theboondork's RV blog

Lost Dutchman state Park

11/22/2020

All of the pics are certified Bat flu free.... But it won't hurt to wear a mask just in case.

Arctic Fox camping at Lost Dutchman state Park Arizona Picture

My boondocking spot at the Lost Dutchman State Park. Yep I'm boondocking, no water, no sewer, no electric, no picnic table, and a fire ring that can't be used because of the fire restrictions.

Yay! I finally made it. I pulled into the Lost Dutchman State Park about 11 o'clock and felt very fortunate to find the previous occupant long gone and my campsite empty.

It was in the mid-80s when I got here, and I actually worked up a sweat unhooking the Arctic Fox. It's been a long time since I've been able to use the word "sweat" in my blog, especially when it refers to me.

I haven't been here in quite some time, and I don't remember the campsites being challenging to get in and out of, probably because I was in a Hallmark pop-up slide-in camper before. But even though I'm in a pull-through campsite, it's curves are rather tight getting a 30-foot trailer in it, especially when they made a point of telling me to "make sure all your wheels are on the pavement. " It also could be because I'm in a site that has no hookups; maybe they're smaller. But this Park is usually full, so getting a hookup site was out of the question; I was lucky to get a spot at all on short notice.

I think I'll go walking around a little bit later this afternoon when it's cooler and maybe less crowded. Many trails leave the campground and head up towards the mountains, but from what I can see, many people are walking on them. In fact, the first thing I saw when I pulled into the Park was a sign saying "all-day use parking areas are full," so I guess that explains all the hikers I see. I'm hoping it's this busy just because it's the weekend and not some kind of a bat flu normal because people are out of work and kids are out of school. Because I would be really disappointed dodging people and bicycles while walking in the hills.

theboondork

Hiking trail Lost Dutchman state Park Picture

Since there were so many people out hiking I looked around and found the worst trail in the park. It was so steep and boulder strewn that a Mule with six legs would have trouble walking on it. Needless to say I didn't have to share my walk with any tourists.

It's pretty here at the Park, but there's way too many people for my liking.

A black and white picture of the closest mountains.

8 Comments

OFM

11/22/2020 05:28:35 pm

The pictures reminded me I NEED to get back out into the big bend area of Texas. There is at least four large parks out there to play in. I look forward to seeing more of Dutchman Park here on your blog. Have fun.

Tom

11/22/2020 06:49:52 pm

Well thank you Barney. From what I could tell the Big Bend has one of the same problems the Lost Dutchman has... It's very crowded during the season, and "the season" is about the only time a human being can live there.

As with Big Bend the lost Dutchman has a lot of good things about it, beautiful views, great weather in the winter, all kinds of Jeep trails, and hiking trails through the superstition Mountains.

But like everything else, its gotten a lot more crowded than it was when I was here before. And there's so many hoops to jump through to be able to camp here I'm not sure if I would want to deal with it again. But who knows, there's an awful lot of flowers growing here during the spring that I would like to see again, but that's a very crowded time of year.

Tom... Just gone from toooo cold to too warm in one day.

Judith

11/22/2020 08:28:17 pm

Glad you made it! And such a view from your spot. Wonderful. Hope it gets less populated after the weekend, but with a holiday coming up.....Still, you're warm. And mountains and desert to look at. Enjoy. Thanks for the photos. Never been there, but it's my kind of country.

11/22/2020 09:28:14 pm

Thank you Judith. I'm hoping it gets less populated also, but with the Bat flu changing the world one never knows anymore what's normal and what's not.

Thanks for reminding me about the holiday coming up. I have to leave here the day before Thanksgiving and find a place to hunker down. I guess I'd better give that some thought

Tom

Linda Sand

11/23/2020 02:34:07 pm

Probably a good thing to be gone from there for the long holiday weekend. I suspect there will be even more people then. Too bad the trails are so busy. Maybe less so the next couple of days?

11/23/2020 03:31:28 pm

Yeah that's probably what's going to happen Linda. One of the reasons I like going to state parks is there normally less crowded than commercial RV parks, but now days there's him him so many RVs on the road I don't know if that means anything anymore, but I guess I'll find out before this winters over.

Quartzsite should be interesting this winter, especially the Big Show. You could make the case for the Big Show being more crowded than ever because of all the new people buying RVs and hitting the road escaping the big cities, especially when you consider Quartzsite's proximity to Los Angeles.

Or, you could say since it's mostly senior citizens visiting the Big Show and they're more wary of the Bat flu than most other folks they might stay away in droves, which at the moment is my tendency.

Tom

Eddie

11/23/2020 06:15:36 pm

Thank you for these beautiful and informative pictures. This campground is on my bucket list as a place to stay while visiting kinfolks in Phoenix. I would be there right now except I'm a bit leery bout travelling from East to West right now on account of this bat flu. Enjoy your life[I am a bit envious] and keep those pictures coming.

11/23/2020 06:47:40 pm

Thank you so much Eddie, I really appreciate that. Lost Dutchman is a nice park and it's in a beautiful area, if you like the desert environment. But its very popular, which translates to busy, and crowded. But they've laid out the camping sites so you don't feel like you're in a crowd. When I look around me I can only see three other campers.

Traveling anywhere now days makes a lot of folks leery, no one knows what to expect anymore. But so far the only difference I've seen in my travels this winter is the New Mexico state parks are closed, and everywhere I go people are wearing masks, other than that everything seems normal.

I very much enjoy my life, and I'm thankful for every day that I can live the kind of life I'm living right now.

Tom

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Lost Dutchman state Park

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