Time on the Colorado River - Parker, AZ

Parker, Arizona
River Island State Park



Once out of Surprise we would be slowly heading back to Placerville, CA for a couple of weeks while we wait for the Oregon weather to warm up a bit more.  We meandered up the Colorado River on our way to Lake Havasu City and decided to spend a week outside of Parker.

The original London Bridge that now spans the Colorado River in Lake Havasu City.

 

We pulled into River Island State Park.  It was a drive through colorful canyons and rugged rocky outcroppings. Many small communities and RV parks line the river front.

 

This was our first spot when we pulled in.  It was nice, but we wanted to stay longer and a better spot opened up so we moved.  Unfortunately, the wifi was horrible at the second spot.  It worked for Steve, but not for me.  Strange, we both have Verizon, but different phones.  If you need to do work here, stay towards the office where the signal is much stronger.

 

Here is a picture overlooking the campground from the top of a hike I took. We're at the base of that outcropping in the middle.

That's us with the flag and the red kayak on the truck.

 

What a great spot!

 

There are little paths out front with signs telling you about the different cactus in the area.

It was a chilly evening so we had an "indoor fire" and I enjoyed a glass of wine while Steve made dinner.

The night before he had marinated some steak to make Carne Asada. It came out great!

Carne Asada, rice and beans.

 

There was a short trail that winded up and around the campground with great views of the river.

Watch out for the pokey stuff!

 

 

 

 

If you look at the far back in the middle you can barely make out the Parker Dam.

Here it is blown up.

Parker Dam is 155 miles downstream of Hoover Dam. It was built between 1934 and 1938 by the Bureau of Reclamation and is 320 feet high,

There was a flag at the top of this peak across the road that we hoped to hike but didn't have time for.

 

 

 

We drove in to Parker several times for groceries, gas and propane and after passing the Blue Water Casino each time we decided to stop in for a drink and appetizers at the riverfront cabana.

We watched the boaters and skiers until the sun went down and then hit the slots for a little bit.  That lasted about 1/2 hour then we headed back home.

The palm trees were lit up with colorful lights along the entrance.

 On one of our last days here, we drove up to Lake Havasu City for the day.  We planned to visit the London Bridge, bike around the island and then check out some boondocking sites for our next stay.

 

 

We stopped at the Welcome Center to read about how the bridge got here and get bike trails info.

The bridge was built in the 1830s and spanned the Thames River in London, England. It was dismantled in 1967 and relocated to Arizona when it was purchased by Robert P. McCulloch (chainsaw family) from the City of London. McCulloch had the exterior blocks from the original bridge numbered and transported to America to construct the present bridge in Lake Havasu City.  The city was a new planned community he established in 1964 on the shore of Lake Havasu. The bridge was completed in 1971 and links an island in the Colorado River with the main part of Lake Havasu City.

See the white cross above in the middle (above)?  Look at the picture below zoomed in.  You can see the individually numbered blocks.  Just below the swallow nests are smaller numbers.

 

We walked along the pathways on both sides of the bridge which offers restaurants, shops, watercraft rentals and tours.  Because of the windy weather predicted for later that day, there were not many people out.  We parked nearby at one of the large parking areas.  Plenty of room for RVs in the larger lot.  After visiting the museum we headed out on our bikes towards the island.  There is a 3 1/2 mile path around the inner part of the island.  I thought that we'd have a pretty drive around the coast but of course, that's where the houses are.  The ride was nice but the wind really started to pick up.  We were looking forward to having the wind at our backs at some point.  There are 25 lighthouses that circle the lake and island.  On the west side of the lake they replicate the lighthouses from the west coast, on the east side of the lake they replicate the east coast.  The lighthouses on the island are fashioned after the lighthouses around the Great Lakes.  Really cool.

A map of the lighthouses around the lake.

On a much smaller scale with signs at each one full of info on that particular lighthouse.

To get to the lighthouses required us to bike over sandy, rocky uneven and steep areas.  It was tricky with the wind increasing.

 I thought it was pretty cool when I zoomed in on Steve that I was in one lens and my bike was in the other.

We were pretty hungry afterwards so we found a nice place to bike back to.  The Javelina Cantina had some great Mexican food and drinks and was just what we needed.  It seemed like the wind kept changing directions and we never really had the wind at our backs.  At least we got a great work out!

  

It's not all fun times on the road though.  There is still maintenance that has to be done occasionally. Back at camp Steve replaced both of our truck batteries.  They are heavy and not the easiest to get in and out.  Just after that chore was finished, I got a text from a Placerville friend, that now lives in Gold Canyon in AZ, that the Old West Trio was playing at the Thirsty Pirates Beach Bar.  Were we still in the area?  Well, yes.  And the Pirates Cove is just down the street.  So we headed over and found some more Placerville peeps there listening to the band.  What a coincidence!

 A great time!  If you like old cowboy music check them out.

Our last day we did a little geocaching.  Some up on some small peaks we hiked, some at the Parker Dam.  The weather was great.

