BLM Long-Term Visitor Areas: a whole winter for $180

What an LTVA is

Normal dispersed camping on BLM land is limited to about 14 days before you must move on. Long-Term Visitor Areas are the exception the Bureau of Land Management created for winter visitors: designated areas in the Sonoran and Colorado Desert where a seasonal permit lets you stay for weeks or months at a time. They are not campgrounds in the developed sense — you are still dry camping — but some locations offer dump stations, water, or trash service, and the long-established ones form genuine seasonal communities.

The seven LTVAs

Permits and fees

For the current season, BLM lists a long-term permit at $180, valid for the full September 15 to April 15 season — or any part of it — and honored at all seven LTVAs, so you can move between them. A short-visit permit is $40 for 14 consecutive days, with no limit on how many you buy in a season. In the off-season, April 16 through September 14, the LTVAs revert to ordinary short-term rules with 14-day limits, and fees vary by location.

One caution: BLM's Yuma Field Office floated substantially higher fees in a 2024 draft business plan, and fee proposals resurface periodically. The $180 figure has held so far, but check the field office's current pricing before building a winter budget around it.

Self-contained means self-contained

LTVA rules are stricter about waste than casual boondocking. At Midland, for example, BLM requires long-term campers to be fully self-contained for black and gray water, with a permanently affixed holding tank of at least 10 gallons — portable toilets and tote tanks do not qualify, and short-term camping without self-containment is not allowed at all. Requirements and available facilities differ between locations, so read the rules for your specific LTVA, not the system in general.

Other supplemental rules worth knowing before you commit to a season: quiet hours generally run 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., campsites must be kept at least 15 feet apart, you cannot leave a site unoccupied more than five days without BLM approval, wood collection is prohibited, and permits are non-transferable.

What a season there is like

Expect wide gravel-and-creosote desert, mild sunny days, cold nights, and neighbors — especially at La Posa, which fills as winter deepens. Quartzsite's enormous January RV show and swap-meet season brings tens of thousands of rigs to the area, which is either the attraction or the thing to time around, depending on your taste. Water fills, dump stations, propane, and groceries are available in the gateway towns; part of LTVA planning is simply the rhythm of service runs.

Plan your capacity before you commit

A season pass does not change your tank sizes. Before choosing an LTVA over a site with services, run your numbers: the water calculator will tell you how many days you get between dump-and-fill runs, the battery calculator covers your overnight power, and the solar calculator is worth a look because the desert Southwest in winter is close to ideal solar country. Cold desert nights still mean furnace time — see winter dry camping and propane planning.