Today we are going to start heading for home, via Historic Route 66, but first, there is something that we want to see and since we are in the neighbourhood (sort of) we will go and check it out.
We are going to go and see a bridge. Do you recognize this bridge ?
More about this famous bridge later, first, lets get out of Las Vegas. We had fun here and enjoyed our stay, we will be back, but it is time to move on. Route 66 is calling us. Route 66 is the primary reason for taking this trip.
We started out by heading south to Needles California, a Route 66 town.
Along the way, we could see something blue and shimmering way off in the distance. I thought it was odd that we were seeing such a large lake way out here in the middle of the desert. As we got closer and closer I began to realize that what we were seeing was not a lake, but rather a very large solar plant. What we were seeing is Mirrors that are used in the process of collecting the solar heat, to heat water to boiling temperatures that will then create steam, to power steam generators to make electricity. I found out later that what we were seeing is the Nevada Solar One facility.
We are heading South to Lake Havasu City Arizona to see The London Bridge. Yes, the London Bridge that was made famous in the old song Londong Bridge is Falling Down. It seems that the bridge was actually falling down and rather than being destroyed, it was put up for auction. The city of Lake Havasu was the high bidder, and they took the bridge apart and transported all the pieces to Lake Havasu City. You can actually drive on the bridge, it is part of the city road system. Well worth the visit.
We ate lunch, then headed back north to Topock Arizona and this is where we will get on Route 66 and begin our roadtrip along The Mother Road, Main Street America. Actually we couldn't find Topock, it is just a pile of dust in the desert, so it turned out that Golden Shores is where I took the first picture of several thousand along Route 66.
It is very hard to choose a couple of photos from our first day on Route 66 to place here in my blog, but here are a couple that we took between Golden Shores and Oatman Arizona.
The scenery is beautiful, I don't think we saw anymore than a handful of cars between Golden Shores and Oatman. I like this weathered sign pointing the way to Oatman.
Some will tell you that Oatman Arizona is an old ghost town, but I can tell you that it is very much alive. We parked the car and stepped back in time into an old gold mining town. Oatman is very proud of its Route 66 heritage, and most stores and shops have Route 66 souvenirs for sale. Also for sale are carrots. Why carrots... well to feed the wild burrows of course. These burrows are wandering the street and sometimes wander into the stores.
We left Oatman and followed Route 66 as it twisted and climbed up to the summit at Sitgreaves Pass. 3550 ft altitude. There are plenty of twists and turns, lots of switchbacks, no guard rails and some very dangerous and steep drops if you got too close to the edge of the road. Care is required when driving this.
From Sitgreaves Pass it is now downhill towards Kingman Arizona. The road twists and turns its way into Cool Springs
Cool Springs is an old restored gas station, however it was closed today, so we took some photos and carried on towards Kingman Arizona where we will stay the night.
To see all of our photos from today, please click on my link to my site on Flickr
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