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The Gold Crown
We left camp early as we had a long day ahead – water, groceries, trash, gas, and laundry. We took care of these chores in Parker. We retraced our drive on highway 95. I told the truck not to yell at me and it did not. It was late afternoon and we were north of Needles when the Lady made an off the wall suggestion. “Let’s get sit down Mexican food for dinner!”
“You’re the one with the smartphone. Find us a place.”
She found us a restaurant in Fort Mojave. Google Girl led us right to the front door. We enjoyed the complete change of pace and a darn nice dinner. Now we had to find a spot to overnight before it grew dark. The spot we camped at worked, we were set up before dark, other than that, easy to forget. It was outside of Oatman, Arizona and we drove into Oatman the next morning. Oatman is the feral ass capital of Arizona. Feral burros are also about. We saw no reason to stop. We did greatly enjoy the drive east from Oatman on historic highway 66.
The Lady sent a text message to our friends the Rubberlegs, Deb and Steve, as we drove north on highway 93. “Should we visit Petroglyph Wash?”
They responded with, “Yes.”
We turned off of highway 93 and headed into the southern section – south of Lake Mead – of the Lake Mead National Recreation Area.
Cohenour Loop Road is a remote high clearance 4x4 recommended route. You are required to camp in designated sites. The sites are not marked on the map. We drove the majority of the loop road before we found one – there are only 5. It was a nice spot and we happily settled in.
It was located just below a prospect. We could do all our exploring on foot from this location, leaving camp set up. We stayed three nights here.
The next day was devoted to finding why Petroglyph Wash got its name.
We made a large loop hike and returned to camp in the late afternoon. We saw no other people or vehicles out here.
The evening light was all we could ask for and more.
The next day we hiked down the road to Gilbert Canyon to its end and then continued down the narrows to the bath tub ring of the massive reservoir.
Unfortunately, many people in Arizona have not a clue as to how to clean up after themselves. If I was unkind, I’d suggest they were all from Oatman. Both here and in Kofa, along the roads we came upon pee and shit paper.
We carry a large ziplock bag. Is it your shitty paper we are carrying out?
At road’s end, we looked down the first dry fall in the narrows.
First, we climbed high up on the canyon wall to get a view into the depths.
We returned to the wash and snacked before down climbing the dry fall and entering the narrows.
We were absolutely delighted how much fun this section of canyon was.
There were several dry falls to scramble down.
We reached the bath tub ring and the large pipe of gravels dropped by flows down Gilbert Canyon when they hit the placid water of the reservoir.
The gravel bar is now being cut back as the level of the reservoir has retreated.
We turned around, the Lady always taking the high route. This girl just wants to have fun.
Almost back at the first, and highest dry fall.
I’m already five feet up the fall in the photo below. “You’re always taking photos of me,” the Lady commented. “I should get one of you!”
Settled back at camp, we were again treated to a wonderful sunset.
On our second night at our campsite here, I was flossing my teeth before bed, practicing proper dental hygiene. A gold crown from an upper molar popped off and flew across the camper. We needed to find a dentist.
Our adventure continues in the upcoming Part Five.
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