Buckskin Mountain to Bakersfield

As we approached the end of our week at Zion, we started looking at openings at state parks.  There wasn’t much available in Utah, so Craig started looking further afield. He ended up selecting Buckskin Mountain, an Arizona state park, south of Lake Havasu City.  Although it was not on the way home, it had spots available and sounded interesting. 

The park was pleasant enough, located right along the Colorado river with large paved spaces. Most of the other campers had boats or jet skis, the water being the main attraction.

Craig had read something about “hiking trails” in the description, so we checked with a ranger and sure enough there was a well marked and well maintained trail system that took us high into the hills and to some pretty good scenic points and an old copper mine. The mine was a big hole in the ground surrounded by fencing so no one would climb or fall in.

Looking down from the hiking trail we could see the RV's. The pink arrow is pointing at our Alfa snuggled into a shaded spot.

The day was quite warm, in the 80s, but the dryness, the slightly cloudy sky, and a gentle breeze made it very nice.

This bridge went from the campground, over the highway, to the hills and hiking trail.

We have come to like staying at least two nights at a park unless we are heading for a specific location or reservation. One night to arrive and rest after the drive,  and the next day to explore without thinking about check-out time.

This part of the trail looks very level, but in fact most of it was up or down hilly areas with many log or carved stone steps. The next morning my knees told me they had had a good workout!

Craig had read that we might be able to see the Draconid meteors just after sunset, so we took our "park" blanket out to the grassy area and watched the sky darken.  Living in the mountains we are used to seeing a lot of stars, but we saw even more. As it got darker we got a good view of the Milky Way, but alas no meteors, so after a while we went back in. Meteors are so unpredictable!  

This morning the ranger stopped by and asked if we wanted to stay longer, but we were ready to move on.

Tonight, Tuesday, we're staying at an RV park in Bakersfield.  Craig said he didn't care for the last place we stayed in this area so I looked in the Escapee book and found this one.  I know many of you have said read the reviews, but I have been trying to be more spontaneous. The blurb sound fine in the Escapee book, and it does have large level pull-thru pads as mentioned.  But it also has the main Bakersfield train yard right next to us.  I don't mind too much, and hope they don't run all night.

I told Craig the train whistle was "romantic."  We will see how we feel about it in the morning.   

RUMBLE!