Up the Colorado River (Monday, September 21st, 2015)

Our friends Alan and Linda have friends in town from Colorado, so today we’re heading up the Colorado River from Lake Havasu.

As you’re leaving the lake on the north side, there are two entrances to the river, the one on the right is shallower, and as Alan says, “Trim her high and let her fly”. The other entrance, to the left of the cattails has been dredged to keep it deeper, but is a no wake zone, so it takes time to get through it. Since we had Alan’s friends with us, we went to the left and took our time getting into the river, which made all of them more comfortable.

Steve on the lookout, coming into the Colorado River from Lake Havasu

A View through the cattails, back towards Lake Havasu City.

We're finally up to speed in the river, with the other three boats following us.

Coming into Topock Gorge on the Colorado River.

A natural arch, visible from the river.

Topock Gorge in the distance.

Topock Gorge getting closer!

Topock Gorge, so peaceful as it is another no wake zone.

Topock Gorge

Topock Gorge

Once you get into the river, it gets deeper and easier to navigate. The drive up the river took us through Topock Gorge, which is rugged and gorgeous, with natural arches and sand dunes mixed in. About 25 miles up the river, we passed under the railroad tracks and the I-40 bridge between California and Arizona.





Just after going under the bridges, on the right is the entrance to Topock Marina and restaurant. I have talked about this Marina in an earlier post (July 29th, 2015). But if you keep going a little further, on your left is the entrance to the Pirate’s Cover Resort. Both of these marinas are accessible by car or boat. Pirates Cove is nice because it has really nice sandy beaches and boat slips, which are available to anyone using the restaurant, bar or store at the resort. They also built a huge zip line that goes across their marina, but we think that it was shut down for some reason, since we have never seen it in use, even on busy weekends. 

The river entrance to Pirates Cove, you can see the zip line tower in the distance

The marina at Pirates Cover with their cabins in the background.  The restaurant is off to the left

We all had lunch at the Pirate’s Cove Restaurant. Steve had a pulled pork sandwich and fries ($11.99), I had a hawaiian burger and fries ($10.99) and there was a $2.00 up charge if you wanted a side salad instead of the fries. Coors lights were $4.50 each, diet Cokes were $2.99 each, and a side salad without a meal was $5.99. 

After lunch, half of the group headed back to their camping spots on the lake and the other half of us headed over to Topock Marina, so they could see it. 

Coming back down the river.  You can see Topock Marina on the left before the bridges.

The river entrance to Topock Marina

We all had a drink in their salt water pool, and then headed back to the river. As we headed down the river there was a storm coming in, it got really rough in the river and as we got to Topock Gorge, it started to rain. The boat we were in with Alan and Linda is a fast, low profile boat that handles waves well, but doesn’t offer much in the way of protection from the elements. Their friends had a higher profile boat, but their bimini (sun cover) and the tube they had tied on the back were giving them trouble in the wind, so we headed back up the river to see if the squall would pass. At about 5:15pm we needed to make a call on what to do so that we could get out of the river before sundown. Navigating in the river after dark is really difficult, especially in a storm. So we decided to head back down the river toward the lake. Going through Topock Gorge was really rough, as the waves were white-capping, and coming directly at us, but once we got through the gorge, the wind calmed down, and the waves calmed down, and our ride back to the boat ramp was quite nice. We didn’t think there would be a sunset since there were so many clouds, but to our surprise, as we were loading the boat, we got to enjoy a wonderful sunset peeking out from under the clouds!

The sunset view from the boat

What in incredible day we had with everyone.  Special thanks to Alan and Linda for including us in this adventure!

The Bluewater Hotel and Casino (Sunday, September 20th, 2015)

Throughout New Mexico, Arizona and California there are indian reservations, and indian reservations can offer legal gambling. The Colorado River Indian Tribes have a resort and casino called the Blue Water, which is below the Parker Dam on the Colorado River. We've never stayed at it, but have found that they do have some interesting features in addition to the gambling.

Entrance to the Blue Water from highway 95

They have the best indoor pool we've ever seen!

A wake boarding park with a wench system, so no boats required

A wake boarder going over a jump

They have a great beach

This guy is controlling the wench system for the wake boarding park

The back of the Blue Water Resort looking across the wake board park.  They have really nice boat docks for their patrons to use while they are at the resort either staying over night or a short visit.