 

Since the wind usually picked up during the day, we got up early to finally get the kayak out on the river.  The water is clear and a gorgeous color of blues and greens.  We also found a geocache hidden on the small island near our campground.  The water was moving fairly fast so it was a short time on the river.  Time to pack up and move up to our boondocking spot.

 

Finishing our time in Surprise with Family & Friends

Surprise, Arizona
Happy Trails RV Park


The last half of February kept us very busy.  We took a little break before family arrived for the memorial service and we went to see the Disney movie, Coco.  It was cute and entertaining and a nice distraction.

 I liked the effect the purple lights had on the palm trees outside the theater at night.

 

Curt and Glenda brought their new home over for us to see the next day.  They traded their nice Big Horn 5er for this really nice Winnebago. 

 Congrats on the new rig!

 

Steve's Dad's memorial service would take place on Saturday, the 17th. Our son Shane would fly in on Thursday and our other 3 kids would fly in on Friday as well as Steve's two brothers and Bunny's granddaughter and her husband.  Thankfully all of them Ubered over so we didn't have to spend all day and night picking them up from the airport.

Steve's stepmom, Bunny.  She's been a wreck all month so we've been helping out as much as we can with arrangements.

 Hurley on the other hand was quite content with all the company.

Brennan, Ryan, Shane, Mickey, Steve, Jeff, Kaylee and I.

Unfortunately this was the only family picture we took.  Good thing Shane thought to take a selfie.  I had intended to take several family photos as we were all dressed up and it would be a long time before Steve and his brothers would be together again.  It's also rare to get all our kids in the same place and I would've loved a nice family picture too.  I completely forgot about it. The memorial service started out with a Military Presentation of the Flag and Taps.  Not a dry eye in the place.  The rest of the service was nice and went smoothly.  Curt and Glenda even drove up from Gold Canyon.

Steve and his brothers.

 We all changed into more comfy clothes and had a family BBQ after the service.

 Robert, Kaylee, Bunny, April and Marty.

 Our boys playing some Frisbee.

 I really like this picture of the kids.

 It was a long day that ended with a beautiful sunset.

The next day we all got together for lunch at the Texas Roadhouse before everyone flew out.  Minus Shane.  He had to leave early.

 With the service over and the holiday here, Steve and I spent the day geocaching with Jeff and Mickey.  It was Mickey's first time and he loved it.

 Mickey's first geocache.

The cold front really kicked in and it was a very cold and very windy day.  We finally were able to finish the day off with our 3900th find!  Now, off to dinner for some pizza and wings.  I wish they could've stayed longer.  We had such a great time with the brothers. With Mickey and Jeff now back in Virginia, we had just a few days before we left Surprise and headed to the Parker/Lake Havasu area.

Posing with Jon Taffer of the Bar Rescue TV Show.

 

You may remember on my last post that Steve and I wanted to hike to the 2000 year old Juniper Tree that was in Prescott with some friends.  All week the weather was threatening to snow on Friday.  And that it did.  I don't mind hiking in the snow or the cold, but it had been very windy too.  That's not a combo I like.  The windchill was horrible.  So instead we met Skip and Tammy for lunch at  Chilleens on 17 in Black Canyon City for BBQ.

Tammy is a retired firefighter from Prescott and Skip is a retired firefighter from Phoenix.  We had all just seen the movie, Only the Brave, about the Granite Mountain Hotshots and they thought they did a really good job with it.  Tammy had worked with many of them in Prescott and they both knew the Steinbrinks well.

 

We didn't get to do the hike, but we had a great lunch and talked for hours.  Steve even won a squeaky pig out of one of those claw grabber games.  We'll make a geocache out of it somewhere.  We said our goodbyes and hope to spend more time with them next year once they finish their new house.

One of our last outings was an 8 mile hike in the Sonoran Desert Preserve.  I've hiked here before and love the trails.  We were invited out by Faye and Dave.  Curt and Glenda joined us as well.

 Curt finding one of many geocaches along the way.

 I tried to capture the moon but it just didn't show up as bright in the picture.

 We shared the trail with some 4-legged hikers.

 

This was an easy hike on the Apache Wash Trail.  Towards the end we spotted this Saguaro whose arms drooped making it look sort of like a Christmas Tree.

Of course we ended up back at Fay and Dave's for some of Dave's famous BBQ.  He brined a pork butt overnight, dry rubbed it in his own special seasonings then smoked it all day while we hiked.

Faye made a delicious grape salad that I'd never had, but loved.  Glenda made a green salad as well as some appetizers and we brought the desert.

What a great way to wrap up our month in Surprise.  We won't see Fay and Dave for a while as they will spend the rest of this year in Colorado and then on to the East Coast.  We will see Curt and Glenda as they spend a couple of days in Placerville on their way up to Oregon and I'm sure we'll cross paths with them while we're in Oregon too.  Funny how we run into someone no matter where we travel.  I love that part!