We found Craggy Wash after studying the BLM campground reviews on the Campendium app. I really like this app and use it a lot. Lots of good information and reviews. It was a little tough to find the turn off and Mike had to turn around a few times. It’s just north of the airport. You will see brown recreational signs shortly after you turn onto the road. It’s a dirt road, hard packed and bumpy with signs stating no camping until after the first mile in.
Within feet of turning on to the road, we saw a family of mountain goats. I’ve read some reviews that there are wild burros, mountain goats, and coyotes spotted from time to time, but we weren’t lucky enough to see them on this trip!
At the first mile, there were quite a few rigs pretty close together on both sides of the road. We drove a little further down and found an area we could pull off and unhook the Jeep so Mike could go ahead and scout a bit. It was getting late and we definitely didn’t want to be driving that path in the dark so he found us a spot not too far in with a few other rigs in a straight line. Close to others-not urban campground close- but that didn’t bother me. The leveling system said excessive slope despite repositioning a few times. No wheels off the ground and my phone’s level app showed a level bubble throughout the coach so we called it good and set up for the night. We had between 4-5 bars on Verizon with pretty decent Wifi. We were able to stream the Warriors game easily. Since we still haven’t installed a satellite or set up a tv service, we just had the antenna and still had over 20 channels and all the local network channels. Awesome! Free camping, free tv channels!
Woke up around 0100 and was a little cold. I played with the thermostat in the bedroom and couldn’t get the propane furnace to kick on. I was sure Mike had turned on propane when we arrived and I knew we had just filled it. I lit a burner on the stove to check and it lit fine. I assumed it might be something more serious-although I couldn’t help thinking we had been using it fine very recently. I snuggled in deeper under the blankets and went back to sleep.
Woke up at 0330 and it was 57 degrees-brrr. I couldn’t sleep and didn’t want to wake Mike-he hadn’t felt good the night before-so I went out to the main cabin and checked the stove burners again, thinking maybe I needed to prime the propane line since we had just filled prior to coming here. The burner lit, then it went out. The propane was off after all. There must have been just enough in the line to light the burner earlier in the night. Yeah! I fixed it lol! Opened up the propane, turned on the heat and slept beautifully.
We spent a couple days scouting different sites we could park at Craggy Wash and relocated down the road just a bit. There are quite a few spots and the first 2.5-3 miles in is relatively easy with the road being flat and hard packed. I took a walk with the dogs and we ventured all the way to mile marker 4.5. There are rocks painted on the side of the road to tell you how far you have gone. Personally, I don’t think anyone would want to drive a large rig farther than about the 2.5 mile mark. There’s a pretty deep curve at the 2.5 mile marker and the road grooves are very deep and the ground is much softer with a combination of sand and loose gravel after mile 3.
Lake Havasu City is very ATV friendly. We saw quite a few very nice ones come by us as we enjoyed our afternoons. It was neat to see them driving around the city among “regular” vehicles, pulling up to gas pumps and parking in front of restaurants.
One of the biggest reasons I wanted to camp at Lake Havasu was to see the original London Bridge and the Christmas lights they display here every year. They also have a lighted boat parade but we didn’t get here in time for that.
The town’s founder, Robert McCollough, of McCollough chainsaws, bought the original London Bridge and had it erected here. It really is quite beautiful and was an enjoyable, but cold walk around the city and across the London Bridge
I joked with Mike that we may need to get me a sister wife for this lifestyle. While I could have oohed and aahed for quite an extended amount of time over the light display, he was in more of a “check the box, that’s cool” kind of mood. I pointed out that if there’s ever a fishing tackle show, he might need a brother husband because that’s not exciting to me either lol! I’m sure as we continue on this journey, we’ll meet more folks like us and won’t need to resort to bringing in additional spouses lol. We both share an appreciation of nature and animals. He tolerates touristy things and I tolerate fishing crap lol! Anyone ready to join us yet? 🙂
There are quite a few hills and mountains to climb at Craggy Wash which is one of the reasons we chose this particular BLM. Louie, Kiya and I found several little caverns and caves. This one was the coolest. Now we know where Froto and Bilbo live!
I’m pretty afraid of heights but did manage to climb about 2/3 of the way up a “small” mountain. It’s the getting down part that always freaks me out.
There were quite a few windy days and only one really calm day that Mike could have fished. It was unusually cool during our stay too. We both got a little bored waiting for calmer weather so we spent time writing, reading, and researching our next stop.
We do want to attend the big RV show at Quartzsite. That doesn’t start until January 19, 2018, so we have some time to kill. Campendium reviews have made Hippie Hole on the Colorado River in Arizona just south of Blythe, California, sound just awesome. There is a wildlife refuge area nearby and camping right along the river on BLM for free. Mike will be able to kayak and fish easily. So, here we go! Next stop Hippie Hole!