Life along the Colorado River in Winter
Hello Readers. A couple of housekeeping issues to address:
I am running well behind on our actual timeline and I have no reason other than my own laziness.
I am writing as I get time and am going to be posting at least every Sunday, perhaps more but who knows. We have discovered that being retired and seeing the country is nothing like the frenzy of being on a limited amount of vacation time, so the hurry to document is not as pressing.
So, We got ensconced in the La Paz County Park at Parker fairly easily. The weather was in the 60’s during the day and the 40’s at night. We had a little rain one day and overnight.
A week along Havasu
We arrived at the La Paz County Park just north of Parker and check in was a breeze. We had asked for a specific site that fronted directly on the Colorado River. The Parks staff had our reservation ready and directed us to our spot on the north end. We specifically asked for waterfront parking and the only spots available for our stay had electric and water but no sewer connection. We had planned for this and so had emptied and flushed our gray and black tanks and were looking forward to pushing our limits for a 7 day stretch (controlled circumstances boondocking). In a reasonable amount of time with a minimal amount of jockeying for position, we were soon set up in our waterfront site which was fairly level and hard packed rhyolite/gravel. We were the largest RV on our end of the park. Sure, there were other fifth wheels and some Class A rigs but we were the newest and most imposing with our 43 feet of length, sharp Waterfall paint job and The imposing Karl freshly washed and sparkling. Everyone who passed by commented with wonder on our choice of rolling condominium and tow vehicle.
This area of Arizona is very classic and indicative of the state if it had water everywhere…Alas it does not. However, if you want the best of the area, Parker is a great central area. You can run north to Havasu or beyond and you can be in Quartzite without the boondocking in a very short time. You can run west to California or East to Phoenix or Tucson for quick trips.
The terrain in this area goes from truly lush grasses and growth along the river to sparse desert just over the hill. The rock is stained red with the Iron deposits and veins of quartz run through it all. The area is a paradise for the outdoors lover for ALMOST every bit of land is managed by either the BLM or other federal lands, The state of Arizona (the most expensive use parks in the entire state are along the Colorado) or the county and cities. There are hiking trails everywhere, designated ORV trails crisscross the landscape, FREE dispersed camping on the BLM ground, and is a rockhounds’ delight.
We explored the SARA (Special Activities and Recreation Area) park which is an 1,100-acre multipurpose area. They have shooting ranges, rodeo grounds, mountain biking, ORV, and hiking trails along with a model aircraft flying field and the Havasu 95 raceway. The SARA website is full of information on this FREE use area as well as the Alltrails app having an extensive list of all the hiking designated trails in the park.
The lake and river are both watersports and sportsmen’s heaven with tons of boating above and below Parker dam. There are bays and coves where ducks live and big fish hide and in the summertime this is a lake users’ dream.
For Boondocking with your RV or tent of choice there are thousands of acres of BLM land. A stop at the Havasu area BLM office is absolutely worth the trouble for local insight into the almost unlimited camping available. After talking with the office manager, we put Karl into trail mode and headed off into the hinterland for some backcountry touring. No, Karl does not have a jeep turn radius nor the off-road speed of a side-by-side, and certainly is not up to rock crawling but, if you pay attention to your driving and take it slow, just about any reasonable off-road trail can be negotiated. I also have no fear of taking Karl off road either, this is one tough truck and I did not buy it to be a beauty queen, not that I intentionally beat him up but I bought him to use for all my tasks, not just towing Bebop down the road.
We thoroughly enjoyed our week in the Havasu area; hiking, exploring and generally enjoying the weather and scenery along the Colorado River.
A couple of issues with the area.
- Down in the canyons of the Colorado River there are many areas of no or limited cellular signal with all carriers. Not all parks have great wi-fi. Keep this in mind. The signal at La Paz was iffy at best without some kind of booster or external antenna. We finally broke down and got a hot spot wired into our in coach network with an external antenna. We had much better service after putting in the external hotspot.
- For La Paz specifically, if you are in electric and water only, as we were, there are a couple of pump out services who will come around for a fee. Their wi-fi on the north end of the park is almost non-existent.
Positives.
If you are coming from California, you will rejoice in the Arizona fuel prices! This is small town Arizona, and everyone is friendly. Try the Jumpstart’R drive-thru espresso stand. These are local folks who make a good cup of coffee and are friendly. Also hit Billy’s Wing Shack, we prefer to support local restaurants and businesses and both of these are worth supporting.
MEH things.
There are some homeless people in the area, but they tend to not be pushy. There are women in the shopping centers who will be selling homemade tamales and tortillas, they are legitimate, and their prices are fair for the amount they want to sell, unfortunately E and I don’t need a dozen or more tamales.
From here we are off to the Phoenix area for a couple days, then off to Tucson and eventually into the deep south of Arizona in the guise of the Saguaro SKP park in Benson.
Many adventures to come in the future dear reader. We will visit The newest cave system in America, The historic cities of Tombstone and Bisbee along with forays into the massive and historically important federal lands of this area of the famed “Old West”
If you all would like to see something particular down here let me know. In the meantime, I need to get along and plan the next adventure.
BFD
