This 4 Day Arizona Trip cost us less than $250 all inclusive. See how we did it.
If you are like us, hate sitting at home and eager to check out new things even if it means the desert, then you've come to the right place. I've never been a desert person and cringed at the thought of going to New Mexico anytime it was an option. Recent Coronavirus lockdown got me thinking - where can we go.
One of my fiends was sending me photos from her trip to Arizona Desert. She kept saying its very quiet and peaceful. They went there on an RV with her 2 year old and they had a great time. I could not help but wonder if we could do the same.
The prices for RVs were quite bad (over $280/night) during my quick google search. But then I remembered a vivid picture of RV wrap of Cruise America and that's where I discovered that you can have a great time for $250.00 and barely even come into contact with any people!
We quickly booked an RV for a 4 day weekend and started planning our route. At the time Arizona already closed some major parks like Grand Canyon National Park, Navajo Nation and Zion National Park. Our initial plan was to spend some time in the desert to see the stars and chill out at the campsite. The choices were slim, but still better than sitting at home.
A quick search on Google showed a lot of smaller parks were still open and campgrounds available. We then searched for best camping sites that we thought we could stay at on Campandium. The app is actually amazing. It allows you to search for free spots near all national parks. They even have this video on Arizona's best RV Camping destinations which inspired the whole trip. You can find a complete article on RV camping resources for rookies here.
We visited 4 beautiful parks which we would not even consider visiting if it wasn't for coronavirus. We've never even heard of them before. So here are my top picks that were opened and some tips for each of these parks.
Lake Havasu State Park
5 hours from Los Angeles
699 London Bridge Rd,
Lake Havasu City, AZ 86403
This was our first stop. Fortunately we got to Lake Havasu at 2am on Friday and stayed at the Cattail Cove State Park Campground. We did not have reservation so we drove right in. There were many spots open so we just parked in the first one and stayed there for the night. We re-parked to a day use spot in the morning and spent the whole day by the Havasu lake. I would recommend to make a reservation if you want to stay in Lake Havasu for a few days. The place gets packed during the day and with social distancing in place park rangers have limitations on walk-ins. We did not care though, because we wanted to continue our drive.
Picacho State Park
7 hours from Los Angles
Picacho Peak,
Arizona 85141
We arrived to Picacho around 9pm and unfortunately missed the sunset. We zipped right in and parked at the only spot that was empty, hooked our AC, had dinner, watched the stars and went to sleep. Picacho Peak is a little park off highway 10 on the way to Tucson, AZ. Don't get that scare you away. I wish we arrived earlier, had a proper spot and got to enjoy a beautiful sunset over a park filled with Saguaro cactuses. Its majestic, especially when you see cactus taller than a 5 story building.
We woke up in the morning and had a lot of fun scavenging for gigantic Saguaro cactuses and taking photos. It was very hot, over 110F, and we chose not to hike and just relocated to day use spots. Unfortunately the park lady came by and asked us to turn off our generator which powers our AC which is why I don't recommend getting here unannounced if you want to spend a few days at the park. After breakfast we drove around campground exploring beautiful cacti flowers. There are lots of beautiful trails that go up to the peak, but we were a bit concerned about heat and bumping into rattle snakes. Then we continued our drive to Saguaro National Park.
Saguaro National Park
8 hours from Los Angeles
We arrived here in the early afternoon. There are a couple of scenic drives that are right inside the park with striking views of the desert landscape. We did not even have to hike. We drove through one of the loops and had lunch at the picnic area at the very end of the loop. Here is how it feels - you are sitting there in the AC powered RV, having lunch looking at the one of the most beautiful creations on earth. We got really lucky going in sprig. I've never seem desert so beautiful.
The park was full of all sorts of cacti and all of them were blooming. If you've never seen it I highly recommend. There are two sides of the park. The TMD (west) boasts large stands of saguaro cactus creating a breathtaking saguaro forest, whereas the RMD (east) hosts a magnificent sky island, where you can find bears, cougars and the ever elusive coati (aka coatimundi).
