Background.
Last year we did some rides on the California side of the Colorado River. I noticed that one of the trails we were on was the Parker to Needles Wagon Road.
I decided that Monday we would follow the Wagon Road and see where it went.
Getting Started.
We had to go to Parker, AZ where we will cross the Colorado River so we met at the Fire Station at 9:00
There were three jeeps; Sue and Denis, Jo Ann and Dave and Patti and I.
On the Road.
We were on the road by 9:00 heading north on AZ 95.
We crossed the river and turned west on CA 62. About 6.5 miles from the intersection at Earp, CA we turned north onto The Wagon Road.
Here, we aired down the tires.
Once we were all aired down we headed out the Wagon Road.
There are some nice views along the way.
The first part of the day we drove through the same area as when we were here last year.
We passed this sign indicating that the trail might end up at the Casino on the California side of Lake Havasu, or at least the road that goes to the casino.
A lot of the trail is deep soft gravel so the ATV’s have made speed bumps along the whole way. ATV’s traveling at high speed leave deep bumps like washboard but deeper and farther apart. It makes for a very bumpy ride for the jeeps and you have to go very slow.
You can’t really see the bumps here but they are there.
A Hawk.
Further along the trail we saw this nice big Hawk.
We came to a place where the Wagon Road goes east across the flats toward US Highway 95 and another trail goes west toward some interesting looking rocky hills.
I decided to take the right fork as it looked more interesting.
We stopped to check out this rocky hill with lots of caves.
We wandered around here for a little while.
There were a lot of small caves but none were inhabited by critters that we could find.
Lunch.
We left here and drove about a mile down the trail. It was Noon by then so we pulled off the road to have lunch.
After lunch we continued along the trail enjoying the scenery.
The whole day we have been skirting the Whipple Mountains Wilderness area.
I swear, every pile of rocks out here has been designated a wilderness area. If you are too old and infirmed to hike or not rich enough to have horses you can forget going into the mountains in this desert.
As we drove along we noticed a bunch of Wild Burros running through the bushes.
Patti got a picture of this mom and baby stopping for a breather.
Eventually the Burros ran off into the desert and we continued our ride toward the rocky hills.
Suddenly we came to this fenced off area and stopped to find out what it was.
We drove in and found a kiosk with a map…
and some information about the area.
Apparently the area is a wild horse and burro refuge.
Rock Art.
We left the kiosk and continued along the trail. Not far from the kiosk we came to a large rock that was fenced off.
I noticed a sign that said there were petroglyphs here so we stopped to take a look.
Here are some of the glyphs.
The power line road and airing up.
Not far from the Petroglyphs we came to a power line road going north so we turned onto it.
The Power line road took us to the highway that goes between the casino to US 95. When we got to the pavement we aired up for the drive home.
From here we could see Lake Havasu and Lake Havasu City across the lake.
Going Home.
After airing up we headed for home.
We got to our place at 4:00. At 4:30 we went to The Grubstake Saloon for fish and chips with Jo Ann, Dave, Sue and Dennis.
It was a good day and a good meal.
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