The Crack in the Rock

While the town of Lake Havasu has lots of interesting places to visit, and dozens of great restaurants for eating, I was getting antsy sitting around the state park.  I found a brochure that mentioned a few hikes.  One, called Crack in the Rock caught my attention.  It looked to be about the correct length, five miles round trip, and enough of a challenge to be fun.  Wanda was a bit concerned about me doing it alone, but as she dropped me off at the trailhead , there were dozens of hikers there.  She was very happy to see that I wouldn’t be alone.  She had no clue they were all doing a group hike of another trail.

I checked the map, took a photo of it with my phone, and headed for the Crack. The day was hazy, and made for some lousy photos.

The trail began as nothing but a two track.

It wasn’t long before it entered a sandy wash.

 

Lot of interesting geology along the way.  Many seperate layers of mud, sand, and rock, laid down eons ago, tilted upward by forces we can only inagine.

Entering the Crack.

There was some boulder hopping, and a couple of tight spots.  The most intersting was this slide.  About twelve to fifteen feet high, I thought about it for a minute or so.  Then said to myself, what the heck.  Threw my hiking stick and backpack down.  Then I had no choice but to go on. I did cheat and use the rope.

Another interesting spot.  Glad someone carried that piece of ladder in there.

Finally made it to the lake.

A boating access campsite.

I took another route back to the trailhead.  Up, and over, rather than back up the wash.

That guy, again.  My hiking partner.

Looking down on folks after they have exited the crack, making their way toward Lake Havasu.

I made it safely back to the trailhead, and called Wanda to come pick me up.  Topped off the hike with a stop at IN-n-OUT Burgers for a Double Double, fries, and a chocolate shake….jc

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Q, and Havasu…

Friday, the nineteenth, found us leaving Lost Dutchman state park, making a Walmart stop for the things we had forgotten the day before, and heading for the Dome Rock area of Quartzite, AZ.  It didn’t take us long to locate our friends at our usual location.  There were only two Escape trailers there when we arrived, but by the time we were set up, and happy hour had arrived, the number had grown to the two Escapes, two Casitas, an Oliver, and a friend in a RoadTrek.

The main attraction in Quartzite this time of year is the Big Tent RV show.  Crowds on Saturday were awful, and Monday’s traffic and folks weren’t much better.

Honestly, I don’t know why we attend.  We hardly purchase anything, as most things can be found at Walmart or Amazon for the same price.  I think we and others use the show as an excuse to visit with friends we only see there each year. 

Another day, six of us decided to do a hike around Dome Rock.  Our leader deciding which fork to take.

Though there were six of us, we soon broke off into three distinct groups.

A few random pics.

That’s Dome Rock in the center.  It wasn’t easy to hike around just it, so we ecpanded our circle.  See those things on top?  We thought it was people at first.

Actually cairns stacked over six feet high.

Sunrise, and sunset from near our site.  Kofa mountains.

Our last evening, as we were visiting around the campfire, this tree caught my attention.  Though the sunset itself wasn’t much, I found the pattern of the tree interesting, and took this pic with my phone.

We’ve since moved up to Lake Havasu state park.  A nice site, with views of Lake Havasu (the Colorado River).

Nice sunsets here.

And there’s also a famous bridge.

The London Bridge was relocated here, beginning in 1968. Dismantled stone by stone in London, rebuilt here over dry land, and the channel dredged out to create an island in Lake Havasu.

It all began in 1963, when Robert McCullogh, of Mccullogh chain saw fame, first purchased property here. Development came quickly, and it’s now a thriving community.

I hope to have more on the area later.  Hope to take a hike or two.  A bit windy today, so staying close to home.

……jc

Tucson and Beyond

We left Cave Creek on Monday morning.  Traveled down to Douglas, then up through Bisbee and Tombstone to Benson.  We had planned to stop in Bisbee for a couple of hours, but there was nowhere to park.  The one vacant dirt lot that would accomadate a truck and trailer was blocked off, and signs were everywhere stating autos only, within the town.  After doing a couple of loops aroud a traffic circle, we gave it up and proceeded on toward Benson.  We have a dear friend that was at an Escapees park in Benson.   We wanted to spend some time with him before moving on to Tucson.

Benson is an old railroad town. Much like the town we live near.  The railroad was the backbone of the economy once upon a time.  Now Benson depends as much on the snowbirds that arrive each Winter as anything else.

It still has that old town feel.  The main street parallels the railroad, and most of the buildings date to ther early 1900’s.  Our favorite place there is the Horseshoe Cafe.  It dates back to the early 1930’s and still has the looks of an old 1950’s cafe.  Tables, stools, and booths; with a neon horseshoe on the ceiling.

Have you seen one of these, lately.  Each booth came equipped with one.  Judging from the price, I think it’s been awhile since it was used.

                       

We arrived at Gilbert Ray campground and spent five days there.  We did a couple of road trips. One up Mt. Lemmon and another toward Green Valley and Nogales.  That’s Tucson down there.

Some random pictures from around the campground.

                         

                             

We visited San Xavier Mission.  Founded in 1692.  Look it up. Amazing history.

We made it to Lost Dutchman state park near Apache Junction, AZ  There we met up again with Lynne and David. 

Lynne and I did a four mile hike to the “basin”.

                      

                   

The campground is down there somewhere.

We had friends that live in Apache Junction come out and prepare us all a delicious meal of pot roast and vegetables in the dutch oven.  It was absolutely delicious.  I intended to get a picture of the finished product before we dug in, “but”. It sure is nice to have friends in far places.

On another day we took the drive up to Tortilla Flat, and on beyond to the bottom of Fish Creek Canyon on Arizona Hwy 88.  If you look hard you can see the road hanging on the side of the mountain.

This is a very condensed version of our last ten days or so.  We move on toward Quartzite tomorrow.  On a side note; when we were visiting with our friend Ed in Benson, he said that he had some good friends staying in Lost Dutchman that he wanted us to meet.  Would you believe that in a campground of over 130 sites, we wound up parked next to each other.  We have really enjoyed visiting with Gaila. Dick is a long diatance hiker and Gaila dropped him off on a trailhead Tuesday morning, and he isn’t scheduled to be back before we leave Lost Dutchman tomorrow.  Hope we can meet up with them again someplace soon….jc