• Camping fee: $10.00 per night for dry camping, $15.00 per night for electrical
(these rates apply from Monday, April 14 through and including Saturday, April 19)

• There are 12 restrooms (4 with indoor showers)

• The RV dump station in the full hook-up area is available for our use

• We will also have use of the nearby pavilion

• One mile of the park is alongside the Colorado River and several launch ramps provide easy access for all water enthusiasts. In addition, La Paz County Park offers fishing, swimming, a softball field, horseshoe pits, a volleyball court, a putting green, lighted tennis courts, a walking/jogging trail, and easy access to the Emerald Canyon Golf Course.

Get the latest news from Parker, Arizona right here, with the "Parker Pioneer" !

In addition, for your reading pleasure, we have Today's News-Herald straight from Lake Havasu City!

For All You Weather Buffs...

Thanks to the wonderful world of technology, click here for the current conditions and forecast for La Paz County Park. Ain't technology grand? And be sure to stay tuned to the Morning Announcements on your CB (channel 30) every morning for an up-to-date weather report from our very own Steve Tivy.

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Good Things To Do

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Lake Havasu

From shopping to art galleries to watersports to restaurants, Lake Havasu has it all. And oh, yes...it also has the London Bridge! Personally, your webmaster was quite impressed with the shopping choices...there's a Tudor-style collection of shops, boutiques, specialty stores, restaurants and an English-style pub and playhouse nestled under the London Bridge. There's also a two-story enclosed mall that includes a quaint cafe and a variety of shopping and fine dining opportunities with views of the London Bridge. There are also more than 200 shops and a selection of antique galleries and restaurants in the historic downtown. I could go on and on, but for some reason, I'm suddenly in the mood for a cup of tea and some scones. So I shall instead encourage you to click here for more info about what Lake Havasu has to offer!

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Parker Dam

The Parker Dam - the deepest dam in the world - spans the Colorado River just nine miles from La Paz County Park. The completion of the dam in 1938 created Lake Havasu. It's a gravity-arch dam (for those of you who might know what the heck that means!) with a structural height of 320 feet. Parker Dam's primary purpose is to provide reservoir storage for water to be pumped into the Colorado River and Central Arizona Project Aqueducts. From all that your webmaster can determine, the free self-guiding tours of the dam came to a halt in June 1997 (due to reasons of national security). However, according to the Bureau of Reclamation's website, "visitors are welcome to park in the turnout on the California side of the dam and view the major features of the site." In addition, you can take a virtual tour here , courtesy of a Parker Dam fan. And finally, for those of you who just can't get enough of dams, click here for more information about Parker Dam.

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The Bill Williams River National Wildlife Refuge

Majestic rock cliffs...a ribbon of cool water running through the Sonoran Desert...a cattail-filled marsh. This is the Bill Williams River National Wildlife Refuge, a unique blending of 6,105 acres of marsh, upland desert and desert riparian habitats. With more than 340 bird species (including yellow-billed cuckoo, Bell's vireo, western tanagers, lazuli bunting, Townsend's and black-throated warblers, and southwestern willow and vermilion flycatchers), the refuge is especially appealing for wildlife photography and nature watching. Mammals making their home in the refuge include beaver, raccoon, bobcat, mountain lion, gray fox, javelina, mule deer, desert bighorn sheep and ringtailed cat. In addition, the largest remaining stand of cottonwood/willow forest along the lower Colorado River can be found here. It's not very often that you can see a Saguaro cactus, a cattail marsh and cottonwood and willow trees together, in one place! The area is open to hunting, fishing, canoeing, kayaking and hiking (there is a 1/4 mile interpretive trail, as well as another 1/4 mile hiking trail). Brochures for self-guided auto tour and canoe route are available at office. For more information, click here. Directions: From the campground, follow SR 95 north for approximately nine miles...look for milepost 161.

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Emerald Canyon Golf Course

For any of you caravaners who enjoy a game of golf now and then, you might want to consider throwing your clubs into your Lazy Daze and bringing them along on this caravan. We will be camping right next to a unique golf course - Emerald Canyon. Located in the beautiful foothills of the Buckskin Mountains, and following the shores of the Colorado River, the Emerald Canyon Golf course combines traditional, desert, and mountain golf in a most unusual way (or so I've been told by folks in the know...well, okay, the marketing folks at Emerald Canyon). But "Golf Digest" gives it a thumbs-up ("An unexpected pleasure. A fantastic, unusual layout with stunning surroundings."), so that must count for something. Here are the particulars: Emerald Canyon Golf Course 8251 Riverside Drive Parker, AZ (928) 667-3366 Emerald Canyon offers a full service Pro Shop and snack bar. There are two practice greens with a lighted driving range. Click here for more information on this "Jewel of the Desert" (do I hear more marketing? ;-D ). Par: 72 Yardage: 5,582 - 6,627 Rating: 68.1 - 71.5 Slope: 117 - 131 Signature Hole: 147 - yard, Par - 3 # 5

