On December 5th, our journey led us to our next stop, River Island State Park in Parker, AZ about a 1-1/4 hour drive on I-40 and AZ-95. As usual, more gorgeous Arizona scenery!

After checking in at the ranger station at the park, we were confused by the layout and had a bit of trouble getting to our site (#16).

The initial path we took (the road between site #17 and #24 on the map below) put us at the wrong angle for us to enter the pull thru site so we had to loop around and start over. And we still didn’t get it right! This time we ended up on the road leading to the boat ramp. Oops! With a little tricky maneuvering, we were able to turn ourselves around and start again.

 

Finally, success!  The green line on the map above shows the way we should have gone, but it is a little tricky as it involves some twists and turns, that’s probably what confused us.

Because the site wasn’t quite long enough for the rig and the toad, plus due to a tree on one side, Rob had to park the coach at an angle to allow for parking the toad and the slideout avoiding the tree.

River Island offers 37 total campsites, eight of them are waterfront, great for tent camping and small campers up to 24 feet.  The other 29 sites (10 back-in and 19 pull-throughs) are up to 65 feet deep, complete with 50, 30, and 20-amp service, and all with water. Be aware, there is no internet here.

While there, took a hike on the 1/2 mile Wedge Hill Trail which had some lovely views of the river.

On another day we took a ride up to nearby Parker Dam, which is one dam downriver of Davis Dam, which is one dam Downriver of the famous Hoover Dam. Parker Dam is the deepest dam in the world. Small vehicle traffic are allowed to drive over it and cross from AZ to CA, although there are times when the road can be closed. This is a worthwhile and interesting visit.

For our last sightseeing excursion while staying at River Island we headed north. Back in 2017, we visited Lake Havasu City (see our post) – guess we liked it enough that we just had to see it again. Just to confirm – nothing had changed in four years, “London Bridge” bridge was exactly the same! Except maybe there was a lot more traffic.

The Chair Restaurant offered a decent menu for lunch and had good reviews so we decided to grab a bite to eat there.

The Chicky Chicky Sand Sand Sandwich ($16.50, pulled chicken salad with grapes, candied pecans, apples, craisins, celery, dijon, mayo on toasted bread with lettuce, tomato, bacon and avocado), served with garlic parmesan fries for me. Rob had the fish tacos ($16). Seemed a little pricey but probably being a tourist area, everything is. Both were delicious!

After lunch we spent some time walking around, enjoying all the sights and sounds of the river area. The weather was on the dreary side and could have been better but at least it wasn’t raining.

Since we were heading out again the next morning, by mid afternoon, we bid “ta ta” to London Bridge to head back to the State Park.

The next leg of our journey would bring us to Vista Del Sol RV Resort in Bullhead City, AZ, another resort where we stayed in 2017. Back then, we swore we would never return to this resort because of nearly constant hurricane force winds (well, that’s what it seemed like anyway), but here we were again! Our arrival day was bright and sunny with no wind – amazing! But that was short lived – after that we weren’t so lucky, The day before we left it was cloudy, overcast with wind gusts over 40 mph.

What a small world we live in! After our arrival, our next door neighbor started talking to us.  Over the course of the conversation, we learned that his name was Terry and that he was once one of the board members at Riverbend in Labelle, FL, where we used to have an RV lot.

Always beautiful sunsets at Vista Del Sol.

It would be a quiet, week long stay here with some errand running and a day of sightseeing. In the hopes of discovering a new breakfast spot that we liked, we went to Coyote Cafe where breakfast was decent but extremely slow – we waited at least 45 minutes to be served. Guess this place won’t ever be added to our list of favorites!

It’s always a pretty drive to Davis Dam which is the next dam downriver from Hoover Dam.

After the dam, we drove out to Catherine’s Landing, once again driving through the campground.

At Cabinsite Point, there were a lot of scuba divers.

On our way back, we stopped at the Colorado River Heritage Greenway Park & Trail.

Back on the road again on December 15th. Our next stop would be a two week stay at one of our favorite campgrounds!

Additional photos can be found here.