture out.   In this park, the camp sites are very far apart so there is lots of room for spreading out and enjoying your campsite.

You don't hear your neighbors but you do hear the birds singing. 

One morning this guy woke us up with a rat-tat-tatting on our antenna

The trails are well worn.  People in the area really take advantage of this park.

The high desert is lush and lovely.

This park is just a few miles from Fountain Hills so you can run to town for groceries or whatever.  It is also very close to Scottsdale so you can do a little shopping when you are tired of running or hanging out with the birds.

The Fountain Hills fountain...

could be seen from our trailer at McDowell Mountain.  

We have stayed in many State/Regional Parks in Arizona and California.  This park rates as one of the favorites for several reasons.  The distance between trailers, the number and variety of trails for hiking, biking and running, and the short distance to towns for groceries, shopping, restaurants and movies, cleanliness of the area and facilities, wild life and scenery, weather.

Each site has electric and water but you have to dump at a central dumping station.  We use the park facilities to take showers so we don't have to dump until the end of our 5 day stay.  The shower room here is wonderful.  The water is HOT and the water pressure is strong.  The facilities, like the campground are super clean.  You have to make reservations to stay here though.  This is a very popular park.

Buckeye, Arizona

On our way to Phoenix from Quartzsite, we talked about where we wanted to go and what we wanted to do in Phoenix.  We thought about staying at the White Tank Mountain Camp Ground that is located just out of Buckeye, AZ.  The website said it didn't have hookups and I have to admit, I think my days of long term dry camping are over.  I like water and electricity.  I don't mind it for a night once and awhile, but not 3 or 4 days.  So we decided to find an RV park close and do a day trip or two into the State Park.  Again, that little rectangle of wonder was our resource for finding a place to stay near the White Tank Mountain.  We found the Leaf Verde RV Resort website on my phone and gave them a call.  They had room, so we set our course for Buckeye.

The Leaf Verde RV Resort was very, very nice.  The park was super clean and the staff was extraordinarily helpful and friendly.  Leaf Verde has slots for 375 RV's.  It is a small city.  They have mail pick-up and delivery for the long-term guests.  The laundry facilities are extra clean and washers and dryers are reasonably priced.  There is a place to get propane and there is also a pool and a beauty salon.  They have activities too.  The night we arrived they were having an ice cream social and a movie.  We didn't attend but I'm sure it was nice.  The Leaf Verde RV Resort seems to be a very happy place.

This was the sign greeting us at the entry of Leaf Verde RV Resort

This was one of our neighbors.  Notice the Harley in the back.  There were two.

This was the front yard of one of the park residents.

This neighbor had a little tiki bar set up outside....  

with this little sign...hey, I wonder if they are Jimmy Buffet fans. 

The first day of our visit in Buckeye, we drove up to the White Tank Mountain Regional Park because we wanted to go for a little trail run.  If you are going for a little run, you might not choose a trail with this kind of name.

The first mile was very nice.

 When there were more big boulders to climb over than sandy trail to run on, we stopped running and just climbed and enjoyed the scenery.  It was beautiful.

I can't tell you how Doug spotted this guy on the run back down the mountain, but he did. 

And what does a water dog do in the desert?  Looks for water of course. 

This is a nice area and I recommend a visit if you are traveling through the Phoenix area.

So, Where Should We Go?

Every year we come to a point in our travels where we need to regroup and figure out a plan.  Since we  decided against going to Picacho State Park, we had to decide where to go instead.  We knew that staying in Yuma was out of the question.  We've tried before and its truly a 55+ community.  We won't be able to stay in a Yuma RV park for a couple more years.   We decided to head toward Quartzite.  We got back on Highway 95 and headed North.  We traveled in the late afternoon and the sun was low.  The red of the mountains glowed in the distance.

After driving for a few hours, we decided to dry camp along the road and rest up for a busy day of shopping in Quartzite.  We pulled over onto what is called BLM land.  This is public land managed by the Bureau of Land Management.  Camping on this land is free but there are limitations.  The following information comes from the BLM  webpage on the internet....

"Dispersed Recreation Camping

Camping on public lands away from developed recreation facilities is referred to as "dispersed camping." Most of the remainder of public lands in Arizona are open to dispersed camping, as long as such use does not conflict with other authorized uses or occurs in areas posted "closed to camping," or in some way adversely affects wildlife species or natural resources.
Dispersed camping is allowed on Public Lands in Arizona for no more than a period of 14 days within any period of 28 consecutive days.  The 28-day period begins when a camper initially occupies a specific location on public lands. The 14 day limit may be reached either through a number of separate visits or through 14 days of continuous overnight occupation during the 28 day period.  After the 14th day of occupation, the camper must move outside of a 25 mile radius of the previous location until the 29th day since the initial occupation.  The purpose of this special rule is to prevent damage to sensitive resources caused by continual use of any particular areas.  In addition, campers must not leave any personal property unattended for more than 10 days.
To further protect your public lands, campers must not dispose of any refuse, hazardous materials, sewage, or gray water, in any manner that would pollute the surrounding area.  PACK IT OUT.
Please enjoy camping on public lands, and please take care of these lands like they were your own ----because they are!"

We watched the sun set and cast shades of cotton candy pink over the powder blue sky.  It was lovely.

The pink turned to fire red and then to black.  One of our neighbors lit up the neighborhood with his festive palm tree.

When we woke up the next morning we were off to Quartzsite.  If you haven't been there, you should go. The entire town is a flea market.  We wandered around for a few hours and then got back in the truck and headed East to Phoenix.

Who Made the Salad?

