Black Rock RV Village

We spent the holidays at Black Rock RV Village in Salome, Arizona. (Campground Reviews listing.)

I thought I’d start adding some extra information about our stay, for future reference:

Dates: 2021-12-18 to 2022-01-06. Yes, I prefer to post about a campsite after we’ve left it.

Weather: sunny, a little drizzle, windy at times (gusts up to 30 mph), high temps around averaging 60°F, lows around 40°F, dipped just below freezing a couple times.

Noise: a bunch of side-by-side vehicle traffic, but no trains, negligible road noise.

Site: back-in, gravel, full hookups (50 amp power, water, sewer), large, about 80 feet long by 30 feet wide, with a hedge on the passenger side. No table or fire pit.

Internet: no Wi-Fi; AT&T okay, about 1 Mbps down, 4 Mbps up; T-Mobile unreliable, about 1 Mbps down, 3 Mbps up, when it works.

Amenities: mailboxes and mail room, cafe, pool, rec room, park, various outdoor games.

Here’s the (very much not-to-scale) map:

Map

A satellite view shows the layout better, especially over where we were staying. As you can see, a lot of the sites have park models or other long-term structures (park models are like tiny homes that can be moved, but generally aren’t, and aren’t self-contained, requiring hookups):

Black Rock RV Village satellite view

Entrance sign:

Entrance sign

Our campsite was quite large:

Campsite

Electrical and water hookups; the ground is damp as I always run the water for a bit before hooking up, to flush any contaminants. I also had to use a short hose connector, as the tap was so low to the ground:

Electrical and water hookups

Campsite:

Campsite

“The first RV”:

The first RV

This park is a popular place for side-by-side vehicles, being next to public lands:

Side-by-side

Office:

Office

This park is unusual in that it has a public cafe on-site:

Cafe

It also has mailboxes:

Mail

The mail room; we used it a lot, with packages from Amazon pretty much every day. Receiving mail is complicated when traveling the country; I should do a blog post about that sometime (if anyone’s interested):

Mail room

Collecting some packages:

Mail

They have a couple of desert tortoises, though they are currently hibernating for the winter:

Turtles

Rec hall:

Rec hall

Pickleball courts; one day we’ll get around to learning to play:

Pickleball

Bocce ball:

Bocce ball

Cornhole:

Cornhole

Swimming pool; apparently heated, but it’s too cold to want to swim:

Swimming pool

Charlie’s Park:

Charlie's Park

Community garden beds:

Community garden beds

Gate to BLM land:

Gate to BLM land

BLM land:

BLM land

Lots of vacant sites:

Lots of vacant sites

RVs

Park models:

Park models

Entrance sign at sunset:

Entrance sign at sunset

We were here over Christmas, and they had a parade of side-by-sides and other vehicles:

Christmas parade

Sunset:

Sunset

We ate in the cafe several times:

Cafe

Chicken fried steak, baked spud, beans:

Chicken fried steak, baked spud, beans

Mexican:

Mexican

Burger & fries, plus fish & chips:

Burger and fries

Food: ComicX in Phoenix, AZ

We had dinner at ComicX in Phoenix, Arizona, having seen it on a list of places to visit in the area. It’s a superhero-themed restaurant with 36 locations in Mexico, plus this one in Phoenix.

The walls are covered with stuff from various movies, games, etc:

Decorations

I had a margarita to drink:

Margarita

For an appetizer, we had a cheese stick tower:

Cheese stick tower

Then Jenn had a BLAT, and I had a burger; both were pretty mediocre:

BLAT, burger, fries

We had cheese- and bacon-covered fries, which was interesting:

Cheese and bacon fries

Overall, the food wasn’t great (and we regretted our choices), and the ambiance was kinda schlocky, as much as we enjoy superhero movies. The place was probably more aimed at kids. It was an interesting experience, so goal achieved, but we won’t be going back there.

Goldfield Ghost Town

We visited the Goldfield Ghost Town, a wild west town, established in 1893, and now an Arizona tourist trap.

Goldfield Ghost Town entrance

Town buildings

At high noon (and hourly thereafter) they have a gunfight performance on main street:

Gunfight

After the gunfight, we went to the saloon for lunch:

Saloon

Me:

David

A “floozy”:

Floozy

I had a pork tenderloin sandwich and fries:

Burger and fries

Just as we finished lunch, the next gunfight was starting, this time involving the ladies:

Gunfight

Horse riders, narrow gauge train, and mountains:

Horses and train

Train

We explored most of the shops, but the only things that appealed to us to buy was some tasty fudge.

Pedal boats at Encanto Park

For lunch after the Japanese garden we grabbed some drive-through teriyaki bowls (first time we’d seen that as a drive-through option), and went to a nearby city park in Phoenix, Encanto Park.

We found a picnic bench with a view of a stream and a party on an island:

Picnic spot

Our teriyaki bowls and spring rolls for lunch:

Teriyaki bowl and spring roll for lunch

A palm tree:

Palm tree

We noticed some pedal boats going by along the stream, and thought that looked like a fun thing to do:

Pedal boat

So we did; we rented a pedal boat:

Jenn and David in pedal boat

Pedal boat

We got some duck food from the rental kiosk, so we had fun feeding and watching them:

Ducks

Birds:

Birds

More ducks:

Ducks

The park is next to a golf course, so of course there are a bunch of golf balls on the nearby island:

Golf balls

Birds sunning themselves:

Birds

Another selfie from the boat; yes, we’re trying to do more of them; we haven’t historically had a lot of pictures of us together:

Jenn and David

Hey look, more ducks:

Ducks

Another couple of pedal boats:

Ducks

One more selfie:

Jenn and David

Food: Cracker Barrel in Buckeye, AZ

Another regional food place we visited for the first time (for me, anyway) was Cracker Barrel in Buckeye, Arizona:

Cracker Barrel

It’s unlike most restaurants, in that you enter and exit through a store:

Entrance

A very kitschy store:

Store

We enjoyed the decorations in the restaurant:

Decorations

The food was fine, nothing too exciting; I had a sampler with chicken & dumplings (kinda bland), meatloaf (not great), ham (fine), plus sides, and Jenn had fried chicken and sides:

Food

They’re also known for breakfasts; we’ll try that next time we visit one.

Food: Big Rock Pub in Indio, CA

After our day in Joshua Tree National Park, we went to the Big Rock Pub in Indio, California for dinner. As their website says:

It’s like a Hard Rock Café, only better.

The entrance:

Big Rock Pub

Some decorations within the entrance:

Decoration

The pub is actually part of a public golf course, which can be viewed from the balcony seating, where we ate:

Golf course

Me:

David

I had a glass of wine, and Jenn got a fancy cocktail:

Beverage

Jenn:

Jenn

Jenn had a pub burger and fries:

Burger and fries

I had a margherita pizza:

Pizza

I got my hat and long-sleeve shirt (and a shirt for Jenn) as it cooled down a bit. In theory I’m smiling in this picture, but it looks more grumpy than smiley:

David