Imperial Dam LTVA

The Imperial Dam LTVA (long term visitor area) is a BLM dry camping location right on the AZ / CA border. A short drive to Yuma AZ for all of your supplies.

This is one of our favorite boondocking sites now. People are spread out all over the desert, and they're incredibly friendly. Everybody gives you a wave!

We purchased the $180 yearly pass which runs from September through April. Basically that works out to $1 per day. There is a dump station and fresh water refill at the main entrance on Senator Wash Road. The BLM volunteers are great folks!

Keep in mind, this is a totally off grid location. No power, no hookups of any kind. You've got to budget your water usage and power usage if out here for an extended stay. Solar power or generators are a must if you plan to be here for a while. In our case, we're spending almost all of December here.

The big surprise factor for us was the fact that we have great Verizon LTE network coverage here, so we can still work while enjoying a beautiful location. Quiet nights, dark skies, friendly happy campers....yeah, this is exactly what we look for when boondocking!

We came to the Imperial Dam Long Term Visitor Area (LTVA) looking for better weather than we had at Quartzsite. This area of BLM dispersed camping is huge, over 3,000 acres. There are four dump stations (with flush allowed) and four potable water stations available, as well as $1 hot showers and toilets. At the time of year we were here, late January/early February, the daily temperature was around 65-70 during the day and around 50 at night. It was fairly windy during the day, and some days it calmed down at night. There were a lot of RVs here in many various "neighborhoods," but there were still a lot of open spaces. We stayed in the area called "Northwest Territories," which is near the end of the main road. Some "neighborhoods" looked fairly typical boon docking areas, while some looked a bit more "permanent," like a quirky trailer park. One friend who camped with us said, "It’s a unique place to stay with some apocalyptic vibes reminiscent the RV scene in the movie, Independence Day." Yes. Many of the sites had a fire pits, and some have been decorated with colorful desert rocks by previous campers. It is very quiet at night given how many RVs were here. Verizon signal is 2 bars LTE without booster and 4 bars LTE with a WeBoost system with an omni-directional antenna.

There is a mandatory fee to camp here: $40 for 14 days, or $180 for a six month season pass. My understanding is that both passes can be used during their valid time period at other BLM LTVAs. If you want to camp on the reservoir (either directly on a sandy beach, or in the North Shore area), there is a fee of $15/night to do so as those areas seem to be separate from the LTVA in some way. The areas around the reservoir require a separate fee as well for entry and day use, although an America the Beautiful pass will suffice. Kayaking and use of other small watercraft is allowed on the reservoirs, as well as fishing. There are lots of OHV trails around to drive on, and it is possible to bike on many of them, as we did. Additionally, there is good hiking in a small canyon nearby and some of the washes - one which leads to a cool and fairly long slot canyon. About 30 miles away is the Imperial National Wildlife Refuge, which has an additional lake that can be accessed as well as the beautiful Painted Desert trail.

Overall, this dispersed camp area worked well for us. We would have like to have a place with more natural beauty and also be closer to Yuma city, and that is the only reason we give it less than five stars. If your priorities are to stay somewhere cheap that has good weather deep into late winter, available water and dump, and some outdoor activities, you will find the Imperial Dam LTVA satisfactory.

This LTVA encompasses many smaller camping areas. The ones down by the water are not part of the LTVA, but everything else is - acres and acres of camping. See map in photos to get an idea of the layout. You can nestle into a cozy little canyon or perch up on a bluff with great views. I recommend driving around some to get a feel for the "neighborhoods" to make sure you get the experience you want. Near Senator Wash along Mesa Road is where the water, dump, restrooms, and cold showers are, along with the information station, and of course that's where it's most crowded and active. Up on this plateau is the only place we had any unboosted AT&T 4G, and the service was spotty. We had a less than pleasant start to our stay when a full-timer didn't like our choice of parking place, even though we were at least 50 feet from her rig. I guess she had gotten spoiled by a quiet winter, and she back-pedaled quickly especially once she found out we weren't staying long. But be advised that people can get a bit possessive of their slice of the desert!

