Lake Havasu City, AZ

SUN., NOV 27, 2022 thru WED., NOV 30, 2022

On Sunday we traveled 272 miles mostly across I-40W from Cottonwood AZ to Lake Havasu State Park. It was an interesting drive thru flat lands and mountainous terrain. We climbed 4,000 ft and descended 6,500 ft in one section! Now we’re about 700 ft above sea level.

The campground has 52 campsites close to the lake. Beautiful setting! 

Lake Havasu is the most visited lake in Arizona. Formed by Parker Dam on the Colorado River, it’s 45 miles long with over 450 miles of shoreline. It’s located on the border between Southern California and Arizona. After setting up, Cheryl and I took a long walk on ”the beach” which is across from our campsites and caught a beautiful sunset. In addition we saw a few lighthouses. Lake Havasu City is home to more replica lighthouses than any other city in the country. It’s a thing here. There are 27 lighthouses. Thirteen are accessible by land, the others must be seen via boat. We saw a few of them but opted not to spend money for the rather expensive boat tour. 

Monday, Nov. 28th, the pod visited the London Bridge in Lake Havasu City. It’s the second biggest tourist attraction in Arizona after the Grand Canyon! Who knew?!

England’s London Bridge has gone through various iterations over the centuries. The London Bridge now residing in Lake Havasu City was completed in 1831 but by 1924 the east side of the bridge was 3-to-4 inches shorter then the west side. It wasn’t originally designed to withstand the impact of 20th century traffic. In 1967, the city of London put the bridge on the market. The winning bid was Robert P. McCulloch (founder of McCulloch chainsaws and founder of Lake Havasu City). He bought it for $2,460,000. Each block (10,246 of them) was meticulously numbered before the bridge was disassembled. The blocks were shipped here and the bridge was reassembled and dedicated in 1971. Total cost for everything was $5.1 million. Contrary to the one in England, this bridge can handle 21st century traffic just fine. 

A cool experience to walk across it and some of the views from the bridge were worthy of a postcard. The bridge is home to hundreds of bats who inhabit the nooks and crannies of its hollow interior. It’s also home to two ghosts… a British police bobby patrolling the bridge and a woman in black roaming at night. As one friend pointed out, it’s interesting that the ghosts from London came over with the bridge! 

There’s a small museum near the bridge with information about the re-construction as well as an original ornamental gate outside from Witley Court in Worcester, England. Witley Court was home of the Earl of Dudley before he fell into financial difficulties. 

After visiting the London Bridge we stopped for ice cream and enjoyed another beautiful sunset over Lake Havasu. 

Tuesday, Nov. 29th, we hiked 3 miles on Sunset Trail and visited a Cactus Garden… all at the state park. A fun hike! The cactus garden had a Saguaro Cactus. They can grow to 50 ft high and live up to 200 years. They start growing arms at 50 years old. The cactus garden also had a Pancake Prickly Pear Cactus. They have thin pads and grow at angles so only the thinnest side of the pad is exposed to the sun. All this to reduce water loss. We capped off the day with a campfire at sunset. 

This day also marked our 3rd year Anniversary of being full-time RVers. Best decision ever! Gary and I would not change a thing. Our goal when we began this lifestyle was to see the country… we are slowly doing that bit-by-bit. Even better, we’re being joined by so many family and friends along the way including the fabulous Hannafords this past year! 

Thus far on our 3-year journey, we’ve visited 16 National Parks, towed 34,000 miles, and stayed in 140 different campgrounds. We’ve been on an airboat, a rafting trip, jeep tours, canyon tours, trams, boats and a train. We’ve been in the middle of a hot air balloon festival… twice! We’ve biked miles but hiked more miles. 

We’ve been blown away by our National Parks but more blown away by the unexpected beauty of so many state parks. We’ve been brought to tears by gems like Lake Powell, or seeing hundreds of nesting egrets, or stumbling upon a high school girl playing piano at the majestic Baylor Library, or being able to climb into a cliff dwelling at Bandolier National Monument. 

Yes, we’ve had breakdowns on the road and experienced some scary storms, but those hardships are minor in comparison to all the fabulous adventures we’ve enjoyed. We are so looking forward to our next year!

Wednesday we move on to California for a month’s stay outside of Palm Springs… stay tuned!