Today is our first full day in Bullhead City. Part of our reason for coming here is to hunt for fire agate. The other is to visit the Grand Canyon. Turns out the only way to get to the Canyon from here is through Indian land, and the reviews of this trip were so negative we have scratched that part of the trip.
So that leaves rockhounding. John likes to explore the back country looking for our own hunting spots as well as following directions in rockhounding books and web sites.
Today we are exploring. John picked a road that travels through some of the BLM land that surrounds this area. It is safe for us to pick rocks in most BLM areas. We found a few bobbles, enough to plan a longer trip to revisit some of the areas.
It is hard to convey the beauty of this area of the country through pictures. Because some of that beauty is in its vastness and in the colors of the rock formations, you just can’t get a sense of it unless you are standing on a precipice looking out over.
I don’t know if you can see it, but the red spot at kinda in the middle of the picture is one of 4 crashed cars. It is just “big” out here.
As we wound our way along the old Route 66 Byway we passed through Oatman.
This is a quaint, “Old West” type town. It appears to depend on tourism for its life blood since gold mining is no longer the focus industry.
Like Punxsutawny PA, Oatman embraces and capitalizes on its “animal attraction”.
Like any town that has been around for a while there is always a lot of history to be found. Especially in the old hotels. Clark Gable and Carole Lombard spent their honeymoon in Oatman, and returned often to enjoy the solitude the town offered.
It is always interesting to learn about the different events and “traditions” that these small towns sponsor, they are generally quite unique. Dushore PA has outhouse races, Oatman fries eggs and races beds.
As in most western towns we visit, the day is not complete without a gun fight in the street.
A very enjoyable day. Tomorrow, more rockhounding.
