Bob and Sue Stewart of Prince George, B.C., have found themselves a new hobby as unofficial ATV tour guides in the deserts of Arizona. It’s not your ordinary hobby for a retired couple from northern British Columbia, but for the past five years, the Stewarts have been guiding other Canadian winter escapees and many Americans on tours throughout the deserts of their winter home. Read the interview below to find out how the Stewarts found themselves in this position and why they keep going back year after year.
Is your main draw to Arizona the ATVing?
No, the main draw to Arizona is that we don’t have to shovel anywhere from one to eight feet of snow in Prince George! We started travelling down here about five or six years ago and basically just came down with the quads and at that time the fifth-wheel toy hauler with the quads in it just to get away from the winters and see what was down here. Through good luck or bad misfortune we ended up in Quartzsite and bought a pass for the desert, which cost $180 for six months. It lets you park out in the desert and enjoy the sunshine, gives you access to a sanitation dump and gives you fresh water. Basically we park here and go riding. Last year we put on close to 5,000 kilometres in the desert.
5,000 kilometres sounds mighty impressive!
Well yeah, impressive and expensive! It seems that we’ve turned into the local tour guides. If only I could figure out how to get paid for it I could come out here for longer. We’ve got to see a lot of places down here just by riding. It’s the same here and at home, if you don’t go out riding and meet people, it’s amazing the things you miss and it’s totally awesome the scenery you do see when you get the opportunity.
Coming down Hogs Back ATV Trail. — Bob Stewart photo
Do you park your RV in the same spot for the entire length of your stay?
We park about four miles away from Quartzsite, Arizona in the desert. The basic rule of thumb out here is if you can hit somebody with a rock then you are parked too close to them.
An old stamp mill along the trail. — Bob Stewart photo
Other than being tour guides for other tourists, what else do you do with your time?
One of the interests down here that Sue and I do is geocaching, which we do with some zeal. Sue and I have hidden in the neigbourhood of about 450 geocaches in the area, which we maintain all of the time. Of course we also go looking for others. This year we have one string of over 2,000 caches, which we are going to be looking to find in the next month or so, all done with ATVs. In Arizona, because of the licensing, we can ride on any road that has a 45-mph or lower speed limit legally. We can ride backroads to get close enough to town, and once we’re in town we can ride on all of the roads and do all of our shopping. Sue takes the Razor in quite often and does laundry and grocery shops—it’s her town car. We take full advantage of it.
What’s the riding like in the desert compared to other riding you’ve done in Canada?
In Arizona, we’re looking at rocks—regardless of what people think of desert, there ain’t a heck of a lot of sand here. We have rocks, gravel, countless roads you can ride. You’re not allowed to ride off of designated trails, but there are hundreds of miles of trails. They vary from some rugged mountain crawling over the hills stuff to beautiful rides through flat desert cactuses. We see way more wildlife here than we ever do back in Prince George. We’ve run through a couple of herds of mountain sheep and deer here and there. Fortunately the rattlesnakes have gone to sleep for the winter!
Do you need any kind of special equipment for riding in the desert?
Cactuses have a habit of clinging to the tires and working their way into the tires, so everyone that rides in the desert puts slime in their tires to fix the leaks when cactuses work their way through. You never ever leave home without copious quantities of water. And you never ride from home further than you want to walk back and you never ride alone.
This is why you never go riding alone in the desert. — Bob Stewart photo
What does a typical day of riding look like for you?
A typical day of riding would probably consist of somewhere between 70 and 110 kilometres. We usually go out to visit some mines, old relics, Indian artifacts—there is quite a lot of local attractions left over from the mining days. We try to take people out to show them things they’d never see that we’ve been fortunate in finding over the last six or seven years.
There are plenty of relics scattered across the deserts of Arizona, such as these remains of an old miner's cabin. — Bob Stewart photo
Do you have any funny stories from your time in the desert?
A lot of what happens in the desert stays in the desert: No, we don’t have any real funny anecdotes, but I do recall one ride we went on to visit a mine with a group. I recall them saying they would really love it if some sheep would appear and as we were eating lunch three sheep appeared and sat down and watched us eat lunch. We called them in closer and they are amazing creatures. They just sit and have their dinner and watch you. If you don’t get too close they don’t seem to care about you. It’s so much different than the wildlife back home. As far as funny anecdotes though, I’m sorry to say that we’re boring!
There you have it folks! If you ever find yourself in Arizona in need of a tour guide, you know who to ask for.
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