February 28 – 29, 2012 Busy Two Days Playing Tourist

February 28, 2012 – Road Trip Day – :-)

The Parker Dam Road from Earp to Parker Dam is part of the Parker Strip Scenic Byway managed by the Bureau of Land Management.  Although there are many private campgrounds and business where the land is leased from the BLM, there is also many public areas managed by the BLM.  So today we wanted to check out some of those areas.

There are two campgrounds on the strip that honor the Golden Age Pass – one has no services but it is in the trees and right by the river.  The other has some services as well as showers, etc. and camping is in the open and on pavement.   There are also a number of day use areas for picnicking or boat launch – some free and some have a fee.

Our CRA membership allows us to camp for free for two weeks and then we must leave the park for a week (or pay a fee for a week) and then we could return for free for another two weeks.  That is one of the reasons we checked out those campgrounds.  The one that has no services would be only $2.50 per day to camp and we could come back to the CRA park for anything else we would need.  (Sounds like a good deal to me.)

So with that out of the way, we took advantage of some of this incredible scenery along the way.

 

 

At we turned into one of the day use areas, here is what we saw:

 

How delightful!  (Those who know me can just imagine how excited I was to see these wild creatures – :-)).  These burros are descendents of the burros that were lost and/or abandoned by the miners.  The herds are now managed by the BLM.  Aren’t they the cutest.

As we approached Parker Dam, we saw the turnoff for Black Meadow Landing so off we went to check it out.  The road is 10 miles thru the Chemehuevi Mountains and the scenery, oh my! 

 

At this point, the lines on the road disappeared and the road became much rougher – a new adventure – :-):

 

Another nice surprise:

 

We watched him for a long while until his went on his journey and we continued on ours:

Spring has come to the desert:

And we arrived at Black Meadows Landing which consisted of a motel, RV Park, store, restaurant, boat launching area, a golf course, and more incredible scenery:

Quail by the restaurant where we had a great lunch:

 

A nice place for a picnic:

In the center of this photo is a white speck.  When we were at the steps two weeks ago, we walked to the top of the hill and found that RV – he is still there.

By the golf course, we saw two burros and stopped.  I said hello to them and they came over to see us (of course the window went up real quick – LOL!)

Our return trip to the Parker Strip Byway – this is  Gene Wash Reservoir:

Check out these palms growing in this area:

Our final stop was the Parker Dam:

 

The Parker Dam is the deepest dam in the world.  It is 320 feet high, 235 feet of which are below the riverbed.  It’s primary functions are to create a reservoir on the Colorado (Lake Havasu) and to generate hydroelectric power.   Very Impressive!

We were able to stop on both the Arizona and California sides and take pictures but since 9/11, there is no tours. 

Lake Havasu:

 

The power plant has four turbines. Half of the electricity the plant produces is used by the Metropolitan Water District to pump water along the Colorado River Aqueduct, and the rest is sold to utilities in California, Arizona and Nevada. The generation of power is limited by a requirement to keep the water level of Lake Havasu between 440 to 450 feet (134 to 137 meters) for recreational purposes.

Downstream from the Dam:

Upstream from the dam:

Notice the clearness of the water:

What a great road trip and another great day in Paradise!

February 29, 2012 – Geocaching, Kayaking, and Lake Havasu

We started out this morning by finding two more geocaches – YEA!  We were told that there were Leap Day Events all over the world and a record was trying to be set for the most number of people geocaching in one day.  We did not make one of the events but we hopefully helped make that record.

Back home, we took the kayak out on the river and then explored more of those canals.  I brought my camera and took pictures BUT they were not there when I went to download.  The batteries ran out and they disappeared – Bummer…  (But then it was a cheap camera!).

Later this afternoon, we decided to go to Lake Havasu to check out the other CRA park that we hope to stay at next season (pretty nice!) and then had supper at the Elks there – still the best ribs I ever ate!.

Another great day!