There is only one public campground at this park called Gilbert Ray Campground as it is not very bury here April through December due to heat. We zipped right in and had no issues picking a spot. We settled nicely with AC and water hookups and had a great time cooking, chilling and watching sunset over Saguaro Park. Our campground featured a giant Saguaro right next to our campsite. After dinner we goofed around, watched stars and had ice cream for desert. We left in the morning to start our way back to Los Angeles.
Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument
6.5 hours from Los Angeles
10 Organ Pipe Dr,
Ajo, AZ 85321
The drive here took us about 2 hours to get to Organ Pipe National Monument park. During the entire drive we did not see any other cars other than the border patrol with manning checkpoints. Apparently the number of border patrol agents exploded from 15 to 500, with a new, sprawling base since the death of the park ranger at the park. We realized that there is no wall at the Mexican border. It's just the desert and the mountains. Any person can easily cross the border on foot. There was a sign entering the scenic drive that read "Be careful, illegal activities in place. If you see something, call 911."
We saw the whole park through a scenic 21-mile Ajo Mountain loop where we immersed ourselves in a photographer’s paradise, explored the abundance of plants and wildlife unique to the Sonoran desert. At first I did not see much of a difference between Saguaro Park, but once we entered scenic drive we started seeing amazing gigantic cactuses called Organ Pipe which looked like a pipe organ and are much rare and unique.
We did not see any trespassers and had a peaceful wholesome and nutritious lunch at the top of the mountain enjoying scenic view straight from our AC powered RV. The whole drive took us over an hour since we stopped multiple times to photograph beautiful cactuses of Sonoran desert. Everything, just like at Saguaro National Park, was blooming and looked amazing. I was curious to see what the organ pipe cactus looked like inside. At some point on the road we saw one that got hit with something and a leg of it fall and was laying on the ground. The insides look like wood and it's leg is bigger thicker than my arm.
Kofa National Wildlife Refuge
7 hours from Los Angeles
Palm Canyon Rd,
Yuma, AZ 85365
Have you heard of this secluded and mysterious Wildlife Refuge? Deep in the southwestern Sonoran desert, there is a mountain range where ice age California fan palms grow within a canyon. It’s a place where the temperatures are some of the highest in the region. And it’s home to a gold mine that ruled the land for only 14 years. Most importantly though, it’s the home of a very important wildlife refuge.
We arrived at 10pm. The drive to BLM was very difficult and scary at night. It was like in your classic Wrong Turn scary movie. Not a soul on the gravel unpaved road for miles, only jack rabbits jumping at you while you drive. The long Palm Canyon road takes you from highway all the way to the way to the bottom of the mountain with public land camp sits along the way. I recommend to get here before dark so you can see where you drive and pick appropriate campsite. I also recommend to watch a video on youtube on how to find the BLM if you end up coming here at night.
Since there was nobody at this park we parked right at the bottom of the mountain and did to bother to look for a better spot, however as we discovered later the first spot comes with its own perks such as incline that makes it difficult sleeping. I recommend to take a couple spots before road stats to incline. We were too exhausted to re-park. We were also too tired to setup fire but there were fire pits setup which makes it a great sunset over desert watching spot.
We woke up to a beautiful bottom of the mountain and trail head in between the Palm Canyon. The sun rises behind the mountain so we had a nice shade and cool air in the morning to jump start our hike before it got too hot. After the hike we visited the Kokopelli Spiral Labyrinth which was quite amazing thing to see. Here is where the true mystery begins. No one knows who made this 60 feet in diameter spiral labyrinth. And no one knows what it was made for. Yet, there it is, in the middle of the Sonoran desert, a beautiful and perfect spiral in the sand.
Joshua Tree National Park
2 hours from Los Angeles
We decided to break out our drive home at this BLM near the south entrance to Joshua Tree National Park since the park itself was closed due to coronavirus. It ended up being a nice place to stop, have dinner outdoors by the fire, watch the stars in the desert one last time and head home. I recommend this place for those who can't find a camping site in park itself or need a quick stop for the night on the way to Arizona.
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