Lake Havasu City Fireworks

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Our week in Nevada came to a close and we broke even in the nearby casinos - $0 spent and $0 won! Next we head back to Lake Havasu City Arizona. We had stayed at a state park south of town just about a year ago. This time we are coming for an event - the 29th Annual Western Winter Blast Pyrotechnics Show. From what we have heard about this, we will be in for a treat. Basically 4 nights in a row with fireworks being shot off in SARA Park. We will be camping at the SARA Rodeo Grounds for a full week. Since it isn't a campgrounds, we will just be boondocking with several hundred other rigs. I will apologize in advance for the massive number of photos in this post.

Teddy Bear???

The drive from Laughlin isn't very far, but based on the road conditions coming to Laughlin, we at least know what way we are NOT going to go. Instead of heading along the Needles Highway, we cross over into Arizona just south of us and head down AZ-95 before crossing back into California at Needles and east on I-40 before heading back down AZ-95. Other than a bit of surface street turns in Needles, it was a smooth and easy 75 mile jaunt. Shortly after turning into the road to the rodeo grounds, we are treated by a long line of rigs with the same goal. There was a bit of confusion at the check in point but it was probably only a 45 minute wait which didn't seem bad given the number of rigs arriving all at once.

Our Spot for the Week

 There are 3 or 4 different levels of marked out camping spots. Since this is our first time, we are in the lower level. Supposedly, those that come back year after year get moved up to better and better spots. There is a travel trailer already on one side of us and shortly after we get situated, a fifth wheel pulls in on our other side. Since the fireworks don't start until Thursday and we arrived on Monday, the rest of the rigs seem to come in sporadically over the next few days. I suppose if we come back in the future, we could avoid some of the congestion by coming in a day or so later. Lesson learned. We wandered around the facility to see what it had to offer. Being a big gravel parking lot on a windy day, the predominant feature was the dust blowing. Good thing the weather is cool enough that the Windows can stay closed. Plus with generators running in close proximity, you really want them closed to reduce the fumes. We do discover that the wi-fi listed as being here did exist and believe it or not was possibly the fasted speeds we have ever encountered even compared to libraries. That turns out to be a good thing when we want to download shows or movies to watch later in the evening since over the air TV is nonexistent here.

Looking Back at Rodeo Grounds as it Fills Up

View of Rodeo Grounds from Hill Across Road

We did three days of back to back hiking at areas around Havasu. The first was an area just east of Cattail Cove State Park where we camped last year. Basically just hiking along ATV trails in search of geocaches we hadn't gotten to last year. Fortunately there was nobody out so we didn't run into dust problems from ATVs zipping by. Our second hike was a repeat of one we took last year. Here is a link to our blog post of the hike back then. This time the hike is much easier to get to. We only need to walk from our rig maybe a tenth of a mile to the parking lot we used last year. As we were checking out the map at the kiosk, a woman approached to do the same, asked which hike we were planning to do and when it turned out to be the same, asked if we minded if she tagged along. Sarah (an easily remembered name given we are in SARA park) turned out to be from Minnesota visiting her parents that are wintering in Havasu. We agree the weather here is much more pleasant than that of Minnesota right now.

Chris Surveys Landscape Across from Cattail Cove

Having done this hike last year, we are able to help allay Sarah's concerns of what to expect when we get to "the crack". Turns out she is now a professional photographer and had brought along a plethora of equipment in her backpack. We would stop from time to time to allow her to get some shots. We didn't mind as it was nice to get to talk with someone else for more than the typical small talk around a campground. Being an avid (amateur) photographer, it was nice to talk shop with somebody that can make a living doing what she enjoys. We survived the tight sections of slot canyon with little difficulty. We eventually made it to the Colorado River and took a short break at the picnic table provided. The ducks must be used to getting fed since they seemed to be drawn to the picnic are while we were present.

