Campground Review: Beehive Mesa Long Term Visitor Area Martinez Lake, AZ

Still seeking somewhere warm to camp I headed towards Yuma, AZ from the Dream Catcher RV park in Deming.  After buying my 14 day LTVA (Long Term Visitor Area) permit at the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) office in Yuma I hit Walmart to stock up for a 2 week boondock in the BLM land around the Imperial Dam on the southern Colorado River.

                      Martinez Lake is a small 300 by 500 acre lake about 50 miles north of Yuma.  The LTVA camp area I selected is called Beehive Mesa and isn't really on the lake, it's a few miles south of it.

Just find a site not near anyone else and start camping!

The first three days at Beehive Mesa the wind blew a steady 25 miles per hour out of the north....continuously.  That coupled with temperatures in the high forties made staying in the Tank pretty mandatory.  Finally the weather got back towards normal (high 60's) and the wind let up on my 4th day.  Here's the review data:

Hookups:                         Nope

Fire ring:                          Yes

Water Access:                  No

Dump station:                   In the area

WiFi:                                No

Level sites:                       Yes

Laundry:                           No

Store:                               No

Pool:                                No

Shade:                              No

Verizon reception:             4g 3 out of 5 bars

Millenicom reception:        4 out of 4 bars

Cost:                                $40 for 14 days

As you can see from the reception data Verizon must have a 4g cell tower around here but I can't find it.  There isn't any sign on it but I think this is a view of Martinez Lake:

Martinez Lake---kind of small.

The BLM land here lies on both sides of a paved road.  You pretty much drive off the road along sandy 2 track roads until you see a fire ring made out of stones that has unoccupied space and that's your campsite.  I made sure to stay a few sites away from other campers so I wouldn't bother anyone.

The Tank's LTVA home for 2 weeks--or till I run out of food.

There is an Army munitions testing site within earshot of where I camped because I hear intermittent explosions that sound kind of like distant thunder now and then during the day.  Since I'll be here for a while I'll ride around on Wally the mountain bike and take some pictures and do another post on LTVA camping.  Here's a random sunrise photo:

To be honest I forget where I took this.

Thanks for reading!