Quartzsite is nestled in western AZ just about 17 miles from the California border. Highway 95 runs north and south while I-10 runs east to west through the town. During the hot summer months Quartzsite is a quiet sleepy little town with not much going for it. I think if it wasn’t for a few major truck stops and some fast food restaurant, Quartzsite would not exist during summer months.
As Fall time rolls around, Quartzsite slowly starts to come alive and then by Jan it’s a full blown little city. What attracts people to this area is the dry warm winter that many camp out on the BLM land for a minimal price. There are RV parks around the town that are very reasonable to stay in if you choose not to boondock in the desert. When we arrived the first part of Nov to Quartzsite for the first time, it was already starting to show signs of folks temporarily staking their claims for the winter months. The BLM land around the sleepy little town was filling in with RV’ers from all over. They come from the Northern colder states such as Idaho, Washington, Oregon, just to name a few and of course, Canada.
So besides the warm dry desert winter months, what else attracts folks to this area? Maybe it’s because of the huge Rock & Mineral Show, or the big RV and Tent show, or the Art & Craft show that follows. Or just all the junk collectors that are in one area. Many folks like to come and sell & trade many items. Who knows what you just might find. This is all spread out on both sides of the frontage road near Interstate 10.
On the South East Side (of I-10), you have the Rice Ranch. No, it’s not a rice field, but just the name of the area where vendors set up to sell items. You will find many varies types of vendors selling anything from new to used items. In this section you may find socks and other particular clothing items. Maybe you are a biker in need of leather or accessory for you bike. One one corner you might find someone selling regular speed bicycles and accessories. Or you are in need of an RV replacement part or accessories, the I suggest you visit the Gambler and again, no It’s not Kenny Rogers either. But just the name of a huge outlet that sells anything RV in a huge pole building.
Hungry? Well you have vendors that will sell you Ice Cream, Home Made Apple Pie (& other pies), breakfast items, along with Indian Bread and tacos. If that don’t suit your fancy how about a pizza from a fire truck? Yep, there is one! It’s two couples, I believe they got the idea from a relative in Las Vegas. So they purchased a recently retired fire truck from NJ and turned it into a place to make and sell Pizza. Of course our curiosity got the best of us, so we had to go and check it out. What they did is keep the ladder truck in it’s original state, place a temporary shelter around it, and started doing home bake pizza. Was it good? You betcha. I even think they chopped their onions, for it’s not too often you find red onions on a pizza. Our first trip, they did forget to put my black olives on it, but on our second trip they made sure I had plenty. The pizza are loaded with whatever topping you would like to put on and at a very reasonable price. So I suggest if ever there and you see a Pizza hangin’ high in the sky from a ladder truck, go look it up and try it!
On the South West corner starts the Rock & Gem show and then the huge RV tent. This really doesn’t get going until mid Jan, but other vendors will come in and start selling early. Here you will find K & B tools; they carry anything you might need such as tools, mini solar panels, solar yard ornaments just to name a few items. Out here in the desert we see many temporary tarp buildings put up by RV’ers. This is the number one place to get all you will need to purchase your temporary tarp building! Once again you will find more clothing and jewelry.
You will also find a few vendors that will actually sell many outdated grocery items! Nothing cold, but in boxes and in jars at a very reasonable price. One vendor comes out here to set up just to sell buffalo sausage and specialty cheeses. While another will sell specialty beans and nuts.
When you see the huge tents go up (there will be two), one is just full of vendors that sell nothing but Rocks and Gems from all over the world. I never knew there was so many Rocks, Gems and Minerals that exist until I went to the show to check it out! I can’t help but wonder if people do buy these things? But I guess they do, or this show wouldn’t make it otherwise. The sedond tent that goes up is behind all the other things going on, but trust me, you cannot miss this gigantic tent! This is the RV show that goes for only one week in Jan. This tent is filled with vendors of all sort and not just RV. We found anything from pots & pans, to knives, rugs, ring cleaners, and one guys selling some kind of a unique tiny animal that lives in your pocket! There were a few campgrounds trying to promote themselves, you also had Land & Leisure as well as Amazon.com. LED lights are a hot things for several vendors trying to sell the best one on the market.