Heading into the Crack

Into the Crack

Sarah Composes Her Shot

Family Enjoying Break

Overlooking Colorado River

Hungry Ducks

We repeated the path we did last year, taking the high route back that parallels the wash we just walked down. It is a bit more hilly but does provide for good distance views along the way. There were a number of others out for the hike and a group of hikers were able to point out a few bighorn sheep on the hill on the opposite side of the wash. They were pretty difficult to spot being so far away. As we got close to the end of the hike, we let Sarah search for a couple geocaches - one we found last year and another that we had skipped then. As we got back to the parking lot, we traded contact info. Surely we will get to Minnesota during our travels and will need to get in touch with her again.

The next day we headed to Craggy Wash BLM camping area to do some geocaching. The area is close to the Lake Havasu airport. From the maps, it appeared we could do about a dozen geocaches by making a loop following some of the established ATV trails in the area. I estimated the loop to be about 4 miles or so. We parked adjacent to the camping area which was surprised to see how full the area appeared. Fortunately most of the caches around the BLM area were not close to spots where rigs were setup except for one. Somebody with a tent was probably camping 10 feet from the cache. Nobody appeared to be around but thought it unwise to be searching so close to their campsite.

Overlooking Campers at Craggy Wash BLM

Large Balanced Rock

After coming out of the camping area we ran into complete desolation. Or so we thought. As we came around one bend in the trail, Chris spotted 15 or 20 bighorn sheep cautiously watching us pass by from above. As I started up the hill to get a better photo, they decided I was close enough and continued up and over the hill. As we continued on the path, I looked back to see a few of them standing on the ridge watching us depart. I suspect most of the human activity out here is on ATV so they might be more suspicious of hikers. We eventually make it to the wash that should take us back towards the airport. It's along this stretch where we run into our first group of ATVers. They are polite and slow down to not kick up much dust. The walk back to the car seems to take forever. My 4 mile guess was a bit off, it ended up being just over 6 miles but it was still a nice hike especially with the bighorn sheep making an appearance.

Look Closely - A Dozen or More Bighorn Sheep

Being Watched by Four Bighorn Sheep

View Along Wash 

By the time Thursday evening comes along, most of the camping spots are filled although it isn't completely packed. There were a surprising number of fireworks shot off even before sunset. It seems odd to "waste" them before it is dark but this isn't your typical fireworks show. This is more like a gathering of fireworks makers. Many, if not all, of the fireworks we will see will have been created during the event on site. It sounds like during the day, the people will teach each other how to make certain types of fireworks and during the night they will try them out. Each of the 4 nights, there is "open shooting" where fireworks go off randomly between 6 and 10 PM. Only an hour on Friday and Saturday are there public displays, where it is a more conventional fireworks show. We sit with our next door neighbors and watch from our camping spot. Any of the higher fireworks are easily seen but we can tell there is more going on out of our sight because of other RVs in front of us. I had set up the camera and tripod but found it difficult to figure out when things were coming. We could sit for 10 minutes with not much happening then get a 10 minute barrage of them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On each of the remaining 3 nights, we positioned ourselves around other spots in the rodeo grounds. Each time we seemed to get a better viewing spot. I think I shot just over 100 pictures the first night, 200 the second and close to 400 the third night. By the time I got to the fourth and final night, we headed to the grandstands of the rodeo and sat back and just enjoyed the show only setting up one camera to see if I could get any decent video of the display.

So how were the fireworks? In a word INCREDIBLE! It isn't like we are connoisseurs of fireworks, but we have seen our fair share in our lifetimes. But what we saw here was beyond anything we have ever experienced. They displayed the most creative fireworks we have seen and not just one or two unique ones but dozens. By the time we had gotten to our third night, we were able to see the ground show and hear the presenter talk about the displays. We now know that for every inch of shell diameter, the blast will travel about 100 feet up. Let's just say those 12" shells were quite impressive. They even had many fireworks that were launched by rockets which got even higher. During the public displays, the fireworks were set to music and you could definitely tell there was some impressive choreography associated with those showings. The ground show even had what could only be described as big flame throwers shooting flames high into the air. We now understand why some people come back year after year. We will definitely put this on our must do when we are out in the southwest in February.

