April-May 2018 Bullhead City, AZ

It was an interesting 10 days in Bullhead City, AZ in the northwest corner of the state.  Bullhead City is in the desert and right on the Colorado River.  On the other side of the river is Laughlin, NV.  There are 7-8 casinos on the river just across the bridge.  The town of Laughlin was built, for the most part, by Don Laughlin and he still owns several of the casinos.  The others are owned and operated by big corporations.  I was scouting Bullhead City as a possible retirement destination but I have now ruled it out.  There is not much going on there besides the casinos across the river and the golf courses are not anything to write home about.  

I did have a really good time there and the weather was great, except for a few days over 100 degrees, which is not uncommon for them, especially as the summer comes.  They will mostly be over 100 degrees every day throughout the summer.  

There are some interesting places to visit and hike near Bullhead City.  I went on many good long walks from the neighborhood where I was staying (it was a 5 minute walk to the river).  There was a really nice park along the river near me with a great walking trail.  

Here is the Huukan golf course

I had a nice hike near the Dam north of the city.  The dam forms Mojave Lake on one side and the Colorado River flows south on the other side.

Mohave Lake

Davis Dam

Colorado River (Bullhead City on left - casinos and Laughlin, NV on the right)

I did another hike to Grapevine Canyon at the base of Spirit Mountain in Nevada.  There are petroglyphs in the canyon at the base of the mountain.  This was a very sacred place for the Indians that inhabited the region.

The next day, I drove to Oatman, AZ, which is an old mining town near Bullhead City (about 30 minutes drive).  Oatman still has wild burros wandering in the streets and many shops and restaurants.  Clark Gable apparently spent the night in the Oatman hotel on his honeymoon.  Oatman is also on the original Route 66 path and was a stop for many travelers of that road.  The drive from Oatman to Kingman (about 40 minutes from Bullhead City) is very scenic.  

Kingman is also on the original Route 66 route.  I went to the Route 66 museum in Kingman and it was very interesting.  

Next, I went on a day trip to the Grand Canyon Caverns.  This was about 1.5 hours from Bullhead City.  It is very interesting and a totally dry cave on the western edge of the Grand Canyon.  There is a suite in the caverns that you can rent for ~900/night for a couple.  It presumably has paranormal activity down there (especially at night when it is totally dark).  

Before there was an elevator and paved path, Walter Peck, the guy who accidentally found the caverns, would lower people down (for a quarter) on a rope to see the cave (he called it "Dope on a Rope").

That wraps it up for my Bullhead City visit.  I am now in southern Utah and will write about the National Parks and hikes in that area next.