Lake Havasu City and Up SARA’s Crack

What a change of pace. On Tuesday, 2/8, we moved from our spacious, solitary desert boondocking spot in Kofa to a tight waterfront spot at La Paz County Park near Parker, AZ. That’s not all bad news, since this place is certainly more to Riley’s liking.

 

Oh yes. Riley much prefers this to the dry, rocky desert.

We had a choice of a site right on the Colorado River with no electric or a spot with electric in the overflow section next to a storage area far from the river. Guess which one we chose? After boondocking, this feels a bit like Sardine City. We have about 2 feet between our coach and the neighbor’s ramada. The ramadas are large though and provide welcome shade. With temps getting well into the 80’s, we are enjoying the cool breeze that comes off the water. It gets a little gusty at times, sending anything not nailed down flying. We’ve watched neighbors chase items and had to make a grab for Riley’s bed when it went sailing too. Note, not with Riley on it. Lol.

Since most of the activities we wanted to do are in or near Lake Havasu City (LHC), we’re a little farther away than we’d like, about 25 miles. But other than some very desolate boondocking spots, everything closer was booked, so we are very happy with our spot on the river.

We're may be close together, but...

...we are just steps from the river.

We spent Wednesday doing errands. The Acadia got fueled, washed, and an oil change. We hit a grocery store, the bank, and a Home Depot. My laptop battery just isn’t holding a charge for long and without hookups it was getting to be a daily hassle trying to keep it up and running. Rog decided to add a 300-watt inverter and a new 40v/6Ah battery to his Ryobi collection. That set up should keep all our electronics running for quite a while.

Thursday, 1/11, was a hiking day. If you’ve followed the blog for long, you know we love slot canyon hikes and there was one right outside LHC. SARA (Special Activities and Recreation Area) Park is a 1,100-acre recreational area that boasts a large network of hiking and mountain biking trails, a rodeo complex, ball fields, skating rink, motocross park and speedway, a shooting range and fields for remote controlled planes and cars. SARA’s Crack is a five-star hike through a slot canyon, continue a few miles (which we did) and you’ll come to Lake Havasu at Balanced Rock Cove.   

 

Balanced Rock Cove was worth the extra miles.

We found the trailhead and started off down a sandy wash. The area is a crazed network of hiking, biking, and social trails. The Crack hike was well marked though, and we thoroughly enjoyed it. The directions say to just stay in the wash and you won’t get lost. We did a little scrambling, including one spot where we went all Indiana Jones and descended a pour over on a rope. Woohoo, a new challenge which I was able to do, no problem. (Props to our personal trainer, Robyn, who has been sending us workouts while we’re on the road. Lol.) We made it all the way to Balanced Rock Cove and stopped for a snack in a shady spot.

 

Slogging through the sandy wash on the way to SARA's Crack.

We took a brief detour to check out this giant cannonball boulder
 perched on a hill above the trail. Cool, eh?

As the canyon narrows things get more interesting.

Rog uses the rope to descend a pour over.

Check out Momma going all Indiana Jones. Lol. 

Things are getting tight, we're definitely in the Crack now. 

Love those slot canyon hikes!

We found a shady spot for lunch along Lake Havasu.

The area is utterly desolate and on the way back we were trying to use the trails adjacent to the wash. Walking through deep loose sand and gravel is not fun. However, we ended up accidentally taking a wrong turn (or maybe several) and found ourselves on a spiderweb (if the spider was high on LSD) of mountain biking trails. With no cell reception to check the trail app, we wandered around for a bit, backtracked some, and finally realized we’d actually been within sight of the parking lot but thought it was the wrong one. Chalk it up as another adventure. Lol.

Desolate and without many landmarks it's easy to get lost.
Not that we were or for very long anyway! Lol.

Since Riley had spent the better part of two days in the coach, we decided to make Friday a Riley day. He was long overdue for a bath and nail trim. (He might have preferred we just left him alone to nap in peace. Lol). Don’t feel too sorry for him though, every day he’s gotten multiple dips in the river, ball play on a large grassy field, and (his favorite) playtime in the sprinklers!

 

Riley in the water (again). 

Before his bath, we took him on a car ride over the Parker Dam. The dam, completed in 1938, spans the Colorado River creating Lake Havasu. Only a quarter of its 320-foot height is above grade. It extends 235 feet below the riverbed, making it the deepest dam in the world. We drove along the California side of the river to check out a BLM campground (Crossroads) that was well reviewed. It was also completely full. Waterfront spots for $15 a night aren’t going to be empty for long.

