Leaving Keepers of the Wild Nature Park, we continued westward on Route 66, never tiring of the Arizona scenery as we drove 1-1/2 hours to our next destination.

Eventually we merged back on to I-40 near Kingman and unfortunately we decided to stop for diesel at the TA Travel Center there. I say “unfortunately” because traffic was a nightmare – it was a Sunday, hate to see what it might be on a weekday. Since check in wasn’t until noon at our upcoming destination, we thought we would grab a bite to eat at the Black Bear Restaurant located at the Travel Center, but there was over a 1/2 hour wait so we decided against it.

Further along I-40, as we approached the California border, there was a good view of the Old Trails Bridge in Topock, AZ,  “an innovative piece of engineering, one enormous span of 600 feet supports the 800-foot bridge that crosses the Colorado River in Topock, halfway between Yuma and the Utah border.  The bridge carried automobile traffic over the Colorado River from 1916 until 1948.” In 1948, the deck was removed so the bridge could accommodate a natural gas pipeline, which it still carries.

It was early afternoon when we arrived for our week long stay at Desert View RV Resort in Needles, CA, thanks to the fact that we changed time zones from MST (AZ) to PST (CA). But note that AZ does not observe daylight savings time so there is only a time difference in the winter.

In 2017, we had taken a ride through the park so we knew what to expect – we weren’t disappointed this year. Although there wasn’t a lot of space between sites, a hedge of oleander bushes bordered each side of our pull thru site providing lots of privacy. The sites were also a bit on the short side for a 45′ rig plus tow vehicle, but luckily there was additional parking for the Jeep just across from our site.

Look at the posted gas/diesel prices back around December 2021 near the resort in Needles, CA (note this was well before the summer of 2022 rise in gas prices).

We had filled up the Jeep two days before in AZ, paying $3.70/gallon for gas and in Kingman for diesel we paid $4.17/gallon. According to Gas Buddy, gas at this station in Needles is now $6.89 and diesel is $7.49! Avoid filling up your gas tank in CA! In this case, a 5 minute detour will bring you across the border and to much lower prices.

The morning after our arrival we headed out to the Wagon Wheel Restaurant to have breakfast which was very good. After breakfast, although we had been there before, we couldn’t resist the braying burros calling us to the living ghost town of Oatman (see our 2017 post to read about the history of the town). As usual we were met by the very cute, local welcoming committee!

Note in most places it is illegal to feed the burros just to avoid this kind of situation, but apparently it’s OK in Oatman where the burros are the main draw.

And of course to add a little bit of thrill to our lives, we had to drive further north on Oatman Road (the old Route 66) to Sitgreaves Pass, elevation 3550 feet, making it the highest point on Route 66 and offering views of three states – Arizona, California and Nevada. Once again we walked around looking at the grave markers which are memorials to deceased people whose cremains are scattered at the site.

From there we headed back to our coach. Except for driving to Bullhead City to do a few errands, we didn’t do much else during our stay.

Additional photos of our stay at Desert View RV Resort and our day trip to Oatman can be found here.

A pretty view of the sunset from our site.