Here is a video of several of the better fireworks displays.

During the morning and afternoon of the show days, we still found time to explore some more. Just south of town close to the Parker Dam area is Bill Williams River National Wildlife Refuge. There is a visitor center with a couple short nature walks. The one heads out a narrow spit of land that forms a canal leading to a huge water pumping station. It supplies water to the Colorado River Aqueduct which supplies water to much of Southern California. This pumping station can supply 1 billion gallons of water per day!

Looking Back at Pumping Station

Afterwards, we head back north on route 95 for about 1/2 mile to Planet Ranch Road. This dirt road heads back into the actual refuge land. It can be driven about 3 miles to a parking area. The road itself is quite rough, curvy and hilly but does take you along some nice scenery. Several geocaches are placed along the drive. One took us out onto a steep and narrow hill that made both of us a bit overwhelmed. A brief search didn't allow us to find it and neither wanted to press our luck since it looked like an unpleasant fall. We are okay with not finding them all. Once at the parking area, we head out one of the trails that leads to the Bill Williams River. It turns out that this river is like many we see in the desert southwest, there is no water flowing, not even a trickle.

Saguaro and Clouds at Geocache

Cottonwood Trees Along River

Large Debris Flow from Peak

One last day trip before heading out of the area was to a place we have heard about quite frequently but had never made it there yet. The Nellie E. Saloon or usually just called the Desert Bar, is situated about 5 miles off Route 95 near Parker back in the Buckskin Mountains. It first opened in 1983 and has grown much since then which is a little surprising since it has pretty limited business hours - October thru April, Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 6. Its location would also seem to be a big limitation. That five mile drive is on one of the roughest desert roads we have driven. The place is entirely off grid using solar to generate the power required to run things. I suppose that would be one reason to close a bar before sunset. There were many other people driving back to it on the late Sunday morning we picked. Along the way, we stopped for a quick geocache and about 15 other vehicles went driving by. Most were trucks, SUVs or Jeep although there were some small, low clearance cars that were attempting the drive.

We got there a bit before noon but there were already 50 vehicles in the parking lot and over 100 people wandering around the place. There is also a huge assortment of ATVs on the opposite side of the buildings. These folks take a different route along some off-road trails. From what I could see of it, I almost think we would have been better off bringing the Jeep on that route. We wander around the place a bit to check things out. There is a church of sorts that seems a bit out of place but given the eclectic nature of this establishment, it might not be too odd. We grab a couple beers and continue our walk around. There a a couple hills next to the bar that allow one to get a good view of the happenings below. They also provide a good vantage point to see both the "road" and trail to the bar and there is a constant stream of vehicles. The parking lot is filling up and they are now parking wherever they can fit.

The Desert Bar

"Church"

Overlooking Desert Bar

There are a few separate grill areas and we pick one that has something that sounds good, place our order and wait with the masses for our name to be called. Fortunately we did bind some table space and joined another couple and their two dogs. We have a pleasant chat and enjoy the grub. By the time we finished eating, the place was overflowing with people. The band was just about setup and ready to start playing. We opted to get out of the crowd and head up to the overlooking hill to listen to the band. Not positive who was playing, but they did mostly songs we knew and it was fun to watch the crowd below. There was a small open space immediately in front of the stage and a handful of people were dancing to the music.

More Vehicles Arriving

ATV Parking

Big Crowd When Band Starts

We knew it was going to be a long and bouncy ride back to a paved road so we headed out. Not everybody was staying for closing time and there was a long line of people heading out with the occasional vehicle heading to the bar. I would not want to have to do this drive in the dark, and definitely not after a few beers. We did see a couple vehicles on the way out with problems - a flat tire and engine problems - but they seemed to have things under control. By the time we got back to Route 95, we felt like cans of paint just out of a paint can shaker. Would we do it again? You betcha!