Lake Havasu – Our First Ever RV Stop in Arizona

Ever since we first started thinking about RV’ing, Paulette and I had always dreamed about spending our retirement winters in the sunshine and hot, dry weather of Arizona.  This probably started for us way back in March, 1995, when we visited Phoenix where I was attending an IBM conference.  It was a blistering hot week, with the temperature going up over 100F for a few of the days, and we thought this is the only way to spend the winter!

It took awhile, but by late 2006, we had a brand new Silverado Duramax diesel truck, and a very nice Citation Supreme fifth-wheel.  Following Paulette’s retirement in June 2007, we spent the summer taking our first extended RV trip - to Mt. Rushmore and Yellowstone Park.  Now, with both of us comfortably retired, we were all set for our first “snowbird” vacation to Arizona.

We spent a lot of time on the Internet during the fall of 2007 researching destinations and RV Parks in Arizona.  One of the places that caught our attention right away was Lake Havasu.  We decided to make Lake Havasu our first stopover in Arizona and made a 2 week reservation at Havasu Falls RV Resort for early January, 2008.

We were happy with the Havasu Falls RV Resort as it was absolutely spotless and very well maintained.  The other RV’ers, most of whom seemed to be long time snowbirds themselves, were very friendly and organized many activities and get-togethers, including a terrific Sunday morning “Pancake Breakfast”. 

Havasu Falls sits up on a high bluff facing westward with a great view down on Lake Havasu.  While there are a few Palm trees located around the park, it is mostly blacktopped roads with concrete pads that tend to give the whole area a rather austere, non RV-park feel.  It needs more landscaping and the addition of some trees or shrubs to at least add a bit more privacy between sites.

The only real complaint we had was the lousy WiFi.  While they advertised the usual ‘free WiFi’, you had to be located right next to either the clubhouse or the office to have any chance of getting a signal.  So, for the full 2 weeks, we had to take our laptop to the clubhouse every time we wanted to access the Internet.

Another reason we chose Lake Havasu was that it was halfway between Quartzsite and the Laughlin/Bullhead City area.  We wanted to visit the RV Show at Quartzsite but had absolutely no desire to boondock in the desert.  We also wanted to visit Laughlin, but we’re not into casino gambling at all, so we just wanted a place fairly close by to allow us take a day trip or two.  Lake Havasu fit the bill perfectly for us.

Although we’ve never stayed in Lake Havasu since our first trip to Arizona, it will always be a special place for us as it was really the first place we had a chance to really experience what it was like to be an actual “snowbird”.  It was enough to convince us to keep heading back to the desert each winter!