An casual outdoor restaurant at the Bluewater Resort

These are the wench systems.  Vendors were selling them at the Bluewater

One last picture of the wake board park.  You can see the wench cables and one of the cable towers

The Parker Strip (Sunday, September 20th, 2015)

The town of Parker, Arizona is south of Lake Havasu City on highway 95.  It is a small town, known mostly for the Colorado River and the entertainment that it provides.  

A few miles north of the actual town of Parker is an area on the river known as the Parker Strip.  There are quite a few bars on the Strip.  They can all be accessed by car, or by river.  Our favorite of the bars is called the Sundance.  The inside bar is well air conditioned, or if the weather is cooler, they have a ton of outdoor space on floating docks.

The entrance to the Sundance Saloon

The large outdoor floating dock.  The bridge in the foreground allows jet ski's to park in the protection of the floating dock.

an

Another outdoor seating area at the Sundance Saloon.  Nothing fancy, but shady with a great view of the river.

View up the river from the dock in the previous picture

View from the floating dock, back to the restaurant/bar

Our yummy lunch at Sundance Saloon, carne asada nachos for $7.50, and beers were $3.00.

Down the road from the Sundance Saloon is Fox's.  It is our friends Alan and Linda's favorite place on the Strip.  It is probably the most popular of all the bars on the Strip.

The entrance to Fox's is the hull of a flat bottom boat that used to belong to our friend Alan

The floating bar off to the left, and some of the boat docks at Fox's

A view of Fox's from up above

Look at the faces on the trees at Fox's

The next stop on the Parker Strip is the Road Runner.  It is another floating bar, and has the best graphics of all of the Parker Strip bars.

The sign on the road

Entrance to Road Runner

A sample of their cute graphics

View of the Colorado River from Road Runner

View of the Road Runner floating bar

The boat docks at Road Runners

Another view from Road Runners

Road Runner is crowded today

And the last, and definitely the nicest of the Parker Strip bars is the Thirsty Pirate.  It is more of a riverside bar with some seating on their floating dock.  Another fun option if you're on the Colorado River below the Parker Dam.

Another fun riverside bar and restaurant

Entrance to the Thirsty Pirate

And there are beautiful views of the river from everywhere on the Parker Strip, and unlike Lake Havasu City, you can build your house right on the river here.

There are houses everywhere on the Colorado River below the Parker Dam

We had a very fun day visiting all the various bars along the Strip and talking with lots of nice people.  Many were from the area with others coming from all over the United States.  Something we like to do once in a while if we don't have other plans or people are visiting us who have nec=ver seen the area.

Parker Dam (Saturday, September 19th, 2015)

Through the years we have been to several of the dams and reservoirs along the Colorado River, and are always amazed at the size of all of them. But today we decided to visit the Parker Dam just for something to do, and were amazed at the importance of Lake Havasu and this particular dam.

The Colorado River runs 1450 miles from the Rocky Mountains of Colorado to the Gulf of California and has a series of 15 dams on the main system of the Colorado River, and hundreds more on the tributaries. The Colorado River basin provides irrigation and drinking water sources for more than 35 million people in the desert southwest.

There are 5 major dams on the Colorado, the first of which is the Glen Canyon Dam that created Lake Powell, then the Hoover Dam for Lake Meade, the Davis Dam for Lake Mohave, and then the Parker Dam that created Lake Havasu, which stores 210 billion gallons of water, and has become a recreational highlight for the southwest.   

A view of Parker Dam from Lake Havasu

A view of Parker Dam showing the lake, the river below and the power generators

The claim to fame of the Parker Dam is that it is the deepest dam in the world. It is 328 feet high, 235 feet of which are below the river bed. It was started in 1934 and completed in 1938.

A view of Parker Dam from the river below

A view from the top of the dam, looking down the Colorado River

The hydroelectric generators

When you look at the Parker Dam, it looks quite insignificant, but it is the headway for the Colorado River Aquaduct which supplies water to almost all cities in the Los Angeles, San Bernadino and San Diego areas. It is also the water source for the Central Arizona Aquaduct which provides irrigation and drinking water to several Arizona communities including Phoenix and Tucson. Most of the water that runs beyond the Parker Dam in the Colorado River is captured by the Imperial Dam that provides irrigation water to the Imperial Valley of California, one of the most productive farming valleys in the United States.