Jet Boat Trip on Lake Havasu

Monday, December 9, 2013

Started this last Monday and then we had some work to do to make sure we had water (new hoses) plus Dave’s computer finally died, so we had to retrieve things from his back up and get everything synched on the new computer.

The day after Thanksgiving we got Megan and Kenneth to join us for a 2 hour Jet Boat trip aboard Starship 2010 on Lake Havasu. The trip involved the upper part of Lake Havasu and then into the canyon, Topock Gorge, up towards I-40. We have a whole series of photographs of the trip that we hope you enjoy.

Once out in the lake, you realize that it is a body of water surrounded by desert. And the lake is large in this section of the river. The dam (Parker Dam) is about 20 miles south of the lake in a canyon and backups up into the wash area where Lake Havasu City now exists. Most of the deposits on the sides of the lake are from previous deposits of sediment brought down by the Colorado River during the spring snow melt up the Rockies. The sediments are up to several hundred of feet thick in different areas along the river - a lot of sediment has been brought down by the spring snow melt each year.

The gray-green appearing slick is actually an area where sand has been washed away exposing the copper containing soils to the air and giving the characteristic color of copper oxide - think of the green patina on the Statue of Liberty.

This particular rocky area is where a lot of petroglyphs have been found and so the boat operator took some time to align us close to the shore so we could get some pictures of the different petroglyphs.

This sunburst on one rock close to the water’s edge is an example - as you look at the pictures you should be able to identify at least four different ones.

Here we are going into Topock Canyon - this was the slow part of the journey as it is a “no wake” area.

I-40 was just around the bend where the stone structure appears on the right side of the picture. That structure contains instruments to monitor the water flow.

As we head south we can see the distinctive fact in the rock on the western bank of the river. This face was important to rivermen who traveled up and down from Yuma to Topock canyon in paddlewheelers. As they came around the corner they looked at the profile for the answer to their question - was the water to high for them to continue on their trip.

The answer to their question was positive when they could see the open eye. If the eye stayed shut as they approached, it meant that the water level was a flood stage and they needed to put into the east side bank and wait for it to go down before proceeding through the canyon.

Further down the river is another rock formation. Can you see the Indian face with the hands folded in prayer underneath the chin?

Further down inside the Lake Havasu Wildlife Refuge we came upon some wild burros on the side of this bluff. Can you pick them out?

Here’s a closer look - you should see one at the top and three (3) down on the sides.

Here are a couple in a closer view. These burros were original pack animals in the mines that dotted the area and when the mines played out, the burros were turned loose.

Coming back into Lake Havasu there were several people on these paddle boards out in the channel. All in all, it was a neat day and a neat trip and we were glad to be able to do it with Megan and Kenneth.

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