Darby Well Road

Stayed here for 8 nights Apr1-9,2020. Wanted to hide out after 5 month in an RV resort for the winter, north of PHX.
This was perfect! There were a number of sites closer to Rt 86 on Darby Well Road, but all seemed well spaced. We continued down, onto Bates Well Rd, another 2.7 miles. Found a beautiful and open site, 100 yards off the road. Beautiful Sonoran desert scenery. Little traffic on the dirt road, mostly border patrol. The road is a bit rough, washboard in some places. Rolled our motorhome in under 10 mph to minimize shaking. Weather was perfect, albeit windy. No ATT service, but we found 2-3 bars of 3G about 1 mile south. Also it’s strong in Ajo.

The Scenic Road has a few spots, but you could not take a motorhome on it. Stick to Darby Well or Bates Well Roads.

My wife and I found this to be an ideal spot, with numerous campsites, good privacy if you’re willing to look around for open campsites, and amazing 360° scenery. The saguaros and mountains are fantastic. It is minutes to Ajo which has cute places to eat, fuel up, and real grocery hardware stores etc.

there is a spigot to fill water behind the building near the entrance to the “artists alley” right when you get to town.

Once you cross the cattle guard To enter the site there are a couple sites on the left. Then many many sites of various privacy and views further down on the left. You can hear faint noise from the lightly traveled highway even this far out.

Then when you get to the split in the toad marked “scenic loop” you can find countless other camping spots on the various roads that have much more privacy And solitude although the roads quality is worse. Was a little touch a go on those latter sites with our rental economy sedan but generally no problem unless crossing the washes. The sites closer to the highway are easy in a low clearance vehicle.

1-2 bars Verizon LTE

The Sonoran desert covers most of the southern half of Arizona but varies greatly in appearance. Near the California border it's sparse, almost bleak in appearance. Dirt, rocks, hills made of dirt, hills made of rocks, the occasional palo verde or mesquite tree, ocotillos and creosote bushes. That's about it. As you make your way east the flora changes dramatically, cactus everywhere, and that's what I like. Darby Well Road (which turns into Bates Well Road) is just north of the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, and while the organ pipe cactus here aren't plentiful, they do make an appearance. In addition there are plentiful Saguaros, Barrel cactus, and various Chollas (including the teddy bear and jumping Chollas, which look amazing but are not a pleasant encounter).

I drove at least 5 miles in from the main road, mostly just looking for a T-Mobile signal. Luckily I found one at what might be the most scenic spot, 32.285692,-112.852141. The cell signal was decent but the speed made it almost unusable, hence my one bar rating. The road was washboard in spots but otherwise manageable. Beyond these coordinates you can descend into the valley to the East but you'll need 4wd. If you continue down Bates Well Road to the south and west the vegetation starts to thin out a bit and the views aren't as impressive.

The site itself was a large clearing among the vegetation, with expansive valley views on both sides. Not quite level but not too far off. There was a stone fire ring and almost no garbage. Nice. The nighttime sky was fairly dark with just a little light pollution coming from Ajo and Why. There were occasional coyotes at dusk and dawn, birds, rabbits, and they typical bugs, including the absolutely terrifying Tarantula Hawk.

This area is just outside the Barry Goldwater bombing range, and you'll get regular air traffic overhead, the most common being the A-10 Warthogs, which sometimes fly real low. If occasional screaming jets and distant but sometimes very loud booms (sonic?, bombs?) aren't your thing then this isn't your spot. I happen to enjoy them, and just about everything else at this location.

Camped 1/13/20-1/15/19 (arrived Mon, left Thur). As mentioned, there are lots of sites to choose from, some along the main loop road, others off the road or on side roads or ATV trails. Our site was perfect with no glass, great views, level, with a fire ring. Although it was in a large area of multiple sites, thankfully no one camped near us. Other campers there were spread out. Being January and during the week, there were not tons of people nor ATVers. The only sounds were the birds and the jets overhead (Barry Goldwater Air Force Range nearby).

Darby Wells Rd has an intersection where Scenic Loop Rd turns right, but Darby Wells continues straight, turning into Bates Well Rd. This road is well maintained too, and goes to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. There are sites along this road as well. Scenic Loop Rd has sites and the side roads too. Keep in mind rain when camping here. Along the main loop, there are a number of washes with 'Do Not Enter When Flooded' signs.

The Ajo Visitor Center has good info, area maps, and is located in the plaza. The lady there told us the Shell station around the curve in town sells beer. There is one supermarket at the north end of town, and also Dollar General and a Family Dollar.

We had absolutely no service with AT&T where we camped and in town, but then we have a cheap plan, so the tower we could see was not available to us, even though AT&T was able to text us about our
upcoming bill.

Lots of hiking opportunities - with the dog, we found walking the sandy washes or the roads best (for no stickers in the feet). Great dark skies and amazing sunsets.

Well, this place is gorgeous and interesting. However, you may have decent internet in one spot, and 15 yards away not have it at all. My mistake was not testing before I fully unhitched. Most of my neighbors had no problems.

Just check first. I had Verizon and ATT. ATT pretty much non-existent. Verizon so slow it was not do-able.

Lots of coyotes. Signs in the area speaking of illegal smuggling going on, possibly. Did that scare me? Nope.

That's about all I can give for input as I decided to leave the next day.

We are here now and love it. We don’t see the glass around that the other review states but maybe we just got lucky. Our site is very clean. We took a right at the smuggling sign. Only one border patrol has gone by that we have seen and it didn’t seem fast to us as stated in another review. I kinda like having them around so we aren’t bothered by it. Beautiful sunrises and sunsets. Lots of back roads to take. Very quiet and dark. Fuel seems a bit cheaper in Ajo than Why. Groceries in Ajo a bit expensive. We stocked up before we came and were glad. We did buy wine there and it was a bit pricey. But hey, campfire necessities. We would stay here again no problem. We also had great Verizon and several television stations.

This was our second time camping on Darby Well Rd. and we loved it just as much the second time around. There are tons of spots for RVs of all sizes and the amazing views filled with mountains and saguaros can't be beat. We especially loved the endless network of 4x4 roads for hiking and biking. The smuggling signs and border patrol are just a fact of life in this area and didn't diminish our enjoyment at all. The only negative during our stay was the class C that came and parked near us and then ran their generator all night long (WTF is wrong with people). Other than that, it was perfect.