We had planned to go from Anza Borrego to Picacho State Park but when we got to Yuma and turned up the dirt road to go to the campground, we decided against it.  The road was extremely bumpy and we were only able to go about 5 miles an hour.  The campground was 18 miles up this road, so we turned around.  The great thing about this failed journey was that we got to see salad vegetable fields being harvested.  We have never seen the process and it was interesting.

Of course when you are in the middle of the desert, the most important thing to have to grow vegetables is water.  The plants growing next to this aqua duct look happy and healthy.  It's a lot more lush than the mountains in the distance.  Right next to this aqua duct, on both sides of the road, were fields and fields of salad.

There was kale

and iceberg lettuce

and broccoli

and romaine lettuce

People were harvesting lettuce and packing it up and putting it into boxes.  The boxes were stacked on a flat bed ready to be transported to market.

A field away, this group of people were harvesting broccoli.  

And when it's time to go home, this bus will take the workers home.  I wonder if it takes the outhouses too?

This reminded me of a couple of things from my childhood.  I worked in salmon canneries processing fish.  I might rather process salad vegies.  It's an outdoor activity and doesn't smell as bad.  I also remember the crummies, which is what we called the busses that brought loggers to and from their work. It was fun to see how the food for my favorite dish is processed for the market.

Anza Borrego Desert State Park

On January 25^th, we drove to Anza Borrego Desert State Park via Julian, California.  Both places are on Highway 78 East of San Diego.  Julian is a historic mining community that was established after the Civil War.  The men who began the town, Drue Bailey and Mike Julian where there when Fred Colman, a former slave struck gold and made a claim.  Today the main industries are tourism and apples. You can buy anything made with apples in this town and you have to buy an apple pie.  We buy ours from The Julian Pie Company.  We got an unbaked frozen pie and put it in the freezer so we could enjoy it with one of the friends will we meet along the way.  This year, when we were buying a pie, we also got the most delicious donuts I have ever had, apple juice cake donuts with maple frosting.  There are several stores that sell apple items, from pie to cider.  We bought Apple-cherry cider and apple, cinnamon butter for our oatmeal.  Parking is a challenge in the small town of Julian but I highly recommend a trip to this sweet little town.

Anza Berrago Desert State Park is about an hour away from Julian.  The road is very windy and narrow so it’s slow going.  It is a beautiful drive.  Berrago Springs is a small town in the middle of the very large Anza Berrago Desert State Park.  The park has a lot of space for camping but we always go to Anza Berrago, which is just North of Berrago Springs.  This campground is extremely well maintained.  If you camp at a site with no hookups its only $25.00 per night and you have access to tidy bathroom/showers.  Hookup sites are only $35.00 per night and they include electric, water and sewer.  The spaces are not close to each other so you also have privacy.  Dogs are allowed but must be kept on a 6-foot tether.  They are not allowed on many of the trails however, so if you are going hiking in the area, you will have to leave your pup at home.  We love to run, and walk on trails so this is one of our favorite places.  We have found lots of desert trails for running and some that are more fun to just walk on.  There is a nice trail just off of this park that leads to a palm tree oasis.  Mountain goats live in the mountains around here, and one year we watched a group of 4 or 5 bounding around on the rocks.  This trail is well traveled by people wanting to see the palm trees or take pictures of goats so you won’t be alone on the trail. 

Last year Doug and I climbed to the top of a little hill and I took this picture of the campground.  This is only one part of the campground but you can see how far apart the sites are and how nicely it's laid out in the middle of the desert.

There is also a half mile interpretive trail from the State Park to the visitors center.  On this trail you learn about the flora and fauna in the area.  I learned that all of the little holes I have been walking over on the desert are where tarantulas live.  I don’t think I’ll ever tent camp here.  There are lots and lots of those little holes in the desert and they like to come out at night.  There is a wonderful desert garden at the ranger station with signs that identify the various desert bushes and cacti. 

We have been in this campground several times.  Each time we have seen different things and found different trails and places for running and walking.   Doug and I spent one afternoon walking around in the desert.  We went to check out the 17 palm oasis and the 5 palm oasis between our campground and the Salton Sea.  The palm trees were close to the road so we didn’t have to walk in to see them, so we just walked.  There is beauty in the desert.  We wandered down washes for about 2 hours, looking at sandy hills and wondering what the crystal things were.  We found one flowering bush in the middle of the desolate desert.  It was warm but not hot because it’s winter.  I think the temperature topped out at 77 degrees.

I thought this sign was funny.... I guess this is what they call a road;)

We drove on this 'road' and found 17 palms.  The yellow thing is a tent.  A person was camping under the palm trees.

This was one of the only signs of life in the desert, except the palm trees.

This photo is of one of the many mud walls along the trail we were walking.  The dull reddish brown mud sparkled in places.  I found the reason... this shiny crystal substance.  It looks like a rock but it breaks like thin sugar candy.  Doug thought it might be salt, but after tasting it, decided it wasn't.  I wonder what it is.  It ads sparkle and life to an otherwise lifeless area.

Contrasting the dry desert, there are lots of citrus orchards in the area.

You can get whatever is in season at this fruit stand.  There was nobody at the stand on this visit, just the fruit and a can to put your money in.  This year we purchased 3 lemons and 3 grapefruit for $2.00.  An entire large bag of grapefruits was only $3.00.  The fruit was as tasty as it gets too, right off the tree.

If you plan to stay at the Anzo Borrego State Park, I recommend that you make reservations because it is always full.  There are several nice RV parks in the area as well.  There is even a RV park on a golf course...it is California after all.