The new adventures of Patti and Marty: Monday Ride 2/19/18. Back to the California Side.

Background.

On Friday 2/9/18 we took a ride to the California side of the river north of Parker to do some exploring. That ride opened up several possibilities for future rides.
We decided for this Monday 2/19/18 ride we would go back to that area.

Getting Started.

We met at the fire station at 8:30. It was a very cold and windy morning.
Once everyone arrived we headed north to Parker, AZ where we stopped to top off the gas tanks.
The last time we did this trip we all were close to empty by the time we got back to Parker. This time we all brought extra gas cans to make sure we had enough to do some exploring.

At Parker, we crossed the river and turned west on 62 toward Vidal Junction, CA.

Here we turned north and drove about 30 miles up US 95 to the road that goes to the Havasu Landing Casino. Here we headed east.

Nice views of mountains to the north.

Just before the casino we turned south on the small power line road. This is the same road that we came out on the last time.

We stopped here to air down then headed south on the trail. We can see Lake Havasu from the trail.

We went through the slot that Johnie came up the last time we were here.

Looking for a Particular Canyon.

The last time we were here we saw a couple of canyons that looked like they would be interesting to explore so we were trying to find them on this trip.
The problem is we were going in the opposite direction so everything looked different.

We drove up and down the hills.

And zig-zaged along the ridge tops.

We crossed the chalk lands.

Fortunately with the high winds, the dust we churned up was blown away so we could see each other.

We stop for a break in the chalk hills.

We were crossing a wide wash…

when we came to a trail going to the right in the wash so we followed it to see if it went into one of the canyons we saw last time.

We followed the wash.

After a mile or so the trail left the wash and climbed out of the canyon.

Looking down the side as we climbed we saw this rocky gorge. Patti and I thought that it may have been one of the canyons we saw before but it looked like it would not be navigable by jeep.

City by the Lake.

At several places we got views of Lake Havasu City across the lake. This view always blows my mind; it is hard to realize that Havasu City is so large. It almost looks like we were looking across the San Francisco Bay.

Yes, those are all houses and it is only a small part of the city.

Back in the Canyons and Burros.

We dropped back into another canyon.

Coming out the other side of the canyon we saw our first Burro’s of the day.

On the other side of the hill we saw a bunch more.

They all look pretty healthy.

A Cold Lunch Break.

Around noon we found a flat spot for lunch.

We circled the jeeps to try and block the wind but it didn’t help much. It was to cold to sit around and BS so as soon as we were finished eating we loaded up and left there.

Back on the Trail.

We got back on the trail and followed the ridges for a few miles.

The trail is taking us toward the rocky hills to the west.

A Beautiful View.

We came around a corner and were treated to a beautiful view of rugged mountains.

A little farther along the trail we see another view.

A Rocky Wash.

We dropped into a rocky wash…

and followed it for a while.

We drove along some nice red cliffs.

We exited the wash on the left side.

This was probably the roughest part of the whole trip and it only lasted for about a hundred yards.

The Main Power Line Road.

When we exited the wash we came to the main power line road. This is one of the trails that we wanted to explore. You can see one of the towers on the ridge.