Ogilby Road is in California, but right on the border of Arizona just west of Yuma. Ogilby road runs through BLM land and is a free spot to pull off and camp without the need of reservations.

You can find the Ghost town of Ogilby on Google maps here and you can also download a map of the area from Caltopo here.

Ogilby Road is a common place for Boondocking where RVs or motor homes can pull off the highway and spend the night for free. There is plenty of room, so no one is on top of each other, and I was easily able to find a free place in the dark to pitch a tent and go car camping.

If you are driving from Southern California to Arizona, this is a great free stopping point along the way. We arrived around 10 pm at night, and pitched our stars and had some amazing star gazing from our tent.

If you take a drive out to Ogilby Road for stargazing, the best direction to look is going to be North. El Centro is to your East, which is why I have a little yellowing in my photo above, and Phoenix is to your west along with Yuma.

Ogilby Road is not the most remote car camping site, but it is a super convenient and easy to get to location compared to a lot of the other car camping locations I have been to in the past. Camping is only a couple of miles off the 8 Freeway and the roads are not crazy technical so you do not need a lifted 4-wheel drive jeep to get there.

Along with being a convenient easy to get to free camping location, you still get some amazing stars and a beautiful yet desolate desert landscape to enjoy.

I did not hear much traffic from the 8 Freeway, but there was some light but steady traffic along Ogilby Road during the early part of the night that was pretty loud. A little after midnight it died down and didn't start to pick up again until 7 am.

I spent most of the night photographing the night sky and enjoying the stars from my tent, but the morning was super pretty in an empty sort of way. If you head out to Ogilby Road, do not miss the peaceful morning sunrise!

8 months later