Dome Rock Mountain Camping Area

You have to check in with the camp host who will give you a permit (it’s free) for 14 days. We didn’t venture too far from the paved road but found a nice spot with an established fire pit (rocks) and could only very faintly hear the traffic. Dark skies were amazing. We dumped at RV Pit Stop in Quartzsite at the end of our weekend for $10. You can fill water and propane there too if needed. Great site - this was our first time boondocking so I was a little nervous but it was great. Your ‘neighbours’ aren’t at all close but still close enough to make you feel you’re not all alone out there if something goes wrong. Though I’m sure if you travel further back to the mountains you’d be even more secluded.

Stayed here from 3/1/2020 to 3/15/2020. I really have no complaints about the Dome Rock camping area. It's huge and free and that's all you can really ask for in a boondocking site. I ended up getting a site closer to the road because that's where I found the best cell service, but consequently had a lot more noise from the interstate. Overall it wasn't bad though. There was plenty of space between me and all my neighbors.

The only complaints I really have are just about Quartzsite in general. It seemed like there were a lot of homeless people here and people that were camping out in the BLM areas not by choice but by necessity. I had some neighbors that had been there for months and came and asked for money. There also seemed to be quite a bit of trash everywhere and the town itself was pretty rough. However, since RV's are so popular in Quartzsite there are a ton of RV services like repair shops, dealerships and supplies, which is really convenient. Also the RV Pit Stop in Quartzsite was a fantastic place to run in and dump tanks and fill up with water and propane.

Overall the camping out here is great but it's not really a place I'm too eager to visit again.

We stayed on Sunday, December 29th. The Dome Mountain BLM campground is easily located just off highway 95 and close to I-10. Open area with fire pits well positioned so campers not too close to each other. Not too crowded which made it nice. Since campground borders I-10, it’s a bit noisy which can be solved by moving to a place further back. No water on property but We were able to get our water at Tumbleweed RV Park for $5.00 which was so convenient. We moved on after 1 night since the weather was a bit cold for us. Overall, it is a nice spot.

Quartzite is a small town in Western Arizona, surrounded by thousands of acres of BLM land, where you can camp for FREE year round!

Quartzite’s meager population of about 3,500 people grows to around half a million in January each year! That’s right, half a million! I’ve heard that years ago it was an even bigger draw, attracting nearly a million visitors each year in January!

Main attraction
Hundreds of thousands of RV’ers visit Quartzite in January, some for what has become known as “The Big Tent Show”, which is basically a large circus tent jam-packed with dozens of vendors selling camping and RV-related gadgets, tools, tarps, jacks, clothing, camping chairs, etc.

Surrounding the main tent are dozens of smaller tents with various vendors selling their wares. It’s basically a giant flea market.

Falling short
10 or 15 years ago the items sold here were probably hard to find, perhaps even useful, but nearly everything we saw for sale was just cheap made in China junk. Some of it was new, some of it was obviously used and sold as new. We were very disappointed with what we saw and frankly amazed that so many people attended.

Aside from a handful of vendors who were actually selling name brand high-quality RV equipment (like Battle Born Batteries), the majority of what we saw were things like the 99 cent wrenches you see while you’re in line at your local auto parts store and all the stuff you see on late-night TV commercials. This show has so much potential. It has massive traffic and cheap rent for vendors yet it falls short in the fact that 90% of the products being sold are not quality products, and most of it isn’t even RV related.

The 2nd biggest draw here is the RV show that is put on by multiple dealers and features hundreds of different recreational vehicles. But again, even that was nothing out of the ordinary, just your standard selections you see at any RV show. I felt this was another wasted opportunity for some of the newer technologies to be viewed in front of a massive crowd of RV owners.

So all in all, the “big tent show” was a huge disappointment.

The best thing about Quartzite is that during this same time period, and I have to guess the main reason most people still come here, is that lots of RV clubs meet up and have rallies here every year.

Rallies
Since there is so much free camping in this part of the state, these groups meet all up over the desert. It’s all free BLM land, so they just stake their claim on a few acres here and there and set up camp with their friends.

We attended the Grand Design owner’s rally which was held on BLM land a few miles South of town, and about 400 people showed up for that event! In another section of the desert, we saw a large gathering of dozens of old school buses that had been converted into RV’s. A couple of miles East there were 50 or 60 Airstreams all camping together.

Regardless of what year, size or type of RV you own, I guarantee there’s a group of them out here somewhere. Nearly everyone you talk to here has an RV of some type. There are also hundreds of people driving around with ATV’s, they’re everywhere! There are hundreds of miles of off-road trails here. Lots of the trails feature ghost towns and old mine shafts!

These events go on for most of January then the majority of the visitors leave. It is now February, but I would guess no more than a fourth of the people that showed up in January are still here. The small town of Quartzite is still very busy but it’s not the madhouse it was a few weeks ago. Now you can go and get gas without waiting in line for 20 minutes. There are only 4 or 5 gas stations here. There are only a couple of small grocery stores, but the city of Parker is about 45 minutes North and they have a Walmart and other places to buy supplies.

This was our first visit to Quartzite and our first time in Arizona.

Climate
People always assume it’s blistering hot and dry here. I grew up in Texas and my wife grew up in Florida so we knew what HOT was! But the media always seemed to portray Arizona as some vast flat desert. We had spent the Summer in Oregon but it was getting cold so we ventured South. People told us about Quartzite and said that a lot of people come here for the Winter because of the mild weather. So we took a chance and decided to check it out.
In reality, its a truly beautiful area. Since we’ve been here, we’ve gone hiking nearly every day on some amazing trails.

I’m sure it’s hot in the Summer but it hasn’t been hot the entire 4 months we’ve been here. The temperature right now is 70 degrees with a 5 mph wind and the humidity is 41%.

Another amazing thing we noticed about the Arizona desert is the lack of bugs! I’ve seen a total of maybe 3 flies the entire time we’ve been here and no ants! The locals say that all the bugs, snakes, scorpions (you get the idea) are all dormant this time of year and that you won’t see any of them until Spring.

Cell coverage
We have both T-Mobile and Verizon and had 4 bars with great download speeds.

I can now understand why so many people spend their Winters here. We’ll definitely be back next year!

The camp host was very friendly and helpful. I got 5 bars with Verizon but had to park close to the freeway. Cell phone coverage varied greatly depending on where you camp. I had to camp near a road and, it turns out, a dune buggy dirt road - a good trade-off for great internet coverage. Not too much traffic or dune buggies. I was warned of coyotes but didn't hear or see any. Very widely dispersed camping. Fairly breezy with the winds shifting east-to-west or west-to-east. This isn't a restaurant recommendation website, but if you do go into town for breakfast I recommend going to the Main Street Eatery for the sausage and egg omelette - I'll be going there again when I leave - also there is an attached laundromat. And if you have solar equipment needs Discount Solar in the east end of Quartzsite was outstanding.