Life ten miles up a dirt road in the Sonoran desert isn’t for everyone. In fact, most people think we’re freakin’ nuts. RVer’s call it dry camping. No sewer or water hook ups or electrical connections. Since the sun provides us most of the latter and sand washes provide the former, who needs an RV park? I started this gig about ten years ago to help out with the 24 Hours of old Pueblo mountain bike race. It’s evolved into an Arizona State Land department special use permit and a model for the Land Department’s permit system. Over the ten years, we’ve rerouted almost half of the 17 miles of race course. We’ve repaired and cleared every inch of it most years and added over ten miles of additional “secret” trail. All of it interconnecting and ridable in any direction which doubles the overall mileage. The best part is it isn’t full time work and somebody has to ride the trails to keep them clear.

In a rainy year, some cacti can grow several feet and since everything in the desert will make you bleed, there is hedge trimming to do. The monsoon rains can cause a lot of soil damage in the summer runoff season, so there’s that.

I’ve had people ask, seriously, “what do you eat out here”. Well the Weber works great and Trader Joe’s is only 26 miles away. As I said, life in the desert isn’t for everyone.

With lots of propane, a small travel trailer and a little practice, winter camping ain’t that bad.