Day trips from Laughlin, Nevada

Hello again,

As you head back toward Las Vegas, you can travel along the Colorado River.  Your trip will take you through the town of Parker, Arizona.  This is a resort area where lots of motels and RV parks cater to the summer boating crowd and the winter snowbirds.  

Also, along the river and the road are groups of wild burrows.  Sometimes, you have to stop because they are just wandering down the roadway and will walk right up to you car.

As you continue north, you come to Lake Havasu City.  This is also a large summer and winter resort town.  It is also the home of the London Bridge, which was brought here from London, piece by piece.  

The bridge was then reassembled by covering a reinforced concrete bridge with all of the original exterior stones of the London Bridge.  The bridge connects the town of Lake Havasu City with an island by spanning a portion of the Colorado River.





We continued north and stopped for a few nights in Laughlin, Nevada.  This is a small town on the Colorado River that is mostly large casino hotels.

Laughlin is a good place for day trips.

A nice day trip is to drive to Kingman, Arizona and then make the return trip via old Route 66, through Cool Springs and then back through Oatman, and on to Fort Mojave and Bullhead City before you get back to Laughlin.

On the way to Kingman, you can take a short side trip to Chloride, Arizona, an old, almost abandoned mining town.



As you drive through town, you should take a side road that takes you to the cemetery.




















There were a whole bunch of very interesting, very old graves.



The cemetery was very well cared for.









Chloride is also famous for petroglyphs and rock paintings so we hiked up a short canyon and found these.



Still working on the selfies.



Along with the ancient petroglyphs, there were more recent huge rock paintings.







The town is still occupied and has a few shops.



Suzie fit right in.



We then continued on to Kingman.

Kingman continues the Route 66 theme and has a very nice museum.

This is the Route 66 Powerhouse Museum




There were lots of interesting displays.



After lunch in Kingman, you follow old Route 66 back to Oatman.  The road is very curvy and travels through remote desert.

You can just imagine what the drive would have been like in the good old days before auto air conditioning or reliable autos for that matter.  Imagine driving you and the family across the scorching hot desert in the middle of the summer and coming across Cool Springs.  I bet they sold a lot of cold Cokes.





This town is gone now and only the old gas station is left but you can visualize what a harsh life this must have been.

From Cool Springs, it is about a 45 minute drive through old mining country until you get to Oatman.  All along the winding road are old, collapsed structures and big piles of mining tailings from the now abandoned gold mines.

Once through Oatman, it is a quick trip through the very modern Fort Mojave and Bullhead City to Laughlin. 

There is still lots more to come and we will let you know when the next chapter is available,

Get out there and make every day a good one,

Tom & Suzie