Step inside Quartzsite, Arizona, where snowbirds flock for warmer weather and a cheap place to park their RVs

15.02.2024 - 00:23 / insider.com

You'll find all types of people living in all kinds of setups in Quartzsite, Arizona.

Some nomads have massive fifth-wheel RVs, while others call a plastic tarp their home. School buses, vans, horse trailers, ambulances, semi trucks, and every other vehicle in between exist in the small town off Interstate 10.

Each winter, hundreds of thousands of snowbirds arrive, stake out a spot on public land, and call Arizona's dusty desert their temporary home.

On a recent road trip, I explored the town. There, I discovered a quirky place filled with movie-worthy characters and some of the country's cheapest living.

When describing Quartzsite, you'll often hear people use the words "balloons," "explodes," and "swells."

For half of the year, the small town is just that — a small town with about 2,400 residents. Come winter, things drastically change when the town welcomes more than 2 million visitors, according to the Quartzsite Area Chamber of Commerce and Tourism board.

Some visitors pass through, but others are temporary residents searching for a warm place to spend the colder months. And they specifically pick Quartzsite for its cheap, long-term camping.

Quartzsite is one of seven places where people can stay on public land for months at a time during the winter. The Bureau of Land Management typically limits camping on public land to two weeks. It's made the exception for a handful of places in an effort to both house winter visitors and protect desert land from overuse, the Bureau of Land Management's website states.

One of those places is Quartzsite's La Posa long-term visitor area.

People can pick up a seven-month permit for $180 or a two-week permit for $40. It makes Quartzsite home to arguably the cheapest rent in the country.

However, the cheap parking has its drawbacks. La Posa's visitors don't have access to electricity. Instead, the people live off-grid and rely on a handful of vault toilets, water faucets, and dumping stations the Bureau of Land Management has placed on the land.

If off-grid living won't fit a visitor's needs, Quartzsite is home to more than 50 RV resorts.

Casey Osborn, one of Quartzsite's many snowbirds, told me he's been traveling to the town from the northeast for decades. Osborn discovered Quartzsite on a trip to Mexico for a teeth cleaning. He's been returning ever since and sells antiques at a flea market called The Hi Al Swap Meet.

Osborn doesn't stay at La Posa. Instead, he rents a space in a nearby RV resort because he prefers "a little electricity," he said.

I arrived in Quartzsite at the end of October, and while hundreds of people had already set up in La Posa, residents and veteran snowbirds told me that the town was deserted compared to how it would look and feel in a