Thursday, November 8/2012

Parked in front of Digger Dave's (the bar) in Chloride

The Chloride Post Office
The longest operating post office in Arizona

Starting our adventure to Oatman, Arizona

The road deteriorated to a two track trail before we hit the pavement
and "old" ROUTE 66 

One of the many pinnacles in the Black Mountains

Old cars along the route

Route 66 - narrow, and twisty.  Much of it was shelf road and
no guard rails!!

Off in the distance

Twisty shelf road although this spot had a barrier to keep vehicles
from careening over the edge.

Years ago, This guy did not quite make the turn!!

Coming into Oatman

The Burros of Oatman

So cute

C'mon I need a beer!

Out of Oatman and on Silver Creek Road

Lots of mining still in the area - this is a tailings pile

panoramic view of some of  The Black Mountains

Saw this small herd of actual wild burros along one of the
many off road trails we took today.

These ones were actual "in the wild" and not too happy with
us stopping and taking pics.  They are descended from pack
mules that were released into the wild during the mining craze.

sun, hitting some of the mountain surface

a rather deep canyon

Finally off the rim of the canyon and into the wash below
heading towards Bullhead City and the road back to Chloride.

Huge cliffs in the wash with lots of erosion evident.

Looks like it is giving us "the finger"!!

sun setting

The sun was shining when I got up this morning but there is a bit of a wind blowing.  We were told yesterday that a cold front is moving in and should be here by Friday.  There was even some suggestion of rain and snow!!  We must get our trip to Oatman out of the way and be out of here tomorrow!!
Once John changed the oil in the Jeep, we were ready to head down the dusty trail.
We stopped at Digger Dave's to see if he knew the back way into Oatman and got some direction however,  the fellow has only been in the area 3 years and was not really sure of the trail.  With what little information we got, we headed out.
We accessed Golden Valley Road and eventually found our way to a gas station to fuel up then pointed the jeep in the direction of Oatman and headed out.  Our road, eventually deteriorated into a two track rock strewn trail but we made it to the pavement that was Route 66 and eventually into Oatman.  Route 66 turned out to be a narrow, winding road and closed to vehicles over 40 feet in length.  There were several sharp turns and a few switchbacks with a 10mph speed limit.  Much of the route was on "shelf" trail and anyone who has ever followed this blog knows how I hate shelf trail!!  Of course the thousand foot drops were on my side of the vehicle!!  Although it allowed for some incredible views, I could just as easily looked over a guard rail!!
Oatman, is a former mining town which lies in the Black Mountains of Mojave County in Arizona.  It became a tent camp soon after two miners struck a 10 million dollar gold find in 1915.  The town swelled to 3500 people within a year.  In 1921, fire swept through and destroyed several smaller buildings but spared the Oatman Hotel.  Built in 1902, the now, Oatman Hotel is the largest two story adobe structure in Mojave county.  It is here that Clark Gable and Carole Lombard stopped for the night after their wedding in Kingman, Az in 1939.
Today, Oatman is a thriving town, likely due to its close proximity to the gambling town of Laughlin, Nevada and the increasing interest in the infamous Route 66 on which Oatman lies.  I imagine tourism is what the town survives on although there are still several mines in the area.
Wild burros roam the streets of Oatman and I am sure they too add to the tourism.  They are definitely used to the crowds of people and to call them "wild" is certainly a stretch.  Many of them had "do not feed me anything" stickers on their heads and we later found out the these were the smaller ones that had yet to get their adult teeth and were unable to chew the readily available alfalfa pellets - sold in several stores for $1.00 a bag.  Yes, I bought one and the burros had only to hear the rustle of the bag and they were surrounding you!!
We walked the boardwalk, going into several stores and did the touristy thing before leaving the town behind.
We accessed Silver Creek Road in the hopes of finding a different trail back to Chloride and ended up finding a few pretty awesome trails.  Although we could not find any trail that would take us back over the Black Mountains, we did find a herd of five actual WILD burros.  This herd was skittish and did not really appreciate us stopping to take their pictures.  Now just the fact that we saw some actual wild burro made the whole trip worth while.  They were awesome.
We eventually made our way to Bullhead City to access the highway that would take us over the Black Mountains.  Once we got to Golden Valley, we headed off road again and eventually made it back to the motor home.  We dropped Hogan off and headed into town where we were going to stop at Digger Dave's for a beer and supper.  When we got there, the lights were out and they were closed!!
Yesterday's Restaurant was open so we went there for a beer and a meal.  It was awesome, complete with live entertainment.  What a treat it was and with only four patrons in the whole place, service was awesome!!  The building itself was old and the ambiance of the place was incredible.  It truly is a little jewel in the town of Chloride.
After supper, we headed back to the bus and spent a few hours watching TV before heading to bed.  All in all, it was another good day.