There is an area of land north of Phoenix that is frequently written about in blogs by full-time RV travelers. Administered by the BLM and designated multi-use, it is available for many outdoor recreational activities, including hunting, off-road vehicle sports, and camping. Even though it is 40 miles from downtown and actually closer to Wickenburg than Phoenix, it is about as close as you can get to Mesa and camp for free. I wanted to explore the area and review it for future reference, so I set aside a few days and headed north.
My first stop was in the Tonto NF at the Phon D Sutton recreation area. Each year this area is popular as a boondocking location for RV’ers and I was interested to see if there were any changes this season. I found only a few rigs parked in the lot and no one was around to check that I was even registered. It is still early in the season so it may fill up later on. There was definitely a chill to the air and it rained through the night and for most of the next day, so I stayed inside and ate snacks the entire time. The next day I felt so guilty from binge snacking that I hiked five miles out into the hills. On the third day the sun finally broke through the overcast and I packed up and headed northwest to Hwy. 74.
It seems like they named a lot of the places and roads north of town in an attempt to drug your sub conscience into a state of nirvana. I drove by Happy Valley road, turned along Carefree Hwy, and just past Lake Pleasant found the BLM land. Some of the roads out into the desert were muddy from the recent rain. I chose to rule out anything that was remotely challenging, instead selecting a well traveled road with signs telling you where to camp and unload your ATV. I knew it was going to be like spending the night in the middle of a motocross race but figured it wouldn’t be too bad for one night. After a bit of zooming and noise, one by one, all the racers loaded up their toys and left the area, leaving me to enjoy the quiet of the desert.
The next day I drove a few miles back to Lake Pleasant. I asked the girl at the gate if I could go in and look at their campground to see if it was someplace I would like to stay. Most places will let you drive through and look for a site without paying but she was determined to charge me the entranced fee just to look around. I used the excuse that my brother has an extremely big RV and he wanted me to make sure he could fit when we met up next month. She said, “I will still have to charge you the entrance fee to drive through.” I guess they must get people with all kinds of stories that try to sneak in. I told her to forget it and then she relented and gave me a 30-minute pass. I was not impressed with the park. Maybe if I had a boat, or wanted full hookups and didn’t care how much it cost, it would be ok.
I found another dirt road that went back into the desert near Saddleback Mountain. On first examination it looked like a nice, quiet area with good roads and few ATV trails, but as I drove deeper into the terrain, I was disappointed to discover I had entered a shooting range. I parked and set up camp near the main road, and later walked back to explore the wash that is used for target shooting. I was dismayed to see such devastation in the desert. It wouldn’t be so bad if the shooters used the same area for their sport, but instead several acres in all directions were littered with the remnants of their destruction. It was as if a tornado had come through a city dump and scattered the contents for miles.
It is apparent that the shooters love glass bottles as targets, but what was amazing was the amount of trash riddled with holes: washing machines, TVs, computers, tables, lamps, even an old boat shot full of holes. I got the impression that when they replaced an appliance, instead of taking the old ones to the dump, they carted them out to the desert and blew them up. If cartridge casings had a deposit on them like pop cans I could have made a lot of money. I’ll bet I could have picked up 100 pounds of shells in ten square feet.
I’m not ready to give up on Saddleback Mountain just yet. There is still a lot of land I didn’t get to explore. At least I know where not to park on a weekend.
Glad you’re checking out some places. I was going to ask you to check on Phon D before we got there to see if it was the same deal as last year. It would sure be nice if there were some more cheap/free places to boondock in the Phoenix area.