454 miles via CA 79, I-10, CA 177, CA 62, AZ 95 and I-40.
QTE Hop 1
Day 1: Aguanga, CA, to Lake Havasu City, AZ
The first day of this two-day hop was 279 miles, of which about 150 were through desert that was excessively hot, even by desert standards. I was pretty worried about how the truck would perform as we have never taxed it this way. The most difficult stretch last fall on the GTW was the long, uphill climb from Phoenix to Flagstaff and we did that in temps in the 70s. By contrast, once we hit Palm Springs – about 100 miles into the first day’s trip – the temperature was above 100 the rest of the way to Lake Havasu City. The worst part was the uphill climb out of the Coachella Valley, during which the transmission temperature hovered around 250 degrees, just 15 degrees below the red line. But it made it up the hill, cooled down once it hit the flats and in general performed like a champ.
The first 20 miles were down CA 79 to Temecula – my regular commute, previously documented. Then about 5 miles up I-15 to CA 79 north which we took about 40 miles north to I-10. This stretch of CA 79 is like the southern segment in that the first 5 miles are strip development which then opens up into farmland. This version of CA 79 is flatter and has quite a few miles of 4-lane roadway. And huge dairy farms, the arrival of which was announced by an aroma strongly reminiscent of Wisconsin. We were using CA 79 to dodge the mountains between Aguanga and Palm Springs – we went 46 miles out of our way to avoid these mountains and the nasty 7-turnback stretch of CA 371 that would, I think, have been too much for Jett’s delicate stomach.
The 40 miles down I-10 into Indio were remarkable for the number of wind turbines – thousands – that lined the roadway and the speed with which the temperature climbed. It was 83 when we entered the road and was 101 42 miles later when we stopped to top off the tank.
Topping off the tank after just 110 miles was important because there are no gas stations between Indio and Parker, AZ, some 120 miles away. I did NOT want to run out of gas in 110-degree heat in the middle of nowhere.
Other than that 10-mile uphill climb east of Indio, which made me watch my temperature gauges very carefully, the trip to Lake Havasu City was uneventful. The truck’s A/C was up to the task and kept us all comfortable. CA 62 was flat, but followed the terrain, which made for some interesting dips in the road. We crossed into AZ at Parker and I have to say that the Colorado River at that point is uninspiring. It is less impressive than the Hudson or even the Merrimac. I guess most of the water has been diverted before it gets to Parker.
We had to cross the London Bridge to get to the Crazy Horse Campground in Lake Havasu City. From the road, the London Bridge is, like the Colorado River, unimpressive. If they hadn’t lined it with flags you would never know that you were on a special bridge. I was hoping to get a side view of it from the campground, but didn’t.
At Crazy Horse we got Patience deployed in record time on a beachside pull-through, got the A/C cranking (which is to say, only slightly better than fans – the A/C in the RV is not made for 115-degree temps). We rested for a couple of hours (but didn’t nap – too hot), then got into our suits and jumped into Lake Havasu, just a few steps away. Ahhh… relief! I think I saw steam rising. The dogs enjoyed it, too.
And, yes, I took the camera out of my pocket before jumping in.
Grace viewing the Colorado River
Grace resting on Cha-Cha
Approaching Lake Havasu City
First view of Lake Havasu
London Bridge
The rig at Lake Havasu
Entrance to Crazy Horse Campground
Dogs taking a dip
The view from inside Patience
North Beach campsites
Lake Havasu
The lake from atop the dunes
Day 2: Lake Havasu City, AZ, to Williams, AZ
This second day of the hop was mostly a long 150-mile haul uphill on I-40: the starting elevation, at Lake Havasu, was about 800′ and the ending elevation at Williams was over 6,200′. While the temperatures were not as scorching as the first day in the desert, they did hover between 95 and 100 the entire way, making it another major challenge for the truck. And while it generally performed well again, I did hit the red line on the transmission temperature on the last uphill stretch into Williams. I really didn’t want to stop just a few miles shy of our destination, so I pushed it to the top, then let it rest on the downhill. I sure hope I didn’t do any damage to the transmission because (1) we need a healthy truck and (2) I will catch hell from Jett.
The stretch from Kingman to Williams was one of those rare road segments that we had already traveled (the other being I-5 between southern Oregon and Sacramento), but of course we did it in the easy, downhill, direction on the GTW last November. It didn’t look all that familiar.
This is our second visit to Williams (the first one being our visit to the Grand Canyon on the GTW). This time we are staying at the Canyon Motel & RV Park which is just slightly more remote than the RV park at the train terminal where we stayed the first time. The site is gravel and might be the most uneven site we have encountered yet (we had to raise the starboard side of Patience about 5 inches). There aren’t a lot of amenities at this park – a crappy indoor pool and a minimalist general store. But it has GREAT WiFi service, which is what I need to do my job. We are staying 6 days, leaving next Saturday, and I will be working all week.
The climb out of Kingman
Approaching Williams
You can’t come to Williams without visiting the Grand Canyon – I think that is a local ordinance – so we ran up to the south rim after we settled in. The canyon is still beautiful. I will report on that next.