We arrived here on a Saturday evening. There is an office trailer (which was closed), the camp host was off duty, and across the street was a collection box where it said it cost $10 for day use and $15/night. We thought "THIS CAN'T BE RIGHT" as everyone was saying that it is $40 for up to 14 days. So we decided to NOT pay and just find a spot and go into the office on Sunday, when it would hopefully be open, or talk to the camp host, when he is on duty.

On Sunday morning the office was open. The volunteer said that luckily we didn't pay the $15 for the night, because that applies for just the campers down by the lake.

So this is my ONLY complaint about this place: there was NO fee schedule posted anywhere outside on the office trailer and no instructions on what to do after hours. If we were too eager to pay, we would have thrown the money into the wrong collection box. We later discovered a sheet of lots of words and their pricing (almost in fine print) on their bulletin board next to the office trailer -- but the bulletin board is so far away, that they should put a sheet right on their door, not in some disguised place far away.

Soooo.... if you come after hours, don't worry about paying but go to the office the next day.
When you'll pay, you will receive a decal sticker that goes onto your windshield and is good for either up to 14 days ($40) or 6 months ($180) on any of the LTVA's around. We intend to go to Quartzsite, AZ, to La Posa with this sticker, for example.

The volunteers were super friendly, in fact it was the best and friendliest info we EVER received anywhere about the place we were staying.
Next to the office trailer are 4 dump stations which don't have a curb, so your dump hose won't need to go upwards. Then further away is an assortment of garbage dumpsters, and even further away are 8 fresh water stations with a faucet on either side (so 16 faucets). They all work perfectly. This water is potable and tasting it without any filter, I must say that it tastes quite good.
If you desire a hot shower, there is Squaw Lake a couple of miles away from the office. With the LTVA sticker you can use their day use area and go into their shower. They sell tokens. The volunteer thought it cost $1 for 9 minutes, but he wasn't quite sure (we haven't tried them).

The place is HUGE. We were her mid-February and it was very windy. We wore sweaters. Didn't see any rattle snakes (too cold) but saw some burro poop. Apparently they sometimes come roaming around. There were MANY large 5th wheels and Class A's, and you would hardly know that anyone lives there because it was so quiet. But they don't camp, they decide to simply live here instead of where they have to shovel snow all day and night. So we would mostly see people who have dogs.
Surprisingly, EVERYONE PICKED UP THEIR DOG'S POOP!! EXCELLENT. We hiked around a lot, walked through the "urban" areas and the outskirts of this place, and we hardly saw dog poop.
We have AT&T and had to hunt a good signal down. The camp host said that they also have AT&T and it is very spotty. Yes, it was, but we were able to find a spot where we had connection for our cell phone as well as internet 24/7, uninterrupted. We were quite surprised.
Although this place is BLM Land, they have a few rules, like dog poop pickup for example. Another one is no generator use after 10pm. If you don't want to hear the neighbors, just drive out further..... there IS space to be further out!! Most people though are quite comfortable to stick together densly. To each their own.
Our van has quite low clearance and the main road is paved just beyond the office but becomes gravel later on. Not a problem. But the gravel road is graded out, meaning it has gravel pushed to each side. One has to drive over these berms to access the land where one can stay. So with our low clearance, there were a few berms that seemed to tall for us. But there is SO MUCH SPACE...... you WILL find space you can access!!

We paid $43.50 for a 14 day stay at Imperial Dam LTVA online, so not to have to deal with cash in person. When we arrived, the camp host told us that we would need to print out the pass because they didn't have a way of scanning the QR code from my phone. If you don't have a printer, I'd recommend paying in person - we had to drive to Yuma the next day to get it printed.

This was our first stay at a LTVA and it sure was crowded. The area is very large and has quite a few "neighborhoods." Here's a great website that breaks it all down: http://imperial-dam.rvhobo.net/

Our group had a hard time finding an area to accommodate five rigs but eventually found a spot in the "Boot Hill" section.

