Quartzsite, Arizona is a very small desert community (maybe a few thousand people) located in La Paz County 17 miles east of the California border on Interstate 10. Between the months of October and March this town and the surrounding area swells at times to upwards of over one million people, mainly snowbird RV’ers, Rock collectors and vendors. What’s the attraction? Well, it boils down to, sunny warm winter days, huge swap meets with a steady schedule of events and shows (i.e. RV, Gem, Car Shows), surrounding BLM land with camping for RVers, and several full service campgrounds around town if you don’t want to dry camp or boondock.
Throughout town there are many different swap meets to explore. If you want to hit them all be prepared for it will take you a couple of days. One of the largest swap meets in Quartzsite is Tyson Wells located south of Interstate 10 on W Kuehn Street and Hwy 95 south. You can’t miss all the vendor tents and awnings. This market has hundreds of vendors offering anything from kitchen items, beading supplies, handmade items, gems, jewelry, RV stuff to....... you name it they have. It was fun to walk around to not only see all the items for sale, but to also get a feel for the local somewhat quirky culture.
Another interest place to visit while in Quartzsite is the Readers Oasis Bookstore on the east side of town on Main Street. The nudist Paul Winer who owns this bookstore and walks around wearing nothing but a very small G-string. His bookstore has a huge selection of used books at good prices. He will also pose for pictures if asked.
We were very overwhelmed upon our first visit to Quartzsite, so we visited the Quartzsite Chamber of Commerce Information office on Main Street, on the right going west bound. This office is full of information and helpful staff to give you extra information about local attractions, places to eat or where to get needed supplies at the best prices. This helped us develop a plan of how we would explore this town and surrounding areas.
Tips:
1. North of Quartzsite on Hwy 95 is a place called Pitstop - on the right (look for the large propane tanks with smiley faces). Here you will find the best propane prices in town as well as a place to fill your fresh water tank(s) and dump your gray/black tanks. They have a very friendly and helpful staff, so this is the place to go for these needs.
2. Gas and propane is significantly less in Quartzsite, Arizona versus Ehrenberg or Blythe, California.
1 comment:
Did you get any pictures of Paul Winer? We're not expecting to see them, just wondered.
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