Our Visit to Oatman, Arizona

October 11, 2010, Bill Williams River NWR

Today we took a long ride out to Oatman, Arizona in the northwest corner of the state. The ride took us along Historic Route 66 from I-40 north. We were both surprised that Route 66 was so narrow, twisty and hilly. In fact there were signs indicating that trucks over 40 ft. were not allowed. 

It's a beautiful drive through the desert. After about 80 miles of driving from Parker, Az we finally arrived at Oatman and the tiny visitor center on the outskirts of town. After getting a little history lesson we found a place to park our Jeep on the north end of main street in the quant old town and began our walking tour. This leg of the former Route 66 is now called Oatman Rd., the main street through town.

One of the first things you see are the Wild Burros standing in the street. In fact when driving through town we had to wait till the burros let us pass. Oatman is famous for the burros.

Oatman was once a gold mining town. The town has a rich (in gold) history to include a fire in 1921 that destroyed many of the original buildings. Shortly thereafter the largest mine near the town shut down and by the 1940's all the mines were shut down. Oatman was able to survive however by catering to motorists and tourists because fortunately for the town, Route 66 passed through the center of the town. This kept the town alive till the early 50's when Oatman was bypassed by Interstate 40.

Oatman nearly died once the interstate opened. However, enterprising parties turned the town into a tourist attraction thanks to the wild burros that frequent the town for handouts and the renewed interest in Historic Route 66.

Built in 1902, the Oatman Hotel survived the fire of 1921 and is the oldest adobe structure in Mohave County. We ate lunch in the hotel on the first floor in a room with dollar bills stapled all over the walls.

Although "wild" the burros appeared to be very tame as they walked up on the porches and pressed visitors for treats of carrots. Most of the shops sold burro treats. The burros are not shy and will trot up to you and check your purse and / or pockets if they think you have treats or anything in your hands.

Looking down Historic Route 66 from the perspective of a burro.

The story goes that the burros are descendants of those belonging to the old miners that were let loose after the mines closed. 

After leaving Oatman, we continued north and east towards Kingman on Historic Route 66 again enjoying the twisting switchbacks of this scenic road as we climbed to Sitgreaves Pass at 3550 feet before descending towards the valley and Kingman, AZ.

From Sitgreaves Pass looking southwest towards Oatman

Just before reaching Kingman we jumped on I-40 West and then turned south headed back towards Parker, AZ and the Bill Williams River NWR. It was good long drive and worth the trip!

Wild Burros and Our Sara Park Hike

October 6, 2010. Bill Williams River, NWR

I'm finally able to update my blog with pictures after my 20 gigabyte upgrade to Picasa Web took affect. You may recall that Picasa Web is the site used for storing Google Blogger photos.

I had wanted to upload in the previous post, pictures of this Wild Burro (donkey) we saw on the side of the road near the Parker Dam (on the California side of the Colorado River).

Wild Burros feed on a variety of of plants, including grasses, Mormon Tea, Palo Verde and Plantain. Although some moisture is provided by these plant materials, Wild Burros must have drinking water throughout the year. They can usually be seen foraging for food during daytime, except for summers, when they will forage only at night and in the early morning.

Wild Burros range through a wide variety of desert habitats as long as they are within 10 miles of drinking water.

This area on California Hwy 62 is known for the Wild Burros that roam the mountains and come down to the road for treats of carrots and apples from motorists. We saw a group of four up on the hillside today while out for a drive.

Yesterday, the weather was absolutely beautiful with a morning low of 70 and a high of 85. We decided to take a hike in Sara Park which is just south of Lake Havasu City. 

The park is full of various trails. The main trail is through a wash leading to a narrow slot canyon.

The further down the wash you travel the narrower it gets. Large rocks block the path requiring some scampering and stretching! This area of the park is known by the locals as Sara's Crack due to the narrow slot canyon and pink coloration. Just use your imagination!

At one point our forward progress was halted by this 8 ft drop. Apparently some hikers slide down the rock. However, it's very difficult to get back out this way. I was told that at this time of year it's possible to kinda get stuck if you decide to slide in. Although hikers can normally continue to hike out of the canyon further in, there could be standing water up to chest deep that hikers would have to get through to get out. This area had heavy rain just a couple of days ago!

So, we turned around and climbed up a trail over the side of the canyon for this great view of Lake Havasu.

After a few hours of hiking it was time to head back to the Jeep and then into town. We had a great time at Sara Park and plan to return and check out some of the other trails another day.

Just Catching up

October 4, 2010 Bill Williams River NWR

Road Runner

Again it’s been a few days since I wrote. Part of the problem is that our Verizon MiFi connection is very weak and non-existent most of the time. After my last post, I got a message from Blogger the Google site I use for writing the blog:

Whoops! You're out of space. You are using 100% of your 1 GB quota for photos.Purchase more storage

Photos are stored in your Picasa Web Albums account and are included in your 1 GB free quota for photos. Additional storage you purchase is shared between Gmail, Picasa Web Albums, and Google Docs, and is in addition to your free quota.Learn more 

The message indicated that I had used 100% of my free 1 gigabyte of Picasa Web picture storage. Subsequently my only option if I wanted to continue to upload pictures, was to buy more space, a minimum of 20 gigabytes for $5 a year. It's suppose to take 24 hrs. to renew but apparently it's taking longer. That's why there's no pictures today.

Our new volunteer neighbors had arrived by the time we got home. They were lucky to have 3 days to get settled before starting to work. You may recall we went to work the day after we arrived. They are much older than us but seem to be nice people. They began their first day in the work rotation today. 

Saturday evening we had Nicki and our new neighbors over for dinner in our rig as we watched the Florida Gators vs. Alabama. Unfortunately The Gators suffered a defeat. We had the chance to say our final goodbyes to Nicki and wished her well in her new job in Colorado. She’s since called and told us that she had made it safely to Colorado.

Tonight we’ve had some storms roll into the area around us. So far no rain here at the refuge but we’ve had some rain and lightning in the area.