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Quartzsite

Ah, Quartzsite...that marvelous mecca for rockhounders and RVers, and home to the world's largest swapmeet. Like swallows returning to Capistrano, thousands and thousands and thousands of snowbirds flock to this tiny desert town every winter. From an estimated 2,000 summer residents, the area population jumps to about one million during the gem and mineral shows from mid-January to mid-February. You may be wondering how Quartzsite got its start...here's a bit of history, courtesy of "Desert USA"... "In 1856, settler Charles Tyson built a fort at the present site of Quartzsite to protect his water supply from attacks by Native Americans. Fort Tyson soon became a stopover on the Ehrenburg-to-Prescott stagecoach route. It became known as Tyson's Wells by the time the stage stopped running and the town was abandoned. A small mining boom revitalized the town as "Quartzite" in 1897 (the post office later added an "s" for "Quartzsite"). The boom went bust (as most booms do) and Quartzsite became a sleepy little desert town. Then in 1965, the sleepy little town came to life with the debut of the Pow Wow Rock, Gem & Mineral Show. These days, as was noted above, the population can swell to almost a million during January and February as rockhounders, jewelers and vendors, mostly in thousands of RVs, attend various gem and mineral shows." Even though the peak months to visit Quartzsite are January and February, your webmaster wanted to provide you with some information about this unique town since we will be camping a mere 43 miles north. And if you do find yourselves driving through Quartzsite, one site that is worthy of a stop is the grave of Hadji Ali. The following is, admittedly, a bit of a long read, but if you enjoy history even a little bit, I think you'll find this unique chapter in American history quite fascinating...it's by Chuck Woodbury of "Out West Newspaper". "One of the most interesting military experiments of the American West involved 77 camels and a Syrian named Hi Jolly. His real name was Hadji Ali, and he's remembered today at a pyramid-shaped monument in the Quartzsite cemetery. The story of Hi Jolly began in 1855 when Secretary of War Jefferson Davis was told of an innovative plan to import camels to help build and supply a Western wagon route from Texas to California. It was a dry, hot and otherwise hostile region, not unlike the camel's natural terrain in the Middle East. Davis, convinced of the idea, proposed a Camel Military Corps to Congress. "For military purposes, and for reconnaissances, it is believed the dromedary would supply a want now seriously felt in our service," he explained. Congress agreed and appropriated $30,000. Major Henry Wayne was sent to the Middle East where he bought 33 of the animals. With much difficulty, they were loaded onto a Navy ship (with part of its deck modified to accommodate the large creatures) and transported to Texas. There Lieutenant Edward Fitzgerald Beale took over. Forty-four more camels arrived later. Hadji Ali and another foreigner were hired to teach the soldiers how to pack the animals. The Americans had a hard time pronouncing Ali's name so they nicknamed him Hi Jolly. Beale left on a Western expedition in June, 1857, with Hi Jolly along as chief camel driver. Camels were loaded with 600 to 800 pounds each and traveled 25 to 30 miles a day. If the animals fared well, a series of Army posts could be set up later along the route to relay mail and supplies across the Southwest. After reaching California the expedition returned to Texas, a success -- at least to Beale. "The harder the test they (the camels) are put to, the more fully they seem to justify all that can be said of them," Beale wrote. "They pack water for days under a hot sun and never get a drop; they pack heavy burdens of corn and oats for months and never get a grain; and on the bitter greasewood and other worthless shrubs, not only subsist, but keep fat." He concluded, "I look forward to the day when every mail route across the continent will be conducted and worked altogether with this economical and noble brute." But perhaps he was too optimistic. What he didn't say was that the camels didn't take to the West's rocky soil. And prospectors' burros and mules -- and even Army mules -- were afraid of the odd-looking creatures and would sometimes panic at their sight. Still, in 1858, then-Secretary of War John Floyd told Congress, "The entire adaptation of camels to military operations on the Plains may now be taken as demonstrated." He urged Congress to authorize the purchase of 1,000 more camels. Congress didn't act, however, as it was preoccupied with trouble brewing between the North and South. With the first shots of the Civil War, the Camel Military Corps was as good as dead. Most of the animals were auctioned off, although a few escaped into the desert where most were shot by prospectors and hunters as pests. Hi Jolly kept a few and started a freighting business between the Colorado River ports and mining camps to the east. The business failed, however, and Jolly released his last camel in the desert near Gila Bend. Years later, after marrying a Tucson woman and fathering two children, Hi Jolly moved to Quartzsite where he mined with a burro. He died in 1902 at age 73 and was buried in the Quartzsite Cemetery. To his dying day, Hi Jolly believed that a few of the camels still roamed the desert. Some people think the ghosts of some still do." Hi Jolly's Grave in the Quartzsite Cemetery