Wednesday, November 7, 2012 (Travel to Crossroads BLM Campground, Parker, AZ)

It was shortly after 10:00 when left our campsite...a little later than usual but we weren’t going too far today...only about 45 miles.  We stopped at the sani-dump and emptied our holding tanks...the fun part of RVing...

We left the park and said goodbye to Lake Havasu as we headed south on highway 95.  It was another beautiful day with clear blue sky...

We passed the Bill Williams River National Wildlife Refuge...just beautiful...

...and then Havasu Springs...

After passing the turnoff to Parker Dam...and as you get closer to Parker, you can see the development on the other (California) side of the Colorado River...known as the Parker Recreation Strip...lots of RV resorts as well as seasonal homes...

The campground we are going to is over there along the river somewhere...

There is a huge golf course set in the rolling hills...the green is quite a contrast to the rocky surroundings...

We arrived in Parker and found that there is now a big Walmart Super Store as well as Safeway (at least we don't remember them being there last time we were here)...

We turned right and crossed the bridge over the Colorado River and into California...that's where we ran into some major road construction.  With only one lane open, we were stopped for a good 20 minutes before it was our turn to go...what was frustrating was that it was just a short distance before we were to turn off the highway onto Parker Dam Road...sheesh...

Now we are looking back across the Colorado River to the Arizona side...

There are two BLM campgrounds within a mile from each other...the first one, Crossroads, is a small primitive campground with no facilities other than a pit toilet.  The second one, Empire Landing, is a larger developed campground with some full hook-ups.  It also has a sani-dump...and since we needed to fill our fresh water tank, we headed straight there.  Unfortunately, there was no advanced warning and we drove right by the entrance...great, now we have to find a place to turn around.  Further down the road we finally found a spot and managed to turnaround. 

Empire Landing BLM campground was a very odd set up.  First of all, the sani-dump was only that...a place to dump your black/grey water tanks...the fresh water fillup was way down at the end of the campground in the most awkward, non-RV friendly spot.  Unfortunately, I didn't bring my camera out at all while here...I was more concerned with getting in and our of the spot.  The spot at the end of the road had such a small turn around area and to top it off, they had put two big cement pillars on either side of the entrance.  Steve ended up pulling straight in...fortunately our water hose was long enough to reach the faucet!  Then he backed straight out.  Now...for the rest of the campground setup...it had 4 large paved circles where the sites were.  In other words, you would drive into the circle and back into your campsite which was a paved parking spot.  The whole campground was empty with the exception of one trailer in one of the "circles" and the camphost. I can't imagine what it would be like trying to manoeuvre into a spot in one of the circles if all of the other sites were occupied.  After backing out of the fresh water fill station, Steve pulled into one of the circles to turn around.  We then headed back to Crossroads BLM Campground...hopefully we will like it better and find a spot. 

Crossroads is much different from Empire Landing...it is nestled in a stand trees along the river.  Since it only has 14 sites and looked pretty full, instead of driving through, we pulled over and walked in.  It didn't look like we were going to have any luck but then we found an empty site at the very end of the road that not only would be large enough for us but would also be easy to back into.  I waited at the site while Steve walked back to get the rig.  He drove straight in and then pulled around into the turn around loop and then backed straight in...and when we checked the level inside the trailer, we found we were perfectly level side-to-side...bonus!

After getting unhitched, I made lunch and we sat outside at the picnic table in the shade.  It was another hot one with the temp 87F/30C...at least we have lots of shade here!  We were both just drenched by the time we were all unpacked and set up, so we sat and cooled off in the shade enjoying our new spot...we figured it would be nice if they just cut down some of the bushes along the river...just to give us a better view...

The camphost stopped by and we spoke to him about using our National Park Pass...we had been told by the fellow at the BLM office in Lake Havasu that you get half off the camping fee at sites with no amenities.  He was kind of "wishy-washy" about it but said if that's what we were told, he was fine with it.  That made our nightly stay $2.50...so I filled out the self-registration envelope, deposited $12.50 for 5 nights and walked down to put it into the pay slot. Sweet!

As I approached the trailer on my way back, I noticed what I thought were horse legs on the other side of the trailer...Steve must have someone on horseback visiting.  Well, those "horse legs" turned out to belong to a wild burro!  I guess when Steve came out of the trailer, he was just standing there.  He was such a handsome fellow...and obviously used to people.

Steve named him 'Wheel'...Wheel Burro...yeah, that's my husband's sense of humour...

I didn't think we should feed him but his big eyes with such long lashes wore me down...I gave him a couple of carrots...

Yikes...he's getting a little close...

We have seen signs saying "Wild Burro Crossing" but have never seen one...well, we got up close and personal with this handsome fellow!  When we first arrived at our site, we figured that there must have been people with horses staying here because of the "droppings" that we found...now we know it wasn't horses but wild burros!  Very cool (the burros...not the droppings)!