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Snowbirding 2018 Postcards: Camping at the Holtville Hot Spring LTVA

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The Holtsville Hot Spring in Southern California is a BLM — that’s Bureau of Land Management — managed property just off of I-8 east of Holtville. The property features a maintained hot spring with two soaking tubs and a hot shower, a 14 day free camping area, and a long-term visitor area (LTVA) where camping is available for $40 for two weeks or $180 for the entire season.

I arrived here on Thursday with my friend Janet and we camped out for the night in the free 14 day area. We had a nice soak in the hot tub the following morning and then Janet departed for Yuma and Quartzsite. I stayed behind. I decided that I wanted to spend a few days in the area and I splurged for the $40, 2-week camping permit. I can use the remaining time next week at another LTVA in California or Arizona.

The main benefit to camping in the area north of the freeway is that it is easier to access the hot spring via a hard-packed dirt road that I can take my bicycle on. The sites are spread apart and because there are some trees in the area, there’s a certain level of privacy. The farther away you go from the hot spring and freeway, the quieter it is and the fewer campers are around you. I’m about half a mile away and can’t really hear the freeway at all.

The folks who stay in places like this are serious about off the grid camping. Just about every single rig out here is equipped with at least one solar panel. I have yet to hear a generator running. There are no power, water, or sewer hook ups or even a dumping station. The only luxury convenience is a set of dumpsters so you can get rid of your trash. I noticed more than a few folks filling up gallon sized jugs at the hot spring from a hose that’s provided just for that purpose; I’d like to think that they wash with this water and don’t actually drink it.

Almost all of my fellow campers are retirees and I estimate that at least half of them live on the road full-time. The types of campers range from slide in truck campers like mine to luxury Class A motorhomes pulling cargo trailers or cars. More than a few people have motorcycles or ATVs. People are friendly and often stop to chat while walking or biking by with their dogs.

I sent the Mavic up for picture of my campsite today. Here’s one that gives you a good idea of the area around me.

This photo faces south on an overcast, hazy day. Normally, you’d be able to see mountains in Mexico, which is only 6 or 7 miles away. If you’re wondering why I didn’t back all the way into the campsite, it’s because there are a lot of soft, sandy spots that I could get stuck in. Because I’m only staying here a few days and because I can use my bicycle to ride between my campsite and the hot spring, I didn’t bother taking the camper off the truck. I did, however, lower the legs to steady it so it wouldn’t rock so when I’m inside. The photo makes the place look kind of dreary but I think it’s today’s overcast skies more than anything else. The weather has been in the 70s every day, dropping to the 40s at night. This is the first overcast day I’ve had in over a week, but there’s still enough solar radiation to charge the camper’s batteries.

Snowbirding 2018 Postcards: Holtville Hot Spring

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My friend Janet and I arrived at the Holtville Hot Spring this afternoon just in time to get a nice shot of the lagoon. We’ll go for a soak in the tubs in the morning. Janet will head back to Wickenburg afterward, but I think I’ll stick around here for a while. It’s so nice not to have a schedule.

Snowbirding 2018 Postcards: Campfire-Baked Yams

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I’ve been camping out with a friend along the Colorado River backwaters on the Arizona/California border for the past two weeks and we have had a campfire every night. The other evening, on a whim, I decided to try cooking two yams over the campfire. I wrapped them each in aluminum foil and laid them directly atop some hot coals in our mature campfire. I used a set of tongs to turn them frequently as we chatted for about an hour. When I went in for the night, I brought them in with me. The next morning, I opened one up and found a perfectly cooked yam inside. It was, by far, the most delicious yam I’ve ever eaten.

I managed to repeat that performance with three yams last night. Since last night might be my last campfire for a while — we’re back on the move later today — I figured I’d stock up. I already had one for my breakfast this morning! The skin peels right off. I bet it would taste amazing spread in a toasted bagel.

Snowbirding 2018 Postcards: Fireside at Camp

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Out in the desert, when the sun goes down, it’s like Mother Nature turned the heat off. It might have been in the 70s all day, but the temperature takes a plunge after sunset and a campfire is pretty much required if you want to hang out outdoors.

We spent about an hour gathering wood on Wednesday morning — mostly mesquite and salt cedar — and added that to the six aspen (or birch?) logs I’d brought south with me from a camp in Idaho back in October. While we were out boating in the afternoon, a friend stopped by looking for us. When he saw the large pieces of wood we’d gathered, he kindly used his chainsaw to cut them into manageable pieces. (Reminds me of a fairy tale where people put their damaged shoes out on the doorstep at night and elves repaired them. This elf’s name is Steve.)

As usual, my friend Janet got the fire going before it was dark and we sat around it to chat, eat dinner, and then chat some more.

It night was a great night for star gazing, too. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky and the area is very dark. With a meteor shower on the calendar, I took out my Nikon and set it up for night photography. We had a clear view of the horizon to the east and watched Orion rise. The meteors came soon afterward, averaging about one per minute as NASA had forecasted.

I tried (and failed) to get a photo of one, but I did make this photo of our campsite in the firelight, with Janet sitting by the fire. A car happened to drive by during the 30-second exposure, illuminating assorted bits and pieces of the scene. I have a darker shot, too, but I like this one better.

Fireside camp

Snowbirding 2018 Postcards: Backwaters Campsite

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I was a little disappointed that there was someone already occupying the campsite I wanted when I arrived at the Colorado River on Monday. Although the area was big enough for at least six campers, I didn’t like the look of the man, his female companion, or their junky pull trailer and truck. They looked like the typical loud, generator-dependent low-lives that are relatively common anywhere there’s free camping. One way to tell? They’d parked their trailer and set up chairs facing the open gravel camping area instead of the bucolic waterway only 30 feet in the opposite direction. Seriously?

After disconnecting my boat and leaving it parked there with the trailer locked — after all, that’s where the boat ramp was — I pulled into another spot I’d stayed in the past which was about a mile back up the road on the same backwater channel. It was a much smaller spot and a bit close to the road, but had better access to the water and better fishing.

The next day, after off-loading T2 (short for Turtleback 2, my second truck camper), and helping my friend Janet settle in with Short-Short (her very small pull trailer), we went back to launch my boat. Janet drove the truck back while I motored the boat to our site and parked it along the sandy bank. We then finished setting up our joint camp.

Here’s a drone photo of our camp shot this morning. The waterway on the left is the backwater channel; about a mile straight ahead is a narrow inlet that connects it to the Colorado River, which you can see on the right.

Drone photo of our campsite

It’s crazy quiet here, day and night, with the occasional disturbance of a vehicle driving by during the day. A good place to camp out and get some writing done.