Thirsty? You will find a beer garden amongst all the vendors, just follow the sound from the live entertainment and you will find it. There are other vendors selling a quick meal if you need one. Only one bad one sticks out in my mind, and that was when he had his food items sitting out along the ledge. Whether the items were for show or actual sell, I wasn’t sure, but knew it turned me off and we just walked on by and didn’t stop.
Now on the North West corner is where you have the sell and trade vendors. We call them the junk collectors. Again you find more shops selling yet more tools and gadgets of all sorts. We didn’t spend much time over here, for we don’t have room to buy and collect “junk”. Sorry folks….but hey, if you like that kind of thing, then you will love this area!
The most thing you find around Quartzsite are RV’s! new or used, 5th wheel, tongue pull, deisel pusher, you name it, it’s here! Several large dealers come from near and far to try and sell their rigs. One of the largest is LeMesa RV they have literally taken up the North East corner. Once they have all their rigs in place inside this huge fenced in yard, then they begin to dish our free, yes, free pancakes everyday, but Sunday! And if you didn’t get your fill from that, come back at noon and they will feed you lunch-FREE! Each day’s menu changes, and you never know what they will serve for lunch.
Each year there has been over two million visitors alone to this sleepy little town of Quartzsite!
All in all I was amazed as to the vendors selling their goods. I didn’t know the demand for socks was such a huge thing, there were plenty of vendors selling just that-socks. Tools, tools and more tools, at every corner, someone was selling some sort of tool or another.
There were plenty of laundry mats around as well, one in particular and probably the most popular is in a pole building right on main street. In past years, they close down by late April, but they are thinking of keeping it open year round this year. Although it’s in this pole building, it’s kept very clean and always someone around to help you if you need it. they also have a little restaurant adjacent to the laundry.
There is a convenient easy in, easy out place to get propane called RV Pit Stop right on Hwy 95 . Very friendly and courteous. There are other places to fill propane, but we found this one to always greet us with a smile.
Plenty of places to go and chow down if you don’t want to eat at the shows. Silly Al’s seems to always carry a full house. Although we never ate there, we were told the food and spirits are great. They have Karaoke night, if you like to sing.
Sweet Darlene started out as a vendor at the shows, and now has their own place in town. the food is excellent anytime you go there.
Quartzsite has a place called the QIA in town where they have plenty of things going on at all time. They find entertainment, have line dancing, plus many other activities for the winter folks that come here to visit.
You are sure not to ever get bored while visiting this sleepy little town of Quartzsite…
As Fall time rolls around, Quartzsite slowly starts to come alive and then by Jan it’s a full blown little city. What attracts people to this area is the dry warm winter that many camp out on the BLM land for a minimal price. There are RV parks around the town that are very reasonable to stay in if you choose not to boondock in the desert. When we arrived the first part of Nov to Quartzsite for the first time, it was already starting to show signs of folks temporarily staking their claims for the winter months. The BLM land around the sleepy little town was filling in with RV’ers from all over. They come from the Northern colder states such as Idaho, Washington, Oregon, just to name a few and of course, Canada.
So besides the warm dry desert winter months, what else attracts folks to this area? Maybe it’s because of the huge Rock & Mineral Show, or the big RV and Tent show, or the Art & Craft show that follows. Or just all the junk collectors that are in one area. Many folks like to come and sell & trade many items. Who knows what you just might find. This is all spread out on both sides of the frontage road near Interstate 10.
On the South East Side (of I-10), you have the Rice Ranch. No, it’s not a rice field, but just the name of the area where vendors set up to sell items. You will find many varies types of vendors selling anything from new to used items. In this section you may find socks and other particular clothing items. Maybe you are a biker in need of leather or accessory for you bike. One one corner you might find someone selling regular speed bicycles and accessories. Or you are in need of an RV replacement part or accessories, the I suggest you visit the Gambler and again, no It’s not Kenny Rogers either. But just the name of a huge outlet that sells anything RV in a huge pole building.
Hungry? Well you have vendors that will sell you Ice Cream, Home Made Apple Pie (& other pies), breakfast items, along with Indian Bread and tacos. If that don’t suit your fancy how about a pizza from a fire truck? Yep, there is one! It’s two couples, I believe they got the idea from a relative in Las Vegas. So they purchased a recently retired fire truck from NJ and turned it into a place to make and sell Pizza. Of course our curiosity got the best of us, so we had to go and check it out. What they did is keep the ladder truck in it’s original state, place a temporary shelter around it, and started doing home bake pizza. Was it good? You betcha. I even think they chopped their onions, for it’s not too often you find red onions on a pizza. Our first trip, they did forget to put my black olives on it, but on our second trip they made sure I had plenty. The pizza are loaded with whatever topping you would like to put on and at a very reasonable price. So I suggest if ever there and you see a Pizza hangin’ high in the sky from a ladder truck, go look it up and try it!
