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We head out from Pahrump Elks Lodge with two possible camping options for the next nine nights to close out 2022. Neither option accepts reservations so we are simply hoping to find a spot. The Big Bend of the Colorado State Recreation area is in the far southern end of Nevada in Laughlin. We have stayed there for a week back in February of 2018. It’s about 155 miles from our starting point. Since this place is first come first served and only have 24 sites, we aren’t sure if there will be any availability given it’s just a couple days before Christmas. Our other option is about 25 miles farther in Needles California at the Elks Lodge. We haven’t stayed at this lodge but they do have 9 full hookup sites. If we strike out in Laughlin, we can call the lodge to see if they have any open spots or whether a plan C is required.
The drive will take us on the south side of Las Vegas and past Boulder City where we had spent a month a couple weeks ago. As we approached the campground in Laughlin, it looked like there might be some open sites but since the campground is spread out and the sites are quite large, it was difficult to determine from the main road. The entrance booth was closed so we drive in to the campground and stop at the camp host site. I guess the host is not involved with any of the specifics of campsite availability because she simply told us to drive around the loop to see if there were any spots open. Just around the first turn was an empty site with no receipt tag on the post. We pull in to make sure we can at least get this one and then we walk around the loop to see what else is available. There were 4 other spots but we decided the one we had left the rig in was actually the best spot for us. While I got setup, Chris drove down to the entrance booth to use the kiosk to book our spot for 9 nights which will cover Christmas and New Years Eve.
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| At Big Bend of the Colorado |
When we stayed here last time, we really hadn’t checked out the day use area inside the park so the following day, we go for a walk from the campground to the river. It’s probably a half mile walk along a very sandy trail to get over to the beach, boat launch and picnic area. I think we were the only non employees wandering around. It was a rather chilly and breezy day so maybe that wasn’t so unexpected. Just across the river is Arizona - Bullhead City to be specific. It is a pretty park and I can only imagine how crowded it must get here on warm summer days. There were large groups of water birds out on the river. They seemed to drift downstream for ten minutes or so before all flying a few hundred yards upstream to repeat the process. |
| Following Trail to Day Use Area |
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| Looking Across River to Arizona |
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| And They're Off |
We had a nice quiet day with a good home cooked meal for Christmas Day and didn’t do any other exploring of the area. The following day, we drove several miles west of Laughlin to try out the Upper Hiko Springs Trail. It is basically a walk down a wash into a small canyon. Having done some really good canyon hikes in Death Valley recently, this one wasn’t as special but it was still fun. It is listed as being a 3.8 mile out and back hike with 450 feet of elevation gain. There was a geocache near the start of the trail that we detoured for but then continued down the wash. The initial part of the wash is used by ATVs. We didn’t see any but from the tracks it was pretty obvious. One early section was surprisingly overgrown with all sorts of vegetation. Given how desert-like this area is, needing to bushwhack thru plants taller than us was unexpected. I suppose we should thank the ATVers since the path was likely created by them. |
| Starting Down Wash at Hiko Springs |
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| Rocky Hill |
As we made our way into the canyon, it started to get a bit narrower and interesting. There was a wide variety of rock formations. We did run into a few other people heading out as we continued down the canyon. They told us to be on the lookout for petroglyphs ahead. One stretch of a few hundred feet had hundreds of petroglyphs carved into patina glazing the rock. We stopped to explore these in some detail before moving on. |
| Canyon Narrows |
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| Rock Pillar |
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| Petroglyphs |
The wash became a bit more challenging beyond the petroglyphs. There were lots of rock scrambles to get past and at one of the larger dry waterfalls, I found it tough to get down the drop off safely. Chris decided to take a spot in the sun and let me go a bit further. As I continued down, the canyon got even prettier. I went another 1/4 mile or so before there was another large waterfall to get down. I decided I should stop here and make this be my turn around point. A few minutes later, I found Chris and we headed back to the car. I never did see the Hiko Springs the trail is named for although they may be near the start of the trail where all the vegetation was growing? This turned out to be a much better hike than I was expecting. |
| Rock Lined Section |
