Arizona is one of my favorite states to visit from January through May! The weather is comfortable and there is so much to do throughout the state! In the last four years, we have mostly been to Phoenix and Quartzsite but we hope to spend some time also in Yuma and Tucson this coming 2021.
Phoenix: This is a haven for snowbirds in January, February, and March and we’ve found it difficult to find a place to park our RV unless I make our reservations at least six months in advance.
- A snowbird is a person who migrates from the colder northern parts of North America to warmer southern locales, typically during the winter.
We go here mostly for the great weather and off-roading opportunities in the Superstition Mountains. There are so many backcountry options to drive around here!
Quartzsite: There is a HUGE RV show and gathering here every year in late January. This event brings from 750,000 to 1,000,000 people in all kinds of RVs and camping options. Much of the land here is BLM (Bureau of Land Management) owned by the United States Government. The BLM land here is flat desert and the RVs and campers spread out in ALL directions for miles and miles and miles and miles! We normally spend a week here and gather with a group that has motorhomes by the same manufacturer as us. All campers must boondock (or dry camping) because there is no water, electricity, or sewer. While here we also do a lot of backcountry driving in the hills and back roads.
For all of our off-roading, we expect to have no internet while driving. Before we go out, I download the maps on Google, and then we use our GPS to find our ways around.
Have you ever heard of the Four Corners in the United States? It’s where four states (Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico) meet at exactly one place! It’s in the middle of NOWHERE! …but it’s one place I’ve always wanted to go to. We made a detour just so we could go by here, be in all four states at the same time, and get some photos!
Do you have the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert National Park on your bucket list? If not, it should be! These are back to back parks and they are just off the major highway 40 that runs east to west. It’s easy to get off the highway and drive through the parks and then get back on the road to your final destination. The parks are so easy to drive through that we drove into the parks with our motorhome with the Jeep attached and was able to easily stop at any of the viewpoints to see the sites! The desert is just stunning and I just love to see the forest of stones laying out in the desert. This is really a wonderful place to visit and we were able to see it with about a two-hour extension to our trip.
This ORIGINAL post is part of the #StateChallenge organized by @Kwiksatik and @Denise_Barlock. If you want to find out more, check out our post here and here, and you can also find other submissions by searching the #StateChallenge hashtag.