Sat. Jan. 29th 2011 The Desert Bar Arizona

Join us as we travel North America in our Holiday Rambler Vacationer, 

since August 2006

You have heard the saying "Build it and they will come", well check out this place.

      Saturday morning and all is well. The sun is shining we are healthy and its a warm day. So lets take a little day trip. We have heard about this Desert Bar (the Nellie E. Saloon) just north of Parker Arizona and word of mouth recommendations are usually pretty good ones. So no rush, they don't open until high noon (close at sunset) and its only about a one hour drive. On the road and in a couple of minutes we are outside of Quartzsite heading north on CA 95 thru the desert, just dirt, dust and brush with mountains in the distance, blue skies and dips in the road. Every so often there is a dip like a roller coaster ride, these are here to allow rain water to travel without washing out the roads if and when there is heavy rains.

      We drove thru Parker and past the Bluewater Casino on the Colorado river to Cienga Springs Road. There is no signs anywhere for this Desert Bar, good thing I got directions. About 1/4 mile down this dirt road we did see a sign so at least we know its the right road. We thought that the road into Stone island in Mexico was bad, but this one is worse 7 kms (4.5 miles) on a very windy, hilly road at about 15 kph (10mph) weaving around some huge boulders on the road and some very narrow passages and we were just driving our car. I think not for your everyday RV or any RV for that matter. We finally went over a ridge and saw a building in the distance. This must be the place, nothing else here, its the end of the road. 

Notice their hours

      At 10 minutes past high noon the parking lot was pretty full. Now was quite amazing wandering about seeing the sights and looking for a place to sit in the shade. We ordered two hamburgers only $3.00 each but it was a 40 minute wait with soo many people there. So no problem hang around chatting with other people waiting and sip on a beer ($5.25 each!!). We got our burgers and the band began to play, excellent music from the 60's and 70's. Shoulder to shoulder people on different levels of dirt, enjoying the music and all having a great time. Just a look around and see the majority of the people are older than us. At one point a helicopter flew over the valley we were in and we later noticed that it had landed out back behind the rear parking lot,(where the ATV's parked) now that sure beats the rough road coming in. Also back here is the original bar that Ken opened in 1983 to give the bar in the desert a try. Well it worked and now with very little advertising and no signs pointing the way I would say he does an excellent business just packing this place when you are only open two days a week for about 6 hours each day.

      Now about 2 pm we think we can head out back home back down this dusty bumpy road. Much more difficult this time, we are trying to leave and vehicles are trying to get in. Pull over here, wait there but we made it. A very fun worthwhile adventure back into the desert just to see how some ones idea can really work out.

      Back to home dirt, we can sit in the shade, chat with a couple of neighbours, sharing our experience,  and read our books, then on the barbie a nice supper of grilled tilapia, some left over rice pilaf, beans and tomato slices, very tasty. See, another day flew by and we did not even know where it went, more adventures for our blog.

Saturdays Pictures

Visitor Number

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