Queen Valley to Mojave

During our last few days in Queen Valley, the temperatures were well into the 100s, but no humidity made it somewhat comfortable. That’s what’s great about Arizona, it’s a dry heat after all!! Plus, we had the Air Conditioners on (grin).

We left Queen Valley on May 10 (Sunday) and had an uneventful trip through Phoenix. We traveled west on I-10, then north on highways 72/62/95 through Parker and Needles and arrived the AVI RV/Casino (KOA Park) at 2 pm. At that point, the temperature was 97, but quickly hit 102 (whew). Thankfully, by that time we had the ACs on (both of them) and were very comfortable. The rest of the afternoon was spent cleaning in and outside the coach. That evening, we were too tired to cook in, so we drove across the river to Bullhead City and had a relaxing dinner.

Monday, the 11th, we got up early (a glorious cool 73 degrees). One great thing about being near a casino is the great inexpensive cafés and restaurants (grin). We didn’t want to cook in, so went for breakfast at the AVI Casino’s Café. Our breakfast was huge and not expensive! After eating, we were stuffed and needed to work it off, so off we went to the hills for some off roading and hiking to caches. As the day wore on, it got way too hot to continue (101 at 1pm). By that time we had found 11 caches and hiked enough to wear ourselves out, so quit and headed back to coach. We were wise enough to have turned the air conditioners on, so things were nice and cool. The temperature that day hit a high of 103 at the Bullhead City Airport, but we recorded 105 on the coach’s thermometer. It was again way too hot to cook in, so drove back to Bullhead City and had dinner at the Black Bear Diner.

Tuesday, May 12, was going to be even warmer, so we left the coach early, and after grabbing a quick breakfast at McDonalds, we drove about 20 miles east to Oatman.

This is a fun, historic town in the hills on old Route 66 that is a living Ghost Town. The biggest draw to Oatman is a herd of “wild” burros, that really aren’t that wild anymore. The herd is several generations old, and are protected and under the control of the forest service. These “begging” burros are seen all around town waiting to be fed carrots from the visitors. They actually were at the entrance of town when we saw them, and in the middle of the road, so we had to drive around them in order to get into town.

We walked from one end of the town to the other and then back again, going into every souvenir shop. We even had some homemade ice cream while watching a robbery/shootout in the middle of town (great fun).

Naturally, we cached on the way to Oatman, in Oatman, and on the way back to coach from Oatman. Yay, we found 17 caches! A few of those caches were off road (some 4 wheel drive roads) and involved some uphill scrambling. Some were pretty easy and close to where we parked. One was actually in a shop in the town of Oatman (that was fun!)

As we left the mountains, the temps rose to 105 degrees. While in the hills, we were warm/hot, but there was a nice breeze…..that just was not so in Bullhead City.