We take a side road this morning called the Old National Trail, to visit Amboy Crater National Natural Landmark. This is the old Route 66 through the desert.
We walk some of the trail to the crater - desert and a few wild flowers, lots of volcanic rock.
The crater is formed of ash and cinders and is about 250 feet high. This is one of the youngest volcanic fields in the US. They estimate that volcanic activity in this part of the world began about 6,000 years ago and ended just about 500 years ago.
Again we see a lot of trains paralleling the highway.
About 11:15 we cross back into Arizona and head south on 5S to Lake Havasu City. This is a young city which formed after the damming of the Colorado River in the 1930's. The lake water is then pumped into two major aqueducts - the Central Arizona Project Aqueduct and the Colorado River Aqueduct which feed the Sonoran and Mojave Deserts. Like most water in this area, it attracts people as well as animal and bird life.
We stop at the local library for a few hours, where Greg catches up on what's been happening in the world while Beth does some computer and blog work. Nice folks - good wifi! Then we decided to do some laundry at the Modern Laundromat, which was pretty painless!
With lots of fishing and boating activity, much of the Lake is pretty well edged with homes and resorts. The former home of the Mohave Indians, the lake is named with their word for "blue".
In 1967, the London Bridge which spanned the Thames since the 1830's was purchased, disassembled, and rebuilt in Lake Havasu. It has become quite a tourist attraction (which was the idea) with lots of shops and restaurants, many with a British theme.
Stopped at Cattail Cove State Park near the southern end of the lake but their campground was full. They wanted $20 to park in an overflow parking lot, so we decided to find a spot on BLM (Bureau of Land Management)property instead, just off highway 95. The ranger at the park tells us where to look. There is a lot of BLM property in this part of the world and we stopped at a nice flat area where we saw a few other campers. Since this land technically belongs to the American people, much of it is available for anyone to use. Occasionally there are low cost established campgrounds, but much is just wide open spaces.
Amazing sunset highlights the mountains in vibrant orange. Pretty purple flowers and some pretty cool rocks for our collection too. Peaceful night.
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