Campground Overview:
The Midland Long Term Visitor Area (LTVA) is located eight miles north of the city of Blythe and offers the more traditional open desert dispersed camping opportunity with minimal services. Long Term campers experience the mild winter climate of the Colorado Desert, as well as the ability to participate in nearby activities such as fishing and boating on the Colorado River, rock hounding at Quartzite, Arizona, or attending local events and shopping in Blythe. Campers must be 100% self-contained for waste and gray water in order to utilize this area since vault toilets are not provided.
A Special Recreation Permit is required September 15th – April 15th. Camping is allowed in the LTVA between April 16th – September 14th at no cost, but the standard 14 day limit applies. Host and services are not provided during the off-season. Fees are $180 for long term permits valid for 7 months and $40 for short term permits valid for 1 to 14 consecutive days. There is no limit to the number of short term permits that can be purchased. These sites are not considered overnight campgrounds so the minimum fee for camping is the $40 permit. During the off-season, the standard BLM camping regulations and 14 day limit with no fee applies. The permits are valid in any of the six LTVAs in California or two LTVAs in Arizona. Permits may be purchased from the Bureau of Land Management Palm Springs-South Coast Field Office or on-site from the LTVA host
Campsites:
Midland LTVA can be reached from the town of Blythe by taking the Lovekin Road exit off of Interstate 10 and traveling north for 8 miles. After crossing the railroad tracks, Lovekin Road will turn into Midland-Rice Road. The LTVA will be located on the right side of the road and is marked with an entrance sign.
Campground at a Glance
Level: |
Dispersed |
Season: |
Year-Round |
Nearby City: |
Blythe, CA |
Fishing: |
Colorado River |
Campground Website: |
Midland Long Term Visitor Area |
Campground Map: |
Click Here |
Reservations: |
First-come, first-served basis |
Location: |
Nearby Attractions and Activities:
Cibola National Wildlife Refuge encompasses both the historic Colorado River channel, as well as a channelized portion constructed in the late 1960’s. Along with these main water bodies, several important backwaters are home to many species of wildlife that reside in this portion of the Sonoran Desert. Because of the river’s life sustaining water, wildlife thrives in this environment where temperatures reach 120 degrees in the summer and the average rainfall is two inches per year.
The greenbelt of the Colorado River serves as an important migratory corridor for a host of birds making their thousand-mile journey through this area. Here, western and Clark’s grebe chicks ride the backs of their parents as they cruise along a shoreline under the branches of cottonwood and willow trees, rookeries for great blue herons and egrets. The tall trees offer colorful migratory songbirds like the vermillion flycatcher a place to perch and watch for an insect meal. Ground dwelling birds like Gamble’s quail and roadrunners dart between river vegetation looking for cover from overhead predators in search of prey, specifically golden eagles and peregrine falcons. Elsewhere on the refuge, moist soil units and wildlife crops offer nutrient-rich tubers, grains and seedlings, important sources of winter food for Canada and snow geese.
Kofa National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1939 for the protection of desert bighorn sheep and other native wildlife following a 1936 campaign by the Arizona Boy Scouts. Major Frederick R. Burnham, a frontiersman turned conservationist, observed that populations of bighorn sheep were sharply declining and appealed to the Boy Scouts to take up the cause. For two years, more than 10,000 boy Scouts and their leaders campaigned to protect bighorn sheep through a “save the bighorns” poster contest, talks, and dramatizations on the radio and at school assemblies. As a result of the campaign, land was set aside for the establishment of Kofa Game Range (as the refuge was originally known).
Blythe Intaglios, often called America’s Nazca Lines, are a series of gigantic geoglyphs found fifteen miles north of Blythe California in the Colorado Desert. In the Southwestern United States alone, there are over 600 intaglios (anthropomorphic geoglyphs), but what separates the ones near Blythe is their size and intricacy. In total, there are six figures in three different locations, all within 1,000 feet from one another, situated on two mesas. The geoglyphs depict drawings of humans, animals, objects, and geometric shapes, all of which can be seen from the air.
The Blythe geoglyphs were first discovered on November 12th, 1931 by army air corps pilot George Palmer while flying from the Hoover Damn to Los Angeles. His discovery led to a survey of the area, which resulted in the huge figures becoming classified as historical landmarks and referred to as “Giant Desert Figures.” Lacking funds due to the Depression, it would take until the 1950s to investigate the site further.
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