Every year, thousands of snowbirds head to the Long Term Visitor Areas (LTVAs) near Quartzsite and Yuma, Arizona. These desert areas, managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) offer a place to call home, and access to a dump station, fresh water, and garbage disposal for up to 7-months. But last fall, the BLM proposed raising permit fees from what has been $180 to as much as $600.
Such a huge hike, while still reasonable compared to stays in private RV parks in the area, would present a huge hardship to RVers on tight budgets who barely get by as is. Here’s the latest.
LTVA camping fees were projected to skyrocket
As we wrote last September, the agency wanted to tie an increase in permit fees to the inflation rate. The introduction to the proposal is what caught many RVers off-guard and concerned they might not be able to stay on an LTVA because of the fee increases. Here’s what the proposal said:
“This business plan outlines proposed changes to the current recreation fee program for the Long Term Visitor Areas (LTVAs) located in Arizona. The Business Plan proposes to increase current fees from $180 to $600 per long-term permit, and from $40 to $200 per short-term permit. It would also modify the short-term permit length from 14 days to 30 days.” You can read the whole plan here (pdf).
The latter was a good-news bad-news situation. Yes, it would be great to extend the short-term permit out from the present two weeks to a month, but increasing the fee five-fold put plenty of users off.
2025-2026 season LTVA camping fees – the reality
A few days ago, the BLM published a news release, where the fees for the 2025-2026 season are spelled out.
Camping requires a pass, and there are two options:
Long-term pass – $180, valid from September 15 through April 15. Good for the entire season, whether you stay the full seven months or just a few weeks.
Short-term pass – $40, good for 14 consecutive days. You can buy as many of these as you want during the season.
Not a peep about potential fee increases. And no changes as to where the passes can be used. Passes are good at all designated LTVAs, including La Posa, Imperial Dam, Hot Springs, Midland, Mule Mountain, Pilot Knob, and Tamarisk. That means you can move between locations without paying another fee.
The fine print – and where to get your permits
Keep in mind that LTVAs aren’t developed campgrounds—they’re special fee areas. Discounts like the America the Beautiful Pass don’t apply here.
You can purchase passes online, at LTVA host stations, or through BLM offices in Yuma, Palm Springs-South Coast, and El Centro. Online passes are available through the Yuma Field Office here, online.
Will the BLM hike fees in the future? If they do, will it do a “zero-to-sixty in five seconds” move, or will it increase the fees a bit each season? None of that is clear. But for this season, the “old” fees still apply. Get them while you can!
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RVT1226b
Good news is that it stays the same this year and if people are concerned with a price increase next year, start putting aside $75 a month and they will have their $600 ready to go for the following year with a few bucks left over.
Noooo…. not $4 per day to get out of Minnesota for the entire winter!!!! Say it’s not so. How can we be expected to save an extra $3 per day all summer so we can get out of the 35 degrees below zero cold for the winter? I only had $1 per day in my winter budget to not freeze to death, I guess I’ll just stay home and pay $20/day for heat all winter and just save my money for next year. Who Moved My Cheese?
On second thought, after some further consideration, this is an obscene increase and may serve as a tax on those that can least afford it. I would add the caveat to both of my posts that the $180/long-term season has been that price, or close to it for decades as far as I know. Winter parking with Water and sewer “access”, for $4 a day is pretty modest but the totality of the increase is shocking.
Happy trails 😎 ✌️
…add in garbage pick-up too! Say nothing about the cost of well, septic and dumpster maintenance! Lest we forget wages and employee taxes and benefits…. $25.71 a MONTH is unbelievable! No wonder we have to layoff other gov’t employee’s. Even the long term increase is only $85.71 a month or $2.86 a day!
“On second thought, after some further consideration, this is an obscene increase and may serve as a tax on those that can least afford it.”
Yeah, maybe the fee should be based upon the value of your RV! After all, if you drive a $250k RV, you obviously are not paying your fair share!!! LOL
The short-term fee staying at. 14-days and $40.00 (this coming season) is good news for my wife and I. We want to drop our $40.00 to stay while we do the Big-Tent RV show in January.
Thank you for the news, Russ and Tina! Well, with this much lead time ahead of the price increase, seems that those inclined to this type of arrangement can plan ahead. Whether they do as Donny suggests, and begin to save so they can afford the increase, or find somewhere else to go, they have information and that improves the chances of not making a mistake. It does not preclude mistakes, but it lessens the chance of one making a mistake. Have a great week and safe travels!
I wonder if the stay on fee increases has anything to do with Trump’s “Making America Beautiful Again” executive order?
Hmmm?
Hopefully, the answer is yes!
For those who have a home with garbage service, how much is your monthly bill? Now take that times 7. How much is it?
Clearly having big multi-user dumpsters is less costly per user, but it is out-of-pocket cost for the gov’t. I’ll bet that cost has been going up, for the services offered. $85 a month for water, sewer & garbage disposal does not seem to be very much for a long term stay.
In August the US Gov’t spent $689B. Total income, including $30B of tariffs, was only $344B. Net, “we the people” just added $345B to OUR debt in one month.
That can’t go on much longer. Expect to pay more.
100% agreed.
The cost of government is and always will be funded by the citizens they serve. Whether that funding comes from taxes, tariffs, fines or fees, the citizen’s pay the debt.
The debt we’re taking on is ridiculously unsustainable yet the conversations are seemingly manipulated into discussing how terrible the payments are versus the worth of what they’re actually paying for.
It blew my mind at how well folks crafted DOGE into a four letter word to obscure the reality of insane spending it was intended to reduce. Sad really.
It’s AWAYS about the poor! Gimme Gimme Gimme!
IF you got an RV, you can afford the gas to go to Quartzsite, you can afford food and everything else life throws at you YOU CAN AFFORD TO PAY YOUR FAIR SHARE!
I like all the folks who think that “Fair Share” BS is FAIR!
It’s high time for the poor RVers of the world to pay their FAIR SHARE as they “Winter” in Quartzsite!
…while basking in the sun – while still paying the winter heating bills at home – seems one has to go – Hmmm? Where’s the priority?
I attended a couple of public meetings that BLM put on last year. I am also a retired BLM/USFS employee. These are the facts as presented and my knowledge as an x BLM employee. The fee increase is based on the business plan which was developed partially in response to an audit by the CBO which suggested that the fee increase should be a minimum of $700 per year. The fee increase is also based on permit purchase history and the amount needed to run the LTVAS administered by the Yuma Office. Under the Special Permit regulations for these areas, the monetary support for these areas has to come only from monies collected from fees paid.
The reason for the LTVA fees remaining the same for the upcoming 25-26 season is due to the process that is required to gain approval for the increase. The Yuma BLM Resource Advisory Council was scheduled to review the proposal and make their recommendations last December. Once a decision was made then the Arizona State Office and on up to the Secretary Department of Interior Office needed to review and approve the decision. Then there is a set length of time after the final approval that must pass (sort of an Appeal period) before the changes can be implemented. Throw in the change of administrations after the plan was reviewed and a decision made there was not enough time to implement.
Thanks for the explanation of the process. Lots of bureaucracy there. The fact that the Secretary’s office has to approve shows too much bureaucracy.
The Yuma office should have authority to manage these things based on a set of rules. As long as they stay within those rules, they are fine. The process is auditable. Only if the Yuma office wants to do something outside the limits set by the governing rules should the DC office get involved in a review.
Net…too many people in the DC office! Reduce the bureaucratic process by delegating authority within limits. Reduce headcount in DC. Cut gov’t cost and time to implement.