Ocotillo Wells SVRA

Our adventure for the day included a trip along the Salton Sea to the Ocotillo Wells State Vehicular Recreation Area. In plain english, that's an 80,000 acre park for playing on off-road vehicles like dirt bikes and dune buggies.


It is part of the California State Park system and allows free camping and playing. Since we are looking for a place to boondock (camp without power and water and fees) next week, we thought this might be a terrific place to be.

We drove to the ranger station and received some good information and advice. The recent rains have caused havoc for several of the areas where people camp. The ground is still muddy and wet. And the entire area is open to off road vehicles. So it can be very noisy.


We drove to four of the areas available for camping and decided that it probably wasn't our best idea of the year. It is beautiful and if we were just passing through and spent a night or two, it would be an ideal situation. But, to make it a destination for a week, not so much.

Still, we enjoyed the day and Doug would love to go back and rent a dune buggy for a day. It looked like everyone was having a blast! And 80,000 acres is a big playground.