AT&T and T-Mobile did not work, so Verizon was our only option. Download speeds ranged between 4 and 60 down and I regularly got booted off the network (sometimes every 5 minutes or so), I think too many people hitting the tower.

This is not a great place to go with a group of friends who want to go somewhere pretty for a week or two. It's great for someone looking for a long term place to camp for the winter. There is a great multi-lane dump station and multi-lane water fill. There's a place to dump your garbage and even a lending "liberry" if you need something to read. A couple people from our group enjoyed the 90 minute yoga class that meets up a few times a week.

We stayed here late December, 2018 - had plans to go somewhere else, but that didn't work, so randomly came here. We are not full-timers - we were on vacation, so were looking for something pretty or away from giant herds of people. We ended up at the furthest East spot down on the beach and it was GREAT! Our old Lab loved the water - we liked the quiet and having no one around us. There were hundreds of RVs up on the bluffs all scattered about, which again, if we were full time would be fun. For one night, being right on the water - it was great!

We are a 35 foot class A and this was a great place cheap for seven month stay in the winter. It was 70-75 degrees during the day 40-50 degrees at night in December and January. We plan to stay here til march this year. There is Restrooms, Water, Dump and trash and pay station all on this property. Down the road was a mailing place to receive mail which is a plus for us. It was free of charge. Mostly flat spots for great night sleep. Little dusty from the wind but all and all a great long term place to stay.

I won't bother with what I like...lots of other reviews cover the "good". After 45 days...this is what I do not like.
South Mesa Campground....generators without decent mufflers. 90% use solar but there are still people who don't care they ruin it for everybody else with their loud rattling generators.
Way to many dogs that bark all day long at who knows what.
The "sewage ponds" reek...depending on the breeze you might as well be camped beside them.Horrid smell.
The provided potable water is drawn directly from the lake, unfiltered. It smells like algae.
The available showers at Squaw Lake work...but are in big need of cleaning as the park hosts are to lazy to clean them. Of the 8 possible showers they only have 2 open for use. You often end up waiting your turn to shower. Heavily used and they reek!
Also there are 8 large garbage dumpsters often overfilled, and depending on the wind yoy get to smell that too.
And there are those that like to feed the birds...which come in huge flocks and crap over everything day after day.
Some great people here but there are always the few who totally ruin it. Planned to stay through March...but here at mid November I am out of this smelly place!
People like BORNTOBENOMADIC are exactly why there are places get ruined. Admits to camping without permits and dogs running loose and wild..both against the rules. There are always a few like them who think rules don't apply to them and not wise enough to know why they exist.
As for loud generators...it's called common courtesy to the hundreds of others you are disturbing with your bargain generators and loud obnoxious noise. Something you do not OBVIOUSLY posses. As for moving...I did...duh!

There’s weekly yoga, music, over 1,000 acres to hike and explore, lake for swimming or kayaking or paddle boarding, dump is included. Last review said generators and dump smell, not sure why they didn’t move when there is literally over 1,000 acres to park in. We have solar but if you hate generators give your money to those people with them so they can afford solar. It’s an expensive one off. High class problems I say. I’ve met some of the most amazing people I’ve met in my life here. And my dog runs off lease. 21-45 download 7-15 upload speeds depends on the day with the booster and this is very location dependent out here so drive around and do speed tests. Verizon most spots. T-Mobile in only one area I could find. $180 for the season or $40 for two weeks. No free camping. You will get ticketed. Don’t ask me how I know.

https://youtu.be/o6yGrvrK-WQ I made a video about the music here. My friend Buster with the Santa hat passed from heart disease at 88, must have worked that heart hard with all the love he gave out, he’s missed and was well adored by us all.

Took our 30 ft class A down a windy bumpy road to the north shore. This is not LTVA. 14 day limit in 28 days. $15 per night but charge an additional $15 if you unhitch your tow vehicle. Or $75 for a year pass which also gets you into some other areas. There are numerous beautiful sites on the water. Some on open beach some on more private nooks. We will be back.