LHC Friends Come to Visit: Hiking, Boating and Cliff Jumping (April 19th, 2016)

We had the pleasure of a visit from some of our Colorado friends in Havasu.  It is always such a treat when friends come to visit!

As they were leaving Colorado, they encountered a heavy spring snow storm near Walsenburg, Colorado, that slowed them down a bit, 

A nice spring snow in Colorado as our friends were trying to leave Colorado for their Grand Canyon Tour Trip.

but once they made it to Havasu, the weather was perfect and they had lots of choices of things to do. 

They had one full day to spend with us, so we gave them the list of things they might want to see or do. Their top two choices were boating and hiking, so we decided on a morning hike (while it's still cool) and boating in the afternoon. They thought that the "Crack in the Mountain" trail sounded fun, so off we went!  

This hike is really fun because it has a lot of typical desert walking, but also includes the narrows (or crack) that add a little interest as you head down to the lake.

Rick and Karen starting out on our hike

Heading into the narrows

Rick doing the small repel to get through the narrows

Karen's turn

And finally Steve

Steve photo-bombed us!

Enjoying the shade of the narrows

This big rock in the narrows caused Karen a climbing!

But it gave Steve an idea...bull riding the safe way!

When we finally got down to the lake, we immediately had some guests who came looking for a handout.

Time to head back!

Our usual stop for emptying out shoes

We were hoping to run into the desert big horns so we took the high trail on our way back, but no luck. Bummer!  All we saw were a couple of good sized lizards (9 to 11 inches).

Then back home for some lunch and cooler packing and then off again to the lake.  We made a quick stop at the boat shop to show Rick and Karen some of the big boats that live in Havasu.  This one was a 38 foot Skater if I remember correctly.  The owner of the shop was heading to lunch when we arrived but was so nice he opened up the shop back up so we could take a quick peek!

Then on to the lake for a trip under the London Bridge.

A stroll through the channel

A little rip around the lake

When we pulled into Copper Canyon, Steve asked Rick if her wanted to do some cliff jumping.  Rick said he loved to, so we dropped him off.

And up he went!

And off he went!

When Rick got back in the boat, he said he thought we were all going to jump.  I guess we should have been more clear.  Our cliff jumping days are over.  Oops!  But he said that he really enjoyed it, even though he was all alone and the water was a bit cool!

Then we took them over the the cove that we had hiked to earlier in the day so they could see it from the lake.

After a nice afternoon of boating around the lake, we all headed back to the house to clean up, and then headed to one of our favorite breweries in town called Mudsharks, where we had a nice healthy dinner before calling it a night.  We hope that Rick and Karen enjoyed their short stay with us, and got a nice taste of what Lake Havasu has to offer.

As an update, they headed back to Colorado a few days later after visiting other areas in Arizona and Utah and ran into a snow storm on Vail pass as they were trying to get home. 

There is quite a difference between the weather here and there. Glad we are able to spend spring here for now, and glad they had the opportunity to join us and thaw out for a few days before heading back to the snow.