HUALAPAI BRUNCH

We had our annual brunch at the Hualapai Resort this morning.  It was a nice group and nobody went hungry.  Unfortunately, Arizona has passed a new law that prohibits the feeding of the Elk.  That was always a big part of the visit in past years to see the bunch of Elk that would be right outside the windows of the restaurant.  There weren't any this year because there wasn't any food for them.  It was still a pretty drive to the restaurant and the mountain scenery was great.  A few pictures.

This resort is in the Hualapai Park.  They have several cabins to rent as well as the restaurant.

This is the group. From the left, Pat, Lenie, Becky, Patrick, Wayne, Diane, Erin and Ilene.

This is a very nice Elk mount that was in the restaurant area.

This was a Deer mount hanging over the fireplace in the restaurant.

Mountain view from the restaurant.

Another mountain view.

Patrick

TOPOCK BOAT TRIP

Today Jim Johnson, Ilene Haavisto, Pat and I took the Colorado river boat trip from Lake Havasu through the Topock Gorge and on to Pirates Cove for Lunch.  We took this same trip last year and it was still an enjoyable ride and a lot of nice sights. The following are the pictures for the day.

This is a picture of the canal from the boat dock out into the lake.

The end of the canal and the start of the lake is by the lighthouse in the lower center of the picture.

The mountains in the picture are called the Needles.  A later picture will show them from the other side.

They have a problem here with feral pigs and they are using helicopters to fly over the area and shot as many of them as they can to keep the size of the herd down.  This is one of the copters at work.

This is Steamship Rock.  The steamships used it to tie up over night so they didn't have to go through Topock gorge in the dark which was very dangerous.  During the flooding season, before the current dams were built, the rock would be under water and couldn't be used to tie up.

This is the jet boat from Laughlin that makes a round trip tour to Lake Havasu.   It is an all day trip.

This is the boat we were in today.  It is a jet drive boat with twin engines and jet drives.

There are the cabins at Pirates cove that can be rented.

This is the Pirates Cove restaurant where we ate lunch.

Advertising sign for Pirates Cove.

Here are the Needles mountains again from the other side.

This Coyote was our wild life sighting for the trip.

This is the Chiefs Eye in Topock Gorge.  If you were traveling down river and saw the eye of the chief, you would have safe travels.  If you couldn't see the eye there was danger for you ahead.  This was the story told by the Steam ship captains that traveled the river back in the 1800's.  

Wonder how much longer this rock will still be in place.

Another rock that may come down soon.

I just liked this rock.  It was a different color than all the rock around it and it was right on the edge of the river.

This is the praying Chief.  You can see his hands folded together in the bottom left of the picture.

Just a scenery shot.

These are the Indian Petroglyphs that are suppose to be around 3500 years old.  They are on the rocks along the river.

Another shot of the Indian art.

Another one which was right at the rivers edge.

Just about back to the dock.  London Bridge in the background.

Here is the crew, Ilene, Jim, Pat and Patrick

A shot of Pat sitting by a very nice fountain that we went past on the way back to the car.

Patrick

CASINO BOAT

We took the boat over to the casino on the California side of Lake Havasu today.  We were joined by our friends Ilene and Diane,  It was a nice day for the boat ride.  The casino was as usual.

This is the boat that leaves from the casinos in Laughlin Nevada and comes to Lake Havasu on the Colorado river..  It is an all day tour.  They have a two hour layover here in Lake Havasu and then return to Laughlin.  They were just coming in on today's tour at 12:30.  We plan on taking the tour later this winter.

Diane, Pat and Ilene.

Front of the casino boat coming in to land.

Side view of the casino boat.

Just about to the landing.

Patrick

AZ Trip, Day Three

About 50 miles west of Albuquerque, NM, Pat took over the wheel and got us on down the road.  I got out my camera and started taking pictures as I saw things that looked interesting.  Mostly landscape shots.  I took 28 pictures covering the area from when Pat took over to Kingman AZ.  I have cut the group down to 18 that are mostly clear and I hope interesting.

This is I-40 west bound and it is a very busy truck route.

Still in NM here,  Just a landscape shot

More landscape

Made it to AZ.  Interesting rock formation.  Around on the side it is full of holes that birds use to nest in.

Flat open desert area in AZ.

A couple of "animals" we saw along the way. 

The mountain in the hazy distance is east of Flagstaff, AZ.  It usually has a white top of snow this time of year.  Flagstaff has a big ski resort in the area and they don't have any snow yet. 

Made it to Flagstaff, AZ

Starting to go down hill now.  We were up to around 7,000 feet elevation at one time.  You can see all the trucks we had to contend with.

Still going down.  The haziness is caused by smoke from the California fires I think.

Shot of the flat land we are going down to.

We started seeing this sign about every 20 miles when we got into AZ.  As you can see with the blue sky in the background, it was a sunny day.  We never did have any rainy weather or wet roads.  I think the sign guy didn't go into work on Sunday to change the sign.

More going down hill.  The road had a lot of curves.

Just another landscape shot.

Going down.

I liked this hill.

Wide open spaces.

The last shot.

Patrick