Wrapping Up Our First Winter — Part 2, Lake Havasu City

Just when we thought we couldn’t find a place we liked as much as our spot alongside the Colorado River, we discovered Lake Havasu City. While our free spot south of the city was one of the ATV areas, fortunately the noise and dust were mostly limited to daytime hours, so we were still able to settle in and call it home for a little over two weeks.

As I sit here reminiscing and looking at photos I realize we did so many fun things, I will need to do “Part 2” in two parts. Here’s the first installment…

Lake Havasu City is a winter wonderland — of the escape-to-the-sunshine variety — for the wealthy. It also attracts college students looking for a respite from their cold climates during Spring Break. From SARA Park (Special Activities and Recreation Area) to the numerous ATV areas as well as the lake and canal under London Bridge, people are outside enjoying the fabulous “winter” weather.

The city may be most well known for London Bridge and the waterway below. We drove over the famous structure, danced under it, biked across it and explored the beaches of the canal it spans.

London Bridge was disassembled in England, shipped transatlantic and then re-assembled in its new home in Arizona.

Several vendors, shops and restaurants line the canal.

We danced (when no one else was dancing — I LOVE that about Jim!) to the serenading trumpeter under the bridge. People clapped and oohed and awwed and when we strolled back through later on, others were following suit.

Lake Havasu City has more lighthouses than any other city in the U.S. They are fully functional but built to 1/3 scale.

Biking across the bridge to the island district.

At the end of our ride, we treated ourselves to lunch on the balcony. I could get used to this!

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As you might have guessed, it wasn’t long before we hit the trails. For our first adventure, Jim chose the Crack in the Mountain Trail, a 5-mile trail that was designated for hiking *or* mountain biking so, since we hadn’t had the bikes out for a while, we chose to pedal. The trail started out in a wash as usual, but what we encountered further in was beyond amazing.

Around a bend, we spotted a long horn sheep on the rocks above.Soon we noticed she was joined by a lamb.

We watched as mama soared through the air, landing far below and leaving her little one to figure out how to get down from the high ledge. It seemed impossible to us.

We turned our heads for just a moment and when we looked back, we were disappointed to see we had missed the little guy’s courageous leap and both were scampering away. What an amazing privilege to witness these animals in their natural habitat!

And then came the rocks on the trail…

I guess we missed the sign for a cut-off that said “bikes this way”?

Abort! Abort! Finally, I’d had enough of carrying my bike so I suggested we lock them together and continue on foot.

And just in time! Notice the rope on the left? That’s how we get the bottom 8-10′ below. We found out later, this is the beginning of what the local’s call “Sara’s Crack”.

Jim went first and, of course, handled it like a pro. But, he warned me that the rocks
were *super* slippery.

Even though I have never done any repelling, I wasn’t afraid. I did, however, lose my footing on the extremely slick rock face and banged up my shoulder a bit. No worries though, I hung on, recovered and made it to the bottom AND back up easily on the way out.

Just another half mile or so of obstacles — including a lethargic rattle snake (yikes!) — and we hoped to find the lake at the end of the trail, as promised.

Our first glimpse of the water.

What a beautiful cove!Just after I caught this pose, Jim dove in…sunglasses and all. He then had to dive several times before finally recovering his favorite shades. (Sadly, none of the pictures of him during or after the diving turned out.)

Yes, the water was c-o-l-d! But I did it!
We ate our lunch on the shore and then headed back. (Believe it or not, that is water in the Bud Light bottle. We later bought *real* water bottles.)
We were happy to see we would have more shade — and hopefully no snakes — on the return portion of our hike. Now he’s just showing off!Our bikes were just where we left them. We walked/carried them back the way we came.

We finally found a portion of trail that took us up on the ridge where we could actually ride back to our BBT.

We were tired but it was an amazing day!

I’ll stop here for now. Stay tuned for more of Lake Havasu City…