Friday our plan was to do a circle drive from La Paz County park over Parker Dam down the California side of the Colorado river and back to the trailer through Parker. Our first stop was Buckskin Mountain State Park. This is a beautiful park, along the Colorado River just north of Parker. While there we completed three trails, the Overlook, Buckskin Trail loop and Interruption Point. The trails were far steeper than anything we had experienced while out in BLM land, so although the trails were less than 3 miles we felt like we had done more than the 6 miles we had been doing in the Vicksburg area. We had lunch in the shade of a tree by the river.
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| Buckskin Mountain State Park |
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| Interruption Point Trail |
Our next stop was Bill Williams National Wildlife Refuge.
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| Mouth of the Bill Williams River |
We then carried on over the dam and back to the campground through Parker.
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| Parker Dam (downstream side) |
Saturday morning we did a recon mission to Bouse, checking the Bouse Community Park and the BLM land that had been recommended to us. It looks like a decent area, lots of hiking, good cell phone and T-mobile service. John noted the coordinates for another year. We then headed for Nellie E Saloon for a drink and lunch. Considering this bar is out in the middle of nowhere and you have to drive on an unbelievably rough road, the food was amazing. John had a mushroom burger, Joan a chicken wrap. This place also known as 'the desert Bar" is an old mine sight with rich history. See
www.thedesertbar.com for the history of the area.
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| Nellie E's Saloon Desert Bar |
We arrived back at the trailer in time to watch the last few ends of the first draw of the Brier
Sunday, we did a walk around the RV Park and visited with several of neighbours before watching the Nascar race from Las Vegas and the Brier. We got a sprinkle of rain, the first we have seen for quite a while.
On Monday we did laundry, and some cleaning around the trailer.
Tuesday was moving day. On our way through Lake Havasu City, we stopped at Walmart to pick up treats (turnovers and choc milk and orange mango). We then pulled of at the Lonetree BLM site a few miles north. There is just a small area beside the highway. While we were looking around the area for a good place to park, we chatted with a Quebecois who had relocated to Alberta. We found a decent site and got set up. Unfortunately, we could not use our T-mobile device for internet, even though we had a great signal in the Walmart parking lot. Too many hills?
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| Lonetree BLM campsite |
Wednesday morning we went for a walk up the wash. A couple from Saskatoon were watching Desert Bighorn Sheep through their binoculars.
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| Desert Bighorn Sheep |
Further up, we saw the reason the sheep stay in this area, a wildlife condensation collector installed by the Arizona Wildlife folks.
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| Condensation Catchment Sheet |
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| Water Catchment Pool |
The beavertail cactus are in full bloom now.
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| Beavertail Cactus in bloom |
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| a small natural arch |
We went for a short loop (2 miles) up the wash. No sheep this morning, but we finally had one of the phainopepla birds sit on a nearby branch long enough for us to get a picture. We have been trying to get a good picture of them ever since we got to Arizona.
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| Phainopepla |
After watching the end of morning draw of the Brier, we drove into Havasu, where we stopped at the Visitor Info at London Bridge.
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| London Bridge |
Then on to the library to post this week's blog.
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