Vulture Mountains Southwest of Wickenburg, Arizona

by Will
(Arizona)

The Vulture Mountains are located in central Arizona near the town of Wickenburg. There’s plenty of beautiful Sonoran Desert scenery to behold with elevations ranging from 2200 to 3658 feet at Vulture Peak. There are many cactus including saguaro and teddy bear cholla (aka jumping cholla), which you’ll want to keep your distance from. I found out the hard way that the needles on these cacti are barbed and not easily removed! I had one of these balls of spikes in my truck tire, then my shoe, and lastly my hand – ouch! I needed to use a forked branch to pry it off.

If you’re in decent shape, there’s an excellent trail to the top of Vulture Peak. You’ll also find many jeep roads and washes to explore. There are many good RV boondocking spots off Vulture Mine Road southwest of Wickenburg including a large parking lot at the Vulture Peak Trailhead – large enough even for the biggest of rigs.

RV Park GPS Coordinates: N 33 52.878’ W 112 49.281’

Elevation: 2540 feet

Directions: From Wickenburg take Hwy 60 west to South Vulture Mine Road and head south for about 8 miles. You'll come to a very large parking lot "The RV Park" for the Vulture Peak Trailhead on your left. This is a great RV camping area. There are a few more camping spots further down this road, which eventually leads to the trailhead.

Vulture Mountains RV Camping Journal

11-25-2010

This is a desert with rugged and mountainous terrain. Along with saguaro and teddy bear cholla, you’ll also find creosote bush and palo verde trees.

Vulture Mine Road is a good paved highway with more traffic than you would expect out here. 

The weather has gotten much cooler than expected. It’s getting down to freezing at night. I had frost on my windshield yesterday. Highs have been in the 50s. A cold wind has also been present on most days. A few cloudy days have made it feel cooler as well. Time to head west to Quartzsite! It’s a bit warmer there though I’ve heard things are cooler than normal everywhere right now. 

There’s quite a few bees around, other than that no insect problems.

Not the fastest Verizon mobile broadband internet, but it’s still much faster than National Access service. Cell phone calls were possible, though my signal wasn't the strongest.

Overall it's a great place to camp and I might stay longer if the weather was warmer.