Quartzsite is west of Phoenix at the junction of Interstate 10 and U.S. 95, near the Colorado river. The community has a Mohave Desert setting. The nearby Kofa, New Water, and Plomosa Mountains provide topographic relief while the Coloado River lies only 17 miles to the west. Quartzsite was established in 1867 on the site of old Fort Tyson, a privately uilt structure constructed in1856 by Charles Tyson for protection against Indian raids. Named Quartzsite because quartz was found in the area, the name evolved toQuartzsite throygh an error in spelling.
Tourism is the major contributor to Quartzsite's economy. There are more than 70 mobile home and RV parks in the area. Nine major gem, mineral, and 15 general swap-meeting shows. Attracting approximately 1.5 million people annually. There are also 6 very large BLM area campsites. Which has hundreds of spaces in each of them available for the cost of $40.00 for 14 days. That is the longest anyone can stay in one place at a time. Just move to another one and you can stay another 14 days.
A rock hunters paradise surrounds Quartzsite with agates, limonite cubes, gold, and quartz being just a few, the Hi Jolly Monument honors the Arab camel driver, Hadji Ali, who took part in an unsuccessful 1850's U.S.War Department attempt to use camels as beasts of burden in the desert. To the south rise the Kofa Mountains. Historic and scenic areas include the Spanish Wall, Crystal hill, Tyson Tanks, and Tyson Wells Museum. South in the Kofa Mountains is Palm Canyon, a tight gorge and home of Arizona's only native palms, reached by a steep but rewarding climb. Father south is Castle Dome Peak. There are many points of interset including the world's largest Saguaro catus with 47 arms, historical sights, day trips and many off road ATV trails.
January ave. low is 36.8 with ave. high 65.6 February ave. low is 41.4 with ave. high 70.8 This year I belive that all temps were a little lower then ave.
One of the great things about Quartzsite, beside the hundreds of venders of fles market type of goods, is the desert that surrounds it. That desert is filled with trails to hidden canyons, histortic sites, stone cabins, and mines. The trails have some of the greatest desert scenery you will ever experience, and each trail ride or hiked is an adventure of its own.
Quartzsite's show season brings vendors and visitors from all over the world. The gem and mineral shows, craft shows, car shows and RV shows draw thousands of people each year to shop and to buy. There are many other sites to see in the area, Joseph Cone's cabin, Alamo Lake,Harquahala mine and cemetery, Indian Springs, Swansee Ghost town, Kofa Queen Canyon, The Great tree (it is 1050 years old), Hi Jolly Monument and cemetery,Dripping Springs, Grinding holes and petroglyphs, Palm Canyon, Tyson Wells stage stop, The Cabin at Goodman mine. Just to name a few places.
But one of the things that we did that I enjoyed (and Peggy also) was our climb to the top of "Q Mountain". Something neither one of has ever done before. Every morning as we sat at our kitchen table drinking coffee and looking out the window as the sun came up, we saw the American and MIA flag flying on the top of Q Mountain. One morning I said to Peggy we should climb up there. We had seen a couple of people climbing up now and then. As we watched them we could see them climbing up and they looked rather small from the bottom near where we we camped. So we knew it must not of been to hard to do. After a couple of minutes she said OK lets do it. Two days later we drove through the desert to the bottom of Q mountain. With some snacks and water we started on up a faint trail. On the way up there was the remains of and old mine and some out buildings. After looking at the mine site we started on our way to the top. Peggy got a little nervous when getting close to the top and she looked back down and seen our car. It looked like a Hot Wheel car sitting there. With no more looking down we climbed on to the top. What a nice view it was, well worth all the effort. We sat there and had our snack and rested for awhile. We looked things over and decided to go down another way. On the way down we found some quartz laying near another old mine, we did pick up a few pieces to bring back with us. After we returned back to Speedy we were so very glad that we went on this adventure, and I know that we will never forget our climb to the top of Q mountain. What a great ending to our time spent in Quartzsite.
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