A small city in the middle of the mountains
We have spent about three weeks here in Lake Havasu City. The city was incorporated in 1963 and was the site of McCulloch chainsaw manufacturing. He then went to London and purchased a bridge. It was dismantled and delivered to the desert, where a ditch was dug for the bridge to go over. The city is also the site for lots of spring breakers.
North of town is a large wash called Craggy Wash. It is owned by the Bureau of Land Mgmt (BLM) and people are allowed to camp here for two weeks at a time. We overstayed somewhat but most people do.
This is the view looking west from our camper toward the entrance of the wash.
View from our door
View out the front windshield
This is the view from the peak of the mountain between Oatman and Kingman
We went down to the London Bridge and walked across it. It IS amazing, this stone bridge in the middle of the desert.
On one side is a small version of a British town. We ate lunch here at the Blue Chair.
We also took a five hour drive to a town called Oatman and then through the mountains to Kingman. Oatman is a very small old mining town that has turned itself into a living ghost town. Lots of tourist shops along the one main street. They also allow wild burrows to roam the town begging for alfalfa chunks that they sell in all of the stores. The desert was pretty green so only a couple of the burrows were in town.
We then continued on to Kingman – through the mountains. So curvy that the speed limit for most of the trip was 25 mph.
All along the road and trails in this area people have build small cairns. The rocks are flat and lend themselves to this.
If you look at the left edge of the picture, about half way down, you will see a small red spot. I zoomed in and took a picture of it, but couldn’t see what it was because of the sun glare. When we got home I checked out the photo – below!
We also saw this little guy, hunting for a warm spot.
This is the view from the top of the pass
On a very sad note – we had to say good bye to Brody last week. He woke up one morning stumbling and not able to control his body very well. We scooped him up and took him to the vet in town – who was incredibly compassionate and skilled. He did an x-ray and showed us where two of Brody’s neck disks were damaged. We have no idea when or how this happened but the vet said he would have to spend his life in a crate. This wouldn’t have been right him.
He was crazy, off the walls, fun, frenetic, loving, and great – we miss him terribly.
