#392 Crossroads Campground 4 nights BLM

Our next stop was also free camp.net and was BLM land but now we were on the Colorado River. My commercial driver's atlas did not show a clear route from A to B. It highlights the roads you should be on if you're an 18-wheeler and it didn't have a section of this route highlighted so I was nervous. There was hardly anybody to call so what I eventually did is that called a gas station that was in that area of concern and asked their opinion. I told them I was in a big rig and I was just concerned about the road and they said it's got a few bumps here and there but you'll be fine.

There were some reservable sites I think, but everything else was first come first serve. We looked at the instructions on a sign at entry and it said that you could pick any empty site that did not have a reserved sticker on it. We found one that looked just fine. Nothing's perfect but it was pretty good. The sites that were right on the river were occupied but it was a view of the river and that was good enough. The price was maybe $15 a night so with the senior discount it was only 7.50 so that was great.

We settled in and we were at the end of the cul-de-sac. It seemed kind of private. The first night we were there we noticed that the neighbors right beside us were very quiet all day but in the evening quite a few of their friends all gathered in beach chairs and started shooting the breeze. Gracious, there's nothing wrong with that it's just that at some point it's like we wanted the windows open because we were boondocking. For some reason, they set up with their compound about 6 inches from our living room window which was open. We realize well we're going to be close to that. These folks were just enjoying each other's company but had auditory control problems. As long as the TV was up pretty loud it was not so big of a thing. At 10:15 and then 10:30 we begin to think you guys are still really loud and we're kind of thinking about turning in so as much as I hate to have a conflict I walked outside in my bathrobe. I said Hi, our bedroom is about 2 feet away and it's about 10:30 and we'd like to go to sleep. Could you pull it back a little bit or maybe go to the other side of your RV. They said oh my goodness sorry about that we had no idea what time it was. It wasn't a big thing it just seemed as if I'm everybody's parent and yet they were all 65 or older.

One thing we saw in the reviews for this place is how many Burros there are around here. In my mind when they were doing a lot of work here back in the Great Depression Burros were a big part of the workforce. When they got done they just released them I guess. Now they just kind of wander around. They seem to be protected in that everybody is asked to leave them alone and be careful not to run over them. Lots of signs in curves that say slow down please be careful of the wild burros.

I will insert a video here they were pretty cool.

One thing that was bad for them was that over time people have fenced off and fenced off each property. Collectively there's a very long fence all along the Colorado River that keeps the burros from getting to where the water is to get a drink. I think that's kind of sucks because everybody's protecting their property from whatever but there's a 20-mile fence now one trailer park at a time that keeps the burros away from the drinking water and I don't like that.

This part of the world was called Parker Strip and it’s all the land between dams. We went up to Parker Dam and rode across and it was kind of neet. They made it clear that you cannot do this in an RV because it's just a tiny little road. We also found it was just a little bit creepy because it was such a skinny little road the width of the top of the dam. We explored a little bit we went into the town that was nearby and had dinner a few times. We went on up the way and found a place that was interesting up the way called the Bill Williams River fishing area located just 13.8 miles from Parker above the Dam. It seemed it would be a really good place to be a campground host. We saw two rigs there hosting. You would have to stand being a little remote. We had a nice hike and I saw some reference to the Seabees at the end of the trail where they had done some work here. I liked that because I was a Seabee at 18 years old.

On one of our hikes here we saw some flycatcher birds in large numbers at dusk and watching them carry on was a cool

It was a day-use recreation area with lots of fishing platforms all along a strip of land wandering out into the river.

These kinds of places like this are pretty remote but there was a town nearby that makes it ok. We had a bit of internet which makes things easier. At Parker, we saw a vacant host site and it would have been a good place to be hosting the winter but this place gets to be a 120 in the summer so they will have to keep it except in January. We enjoyed our stay here and that was about it.

BLM

Parker Dam Rd.Earp, CA 92242928-505-1200Official Website

GPS: 34.2116, -114.2158

Crossroads Campground

Parker Strip Recreation Area

Near Parker Dam, California

For campground inquiries, please call: (928) 505-1200