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| Dry Waterfalls |
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| Worn Smooth From Water |
The next day would take us back to Grapevine Canyon. We had stopped here during our last visit and decided it was worth a repeat trip. The trailhead for the hike is about 2 miles up Christmas Tree Pass Road. This dirt road is fairly wide and in good shape at least up to the turn for the parking area. The real draw for this hike are the wonderful petroglyphs that start about a quarter mile up the wash from parking. As we started out the wash, I noticed lots of footprints in the sand heading up a canyon on the north side of the main wash prior to getting to the petroglyphs. I decided to make a detour to check out something different. While there aren’t trail markers, the trail is pretty apparent since the canyon is relatively narrow. |
| Starting Up Grapevine Canyon |
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| Starting Up Unmarked Side Trail |
We came upon a large family group that was out exploring this off the beaten path location too. After chatting with them, I think they were looking for the petroglyphs and had picked this side trail instead. We gave them directions on how to find what they were looking for. We continue up the canyon and find a few areas with rather narrow openings. Some of the rock scrambles were really neat to climb and check out. Since we didn’t have this trail on our maps, it wasn’t clear just how far it might go. We likely went out a half to two thirds of a mile before realizing our real reason for coming here was to see the petroglyphs again, so we turn around even though the canyon seemed to be a good hike as far as we could see. |
| Narrow Section of Side Canyon |
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| Starting Back Down Side Canyon |
By the time we made it to the location of the petroglyphs, it was surprisingly crowded. There had only been a couple other cars when we first arrived, but there were likely a dozen by now. We spend 20 minutes wandering around the start of Grapevine Canyon to see the amazing art carved into the rocks. |
| Petroglyphs |
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| More Petroglyphs Well Overhead |
We saw the trail continues up the canyon and it looked to be a hike we could manage, so we start our way up hoping to find more remote petroglyphs. It didn’t take us long to get to a rather challenging spot. Up the middle of the canyon was a very narrow slot filled with bushes and grass. A large boulder was wedged overhead between the two side walls. I attempted to go up this route but found spot to be too narrow and impossible to get thru. Chris opted to try the northern side of the canyon and did make it a bit further than I had but the terrain was too steep and rocky for her to make it all the way to the top. So this left the southern face of the canyon as our only option. As I started up, I found just enough spots to place my feet and a few small trees to grab with my hands to get myself to the top of that obstacle. |
| Jumble of Rocks |
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| Wedged Boulder in Center of Trail |
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| Looking Back Down with Chris on Right of Shot |
There was a large smooth rock surface to stand on and from this vantage point, I could see into the next section of the canyon. It looked inviting and there seemed to be a steep but doable “trail” back down to the middle of the canyon. Once past this spot, the hiking was pretty easy. Another quarter mile or so up this main canyon were side canyons to both the north and south. So we really had 3 choices if we wished to continue - straight, left or right. We decided to head south and started up this side canyon. There were lots of very large boulders scattered along the sides of this canyon and found it to be a rather good choice. By now we were wishing we had brought our lunch along for the hike instead of leaving back in the car. Hunger forced us to turn back and retrace our steps. The one boulder that was wedged earlier in the hike was even more impressive from the backside. The entrance into this middle option looked good from this side but I knew it was only going to lead to a spot we couldn’t get past so we repeated our steps and made it thru the difficult part and back to the car for lunch. |
| Overlooking Next Part of Grapevine Canyon |
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| Heading Up Side Canyon |
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| Large Boulders Strewn About |
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| Wedged Rock from Back |
Our next destination was to continue driving along Christmas Tree Pass Road. We had heard it was a pretty drive and there were a handful of geocaches hidden along the route. This road extends for a total of 16 miles between Nevada Route 163 and US Route 95. Once we are north of Grapevine Canyon, the road becomes a bit rougher and narrower but still passable for most vehicles with reasonable ground clearance. About 3 miles out is a hike called the Pipe Spring Trail. It sounded okay from the description but after walking the first half mile or so, we decided it wasn’t all that interesting and the dark clouds looming overhead made us question how wet we might get. |
