The BLM Long Term Visitor Area season reopens September 15, 2026 and runs through April 15, 2027, seven months of long-term camping on Arizona BLM land for $180 total. The permit is valid at all seven Arizona LTVAs. Everything below is from the La Posa Long Term Visitor Area page, verified July 19, 2026.
If you are heading south for the winter and want a fixed base for a while, this is the cheapest legal ground in the country that comes with a dump station and running water.
What the season looks like
The long-term season is September 15 to April 15. A $180 long-term permit covers you for that entire window at any BLM LTVA in Arizona: La Posa (Quartzsite), Imperial Dam, Hot Springs, Midland, Pilot Knob, Tamarisk, and Mule Mountain. You can move between them on the same permit.
If seven months is more than you need, the short-term permit is $40 for any 14 consecutive days in that same September to April window. It renews at the same $40, unlimited times. Two 14-day renewals is $80 for 28 nights. Three is $120 for 42 nights, which is when the math starts telling you to just buy the long-term permit.
The off-season, April 16 to September 14, is different. Day use is $10, overnight is $15, or you can buy an annual per-vehicle pass for $75. During those months the stay is capped at 14 days in any 28-day period, which is the standard BLM dispersed pattern the BLM camping page describes.
Groups over five people per vehicle pay an extra $1 per person on all of these.
What $180 actually gets you
La Posa itself provides 10 ADA-accessible vault toilets, 8 water faucets, a dry dump station, a dump station with water, trash service, a dance floor, and a ramada. Those are the site’s own words. That is more infrastructure than most paid campgrounds bother with, at a rate that works out to roughly $0.85 a night if you stay the whole 213-day season.
Facilities at the other six LTVAs vary and the page does not spell them out. Read the individual unit page before you drive out expecting a dump station at, say, Pilot Knob.
Whether it beats free BLM down the road
There is a lot of free BLM camping around Quartzsite, all of it under the standard 14-day rule. Free is free. But three things push some people onto the LTVA:
- Water and dump. A dry dump station means you can pull grey and black. Free BLM has neither, and driving to a dump station every week burns the savings.
- You can actually stay put. The 14-day rule on free BLM means moving. LTVAs let you park for the season.
- Trash pickup. That is not a small quality-of-life difference over 100 nights.
If none of that matters to you, the free ground down the road is genuinely free and the BLM 14-day rule is what governs it. If you want a base with facilities and no clock, the LTVA is the answer and the math is easy.
What to do now
Two things. First, if you want a long-term permit, buy it through Recreation.gov or in person at the Yuma Field Office. The La Posa page names both. Second, check the individual LTVA page for the unit you actually want, because facilities and reservation logistics vary from La Posa’s. Our BLM long-term visitor areas explainer covers the model from the top, and the BLM camping rules page explains how the 14-day rule works on the free ground you would use as an alternative.
The posted rule at the site wins. Read it when you arrive.