Once we crossed into the state of Arizona, it was a short 34-miles before we reached the town of Bowie, AZ (pop. 406). Here it was time to leave the Interstate behind and begin the real journey for today, the final 19-miles to reach Hot Well Dunes Recreation Area where we will be spending the next four nights.
After about another mile Fan Road made another 90° turn, this time to the right again and continued on for another mile before it came to an end. All along Fan Road we saw young pistaschio trees in hugh fields, still being held upright with wooden stakes.
When Fan Road ended it kind of just morphed into Donahue Road and this is where the trouble started. Up until now the gravel road was relatively flat, but Donahue Road is anything but flat.
The next 5-miles was horrible washboarded gravel roadway which had us driving at 5-10MPH. Anything faster and the vibration literally ripped the steering wheel from my hands. During this 5-mile stretch is probably where the cabinet under the sink opened up and spilled pots and pans everywhere. Also the cutting boards we have mounted to the wall behind the sink ripped off the wall and ended up on the floor.
Standard procedure on travel days is to place our portable induction cooktop and my laptop bag in the center of the bed while we move. They ALWAYS stay right where we put them on the bed, except not this time. This time they had moved outwards towards the edges of our queen sized bed, but at least they stayed on the bed.
All this is physical proof that this was the worst road we've traveled since hitting the road over 7-years ago and not just our imaginations. The worst part is we scouted this location 2-years ago and don't remember the road being that bad, maybe it wasn't then!
Thankfully Donahue Road is only 5-miles long and soon we were back onto asphalt as we reached Haekel Road for the final 9-miles to the campground. One thing is for sure, we have to find another way to exit this place!
Today we'll explain the HOT WELLS portion of the name.
Hot Wells sprang into existence by accident back in 1928 when drillers seeking oil under the sand dunes broke into a pocket of hot water at the depth of 1,920 feet. The artesian well, now aided by a solar pump, produces water that reaches 106 degrees Fahrenheit. - From the BLM website
for this reason there is no water in the tubs between sunset and sunrise.
We walked over to the hot tubs just after lunch and soaked for about 30-minutes. Another young nomadic couple were already there and shared the tub with us. They plan to be in South Florida this winter to work the Renaissance Fair at Quiet Waters Park in Deerfield Beach. The event is every weekend from February 7th through March 29th, 2026 if you'd like to experience what it was like to live in the 16th Century.
The good news is that on Friday morning, when we pack up to leave here, there is no rain in the forecast, just cold temperatures!
When I placed my large Amazon order last Wednesday it estimated that all items would be delivered on Monday, which was perfect, because we arrived here on Monday and I could wait until Tuesday morning to drive the 38-miles into town to pick them up. They give you 3-days from delivery to pick items up before they are returned to Amazon for a full refund.
Well by Friday they had changed the estimated delivery on half of the items to Tuesday. Still not a big deal because we planned on staying here until Friday.
On Monday the half of the items that were scheduled to arrive, did in fact arrive. But one of the items scheduled for Tuesday got pushed back to Thursday. Now we are getting into "the danger zone" of not being able to pick it up in time.
Long story short, we are driving into town today to pick up what items are there before they are in danger of being sent back. While we are out, we're going to scout out the two other possible routes out of here, just so we don't have to drive that awful 5-mile stretch of washboarded Donahue Road again.
Around 10:30AM we headed into town to pickup our Amazon packages, fill up with gas, grab a few items at Walmart and grab some lunch.
For the route into town we took Haekel Road north out of the campground for 25-miles and were pleased to find out it was paved all the way. We also passed Tanque Road, which would have been the shorter 6-mile detour when we leave here, but found it was nothing more than a sandy single lane road which means it's no longer an option.
The 25-mile long Haekel Road will work out just fine to provide us an exit from Hot Well Dunes and will take us back into Safford where we can pickup our final Amazon package of Friday. YES, it will add 39-miles to our travel day, but it will be worth every mile not to have to traverse Donahue Road ever again.
By the way, you may have noticed a little round red dot [⛔️] on the map above, that was a detour they had set up while working on Haekel Road up until last month. Now the road is completely open and has brand new asphalt for most of the roadway north of Hot Well Dunes.
The daytime high is only expected to reach 55°F and we can expect 41°F when it's time to pack up and leave tomorrow.
To add to the displeasure it's supposed to rain on and off until early afternoon. Sometime after lunch we're going to enjoy another soak in the hot water and then scramble back to THE POD before the warmth has a chance to leave our bodies.
goes through during the course of a single day. This photo was taken at 7:00AM this morning!
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