| Major Washout on Pipe Spring Trail |
Back in the car, we head west on Christmas Tree Pass. Even with all the clouds, it is a very pretty drive up into the mountains. Near the top of the pass, we start to see the reason the road got its name. While the plants and trees that live in this area aren’t your classic Christmas trees, there were dozens of them all along the road that had all sorts of decorations hanging from them. Several of the caches were hidden in these areas so we were able to get a good view of them. The most unique plant with ornaments was the yucca with the colorful orbs stuck on the ends of the pointy leaves. |
| View Along Christmas Tree Pass Road |
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| Xmas Decorations |
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| Loaded with Ornaments |
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| Festive Yucca |
On the far side of the pass, we start to descend but have a couple more geocaches to find. One of them was almost a quarter mile off the road with no obvious trail to it. But being desert terrain, it was fairly easy to pick a route avoiding cactus and other pointy plants. As we were a couple hundred feet away, I saw something that looked out of place. At first I thought it might be some sort of animal trap but as we got closer, it turned out to be an Albertsons shopping cart laying over on its side. Inside the cart were all sorts of grocery “items”. The owner of this cache got very creative and painted a dozen or more rocks to look like common grocery store items - Pop Tarts, Jif Peanut Butter and a 5 pound bag of sugar. Hidden inside the cart was also the geocache container. The far western side of the drive was along broad expanses of boring desert landscape. But by then we were starting to get tired from the long day and drove the last 5 miles back to paved roads and then to camp. |
| Unusual Geocache Hide Technique |
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| Close Up of Painted Rocks |
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| Heading Back to the Jeep |
With the end of the year closing in, I had seen a post in a Facebook Geocaching group about a special cache type that could be earned by doing some sort of outdoor community improvement project. I had heard about this quite some time ago but completely forgot about it. In order to achieve this goal, it needed to be completed prior to the end of the year. We have done lots of community cleanup geocaching events over the years (called CITO - Cache In Trash Out) but we don’t seem to be in the right area when these organized events take place. The alternative was to go out by ourselves so we grabbed our trash bags and grabbers and headed out. The campground and day use area are kept very clean by the staff and volunteers so we needed a place that isn’t maintained by someone.
Just a mile south of camp is the Fisherman’s Point Trail. We drive down there and look around to see if this area was in need of trash pickup. One other car was parked at the end of the point but this guy was simply fishing in the Colorado River. As we walked the dirt road, we initially weren’t seeing much trash but we decided to climb down the bank of a small bay off the river and realized that there was a plethora of trash. We spent the next hour slowly walking along the bay and the road and had two bags full of trash. A selfie was taken as proof we made a difference. |
| Colorado River Viewed from Fisherman's Point Trail |
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| Bay Off River |
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| Our Trash Haul |
After lunch, we head into Laughlin to a casino of all places. No, we didn’t become gamblers. Don Laughlin Class Car Museum is located in the Riverside Casino. Entry is free if you have a players club card, but it’s only $3 per person for others. It took a bit of walking to locate the car museum on the 3rd floor of the casino, but we found it and bought our tickets. The Riverside Casino opened in 1966 and when the owner tried to get a mailing address, the postal service told him the town needed to have a name and suggested it be called Laughlin. Over the years, he has amassed a very large car collection - about 80 or so. Most of the cars are displayed in this third floor room. I am not super knowledgeable on old cars but so know what I like to look at. There is plenty of eye candy in this collection. My apologies for including so many pictures.
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| 1954 Kurtis |
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| 1904 Holsman |
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| Assortment of Old Motorcycles |
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| Mirrorlike Gas Tank on 1967 Velocette |
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| 1952 Muntz |
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| 1951 Skylane Custom Build |
One of the displays that really caught my eye was that of a 1980 Honda Goldwing. Not because of the motorcycle itself, but for the journey it went on. Emilio Scotto rode this motorcycle for 10 years thru 279 countries and reached 457,000 miles! He kept track of all sorts of oddball facts that I appreciated. He used 13,000 gallons of gas, went thru 86 tires, 12 batteries and was in jail 6 times to name a few of them.
