Last week we enjoyed some time in Lake Havasu. We stayed at the Lake Havasu State Park. We liked the park for its location and the sites, like at most of the other Arizona State Parks, are spacious.

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We arrived from Tucson around noon. We parked the RV, unhooked the Jeep and took off for the Nellie E Saloon (better known as ‘The Desert Bar’).

There are two ways to get to the bar. One way requires that you have an high clearance off-road vehicle, such as a Razor.

The other way is also off-road, but most vehicles can make it via this route.

There is always a band playing on stage and we found the food to be very good. They only accept cash so if you go there be prepared.

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http://www.thedesertbar.com/

While in Lake Havasu we hiked a couple of trails at SARA Park. (https://golakehavasu.com/activity/attractions/parks/sara-park/) We hiked the 5 mile roundtrip Crack-in-the-Mountain trail. This trail is fun as you have to snake through a mountain, use a rope to shimmy down a 6 foot sheer incline and maneuver over waist deep water on wobbly metal planks. At the end of the trail you end up at the Colorado River where you can dip your feet in the water. It was too chilly for that though.

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On another day we hiked ‘The Lizard Peek’ trail. There is a 600 ft elevation gain to the top of the peek, which overlooks a Lizard formation made out of stones. Can you find the lizard in the picture below? It looks pretty small when you are 600 ft above it.

Once you reach the peek of the mountain you are surprised to find a picnic table there. While there we met some fellow RVers.

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In the picture below you can see a couple of hikers making their way back down from Lizard Peek.

The hike getting up was a little interesting at times and required some fun rock climbing.

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Below is a picture from the top of the mountain.

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I mentioned that we met some fellow RVers while at the top of mountain. Well, they invited us over to their RV park (at SARA Park) one evening to view some fantastic fireworks. It just so happens that we were in Lake Havasu during the Pyrotechnic Convention. The show lasted for an hour. Aside from being pretty darn cold, it was quite enjoyable. I captured this photo with my iPhone. While not a great photo, you can see the large number of fireworks going off at the same time.

For those that may not know this, the London Bridge was purchased by Robert McCulloch from the City of London back in the 1960s. It was dismantled and shipped to the US where it was reconstructed in Lake Havasu. Each brick was numbered so that it could be replaced in exactly the same location.

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Along the coastline of Lake Havasu you will find numerous miniature lighthouses. They are scaled-down replicas of lighthouses found along the East Coast, West Coast and Great Lakes. They are actually functional and are used to alert boaters of the lake’s coastline. Funny fact: the city of Lake Havasu, in the landlocked desert state of Arizona, has more lighthouses than any other city in the entire country.

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A few other notes about Lake Havasu:

We’ve never seen so many RVs in one area. They seem to be everywhere. The city of Lake Havasu is surrounded by BLM (Bureau of Land Management) and RVers can dry camp anywhere they find a spot. If you don’t mind dry camping then it would be almost impossible for you to not be able to find a spot to camp out for a few days.

The Colorado River and Lake Havasu make this area a desert Oasis.

If you like ice cream, then try out Scoops. They have the best homemade ice cream in town.

Somebody has humor in town, as seen by this phone booth.

If we ever return to Lake Havasu I think we will look to stay at Arizona’s Cattails State Park, which is between Lake Havasu and Parker. It is located on the Colorado River, is away from the city traffic and has beautiful scenery and hiking trails nearby.

The weather during our stay was surprisingly chilly, in the 50s and low 60s. We had one day of non-stop rain, which came with flash flood warnings. The cooler weather made hiking nice though. Overall, we thoroughly enjoyed our visit to Lake Havasu.

We are now in Indio, CA for the next 2 weeks. More on that later.