 

Parker Dam, 75% of it is below grade.

Saturday, 2/12, was the opening day of Winterfest Street fair in LHC. We got an early start and arrived by 9:30am. The city closes about a mile or so of a major retail street, McCulloch Boulevard, where hundreds of vendors set up tents. There are food trucks, music, and a big play area for the kids too, including pony rides. Although the poor ponies didn’t look much bigger than Riley. Lol. Rog and I found a few items that followed us home and we left to see the London Bridge around 12:30pm. (Not kidding! It’s the real deal.)

 

Winterfest Street Fair.

One of the major tourist attractions in LHC is the famous London Bridge. Huh?? That’s what I said. The city’s founder, Robert McCulloch of chainsaw fame, bought the bridge from the City of London in 1968 for $2.4 million dollars. He then spent three years and another $7 million to move the bridge to Arizona. The 10,276 pieces of the bridge were numbered and disassembled and then reassembled in LHC. The bridge is the only access to the Island with its parks, hotels and restaurants. We crossed the bridge and enjoyed walking along the Bridgewater Channel and stopped for a bit to watch some radio-controlled boat races. Another fun feature along the channel are the lighthouse replicas. Members of the Lake Havasu Lighthouse Club have erected 28 of these navigational beacons along the lake shoreline on both the Arizona and California sides. The lighthouses are smaller replicas (about ¼ size) of famous lighthouses from across the country.

The London Bridge.
What's it doing here????

The RC boat races drew quite a crowd.

 

Replicas of famous lighthouses along Lake Havasu.

Remember when we were at Silly Al’s in Quartzite and were sad that they’d run out of our favorite beer - Big Blue Van? Well, we decided to go right to the source – College Street Brewery in LHC! We knew we loved Big Blue Van, so we were interested in what else they had on tap. The menu offered a 3- or 6-beer flight, so after carefully surveying the options, I chose my six favorites. Then the server informed me you could only choose your own for the flight of 3 and the 6-beer flight was set lightest to darkest. Well dang. Then give me two 3-beer flights! I got an eye-roll, but she did laugh and say she thought that might happen. Lol. They had some excellent sours and a decent stout too, along with a large and varied menu. Definitely a worthwhile stop if you’re in town.

A stop at College Street Brewery is highly recommended.
Can't pick six? Give me two threes. I can do math. Lol. 

Sunday was another lazy camp day. Well, sort of anyhow. We have been struggling daily with internet access. Sometimes our cell reception is pretty decent and we can get slow, but adequate internet. Most of the time however, it’s been an exercise in futility. And exercise is what we wanted to do. We get a workout posted on an app from our trainer, Robyn, but had been unable to access it. I finally got in and quickly wrote down all the exercises, reps, etc. Then hiked to the “wifi shack” to watch the instructional videos to learn what a “Hollow Rock” and “Russian Twist” were. (A way to torture my nonexistent ab muscles, that’s what!) We then spent 45 minutes sweating, grunting, and entertaining the neighbors. 😊 And no, you don’t get pictures. Lol.

Monday, 2/14, was our last full day at La Paz County Park and Rog headed back to that crazed spiderweb of trails at SARA park to mountain bike. He rode just shy of 12 miles across some beautiful, but barren desert terrain. Then he did exactly what we’d done while hiking – got within a mile of his end point and took a wrong turn. Lol. I’m blaming it on the massive number of actual trails, spurs, and illegitimate social trails that are within a mile of the parking lot. He, of course, soon found his way back and returned home happy and tired.

Desolate, but beautiful in its own way.

Rog gives the trail system a thumbs up.
He was amused by the marker for Beer Bottle Trail.

Good ride, great scenery.

Meanwhile, Riley and I held down the fort, although Riley insisted on frequent trips to the river to make sure it was still wet and to the ballfield to ensure the grass was still green. Both boxes were checked. Lol. He likes to chase the ball a bit, but he’s more interested in just hanging out on the green, kicking his feet in the air in pure puppy exuberance. So much for my dignified mastiff. 😊

 

Who's a happy pupper??

Dignified? Not so much. Lol.

Our plan is to leave tomorrow as early as we can manage. High winds are forecast and we want to be off the road as soon as possible. The good news, our objective, Cibola National Wildlife Refuge, is only about 80 miles away. It’s another boondocking area, so here’s hoping we can find a good spot and get tucked in before the winds get too crazy.