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| Worldwide Traveler |
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| 1933 Buick Coupe with Rumble Seat Option |
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| 1937 Cord |
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| 1930 Ford Model A Police Car |
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| 1934 Ford Tow Truck |
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| Hood Ornament from 1933 Buick Coupe |
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| 1955 Ford Thunderbird |
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| 1955 Ford F-100 Pickup with Incredible Paint Job |
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| 1957 Cadillac Coupe |
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| 1954 Corvette |
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| 1963 Corvette Stingray |
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| 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air |
We spent over an hour slowly wandering around the many dozens of cars. Reading about some of the history but really just admiring what a wonderful collection of vintage cars on display here. We knew there was a second location with some cars on the first floor. Signage for the cars is not nearly as good as that for different restaurants or parts of the casino related to gambling but we eventually figured out where to go. This area is free to the public but has only a dozen or so cars. There is also a large collection of vintage slot machines spanning all eras. The person at the desk in this room was quite the talker. We likely spent another half hour just discussing our travels, cars and the Laughlin and Bullhead City area.
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| One of the Oldest Slot Machines |
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| 1963 Corvette Stingray |
The next morning we head out to see more of the area. We had visited the Davis Dam when we were in town 5 years ago. That last time we started from the Nevada side of the river. This time we decided to try out the Arizona side. We originally planned to start from Davis Camp Park until we realized this is some sort of resort area along the river that has an entrance fee. Since we only wanted to walk around, we head over to what appears to be a very new park just a few hundred feet from the Davis Camp entrance booth. The large parking are was paved but the restrooms were still under construction and the signs were not all up yet so it wasn't really clear what the name of this place is. We saw paved path leading up the hill towards the dam and decided this would work for us.
The trail continues up the hill and eventually parallels Davis Dam Road. There are some nice views of Lake Mojave which is formed by the dam. We head into the dam parking lot and overlook. I wish they had some sort of tours of the dam to see the inner workings. We retrace our steps after we check out the dam.
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| Stopsign Cove of Lake Mohave |
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| Overlooking Power Plant at Davis Dam |
Back at the car, we head to the next destination. This will take us back into the Lake Mead National Recreation Area which surprisingly extends this far south from the main locations near Boulder City and Hoover Dam. The road into this southeastern corner of Lake Mead doesn't extend very far into the park but there are a few things to see and do here. Katherine's Landing has a rather large marina and even a big campground. We are stopping here for a hike. Fisherman's Trail is listed as about 0.6 miles out and back so not very long but sounded pretty. Even though there wasn't much of a crowd here since it is a dreary day in December, there is very little parking near the trailhead. It also doesn't help that the trailhead is in an area marked as "Residential Area Employees Only". The people living here must be people that work at the marina and boat yard. It did seem to be a very busy place given the time of year.
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| Katherine's Landing Marina |
We sneak over to the trailhead and start our way up the trail. We gain some elevation and get even better views of the marina below. Continuing on the trail, we hit another unexpected sight - large sand dunes. The trail ends at Ski Cove which is rather pretty.
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| Better View of Large Marina |
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| Tall Sand Dune |
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| Dune Reflection in Water of Ski Cove |
We wander this area for a few minutes but realize there is a trail that continues south past this cove. We keep going to see where it takes us. The walking is a bit of a challenge since it is a very sandy area and the trail isn't packed down. There is a fair amount of vegetation but we work our way over to water again. This time it is Davis Cove. There was a pontoon boat and two jet skis sitting on the shore. It wasn't really the kind of day most people would be out boating but there was a group of 8 or more people hiking up one of the dunes. The skipper was back with the boat and said they were out because it was his grand-daughter's birthday and she had picked a boat ride when asked what she wanted to do. I think the boat would have been okay, but doubt riding a jet ski was much fun in this weather. He tells us that all of these small coves will be packed with boats and people during the summer months. I suppose that would explain the several vault toilets we saw scattered along the shore here. They aren't needed in December but are a must come August.
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