Lake Havasu is a reservoir created in 1930’s when the Parker Dam was built on the Colorado River. Lake Havasu City was essentially founded in the late 50’s by a real estate developer hoping to capitalize on the lake by building a recreation community. Over the past 50 years, and despite being in the middle of nowhere, the town has become a water sports and retirement center. It has a permanent population of more than 50,000 and doubles during the winter months.
In addition to the lake, a big attraction is the London Bridge, or at least what was the London Bridge. In the 60’s, the City of London decided to replace the 1800’s era London Bridge because it wasn’t built for the growing city traffic. The City sold the old bridge to the Lake Havasu real estate developer. He believed it would spur commerce and property sales if he created an island paradise with a noteworthy monument. The bridge was disassembled and shipped to the US, then rebuilt over dry land in Lake Havasu City. Once it was complete, he dug a canal under the bridge to turn the peninsula into an island. The area around the bridge is a bit touristy, but a nice place to walk around or grab a beer. Our campground and most other campgrounds are on “The Island”.
The entire Havasu area is surrounded by low mountains and is quite scenic. It has a wide variety of desert hiking trails that are very similar to many we’ve hiked in the southwest. Also, like other areas in the Southwest, off-roading is very big, even on the Island.
One sentence summary: It is a nice place to visit.