On the South West corner starts the Rock & Gem show and then the huge RV tent. This really doesn’t get going until mid Jan, but other vendors will come in and start selling early. Here you will find K & B tools; they carry anything you might need such as tools, mini solar panels, solar yard ornaments just to name a few items. Out here in the desert we see many temporary tarp buildings put up by RV’ers. This is the number one place to get all you will need to purchase your temporary tarp building! Once again you will find more clothing and jewelry.
You will also find a few vendors that will actually sell many outdated grocery items! Nothing cold, but in boxes and in jars at a very reasonable price. One vendor comes out here to set up just to sell buffalo sausage and specialty cheeses. While another will sell specialty beans and nuts.
When you see the huge tents go up (there will be two), one is just full of vendors that sell nothing but Rocks and Gems from all over the world. I never knew there was so many Rocks, Gems and Minerals that exist until I went to the show to check it out! I can’t help but wonder if people do buy these things? But I guess they do, or this show wouldn’t make it otherwise. The sedond tent that goes up is behind all the other things going on, but trust me, you cannot miss this gigantic tent! This is the RV show that goes for only one week in Jan. This tent is filled with vendors of all sort and not just RV. We found anything from pots & pans, to knives, rugs, ring cleaners, and one guys selling some kind of a unique tiny animal that lives in your pocket! There were a few campgrounds trying to promote themselves, you also had Land & Leisure as well as Amazon.com. LED lights are a hot things for several vendors trying to sell the best one on the market.
Thirsty? You will find a beer garden amongst all the vendors, just follow the sound from the live entertainment and you will find it. There are other vendors selling a quick meal if you need one. Only one bad one sticks out in my mind, and that was when he had his food items sitting out along the ledge. Whether the items were for show or actual sell, I wasn’t sure, but knew it turned me off and we just walked on by and didn’t stop.
Now on the North West corner is where you have the sell and trade vendors. We call them the junk collectors. Again you find more shops selling yet more tools and gadgets of all sorts. We didn’t spend much time over here, for we don’t have room to buy and collect “junk”. Sorry folks….but hey, if you like that kind of thing, then you will love this area!
The most thing you find around Quartzsite are RV’s! new or used, 5th wheel, tongue pull, deisel pusher, you name it, it’s here! Several large dealers come from near and far to try and sell their rigs. One of the largest is LeMesa RV they have literally taken up the North East corner. Once they have all their rigs in place inside this huge fenced in yard, then they begin to dish our free, yes, free pancakes everyday, but Sunday! And if you didn’t get your fill from that, come back at noon and they will feed you lunch-FREE! Each day’s menu changes, and you never know what they will serve for lunch.
Each year there has been over two million visitors alone to this sleepy little town of Quartzsite!
All in all I was amazed as to the vendors selling their goods. I didn’t know the demand for socks was such a huge thing, there were plenty of vendors selling just that-socks. Tools, tools and more tools, at every corner, someone was selling some sort of tool or another.
There were plenty of laundry mats around as well, one in particular and probably the most popular is in a pole building right on main street. In past years, they close down by late April, but they are thinking of keeping it open year round this year. Although it’s in this pole building, it’s kept very clean and always someone around to help you if you need it. they also have a little restaurant adjacent to the laundry.
There is a convenient easy in, easy out place to get propane called RV Pit Stop right on Hwy 95 . Very friendly and courteous. There are other places to fill propane, but we found this one to always greet us with a smile.
Plenty of places to go and chow down if you don’t want to eat at the shows. Silly Al’s seems to always carry a full house. Although we never ate there, we were told the food and spirits are great. They have Karaoke night, if you like to sing.
Sweet Darlene started out as a vendor at the shows, and now has their own place in town. the food is excellent anytime you go there.
Quartzsite has a place called the QIA in town where they have plenty of things going on at all time. They find entertainment, have line dancing, plus many other activities for the winter folks that come here to visit.
You are sure not to ever get bored while visiting this sleepy little town of Quartzsite…
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