Our Great Southwest Adventure: Day 1

Curtis and I love going on adventures. We go out every weekend and check out a new hike, town, or landmark. However, there’s a lot out there that we can’t do in just a weekend. That’s why we’ve been eagerly anticipating Curtis’ spring break. We started planning our trip months in advance – we had to fit in as much as possible, while still getting to enjoy everywhere we went. Since our time in the Southwest is limited, we decided to focus our trip on Arizona and surrounding states. In the 7 days that we were gone, we managed to visit several dams, national parks, state parks, lakes, forests, and other tourist attractions. We are big into letterboxing, as you know, but decided to not focus on that this trip – but of course still managed to find some. Overall, it was a very fun, adventure filled week, and we can’t wait until our next trip!

We began last Sunday, March 16. We started in the city we love to avoid – Phoenix! – and picked up my brother Grant from the airport. After introducing him to In-N-Out for a late lunch, we set off on our long drive – 300 miles, from Tucson to Lake Havasu City, AZ.

Mountains all around I-10… for a “boring” interstate, it’s still pretty scenic! After getting out of the Phoenix area, it was a quiet drive for…well basically the whole rest of the trip.

Curtis and I packed in storage bins, which was a great idea except Curtis’ grey one wasn’t quite as high quality as mine… this is the last and only picture we have of it with a lid.

Curtis is a wonderful driver! Grant was co-pilot day 1. It was a pretty cozy ride in the Yeti!

Taking a break near Quartzite to letterbox. Not many boxes along this route! We gave Grant all the warnings about Arizona plants and wildlife.

…and of course, we made him get in on the boxing.

Guess who only needs 1 more box to complete AZRoadie’s AZ County Challenge? THIS GUY!!

On the search for the ghost town of La Paz in La Paz county, we came across this marker. (Taking a highway through Indian reservation to Parker, AZ)

Taking a short hike in search of a Ghost Town…

Sadly, we didn’t find what we were looking for, and we were pressed for time and daylight. We did come across some foundations, and an old ore mining/processing set up.

Above: something to look for if you’re looking for Curtis’ La Paz County box.

And thus concludes our short time in the county of La Paz.

Coming up to Parker Dam. We heard that it was closed in the evenings, and weren’t sure if that meant when the sun sets, but were thankful to find that it’s open till 11!

We drove across the bridge so that we could say we went to California on this trip – and we can also say we went to every state surrounding AZ!

Searched for a box here but it must be missing Whenever we’re looking for a box in a more public area, I’ll have Curtis “pose” so we don’t look too suspicious searching!

After 9/11, they started closing the bridge at night for security purposes. Sadly, we weren’t able to walk across either, but I got what pictures I could.

Looking into the dam – the deepest dam in the world?

The bridge – from California’s side!

We made it to Lake Havasu, and stayed in a sketchy hotel…not complaining though, it was cheap! :p We took a nice walk to a restaurant and had delicious breakfast food for dinner (to make up for the delicious breakfast we WEREN’T getting from sketchy hotel!)

End day 1: Drove 300 miles, hiked 3.2 miles, found 1 LB, planted 1 LB, saw “almost a ghost town” and one dam!