Driving from Kingman to London Bridge, Lake Havasu City
Although we didn’t put a lot of miles on the car on Monday, November 18th, I shot a lot of photos so am breaking the day into two posts, Kingman to Lake Havasu City, then on to Quartzsite where we overnighted. See an interactive map of the first part here.
The temperature was only +2C when our day began at 07:40 – that’s what clear air and an elevation of 1,015 meters (3,330 feet) can do. The forecast high, though, was 22C. This was the view from our room.
For breakfast, we went to the highly-rated Mr. D’z Route 66 Diner for a last bit of Route 66 vibe. The view from our table was perfect for that 🙂
Mr. D’z Omelet looked like it would get the day off to a good nutritional start.
It did indeed! They got 5 stars on my Google review: “Great food, service and vibe, at a reasonable price.”
One more photo as we left, just because I love old diners 🙂
We cruised around downtown Kingman a bit, but I only shot one more photo, of the beautiful Neoclassical Mohave County Court House, which was built in 1915. At 9:30 we headed for the highway, I-40.
I thought the HUD (head-up display) on our car was cool, but Andrea found it distracting.
At 9:55 we stopped for a few minutes at the Haviland Rest Area. The 373 reviews on Google are mostly 5-star, and the average is 4.4 – very impressive for a rest area.
The first sign I took note of was this one: “Poisonous snakes and insects inhabit the area.”
Then this one: “Stay alive. Never drive into blowing dust.” Okay, if the poisonous snakes and insects don’t kill you, the dust will have a go. Oh, and don’t forget the flash floods – never forget the flash floods! Oh well at least there are no saltwater crocs! 😀
Joking aside, it was a nice place to go for a bit of a walk and look at the details of the country.
The barbed-wire fences with reinforcing between the horizontals are interesting – I don’t recall seeing the design elsewhere.
Back on I-40 headed south at 10:10.
Rounding the Haviland Hills, we went west for a mile or so…
…then took a ramp and at 10:20 crossed over I-40 to go south on Arizona Highway 95.
From I-40 it’s only 20 miles to London Bridge, and the highway crosses a mountain range with some incredible landforms.
The next two photos were shot at 10:29.
That would have been a great hike.
At 10:35 the northernmost suburb of Lake Havasu City, Castle Rock Estates, came into view.
The Route 66 licence plate is great – I only saw this one. The population of Lake Havasu City is just under 60,000 but it was so busy it felt like much more.
London Bridge doesn’t look particularly special when you’re just driving across it, so we drove to London Bridge Beach and walked along the channel to it.
The city has nice looking police cars.
London Bridge Beach.
The southern end of the channel, looking back out to the lake.
The shaded walk along the channel to the bridge (Havasu Memorial Walkway) is lovely.
There it is. Although I was here 24 years ago, I don’t remember anything about that visit other than a vague knowledge that I was here, so this was effectively my first visit. I wish it was still in London, but that wasn’t an option – it was going to be demolished, and the story of how it got here is quite remarkable. Built in the 1830s, it was no longer able to handle modern traffic volumes, and luckily, the City decided to see if they could sell it.
The bridge has some wonderful details. Continuing the story, it was purchased in 1968 by Robert McCulloch, who hoped the bridge would attract more tourists and residents to the community he was building in the desert at Lake Havasu. The bridge was deconstructed in London, and each piece was labeled with a number indicating its position on the bridge. The pieces were then shipped by sea to Long Beach, California, where trucks took them the remainder of the distance.
Walking across the bridge, which offers some fine views.
From that vantage point, not much seems to have changed since I shot the next photo in January 2000 when I was down working Tourism Yukon’s booth at the RV Show in Quartzsite and did some touring and hiking.
Living the good life along the channel north of the bridge.
A plaque in front of this sculpture at the city side of the bridge says:
“City Founders, Lake Havasu City, Arizona.
Robert P. McCulloch, Sr., Founder, and C. V. Wood, Jr., Master Planner.
London Bridge was purchased from the City of London on April 18, 1968, for $2,460,000.00. It took three years and another $4,500,000.00 to transport and rebuild the bridge. The Grand Opening took place October 10, 1971.
This sculpture was created by local artist Lou Hunt with the help of her good friend and assistant Reese Mead.”
This place below the bridge looked interesting so we walked down the stairs to check it out.
The approach to it from the parking lot is quite impressive.
The main building is an interpretive centre and gift shop.
This new book about the history of Lake Havasu, told by a burro named Pancake, is delightful 🙂
Along Lake Havasu’s 400 miles of shoreline there are 28 scaled-down replicas of famous lighthouses. All are actual functioning navigational aids. Very cool.
There are many photos of the bridge’s history in London, and of its reconstruction, as well as a video playing.
This is one of the drawings used to record the position of each of the 10,246 granite stones when the bridge was disassembled. Jack Barber was in charge of cutting, cleaning, numbering and shipping the stones, then Carl Baker was in charge of putting it back together.
Back to the bridge, first from water level.
Another view as we walked back across the bridge.
One final photo as we walked back to the car. This guy has so little respect for that amazing boat that he ran it up onto a gravel beach as we walked by – the grinding noise was awful.
London Bridge was a surprise to me. Visiting it was Andrea’s idea, and I expected it to be hokey, and a quick visit. But we both really enjoyed it – the park is beautiful and the story is fascinating. I would have no hesitation at returning for another visit.
By about 12:15, we were back on Highway 95, on our way to Quartzsite, 79 miles away.
About The Author
Amazing story on London Bridge relocate, beautiful area and touring must run through the veins of your offsprings Murrster, nice work both of you eh 🇺🇸👍