Sidewinder Road Dispersed Camping

We have stayed here twice, each time for a week, and loved the peace and quiet. Sidewinder road right off of Olgilby Rd just past the RR tracks. About 1.25 miles down the gravel road (can be washboard late in the year) there is graded entrances in the berm, this is just before the hills (which provide a windbreak) on the right. Lots and lots of space, all flat along a wash on the left at the foot of the hills. This area is south of American Girl Mine road with very few people, so if you like neighbors about this will not be good for you. We loved it, let the dogs run free, good hiking, lots of Geocaches to find, and the night sky is Awesome! Good Verizon cell service, no other services, but a Chevron station 2 exits East with dump and water as well as a small quick stop.

I checked out Pilot Knob but decided to keep moving on - I went the other way. Less than one mile on the north side of the freeway just past the sign 'welcome to sidewinder pass' on the left side was dispersed camping for free. Quiet with widely spaced campers. Such a beautiful place.

We camped right off the highway near Felicity instead of going back towards the mountains.

Our AT&T was great, but we did have a few times where the towers were busy and internet slowed down.

Our Verizon hotspot was essentially useless and as we got only around 2-10mb with less than 5mb average.

Sidewinder Rd is washboard until it’s a mix of heavy gravel/sand/dirt. If you press through this it thins out and then you arrive at a large open area of the same heavy g/s/d, but it is hard packed. It’s not easy to identify the area in the dark and I got out and walked other less firm areas along the road before finding the hard pack. The area is west of the high tension lines about a 1/3 mile ( not exact) and corresponds to the Campendium directions. I would not drive through the hgsd without high clearance and 4wd. We arrived in the dark and there were the only campers. It got windy overnight but no blowing of gsd - too heavy.

Peace and quiet away from city noise and RV generators, yet close enough to Yuma to have great cell service. The review by Brinx has great info on the terrain to get there. Once you get past the soft/deep gravel/sand/dirt things open up with hardpack road and large open spaces for camping mostly on the left side of the road. The actual hardpack for boondocking is a bit beyond the GPS marker shown on this listing. However, in the morning while driving out I saw a lot of bookdockers that were camping before the 4x4 only caution sign.